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:—