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In the English language, nouns are inflected for grammatical number—that is, singular or plural. This article discusses the variety of ways in which English plurals are formed. In English, a noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ... Inflection of the Spanish lexeme for cat, with blue representing the masculine gender, pink representing the feminine gender, grey representing the form used for mixed-gender, and green representing the plural number. ... In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ... In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. ... Look up Plural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Plural is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. ...

Note that phonetic transcriptions provided in this article are for RP and General American. Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ...

Regular plurals

The plural morpheme in English is suffixed 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 [z] by default. When the preceding sound is a voiceless consonant, it is pronounced [s]. Examples: In morpheme-based morphology, a morpheme is the smallest lingual unit that carries a semantic interpretation. ... Look up affix in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of writing in that language. ... Phoneticians define phonation as use of the laryngeal system to generate an audible source of acoustic energy, i. ... In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ...

Where a noun ends in a sibilant sound—[s], [ʃ], [ʧ], [z], [ʒ], or [ʤ]—the plural is formed by adding [ɪz] (also pronounced [əz]), which is spelled -es if the word does not already end with -e: A sibilant is a type of fricative, made by speeding up air through a narrow channel and directing it over the sharp edge of the teeth. ...

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 [z]): In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ...

The -ies rule: nouns ending in a y preceded by a consonant drop the y and add -ies. (pronounced [iz]) This is taught to many American students with the rhyme: "Change the 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'" :

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 capitalized common nouns: The Two Sicilies The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies (Italian: il Regno delle Due Sicilie) was the new name that the Bourbon King Ferdinand IV of Naples bestowed upon his domain (including Southern Italy and the island of Sicily) after the end of the Napoleonic Era and the full restoration... Sicily (Sicilia in Italian and Sicilian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,708 km² (9,926 sq. ...

Some other exceptions include lay-bys and stand-bys. The term lay-by is used in the United Kingdom to describe a roadside parking or rest area for drivers. ... Standby may refer to: Standby (telecommunications), a term in telecommunications Standby (air travel), a list in which passengers may request to be placed on to request an earlier or more convenient flight. ...

Words ending in a y preceded by a vowel form their plurals regularly:

("Monies" is an exception, but can also form its plural regularly.^[3])

Almost-regular plurals

Many nouns of foreign 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 [f] changing to [v] the mutation is indicated in the orthography as well: Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... Consonant mutation is the phenomenon in which a consonant in a word is changed according to its morphological and/or syntactic environment. ...

In practice, many people do not change the fricative, and instead use regular plurals.

Some retain the voiceless consonant:

Some can do either:

Note 1: For dwarf, 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 popularized dwarves; he intended the changed spelling to differentiate the "dwarf" fantasy race in his novels from the cuter and simpler beings common in fairy tales, but his usage has since spread. Multiple astronomical dwarf stars and multiple nonmythological short human beings, however, remain dwarfs. For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. ... Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 animated feature, the first produced by Walt Disney. ... John Ronald Reuel Tolkien CBE (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973) was an English philologist, writer and university professor, best known as the author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. ... In J. R. R. Tolkiens fictional universe of Middle-earth, Dwarves are beings of short stature who all possess beards and are often friendly with Hobbits, although long suspicious of Elves. ... Many fantasy stories and worlds call their main sapient humanoid species races rather than species. ... Hertzsprung-Russell diagram The main sequence of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is the curve where the majority of stars are located in this diagram. ...

Note 2: 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.) In etymology, the process of back-formation is the creation of a neologism by reinterpreting an earlier word as a compound and removing the spuriously supposed affixes. ...

Irregular plurals

There are many other less regular ways of forming plurals, usually stemming from older forms of English or from foreign borrowings.

Nouns with identical singular and plural

Some nouns spell their singular and plural exactly alike; these are regarded by some linguists as regular plurals. Many of these are the names of animals:

deer

fish (and many individual fish names: cod, mackerel, trout, etc.)

moose

sheep

swine

The plural deers is listed in some dictionaries,^[4] but is considered by many to be an error.

