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In the English Language , Noun s are Inflected for Grammatical Number — that is, Singular or Plural . This article discusses the variety of ways in which English plurals are formed. Note that phonetic transcriptions provided in this article are for General American . REGULAR PLURALS The plural Morpheme in English is Suffix ed to the end of most nouns. The plural form is usually represented Orthographically by adding ''-s'' to the singular form (see exceptions below). The phonetic form of the plural morpheme is by default. When the preceding sound is a Voiceless Consonant , it is pronounced . Examples: Where a noun ends in a Sibilant sound — one of , , , , , and — the plural is formed by adding (also pronounced ), which is spelled ''-es'' if the word does not already end with ''-e'': Morphophonetically, these rules are sufficient to describe most English plurals. However, there are several complications introduced in spelling. The -oes rule: most nouns ending in ''o'' preceded by a Consonant also form their plurals by adding ''-es'' (pronounced ): The -ies rule: nouns ending in a ''y'' preceded by a consonant drop the ''y'' and add ''-ies'' (pronounced ): Note, however, that proper nouns (particularly those for people or places) ending in a ''y'' preceded by a consonant form their plurals regularly: This does not apply to words that are merely capitalised common nouns: A few common nouns ending in a ''y'' preceded by a consonant form their plurals regularly: But words ending in a vowel followed by ''y'' form their plurals regularly: ALMOST-REGULAR PLURALS Many nouns of Italian or Spanish origin are exceptions to the -oes rule: Many nouns ending in a voiceless Fricative Mutate that sound to a voiced fricative before adding the plural ending. In the case of changing to the mutation is indicated in the orthography as well: Some retain the voiceless consonant: Some can do either: ''Dwarf'' is an interesting case: the common form of the plural was ''dwarfs'' — as, for example, in Walt Disney 's '' Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs '' — until J. R. R. Tolkien popularised ''dwarves''; he intended the changed spelling to differentiate the "dwarf" race in his novels from the cuter and simpler beings common in fairy tales, but it has since spread. Multiple dwarf stars, or non-mythological short human beings, however, are ''dwarfs''. For ''staff'' in the sense of "a body of employees", the plural is always ''staffs''; otherwise both ''staffs'' and ''staves'' are acceptable, except in compounds; such as ''flagstaffs''. The ''stave'' of a barrel or cask is a Back-formation from ''staves'', which is its plural. (See the Plural To Singular By Back-formation section below.) IRREGULAR PLURALS There are many other less regular ways of forming plurals. While they may seem quirky, they usually stem from older forms of English or from foreign borrowings. Irregular Germanic plurals The plural of a few Germanic nouns can also be formed from the singular by adding n or '''en''', stemming from the obsolete weak declension: The word ''box'', referring to a computer, is semi-humorously pluralized ''boxen'' in the Leet dialect. Multiple Vax computers, likewise, are sometimes called ''Vaxen'', but multiple Unix systems are usually ''Unices'' (see Irregular Plurals Of Foreign Origin below). The plural is sometimes formed by simply changing the vowel sound of the singular, in a process called Umlaut (these are sometimes called ''mutated plurals''): Some nouns have singular and plural alike, although they are sometimes seen as regular plurals. :aircraft :sheep :moose :deer :fish, cod, trout, etc. :head, when used to mean "animals in a herd"; ''fifty head of cattle''. :cannon Some, especially the names of animals, have regular plurals, but these contrast in meaning with the unmarked plurals. Generally, plurals refer to several species or kinds of animal, while the unmarked plural is used to describe multiple individual animals; one would say ''the Order {Link without Title} of fishes'', but ''five fish in an aquarium''. Irregular plurals from Latin and Greek Because English includes words from so many ancestral languages, as well as many Loanword s from Latin , Classical Greek and modern languages, there are many other forms of plurals. Such nouns (particularly ones from Latin) often retain their original plurals, at least for some time after they are introduced. In some cases both forms are still vying for attention: for example, for a librarian, the plural of ''appendix'' is ''appendices'' (following the original language); for physicians, however, the plural of ''appendix'' is ''appendixes''. Likewise, a radio engineer works with ''antennas'' and an entomologist deals with ''antennae''. The "correct" form is the one that sounds better in context, or that people in the field use. Correctly formed Latin plurals are the most acceptable, and indeed are often required, in academic and scientific contexts. In common usage, plurals with ''-s'' are sometimes preferred.
