diff --git a/nb-apis/nb-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/nb/api/advisor/NBAdvisorOutput.java b/nb-apis/nb-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/nb/api/advisor/NBAdvisorOutput.java
index c0f42f525..47facb137 100644
--- a/nb-apis/nb-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/nb/api/advisor/NBAdvisorOutput.java
+++ b/nb-apis/nb-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/nb/api/advisor/NBAdvisorOutput.java
@@ -31,20 +31,21 @@ public class NBAdvisorOutput {
     }
     
     public static void test(String message) {
-	output(Level.WARN, message);
         if (NBAdvisorLevel.get() == NBAdvisorLevel.enforce) {
-	    throw new NBAdvisorException(message, 2);
+            output(Level.ERROR, message);
+            throw new NBAdvisorException(message, 2);
         }
+        output(Level.WARN, message);
     }
     
     public static void output(Level level,String message) {
-	if (level ==  Level.INFO) {
-	    logger.info(message);
-	} else if (level == Level.WARN) {
-	    logger.warn(message);
-	} else if (level == Level.ERROR) {
-	    logger.error(message);
-}
+        if (level ==  Level.INFO) {
+            NBAdvisorOutput.logger.info(message);
+        } else if (level == Level.WARN) {
+            NBAdvisorOutput.logger.warn(message);
+        } else if (level == Level.ERROR) {
+            NBAdvisorOutput.logger.error(message);
+        }
     }
 
 }
diff --git a/nb-apis/nb-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/nb/api/tagging/TagFilter.java b/nb-apis/nb-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/nb/api/tagging/TagFilter.java
index 4de51c322..b4d4fbcb2 100644
--- a/nb-apis/nb-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/nb/api/tagging/TagFilter.java
+++ b/nb-apis/nb-api/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/nb/api/tagging/TagFilter.java
@@ -19,6 +19,9 @@ package io.nosqlbench.nb.api.tagging;
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.engine.util.Tagged;
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.labels.NBLabeledElement;
 import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.components.core.NBComponent;
+import io.nosqlbench.nb.api.advisor.NBAdvisorOutput;
+
+import org.apache.logging.log4j.Level;
 
 import java.util.*;
 import java.util.function.BiFunction;
@@ -198,8 +201,18 @@ public class TagFilter {
             boolean matchedKey = true;
             String filterval = filter.get(filterkey);
             String itemval = tags.get(filterkey);
-
-
+            if ( itemval == null ) {
+                // tag category not found, if ends in an 's' then try singular
+                if (filterkey.endsWith("s")) {
+                    String filterkey2 = filterkey.substring(0, filterkey.length() - 1);
+                    itemval = tags.get(filterkey2);
+                    String message = "'" + filterkey + "' tags do not exist: try '" + filterkey2 + "'";
+                    NBAdvisorOutput.test(message);
+                    log.add("(☐, ) " + message);
+                    filterkey = filterkey2;
+                }
+            }
+            
             String detail = "filter(" + filterkey +
                     ((filterval != null) ? ":" + filterval : "") + ") " +
                     "tag(" + ((tags.containsKey(filterkey) ? filterkey : "") +
diff --git a/nb-apis/nb-api/src/test/java/io/nosqlbench/nb/api/tagging/TagFilterTest.java b/nb-apis/nb-api/src/test/java/io/nosqlbench/nb/api/tagging/TagFilterTest.java
index 678e3f266..bb6ce899b 100644
--- a/nb-apis/nb-api/src/test/java/io/nosqlbench/nb/api/tagging/TagFilterTest.java
+++ b/nb-apis/nb-api/src/test/java/io/nosqlbench/nb/api/tagging/TagFilterTest.java
@@ -77,6 +77,21 @@ public class TagFilterTest {
         assertThat(tf.matches(itemtags2).matched()).isTrue();
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testMatchingTagKeysValueDoesMatch() {
+        Map<String, String> itemtags = new HashMap<>() {{
+            put("one", "two");
+        }};
+        TagFilter tf = new TagFilter("ones");
+        TagFilter.Result result = tf.matches(itemtags);
+        assertThat(result.matched()).isTrue();
+
+        Map<String, String> itemtags2 = new HashMap<>() {{
+            put("one", null);
+        }};
+        assertThat(tf.matches(itemtags2).matched()).isTrue();
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testMatchingKeyMismatchingValueDoesNotMatch() {
         Map<String, String> itemtags = new HashMap<>() {{
diff --git a/nb-engine/nb-engine-cli/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/cli/NBCLI.java b/nb-engine/nb-engine-cli/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/cli/NBCLI.java
index 83d664e78..85ceab804 100644
--- a/nb-engine/nb-engine-cli/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/cli/NBCLI.java
+++ b/nb-engine/nb-engine-cli/src/main/java/io/nosqlbench/engine/cli/NBCLI.java
@@ -416,7 +416,7 @@ public class NBCLI implements Function<String[], Integer>, NBLabeledElement {
             "progress", options.getProgressSpec(),
             "prompush_cache", "prompush_cache.txt",
             "heartbeat", String.valueOf(options.wantsHeartbeatIntervalMs()),
-	    "advisor", String.valueOf(options.getAdvisor())
+            "advisor", String.valueOf(options.getAdvisor())
         );
 
         try (