Fish does have a regular plural form, but it differs in meaning from the unmarked plural; fishes refers to several species or other taxonomic types, while fish (plural) is used to describe multiple individual animals: one would say "the order of fishes," but "five fish in an aquarium." The plural fishes is found in the King James Bible, in the miracle of the loaves and fishes, for example, and is also sometimes used for rhetorical emphasis, as in phrases like sleep with the fishes. Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. ... This page is about the version of the Bible; for the Harvey Danger album, see King James Version (album). ... A miracle, derived from the old Latin word miraculum meaning something wonderful, is a striking interposition of divine intervention by a God in the universe by which the ordinary course and operation of Nature is overruled, suspended, or modified. ...

Other nouns that have identical singular and plural forms include:

aircraft

blues³

cannon (sometimes cannons)

head⁴

Note 3: Referring to individual songs in the blues musical style: "play me a blues"; "he sang three blues and a calypso"
Note 4: Referring, in the plural, to animals in a herd: "fifty head of cattle" Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes and a repetitive pattern that most often follows a twelve-bar structure. ...

Irregular -(e)n plurals

The plural of a few nouns can also be formed from the singular by adding -n or -en, stemming from the obsolete Old English 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 particularly if operating as a cluster, but multiple Unix systems are usually Unices (see Irregular plurals of foreign origin below). This article is about the British author. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

The word sistren, referring to Christian sisters [cf. "brethren"], is also semi-humorously pluralized.

Umlaut plurals

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): In linguistics, the process of umlaut (from German um- around + Laut sound) is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a vowel or semivowel in a following syllable. ...

Mouse is sometimes pluralized mouses in discussions of the computer mouse; however, mice is just as common because of the physical similarity between the input device and the rodent, which is the origin of the term. Operating a mechanical 1: Pulling the mouse turns the ball. ...

Irregular plurals from Latin and Greek

Because English includes words from so many ancestral languages, as well as many loanwords 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. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... Greek ( IPA: (with a palatalized k as a rule) or simply IPA: — Hellenic) is an Indo-European language with a documented history of 3,500 years, the longest of any single language in that language family. ...

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.

• Final a becomes -ae (also -æ), or just adds -s:

• Final ex or ix becomes -ices (pronounced [ɪˌsiːz] or [əˌsiz]), or just adds -es:

Some people treat process as if it belonged to this class, pronouncing processes /ˈpɹɑsɪˌsiːz/ instead of standard /ˈpɹɑsɛsɪz/. Since the word comes from Latin processus, whose plural is again processus, but now with a long u (fourth declension), this has no basis in the origin of the word. Latin is an inflected language, and as such its nouns, pronouns, and adjectives must be declined in order to serve a grammatical function. ...

• Final is becomes es (pronounced [ˌiːz]:

Note that axes, the plural of axis, is pronounced differently from axes (/ˈæksɪz/), the plural of axe.

• Final ies remains unchanged:

• Final on becomes -a:

• Final um becomes -a, or just adds -s:

• Final us becomes -i (second declension) or -era or -ora (third declension), or just adds -es (especially in fourth declension, where it would otherwise be the same as the singular):

Note: Many nouns of Latin origin with a final -us that take an -i in plural form can also, in modern usage, take an -es instead. Much formal or technical writing insists on the -i plural, whereas either ending is acceptable in common usage. See article on the plural of virus. In linguistics, declension is a paradigm of inflected nouns and adjectives. ... In linguistics, declension is a paradigm of inflected nouns and adjectives. ... In linguistics, declension is a paradigm of inflected nouns and adjectives. ... Look up virus in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Colloquial usages based in a humorous fashion on the second declension include Elvii to refer to multiple Elvis impersonators and Loti, used by petrolheads to refer to Lotus automobiles in the plural. Official language(s) English Spoken language(s) English 74. ... Elvis impersonators are people who impersonate or copy Elvis Presley either as a hobby or as a professional career. ... Lotus Logo with monogram of its founder, Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman Lotus Cars is a British manufacturer of sports and racing cars based at Hethel, Norfolk, England. ...

• Final as in one case of a noun of Greek origin changes to -antes:

• Final ma in nouns of Greek origin can add -ta, although -s is usually also acceptable, and in many cases more common.

