Singulars and plurals - English Morphology
3. plurals same as singulars
- some words ending in –s do not change in plural: barracks, crossroads, headquarters, means, series, species, works, Swiss
- some singular uncountable nouns end in –s → they have no plurals: news, billiards, draughts (and some other names of games ending in –s), measles (and
some other illnesses)
- most words ending in –ics are normally singular uncountable and have no plural use: mathematics, athletics, physics
Too much mathematics is usually taught in school.
- some words ending in –ics can also have plural uses: politics, statistics
Politics is a complicated business. BUT: The unemployment statistics are disturbing. (konkrétna štatistika)
(The acoustics in this room are awful. – konkrétna akustika)
- other nouns which do not change in the plural are craft (meaning “vehicle”): aircraft, spacecraft, hovercraft
- Chinese, Japanese and other nationalities nouns ending in –ese
- sheep, fish, deer and the names of some other living creatures (especially those that are hunted or used for food)
- dozen, hundred, thousand, million, stone (14 pounds), and foot (12 inches) have plurals without –s in some kinds of expressions
- Dice (used in board games) is originally the plural of die which is not now often used in this sense. In modern Eneglish dice is gene rally used as both singular and plural.
- Data is originally the plural of datum, which is not now used.
4. foreign plurals
analysis – analyses (Latin)
appendix – appendices (Latin) /appendixes
bacterium – bacteria (Latin)
medium – media (Latin) /mediums
cactus – cacti (Latin) /cactuses
fungus – fungi (Latin) /funguses
criterion – criteria (Greek)
phenomenon – phenomena (Greek)
formula – formulae (Latin) /formulas
vertebra – vertebrae (Latin) /vertebras
kibbutz – kibbutzim (Hebrew)
- some foreign plural (agenda, spaghetti) are singular in English
Plurals in ’s
An apostrophe (’) is used before the -’s in the plurals of letters of the alphabet, and sometimes in the plurals of dates and abbreviations:
She spelt ‚ necessary‘ with two c’s. (NOT …two cs)
I loved the 1960’s. (OR …the 1960s)
Do you think PM’s do a good job? (Or …MPs…)
Compound nouns
- in noun + adverb combinations, the plural –s is usually added to the noun:
passer-by → passers-by
runner-up → runners-up
- the plural of mother-in-law and similar words is generally mothers-in-law etc, but some people use mother-in-laws etc
- the plural of court martial (=‚military court‘) is either courts martial (more formal) or court martials (less formal)
- a noun + noun combinations, the first noun is usually singular in form even if the meaning is plural (shoe shop – 2 shoe shop). There are some exceptions.
Plurals with no singular form (pluralia tantum)
- Cattle is a plural word used to talk collectively about bulls, cows and calves; it has no singular and cannot be used for counting individual animals (one cannot say, for instance, three cattle): Many cattle are suffering from a disease called BSE. (NOT much cattle)
- Police is normally used as a plural: The police are looking for a fair-haired man in his twenties. (NOT The police is looking)
- trousers, jeans, pyjamas (US pajamas), pants, scales, scissors, glasses, binoculars, pliers, and the names of many similar divided objects are plural and have no singular forms: Your jeans are too tight. ‚Where are my glasses?‘‚ They’re on your nose.‘
- other common word which are normally plural include: clothes, congratulations, contents, customs (at a frontier), funds (=money), goods, manners
(=social behaviour), the Middle Ages (=period of history), oats (but corn, wheat, and barley are singular uncountable), odds (=chances), outskirts, premises (=building), regards, remains, savings, stairs (=a flight of stairs), steps (=a flight of steps), surrounding, thanks
Pronunciation of regular plurals
• nouns ending in sibilants /s, z, š, ž, č, dž/, add /iz/
buses, guises, crashes, garages, watches, bridges
• nouns ending in other unvoiced consonants (except /s, š, č/), add /s/
cats, maps, sticks, myths
• nouns ending in vowels and voiced consonants (except /z, ž, dž/), add /z/
boys, dogs, girls, times unions
• plural with irregular pronunciation
baths /ba:θs OR ba:δz/, roofs /ru:fs OR ru:vz/, houses /hausiz OR huaziz/, mouths, truths, youths, paths, wreaths
- 3rd person singular forms (catches, wants, runs) and possessive forms (George’s, Mark’s) follow the same pronunciation rules as regular plurals
Singular nouns with plural verbs
Groups of people
In British English, singular words like family, tem, government, which refer to groups of people can be used either singular or plural verbs and pronouns:
This team is/are going to lose.
- plural forms are common when the group is considered a collection of people doing personal things like deciding, hoping or wanting; and in these cases we use who, not which, as a relative pronoun. Singular forms (with which as a relative pronoun) are more common when the group is been as an impersonal unit.
Compare:
My family have decided to move to Nottingham. They think it’s a better place to live. The average British family has 3,6 members. It is smaller and richer than 50 years ago. My firm are wonderful. They do all they can for me. My firm was founded in the 18th century.
- When a group noun is used with a singular determiner (a/an, each, every, his, that), singular verbs and pronouns are normal:
The team are full of enthusiasm. A team which is full of enthusiasm has a better chance of winning. (more natural than A team who are full…)
Plural expressions with singular verbs
- sometimes singular and plural forms are mixed: The group gave its first concert in June and they are already booked up for the next six months.
- examples: bank, family, party, class, club, committer, England (football team), firm, jury, government, ministry, orchestra, public, school, staff, team, union, the BBC, choir
- in American English singular verbs are normally used with them
Quantifying expressions
- Many singular quantifying expressions can be used with plural nouns and pronouns; plural verbs are normally used in this case:
A number of people have tried to find the treasure.
