+DEFINITIONS+.
+Modifications of the Parts of Speech are changes in their form, meaning, and use+.
+Number is that modification of a noun or pronoun which denotes one thing or more than one.+
+The Singular Number denotes one thing+.
+The Plural Number denotes more than one thing+.
NUMBER FORMS.
+RULE.—The plural of nouns is regularly formed by adding s to the singular+.
To this rule there are some exceptions.
When the singular ends in a sound that cannot unite with that of s, es is added and forms another syllable.[Footnote: In Anglo-Saxon, as was the plural termination for a certain class of nouns. In later English, as was changed to es, which became the regular plural ending; as, bird-es, cloud-es. In modern English, e is dropped, and s is joined to the singular without increase of syllables. But, when the singular ends in an s-sound, the original syllable es is retained, as two hissing sounds will not unite.]
+Remark+.—Such words as horse, niche, and cage drop the final e when es is added. See Rule 1, Lesson 137.
+Direction+.—Form the plural of each of the following nouns, and note what letters represent sounds that cannot unite with the sound of +s+:—
Ax or axe, arch, adz or adze, box, brush, cage, chaise, cross, ditch, face, gas, glass, hedge, horse, lash, lens, niche, prize, race, topaz.
The following nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant add es without increase of syllables.
+Direction+.—Form the plural of each of the following nouns:—
Buffalo, calico, cargo, echo, embargo, grotto, hero, innuendo, motto, mosquito, mulatto, negro, portico (oes or os), potato, tornado, torpedo, veto, volcano.
The following nouns in o preceded by a consonant add s only.
+Direction+.—Form the plural of each of the following nouns:—
Canto, domino (os or oes), duodecimo, halo, junto, lasso, memento, octavo, piano, proviso, quarto, salvo, solo, two, tyro, zero (os or oes).
Nouns in o preceded by a vowel add s.
Bamboo, cameo, cuckoo, embryo, folio, portfolio, seraglio, trio.
Common nouns [Footnote: See Rule 2, Lesson 127. In old English, such words as lady and fancy were spelled ladie, fancie. The modern plural simply retains the old spelling and adds s,] in y after a consonant change y into i and add es without increase of syllables. Nouns in y after a vowel add s.
+Direction+.—Form the plural of each of the following nouns:—
Alley, ally, attorney, chimney, city, colloquy, [Footnote: U after q is a consonant] daisy, essay, fairy, fancy, kidney, lady, lily, money, monkey, mystery, soliloquy, turkey, valley, vanity.
The following nouns change f or fe into ves.
+Direction+.—Form the plural of each of the following nouns:—
Beef, calf, elf, half, knife, leaf, life, loaf, self, sheaf, shelf, staff, [Footnote: Staff (a stick or support), staves or staffs; staff (a body of officers), staffs. The compounds of staff are regular; as, flagstaffs.] thief, wharf, [Footnote: In England, generally wharfs.] wife, wolf.
The following nouns in f and fe are regular.
+Direction+.—Form the plural of each of the following nouns:—
Belief, brief, chief, dwarf, fife, grief, gulf, hoof, kerchief, proof, reef, roof, safe, scarf, strife, waif.
(Nouns in ff, except staff, are regular; as, cuff, cuffs.)
The following plurals are still more irregular.
+Direction+.—Learn to form the following plurals:—
Child, children; foot, feet; goose, geese; louse, lice; man, men; mouse, mice; Mr., Messrs.; ox, oxen; tooth, teeth; woman, women.
(For the plurals of pronouns, see Lesson 124.)
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LESSON 113.
NUMBER FORMS—CONTINUED.
Some nouns adopted from foreign languages still retain their original plural forms. Some of these take the English plural also.
+Direction+.—Learn to form the following plurals:—
Analysis, analyses; antithesis, antitheses; appendix, appendices or appendixes; automaton, automata or automatons; axis, axes; bandit, banditti or bandits; basis, bases; beau, beaux or beaus; cherub, cherubim or cherubs; crisis, crises; datum, data; ellipsis, ellipses; erratum, errata; focus, foci: fungus, fungi or funguses; genus, genera; hypothesis, hypotheses; ignis fatuus, ignes fatui; madame, mesdames; magus, magi; memorandum, memoranda or memorandums; monsieur, messieurs; nebula, nebulae; oasis, oases; parenthesis, parentheses; phenomenon, phenomena; radius, radii or radiuses; seraph, seraphim or seraphs; stratum, strata; synopsis, synopses; terminus, termini; vertebra, vertebrae; vortex, vortices or vortexes.
The following compound nouns, in which the principal word stands first, vary the first word; as, sons-in-law.
+Direction+.—Form the plural of the following words:—
Aid-de-camp, attorney-at-law, billet-doux, [Footnote: Plural, billets-doux, pronounced bil'-la:-doo:z ] commander-in-chief, court-martial, cousin-german, father-in-law, hanger-on, man-of-war.