Irregular plurals from other languages

• Some nouns of French origin add -x:

Foreign terms may take native plural forms, especially when the user is addressing an audience familiar with the language. In such cases, the conventionally formed English plural may sound awkward or be confusing.

• Nouns of Slavic origin add -a or -i according to native rules, or just -s:

• Nouns of Hebrew origin add -im or -ot (generally m/f) according to native rules, or just -s:

Note that ot is pronounced os in the Ashkenazi dialect.  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... “Hebrew” redirects here. ... Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim (אַשְׁכֲּנָזִי אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים Standard Hebrew, AÅ¡kanazi,AÅ¡kanazim, Tiberian Hebrew, ʾAÅ¡kănāzî, ʾAÅ¡kănāzîm, pronounced sing. ...

• Many nouns of Japanese origin have no plural form and do not change:

However, other nouns such as kimonos, futons, and tsunamis are more often seen with a regular English plural.

• In New Zealand English, nouns of Māori origin can either take an -s or have no separate plural form. Words more connected to Māori culture and used in that context tend to retain the same form, while names of flora and fauna may or may not take an -s, depending on context. Omission is regarded by many as more correct:

Note 5: When referring to the bird, kiwi may or may not take an -s; when used as an informal term for a New Zealander, it always takes an -s.
Note 6: Māori, when referring to a person of that ethnicity, does not usually take an -s. Many speakers avoid the use of Māori as a noun, and instead use it only as an adjective. This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... Māori or Te Reo Māori, commonly shortened to Te Reo (literally the language) is an official language of New Zealand. ...

• In Canada and Alaska, some words borrowed from Inuktitut retain traditional plurals (see also Plurals of names of peoples, below):

• Nouns from languages that have donated few words to English, and that are spoken by relatively few English speakers, generally form plurals as if they were native English words:

Official language(s) English[1] Spoken language(s) English 85. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Welsh redirects here, and this article describes the Welsh language. ...

Words better known in the plural

Some words of foreign origin are much better known in the plural; usage of the original singular may be considered pedantic or actually incorrect by some speakers. In common usage, the original plural is considered the singular form. In many cases, back-formation has produced a regularized plural. In etymology, the process of back-formation is the creation of a neologism by reinterpreting an earlier word as a compound and removing the spuriously supposed affixes. ...

Note 7: A single piece of data is sometimes referred to as a data point.

Some plural nouns are used as such—invariably being accompanied by a plural verb form—while their singular forms are rarely encountered:

Note 8: In medical terminology, a phalanx is any bone of the finger or toe. A military phalanx is pluralized phalanxes.

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 as nouns (cf. "there were ten soldiers" and "there were a hundred soldiers"). Thus dozens is preferred to tens, while hundreds and thousands are also completely acceptable.

Plurals of numbers differ according to how they are used. The following rules apply to dozen, score, hundred, thousand, million, and similar terms:

• When modified by a number, the plural is not inflected, that is, has no -s added. Hence one hundred, two hundred, etc. For vaguer large numbers, one may say several hundred or many hundreds.
• When used alone, or followed by a prepositional phrase, the plural is inflected: dozens of complaints, scores of people. However, either complaints by the dozen or complaints by the dozens is acceptable (although differing in meaning).
• The preposition of is used when speaking of nonspecific items identified by pronouns: two hundred of these, three dozen of those. The of is not used for a number of specific items: three hundred oriental rugs. However, if the pronoun is included with

A prepositional phrase (PP) is a linguistic term for a phrase whose head is a preposition. ...

Nouns used attributively

Nouns used attributively to qualify other nouns are generally in the singular, even though for example a dog catcher catches more than one dog, and a department store has more than one department. This is true even for some binary nouns where the singular form is not found in isolation, such as trouser press or scissor kick. It is also true where the attribute noun is itself qualified with a number, such as a twenty-dollar bill, a ten-foot pole or a two-man tent. The plural is used for pluralia tantum nouns; a glasses case is for eyeglasses, while a glass case is made of glass. The plural may also be used to emphasise the plurality of the attribute, especially in British English: a careers advisor, a languages expert. The plural is also more common with irregular plurals for certain attributions: women killers are women, whereas woman killers kill women. A plurale tantum (plural: pluralia tantum) is a noun that appears only in the plural form and does not have a singular variant, though it may still refer to one or many of the objects it names. ... Pluralia tantum is a category of nouns that appear only in plural and do not have a singular. ... British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ...