A group of us are going to take a bout through the French canals.
A couple of my friends are going to open a travel agency.
A lot of social problems are caused by unemployment.
The majority of criminals are not violent.
Some of these people are friends of mine.
Half of his students don’t understand a word he says.
Plural expressions with singular verbs
Amounts and qualities
Where is that five pounds I lent you? (NOT where are…)
Twenty miles is a long way to walk. (NOT twenty miles are…)
We’ve only get 5 litres of petrol left. That isn’t enough. (NOT those aren’t…)
Countable and uncountable nouns
The differences between countable and uncountable nouns
- C nouns are the names of separate objects, people, ideas etc which can be counted. We can use numbers and the article a/an with C noun, they have plurals:
a cat – three cats, a newspaper – two newspapers
- U (or ‚mass‘) nouns are the names of materials, liquids, abstract qualities, collections and other things which we see as masses without clear boundaries, and not as separate objects. We cannot use numbers with U nouns, and most are singular with no plurals.
- We do not normally use a/an with U nouns, though there are some exceptions:
water – NOT a water or two waters
wool – NOT a wool or two wools
weather – NOT a weather or two weathers
- some determiners can only be used with C nouns (many, few), others can only be used with U nouns (much, less):
How many hours do you work?
How much money do you earn?
- not all nouns are either simply C or simply U. Many nouns have both C and U uses, sometimes with a difference of meaning
Problem case:
C: bean(s), pea(s), grape(s), lentil(s), fact(s)
U: rice, spaghetti, macaroni (and other pasta food), sugar, salt
English and other languages:
U C
accommodation a place to live
advice a piece of advice
bread a piece of bread
chess a game of chess
grass a blade of grass
information a piece of information
knowledge a fact
lightening a flash of lightening
luck a bit/stroke of luck
money a note, a coin, a sum
poetry a poem
progress a step forward
- Note when U English words are borrowed by other languages they may change into C words with different meaning.
Illnesses:
- The name of illnesses are usually U in English, including those ending in –s: If you’ve get measles, you can’t get it again.There’s a lot of flu around at the moment.
- The words for some minor ailments are C; a cold, a sore throat, a headache. However toothache, earache, stomach-ache and backache are more often U in British English.
In American English, these words are generally C it they refer to particular attacks of pain.
Love isn’t as bad as toothache. (GB)
Love isn’t as bad as a toothache. (US)
Mixed uses:
- Many nouns have both C and U uses with some differences of meaning:
I’d like some typing paper.
I’m going out to buy a paper. =newspaper
Have you got any coffee?
Could I have two coffees? =cups of coffee
- And normally U nouns can often be used as C if we are talking about different kind of material, liquid etc:
Not all washing powders are kind to your hands.
The 1961 wines were among the best on the last century.
- Many abstract nouns can have both U and C uses; corresponding to more ‚general‘ and more particular‘ meanings:
Don’t hurry - there’s plenty of time.
Have a good time.
- Singular C nouns are sometimes used as U (with enough, such, plenty of/a lot of) in order to express the idea of amount:
I’ve got too much nose and not enough chin.
We’ve got enough paint for about 20 square feet of wall.
a/an with uncountable nouns:
We needed a secretary with a first-class knowledge of Germen.
She has always had a deep distrust of strangers.
My parents wanted me to have a good education.
Plural uncountable nouns:
- Some U are plural, have no singular forms with the some meaning, and cannot be used with numbers:
groceries, arms, remains, goods, customs, clothes, thanks, regards, police
I’ve bought the groceries.
Gender
(references to males and females)
- English does not have many problems of grammatical gender. Usually people are he or she and things are it.
- note the following points:
animals, cars, ships and countries:
- people sometimes call animal he or she, especially when they though of as having personality, intelligence or feelings. This is common with pets and domestic animals like cats, dogs and horses:
Go and find the cat and put her out.
- he is sometimes used in cases where the sex of an animal is no known:
Look at the little frog. Isn’t he sweet?
- some people use she for cars, motorbikes, sailors often us she for boat and ships
- we can use she for countries, but it is more common in modern English:
France has decided to increase its trade with Romania. (OR her trade)
he or she
- traditionally, English has used he in cases where the sex of person is not known, or in references that can apply to either men or women, especially on formal style:
If a student is ill, he must send a medical certificate to the College office.
A doctor can’t do a good job if he doesn’t like people.
- now the expression he or she is becoming increasingly common:
If a student is ill, he or she must send a medical certificate to the College office.
A doctor can’t do a good job if he or she doesn’t like people.
unisex they
- in an formal style, we often use they to mean he or she, especially after indefinite words like somebody, anybody, nobody, person. This usage is sometimes considered ‚ incorrect‘, but it has been common in educated speech for centuries:
If anybody wants my ticket they can have it.
actor and actress etc
- few jobs and position have different words for men and women: actor – actress, groom – bride, duke – duchess, hero – heroine, host – hostess, monk – nun, prince – princess, widower – widow
- some words ending in –ess have gave out of use:
steward and stewardess are being replaced by other term such as flight attendant
words ending in –man
- some words ending in –man do not have a common feminine equivalent (chairman, fireman, spokesman). On many cases –person is now used instead of man (chairperson).
- in some cases new words ending in –woman are coming into use (spokeswoman)
- supervisor instead of foreman
ambulance staff instead of ambulance man
firefighter instead of fireman
