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"Study" (noun) should also be an acceptable answer, In fact, it is the very first dictionary hint. However, it was marked wrong.
It seems that in most cases in English, you would use the plural form, but in most cases in German you would use the singular form.
Since this phrase has no context, it seems that it should be plural in both languages or singular in both, but it seems that would be too much work for them. They just defined the English plural version to be equivalent to the German singular.
Because it is singular in German.
Compare "the furniture" (singular in English) = die Möbel (plural in German).
With "furniture", English has one word for all your furniture together; with "Studium", German has one word for all your studies together.
Is "die Studien" not the plural of "das Studium"?
Thank you mizinamo for replying - your contributions are always extremely helpful and valuable. I understand your point about "Studium" meaning studies. When, then, would "Studien" be properly used? Thank you so much.
I can't think of a good context where I would use the plural of Studium right now.
Studie "a study, an investigation" does have a useful plural Studien.
Even if you talk about several people studying at university, I would tend to use Studium, since each student has only one course of studies (Peter, Maria und Julia haben ihr Studium abgebrochen "Peter, Mary, and Julie quit their studies / dropped out of university") and German often uses the singular in such cases, in a distributive sort of way.
And for several courses of study at a university, I would use Studiengänge, the plural of Studiengang.
I think the problem is that Studium is a pretty abstract noun, so it's hard to conceive of a plural -- it's not really something countable.
Perhaps you might use it in a context such as Seine Studien haben ihn bis nach Indien geführt "His studies carried him as far as India", where it's not an organised course of study at a university (which is more what ein Studium is) but more general self-directed study efforts, which could be plural since they are not uniform/homogeneous.
Beautifully detailed explanation. Someone with your perspective is a huge asset here. Thanks again.
Is this also 'study' as in a major research undertaking in the context of the sciences? e.g. "A recent study has found…"
No, that would be "die Studie", not "das Studium" -- "Eine kürzliche Studie hat ergeben, ..."