Defective nouns

Some nouns have no singular form. Such a noun is called a plurale tantum (see also Words better known in the plural above): A plurale tantum (plural pluralia tantum) is a noun that appears only in the plural and does not have a singular. ...

billiards, clothes, measles, thanks, vittles

Some of these do have singular adjective forms, such as billiard ball. In addition, some are treated as singular in construction, e.g., "billiards is a game played on a table with billiard balls and a cue", "measles is an infectious disease". Thanks is usually treated as plural.

A particular set of nouns, describing things having two parts, comprises the major group of pluralia tantum in modern English:

pants, pliers, scissors, shorts, trousers

Note that these words are interchangeable with a pair of scissors, a pair of trousers, and so forth. In the U.S. fashion industry it is common to refer to a single pair of pants as a pant —though this is a back-formation, the English word (deriving from the French pantalon) was originally singular. In the same field, one half of a pair of scissors separated from the other half is, rather illogically, referred to as a half-scissor. Tweezers used to be part of this group, but tweezer has come into common usage since the second half of the twentieth century. In etymology, the process of back-formation is the creation of a neologism by reinterpreting an earlier word as a compound and removing the spuriously supposed affixes. ...

Mass nouns (or uncountable nouns) do not represent distinct objects, so the singular and plural semantics do not apply in the same way. Some examples: It has been suggested that Count noun be merged into this article or section. ...

• Abstract nouns

goodness, idleness, honesty, deceit, freshness, bitterness, information, obscurity, wisdom, cunning

• Arts and sciences

chemistry, geometry, surgery, mechanics, optics, blues,¹⁰ jazz, rock and roll, impressionism, surrealism

• Chemical elements and other physical entities:

antimony, gold, oxygen, equipment, furniture, gear, species, air, water, sand

Note 10: Referring to the musical style as a whole.

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 indictments. In the common law legal system, an indictment (IPA: ) is a formal charge of having committed a most serious criminal offense. ...

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, don't run with scissors, defer to those with greater knowledge), deceits as a series of instances of deceitful behavior (lied on income tax, dated my wife), 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").

Specie and species make a fascinating case. Both words come from a Latin word meaning "kind", but they do not form a singular-plural pair; they are separate nouns. Coins, such as nickels, euros (see Linguistic issues concerning the euro), and cents are specie, but there is no plural. The idea is "payment in kind". And species, the "kinds of living things", is the same in singular and plural. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Plurals of compound nouns

The majority of English compound nouns have one basic term, or head, with which they end, and are pluralized in typical fashion: In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (a word) that consists of more than one other lexeme. ... In linguistics, the head is the morpheme that determines the category of a compound or the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member. ...

A compound that has one head, with which it begins, usually pluralizes its head:

It is common in informal speech to instead pluralize the last word in the manner typical of most English nouns, but in edited prose, the forms given above are preferred.

If a compound can be thought to have two heads, both of them tend to be pluralized when the first head has an irregular plural form:

Two-headed compounds in which the first head has a standard plural form, however, tend to pluralize only the final head:

In military usage, the term general, as part of an officer's title, is etymologically an adjective, but it has been adopted as a noun and thus a head, so compound titles employing it are pluralized at the end:

For compounds of three or more words that have a head (or a term functioning as a head) with an irregular plural form, only that term is pluralized:

For many other compounds of three or more words with a head at the front—especially in cases where the compound is ad hoc and/or the head is metaphorical—it is generally regarded as acceptable to pluralize either the first major term or the last (if open when singular, such compounds tend to take hyphens when plural in the latter case):

With a few extended compounds, both terms may be pluralized—again, with an alternative (which may be more prevalent, e.g., heads of state):

With extended compounds constructed around o', only the last term is pluralized (or left unchanged if it is already plural):

Compounds from the French

Many English compounds have been borrowed directly from the French, and these generally follow a somewhat different set of rules. French-loaned compounds with a head at the beginning tend to pluralize both words, according to French practice: A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ...

