Tonto Dikeh: Potential vs potentials

“Potential’ is an uncountable noun but almost everyone keeps counting and pluralising it. So, often, you hear some say ‘Nigeria has many potentials’, ‘The company has a lot of potentials’ etc. Yet, all Nigeria has is ‘potential’, ‘a lot of potential’ or ‘a great deal of potential’.

As we noted in some past lessons in this class, ‘potential’ is not to be pluralised the way we do countable nouns like boy, key and table. Instead, it should be handled like other uncountable nouns that include  infrastructure, furniture, information, news and aircraft.

Here are some examples from Cambridge Dictionary, for instance:

The region has enormous potential for development.
I don’t feel I’m achieving my full potential in my present job.

I think this room has got a lot of potential. (It could be nice if some changes were made.)

The implication, again, is that you don’t use quantifiers such as ‘many’ and ‘several’ with ‘potential’  as they work with countable nouns:
This country has many potentials but our leaders are just stagnating her. (Wrong)

This country has a lot of potential but our leaders are just stagnating her. (Correct)
The young players showcased several potentials that the school and government should help them develop. (Wrong)

The young players showcased a lot of potential that the school and government should help them develop. (Correct)

Popular actress, Tonto Dikeh, inspired my return to this topic, really. I ran into her 2024 Nigerian Independence post and I like the way she handled the word, respecting its uncountable status.  She wrote:

“But hope alone is not enough. It is the joint effort of every Nigerian — north, south, east and west — that will make our nation rise to its full potential.”

Yes: to its full potential, not to its full potentials.
Meanwhile, if you must pluralise, go for ‘potentialities’:

Nigeria has many potentialities that it has failed to harness. (Correct)

Also, the way the actress used the dash in the sentence is apt and equally commendable. Take another look at the it!