The category of number

1. With countable nouns the category is presented regularly by the opposition of two forms: singular, plural.

• The plural form is marked by the suffix –s/-es [ ], [ ], [ ], so it is called the marked form, singular form is unmarked.

• There is a small group of nouns (7) which form their plurals by vowel alteration: man-men, woman - women, foot - feet, tooth - teeth, goose - geese, mouse - mice, louse – lice.

• A few nouns have the obsolete suffix -en for the plural: child – children, ox – oxen, brother – brethren.

2. Compound nouns have their own specific ways of forming the plural:

• If both the components are nouns the plural suffix is added to the second one: fellow-workers, school-mates, air-raids, lady-birds.

• If the second component is expressed by a preposition or an adverb or an adjective the plural suffix is added to the noun: passers-by, lookers-on, courts-marshal, attorneys-general.

• If all the components are non-nouns, the suffix is added to the last one: forget-me-nots, merry-go-rounds, overalls, stand-bys, go-betweens, grown-ups, breakdowns.

• If between the two components there is a preposition, the suffix is added to the first component: editors-in-chief, brothers-in-law, commanders-in-chief, men-of-war.

• If the first component is man- or woman-, the plural forms mark both the components:

men-doctors, women-drivers.

• Compounds ending in –man change it into –men: policemen, gentlemen, Englishmen, postmen. Note the plurals of the nouns German, Roman, Norman that have regular plural: Germans, Romans, Normans.

3. There are foreign (mostly Latin and Greek) words in English which retain their original plural ending: datum – data, stratum – strata, memorandum – memoranda ( memos), phenomenon – phenomena, criterion – criteria, crisis – crises, analysis – analyses, stimulus – stimuli, nucleus – nuclei, formula – formulae ( formulas) , index – indices (indexes).

4/ Some English nouns have one form for both singular and plural meanings: A sheep –

sheep, a swine – swine, a deer – deer, a Japanese – Japanese, a Chinese – Chinese, a species – species, a series – series, a means - means.

A sheep is grazing in the meadow. / Some sheep are grazing in the meadow.

The deer has run away. / Some deer have come out of the forest.

He’s caught only one fish. / He’s caught a lot of fish.

Language is a perfect means of communication.

There are many means of travelling.

5. Some nouns have only the singular form (Singularia Tantum), others only the plural form

(Pluralia Tantum).

Singularia Tantum:

• The mass or material nouns: sugar, coffee, tea, glue, honey, snow, butter, cream, water, milk, money (is).

Some nouns of this group can take plural forms but in this case they either change their stylistic colouring ( water – waters, sky – skies, snow – snows), or their meaning (work – works, wine – wines, tea – 2 teas).

• Abstract nouns: peace, happiness, anger, jealousy, fluency, advice, luck, information.

Pluralia Tantum:

• Nouns denoting objects consisting of two equal parts: trousers, scissors, spectacles / glasses, scales,

• Nouns denoting scientific subjects: mathematics, physics, phonetics, optics, politics

• Nouns denoting names of diseases: measles, mumps, (AIDS)

• Miscellaneous nouns: goods, clothes, contents, news (is), arms, customs, minutes, surroundings, outskirts, headquarters.