Some people treat ''process'' as if it belonged to this class, pronouncing ''processes'' instead of standard
Note that ''axes'' the plural of ''axis'' is pronounced differently from ''axes'' the plural of axe.
Note: See article on the Plural Of Virus . Related is the use amongst Petrolhead s of the term "Loti" to refer to examples of Lotus Cars in the plural.
Though some take s more commonly:
The Greek plural for words ending in ''-pus'' (gr. ''poûs'') meaning "foot", such as ''octopus'' and ''platypus'', is ''-podes'', but this plural is rare for ''octopus'' and has never been accepted for ''platypus''. Irregular plurals from other languages
Foreign terms may use native plural forms, especially when the words are unfamiliar to an anglophone audience, or when writing for an audience familiar with the language. In either case, the unfamiliar conventionally-formed English plural may sound awkward, or be confusing.
However, other nouns such as ''kimonos'', ''futons'' and ''tsunamis'' are more often seen with a regular English plural.
Note: ''kiwi'', when referring to the bird, may or may not take an s, but when used as an informal term for a New Zealander, always takes an s. Maori , when referring to a person of that ethnicity, does not usually take an s. Many speakers avoid the use of '''Maori''' as a noun, and instead use it only as an adjective.
Words better known in the plural Some words of foreign origin are much better known in the plural; usage of the proper singular may be considered pedantic or actually incorrect by some speakers. In common usage, the proper plural is considered the singular form. Back-formation has usually resulted in a regularized plural. Note: A single piece of data is often referred to as a ''data point''. A military ''phalanx'' is pluralized ''phalanxes''. The ''phalanges'' as body parts (fingers and toes) are rarely referred to in the singular. A related phenomenon is the confusion of a foreign plural for its singular form: ''Magazine'' is a plural noun, from Arabic via French, but is always regarded as singular in English; the plural is ''magazines''. PLURALS OF NUMBERS English, like some other languages, treats large numerals like nouns, such as in "ten soldiers" and "a hundred soldiers." This is why ''dozens'' is preferred to ''tens'' while ''hundreds'' and ''thousands'' are all right. Plurals of numerals differ according to how they are used. Such words include ''dozen'', ''score'', ''hundred'', ''thousand'', ''million'', and so forth. The following examples apply to all of these.
PLURALS AND UNITS OF MEASURE Words that are being used as a unit of measure are kept in the singular when the measure it is a part of is used as an adjective. Thus for example a "twenty-dollar bill" is a bill worth "twenty dollars", a "fifteen-car wreck" is a wreck involving "fifteen cars", and a "ten-foot pole" is a pole that is "ten feet" in length except when used idiomatically. DEFECTIVE NOUNS Some nouns have no singular form. Such a noun is called a Plurale Tantum :
However, some of them do have singular adjective forms, such as in ''billiard ball''. In addition, some of them are treated as singular in construction, such as in "billiards is a game played on a table with multiple balls and a cue stick." Neither do some names of things having two parts: :pants, scissors, trousers, tweezers Note, however, that these words are interchangeable with ''a pair of scissors'', ''a pair of trousers'', and so forth. Nor are ''scissor'', ''trouser'', ''tweezer'', or ''pant'' the names of the individual parts. However, the fashion industry frequently calls a single pair of pants a ''pant''; this is a back-formation. (See the Plural To Singular By Back-formation section below.) In addition, one half of a pair of scissors separated from the other half is, perhaps illogically, referred to as a ''half-scissor''. A Compound that has a Head at the beginning, particularly a legal term from French, commonly pluralizes its head: They don't have to be considered irregular, because an attorney general is a kind of attorney, not general, and a court martial is a kind of court, not martial. It is common in informal speech to pluralize the last word in the usual way, but in edited prose, the forms given are preferred. On the other hand, if a compound can be thought to have two heads, both of them are sometimes pluralized, especially when the first head has an irregular plural form: Comment: agent provocateur is a French term: agent is a noun and provocateur is an adjective. In French, the adjective must agree with the noun, so when the noun becomes plural, so does the adjective. This is not an exception. It is just following the rules of the originating language. See also the Plurals Of Headless Nouns section below. Mass Noun s (or uncountable nouns) do not represent distinct objects, so the singular and plural semantics do not apply in the same way. Some examples:
: goodness, idleness, wisdom, deceit, honesty, freshness
: chemistry, geometry, surgery, biometrics, mechanics, optics, blues ''(in music)''
: antimony, gold, oxygen, equipment, furniture, species, distress, sand, water, air, information Some mass nouns can be pluralized, but the meaning thereof may change slightly. For example, when I have two pieces of sand, I do not have two sands; I have sand. There is more sand in your pile, not more sands. But there could be many "sands of Africa" - either many distinct stretches of sand, or distinct types of sand of interest to geologists or builders, or simply the allusive ''sands of Africa''. It is rare to pluralize ''furniture'' in this way. Nor would ''information'' be so treated, except in the case of ''criminal informations'', which are prosecutor's briefs similar to Indictment s. There is only one class of atoms called oxygen, but there are several isotopes of oxygen, which might be referred to as different oxygens. In casual speech, ''oxygen'' might be used as shorthand for "oxygen atoms", but in this case it is not a mass noun, so it is entirely sensible to refer to multiple oxygens in the same molecule. One would interpret "Bob's wisdoms" as various pieces of Bob's wisdom (that is, pieces of advice), ''deceits'' as a series of instances of deceitful behavior, and the different ''idlenesses'' of the worker as plural distinct manifestations of the mass concept of idleness (or as different types of idleness, "bone lazy" ''versus'' "no work to do").
NOUNS WITH MULTIPLE PLURALS Some nouns have two plurals, one used to refer to a number of things considered individually, the other to refer to a number of things collectively. In some cases, one of the two is nowadays archaic or dialectal. ''Childer'' has all but disappeared, but can still be seen in ''Childermas'' (Innocents' Day). ''Kine'' is still used in rural English dialects. ''Dies'' is used as the plural for ''die'' in the sense of a mould; '' Dice '' as the plural (and increasingly as the singular) in the sense of a small random number generator. ''Fish'': the plural for one species of fish, or caught fish, is ''fish'', but for live fish of many species, or in poetic usage, ''fishes'' is used. If you have several (British) one-penny pieces you have several ''pennies''. ''Pence'' is used for an amount of money, which can be made up of a number of coins of different denominations: one penny and one five-penny piece are together worth six pence. ''Penny'' and ''pennies'' also refer to one or more U.S. one-cent pieces. But in American usage, a nickel is worth five cents, not five pence, though a penny is worth one cent (not plural). For multiple plants, ''iris'' is used, but ''irises'' is used for multiple blossoms. ''Clothes'' refers collectively to all of the cloth covering a person's body. A final odd case is ''person''. The word ''people'' is usually treated as the Suppletive plural of ''person'' (one person, many people). However, in legal and other formal contexts, the plural of ''person'' is ''persons''; furthermore, ''people'' can also be a singular noun with its own plural (for example, "We are many persons, from many peoples"). PLURALS OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS Symbols and abbreviations whose plural would be ambiguous if only an s were added are pluralized by adding 's. "mind your p's and q's" Usage is divided on whether to extend this use of the Apostrophe to non-ambiguous cases, such as the plurals of numbers (1990's) and words used as terms (his writing contains a lot of ''but'''s). Some writers use this form in a desire for consistency, whereas others say it confuses the plural with the Possessive ''-'s''. PLURALS OF ACRONYMS AND INITIALISMS Acronyms and Initialisms are generally used as if they are words. Clearly, one would tend not to pluralize the laser initialism as '''laser's'''. Thus the most consistent approach for pluralizing acronyms is likely to simply add a lowercase ''s'' as a suffix. This works well even for acronyms ending with an ''S'', as in '''CASs''' (pronounced 'kazzes'), while still making it possible to use the Possessive form ('''s'') for acronyms without confusion. The