When I was learning English, I came across the sentence below.
A typhoon is a tropical cyclone.
This usage of the singular noun doesn't fit me because there are no necessities to use singular or plural nouns explicitly to give general explanations in my language.
However, I can understand this.
Typhoons are tropical cyclones.
I think using plural nouns is more frequent than using singular nouns when explaining something general due to intuitiveness of considering and determining the whole group. Plural noun is a collective of components and it is easily combined with the concept of normalization therefore it is persuasive that plural nouns are used in general expressions.
My questions are, after all,
Is the usage of singular noun in normalized explanation a common expression?
If it is common, what is the diferrence between the case of using singular nouns and plural nouns to express a general expression?
I appreciate you watching my lengthy and poor post.