The following, and most compounds, vary the last word; as, pailfuls, gentle_men_. [Footnote: Pails full is not a compound. This expression denotes a number of pails, each full.]
+Direction+.—Form the plural of each of the following nouns:—
Courtyard, dormouse, Englishman, fellow-servant, fisherman, Frenchman, forget-me-not, goose-quill, handful, maid-servant, man-trap, mouthful, pianoforte, portemonnaie, spoonful, stepson, tete-a-tete, tooth-brush.
The following nouns (except Norman) are not compounds of man—add s to all.
Brahman, German, Mussulman, Norman, Ottoman, talisman.
The following compounds vary both parts; as, man-singer, men-singers.
+Direction+.—Form the plural of each of the following nouns:—
Man-child, man-servant, woman-servant, woman-singer.
Compounds consisting of a proper name preceded by a title form the plural by varying either the title or the name; as, the Miss Clarks or the Misses Clark; but, when the title Mrs. is used, the name is usually varied; as, the Mrs. Clarks. [Footnote: Of the two forms, the Miss Clarks and the Misses Clark, we believe that the former is most used by the best authors. The latter, except in formal notes or when the title is to be emphasized, is rather stiff if not pedantic. Some authorities say that, when a numeral precedes the title, the name should always be varied; as, the two Miss Clarks.
The forms, the Misses Clarks and the two Mrs. Clark, have little authority.]
+Direction+.—Form the plural of the following compounds:—
Miss Jones, Mr. Jones, General Lee, Dr. Brown, Master Green.
A title used with two or more different names is made plural; as, Drs.
Grimes and Steele, Messrs. Clark and Maynard.
+Direction+.—Put each of the following expressions in its proper form:—
General Lee and Jackson; Miss Mary, Julia, and Anna Scott; Mr, Green,
Stacy, & Co.
Letters, figures, and other characters add the apostrophe and s to form the plural; [Footnote: Some good writers form the plural of words named merely as words, in the same way; as, the if's and and's; but the (') is here unnecessary.] as, a's, 2's, ——'s.
+Direction.+—Form the plural of each of the following characters:—S, i, t, +, x, [Dagger], 9, 1, 1/4, [Yough], [Cyrillic: E].
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LESSON 114.
NUMBER FORMS—CONTINUED.
Some nouns have two plurals differing in meaning.
+Direction.+—Learn these plurals and their meanings:—
Brother,
brothers (by blood),
brethren (of the same society).
Cannon,
cannons (individuals),
cannon (in a collective sense).
Die,
dies (stamps for coining),
dice (cubes for gaming).
Fish,
fishes (individuals),
fish (collection). [Footnote: The names of several sorts of fish, as,
herring, shad, trout, etc. are used in the same way. The compounds of
fish, as codfish, have the same form in both numbers.]
Foot,
feet (parts of the body),
foot (foot-soldiers).
Genius,
geniuses (men of genius),
genii (spirits).
Head,
heads (parts of the body),
head (of cattle).
Horse,
horses (animals),
horse (horse-soldiers).
Index,
indexes (tables of reference),
indices (signs in algebra).
Penny,
pennies (distinct coins),
pence (quantity in value).
Sail,
sails (pieces of canvas),
sail (vessels).
Shot,
shots (number of times fired),
shot (number of balls).
The following nouns and pronouns have the same form in both numbers.
+Direction.+—Study the following list:—
Bellows, corps, [Footnote: The singular is pronounced ko:r, the plural ko:rz.] deer, gross, grouse, hose, means, odds, pains (care), series, sheep, species, swine, vermin, who, which, that (relative), what, any, none.
(The following have two forms in the plural).
Apparatus, apparatus or apparatuses; heathen, heathen or heathens.
(The following nouns have the same form in both numbers when used with numerals; they add s in other cases; as, four score, by scores.)
Dozen, score, yoke, hundred, thousand.
The following nouns have no plural.
(These are generally names of materials, qualities, or sciences.)
Names of materials when taken in their full or strict sense can have no plural, but they may be plural when kinds of the material or things made of it are referred to; as, cottons, coffees, tins, coppers.
+Direction.+—Study the following list of words:—
Bread, coffee, copper, flour, gold, goodness, grammar (science, not a book), grass, hay, honesty, iron, lead, marble, meekness, milk, molasses, music, peace, physiology, pride, tin, water.
The following plural forms are commonly used in the singular.
Acoustics, ethics, mathematics, politics (and other names of sciences in ics), amends, measles, news.
The following words are always plural.
(Such words are generally names of things double or multiform in their character.)