traditional style of pluralizing single letters with'' 's'' (as explained Above for symbols and abbreviations) was naturally extended to acronyms when they were commonly written with periods. This form is still preferred by some people for initialisms and thus the form using '''s'' as a suffix is often seen in general usage. PLURALS OF HEADLESS NOUNS Linguist Steven Pinker , in his book, '' The Language Instinct '' discusses what he calls "headless words", typically Bahuvrihi s, like ''lowlife'' and ''Red Sox'', where the ''life'' and ''sox'' are not Heads semantically; that is, a lowlife is not a type of life, nor are Red Sox a kind of sock. Thus, more than one lowlife is ''lowlifes'' and a single member of the Boston baseball team is a ''Red Sox''. Other examples include the Toronto ice-hockey team '' Maple Leafs '', not ''Maple Leaves'', ''sabertooth'' and ''sabertooths'', ''flatfoot'' and ''flatfoots'', ''tenderfoot'' and ''tenderfoots'', ''still life'' and ''still lifes''. An exception is ''Blackfoot'', of which the plural can be ''Blackfeet''. ''Mouse'' is sometimes pluralized ''mouses'' when it refers to a Computer Mouse , although, in this case, ''mice'' is just as common because of the physical similarity between the input device and the rodent, which is the origin of the term. PLURAL TO SINGULAR BY BACK-FORMATION Some words have started out with unusually formed singulars and plurals, but more "normal" singular-plural pairs have resulted by Back-formation . For an example from the vegetable world, ''pease'' was the singular and ''peasen'' the plural, but over the centuries, first ''pease'' became the plural and ''pea'' the singular, and finally the plural was altered to ''peas''. Similarly, ''termites'' and ''primates'' were the three-syllable plurals of ''termes'' and ''primas'', respectively, but these singulars were lost, the plurals given two syllables, and now we have ''termite'' and ''termites'' and ''primate'' and ''primates''. ''Syringe'' is a back-formation from ''syringes'', itself the plural of '' Syrinx '', a musical instrument. ''Cherry'' is from Norman French ''cherise''. Finally, ''phases'' was once the plural of ''phasis'', but the singular is now ''phase''. ''Kudos'' is a singular Greek word meaning praise, but the same process may be happening to it. At present, ''kudo'' is an error, however. The name of the Greek sandwich style Gyros is, increasingly, undergoing the same transformation. ''Gyros'' is from the Greek for "turning," but it looks like an English plural, and it is not uncommon to hear or see a reference to "a gyro". The singular form of Spanish '' Tamales '' ( IPA : ) is ''tamal'' (). The anglicized version of ''tamales'' is pronounced and the back-formed singular is ''tamale'' [() . PLURALS OF NAMES OF PEOPLES There are several different rules for this. In discussing peoples whose demonym takes ''-man'' or ''-woman'', there are three options: pluralize to ''-men'' or ''-women'' if referring to individuals, and use the root alone if referring to the whole nation, or add ''people''. One can say "a Scots(wo)man" or "a Scot", "Scots(wo)men", "Scottish people", or "Scots," and "the Scottish" or "the Scots". ( Scotch is considered old fashioned.) Several peoples have names that are simple nouns and can be pluralized: Names of peoples that end in ''-ese'' take no plural: Neither do ''Swiss'' or ''Québécois''. Most names for Native Americans are not pluralized: :Ojibwa :Iroquois :Blood :Mi'kmaq Some exceptions include Crees, Mohawks, Hurons, Algonquins, Chippewas, Oneidas, Aztecs. Note also the following words borrowed from Inuktitut : Names of most other peoples of the world are pluralized using the normal English rules. DISCRETIONARY PLURALS A number of words like ''army'', ''fleet'', ''Government'', ''company'', ''party'', '' are playing Germany tonight'' refers to a Football game, but ''England is the most populous country of the United Kingdom'' refers to the country. In North American English , such words are invariably treated as singular. SNOB PLURALS Another type of irregular plural occurs in the register of the English upper classes in the context of field sports, where the singular form is used in place of the plural, as in "a herd of antelope", "two lion" or "five pheasant". Eric Partridge in ''Usage & Abusage'' refers to these as "Snob Plurals" and conjectures that they may have developed by analogy with the common English irregular plural animal words "deer", "sheep" and "trout". EXTERNAL LINK |
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