+Direction+.—Study the following list:—
Aborigines, annals, ashes, assets, clothes, fireworks, hysterics, literati, mumps, nippers, oats, pincers, rickets, scissors, shears, snuffers, suds, thanks, tongs, tidings, trousers, victuals, vitals.
The following were originally singular forms, but they are now treated as plural.
Alms (Anglo-Saxon aelmaesse), eaves (A. S. efese), riches (Norman
French richesse).
The following have no singular corresponding in meaning.
Colors (flag), compasses (dividers), goods (property), grounds (dregs), letters (literature), manners (behavior), matins (morning service); morals (character), remains (dead body), spectacles (glasses), stays (corsets), vespers (evening service).
(The singular form is sometimes an adjective.)
Bitters, greens, narrows, sweets, valuables, etc.
Collective nouns are treated as plural when the individuals in the collection are thought of, and as singular when the collection as a whole is thought of.
+Examples+.—The committee were unable to agree, and they asked to be discharged. A committee was appointed, and its report will soon be made.
(Collective nouns have plural forms; as, committees, armies.)
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LESSON 115.
REVIEW IN NUMBER.
+Direction+.—Write the plural of the singular nouns and pronouns in the following list, and the singular of those that are plural; give the Rule or the Remark that applies to each; and note those that have no plural, and those that have no singular:—
Hope, age, bench, bush, house, loss, tax, waltz, potato, shoe, colony, piano, kangaroo, pulley, wharf, staff, fife, loaf, flagstaff, handkerchief, Mr., child, ox, beaux, cherubim, mesdames, termini, genus, genius, bagnio, theory, galley, muff, mystery, colloquy, son-in-law, man-of-war, spoonful, maid-servant, Frenchman, German, man-servant, Dr. Smith, Messrs. Brown and Smith, x, 1/2, deer, series, bellows, molasses, pride, politics, news, sunfish, clothes, alms, goods, grounds, greens, who, that.
+Direction.+—Give five words that have no plural, five that have no singular, and five that have the same form in both numbers.
+Direction.+—Correct the following plurals, and give the Remark that applies to each:—
Stagees, foxs, mosquitos, calicos, heros, soloes, babys, trioes, chimnies, storys, elfs, beefs, scarves, oxes, phenomenons, axises, terminuses, genuses, mother-in-laws, aldermans, Mussulmen, teeth-brushes, mouthsful, attorney-at-laws, man-childs, geese-quills, 2s, ms. swines.
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LESSON 116.
NUMBER FORMS IN CONSTRUCTION.
The number of a noun may be determined not only by its form but also by the verb, the adjective, and the pronoun used in connection with it.
+Remark.+—These scissors are so dull that I cannot use them. The plurality of scissors is here made known in four ways. In the following sentence this, is, and it are incorrectly used: This scissors is so dull that I cannot use it.
+Direction+.—Construct sentences in which the number of each of the following nouns shall be indicated by the form of the verb, by the adjective, and by the pronoun used in connection with it:—
(With the singular nouns use the verbs is, was, and has been; the adjectives an, one, this, and that; the pronouns he, his, him, she, her, it, and its.)
(With the plural nouns use the verbs are, were, and have been; the adjectives these, those, and two; the pronouns they, their, and them.)
Bellows, deer, fish, gross, means, series, species, heathen, trout, iron, irons, news, eaves, riches, oats, vermin, molasses, Misses, brethren, dice, head (of cattle), pennies, child, parent, family, crowd, meeting.
+Direction+.—Compose sentences in which the first three of the following adjective pronouns shall be used as singular subjects, the fourth as a plural subject, and the remainder both as singular and as plural subjects:—
Each, either, neither, both, former, none, all, any.
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LESSON 117.
NOUNS AND PRONOUNS—GENDER.
+Introductory Hints+.—The lion was caged. The lioness was caged. In the first sentence something is said about a male lion, and in the second something is said about a female lion. The modification of the noun to denote the sex of the thing which it names is called +Gender+. Lion, denoting a male animal, is in the +Masculine Gender; and lioness, denoting a female animal, is in the +Feminine Gender+. Names of things that are without sex are said to be in the +Neuter Gender+. Such nouns as cousin, child, friend, neighbor are either masculine or feminine. Such words are sometimes said to be in the Common Gender.
Sex belongs to the thing; and gender, to the noun that names the thing. Knowing the sex of the thing or its lack of sex, you know the gender of the noun in English that names it; for in our language gender follows the sex. But in such modern languages as the French and the German, and in Latin and Greek, the gender of nouns naming things without reference to sex is determined by the likeness of their endings in sound to the endings of words denoting things with sex. The German for table is a masculine noun, the French is feminine, and the English, of course, is neuter. [Footnote: In Anglo-Saxon, the mother-tongue of our language, gender was grammatical, as in the French and the German; but, since the union of the Norman-French with the Anglo-Saxon to form the English, gender has followed sex.]
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