For compounds adopted directly from the French where the head comes at the end, it is generally regarded as acceptable either to pluralize both words or only the last:

French-loaned compounds longer than two words tend to follow the rules of the original language, which usually involves pluralizing only the head at the beginning:

but:

A distinctive case is the compound film noir. For this French-loaned artistic term, English-language texts variously use as the plural films noirs, films noir, and, most prevalently, film noirs. The 11th edition of the standard Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2006) lists film noirs as the preferred style. Three primary bases may be identified for this:

1. Unlike other compounds borrowed directly from the French, film noir is used to refer primarily to English-language cultural artifacts; a typically English-style plural is thus unusually appropriate.
2. Again, unlike other foreign-loaned compounds, film noir refers specifically to the products of popular culture; consequently, popular usage holds more orthographical authority than is usual.
3. English has adopted noir as a stand-alone noun in artistic contexts, leading it to serve as the lone head in a variety of compounds (e.g., psycho-noir, sci-fi noir).

See also the headless nouns section below.

Plurals (and singulars) of headless nouns

In The Language Instinct, linguist Steven Pinker discusses what he calls "headless words," typically bahuvrihi compounds, like lowlife and Red Sox, in which life and sox are not heads semantically; that is, a lowlife is not a type of life, nor are Red Sox a group of similarly colored socks. When the common form of such a word is singular, it is treated as if it has a regular plural, even if the final constituent of the word is usually pluralized in a nonregular fashion. Thus, more than one lowlife are lowlifes, not "lowlives." A related process can be observed with the compound maple leaf, pluralized in its common-noun form as maple leaves; when it is adopted as the name of an ice-hockey team, its plural becomes Maple Leafs. Other examples include: The Language Instinct is a book by Steven Pinker, published in 1995, in which he argues the case for the belief that humans are born with an innate capacity for language. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of language, which can be theoretical or applied. ... Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a prominent Canadian-born American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and popular science writer known for his spirited and wide-ranging advocacy of evolutionary psychology and the computational theory of mind. ... A bahuvrihi (बहुवृहि), or bahuvrihi compound, is a particular kind of compound word that refers to something that is not specified by any of its parts by themselves (i. ... Major league affiliations American League (1901–present) East Division (1969–present) Current uniform Retired Numbers 1, 4, 8, 9, 27, 42 Name Boston Red Sox (1908–present) Boston Americans (1901-1907) Other nicknames The BoSox, The Olde Towne Team, The Sox Ballpark Fenway Park (1912–present) Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds... In linguistics, the head is the morpheme that determines the category of a compound or the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member. ... The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ...

An exception is Blackfoot, of which the plural can be Blackfeet, though that form of the name is officially rejected by the Blackfoot First Nations of Canada. Chief Aatsista-Mahkan Mehkskeme-Sukahs, Blackfoot chief (left) (Karl Bodmer) The Blackfoot Confederacy is the collective name of three First Nations in Alberta and one Native American tribe in Montana. ... First Nations is a term of ethnicity used in Canada. ...

Where words have taken on completely new meanings, irregular plurals may become regularized. Antennas is the accepted plural of antenna when it refers to electronic equipment, in contrast to antennae for arthropod feelers. The computer mouse is sometimes considered headless and pluralized as mouses, but also often as mice; in contrast to the compound headless words just discussed, there is a considerably stronger metaphorical relationship in this case, with many computer pointing devices resembling rodents with tails. In biology, antenna (plural: antennae) refers to the sensing organs of several arthropods. ... Insects display a wide variety of antennal shapes. ... A contemporary computer mouse, with the most common standard features — two buttons and a scroll-wheel. ... Look up metaphor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

In other cases, the common form of a headless word is a nonregular plural; when such a word lacks a terminal s, it is treated as defective, thus making the singular version of the word identical: an individual member of the Boston baseball team is a Red Sox, just as all twenty-five are; one Chicago White Sox is a White Sox. This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Related collective nouns

Sports team names like those discussed above—as well as more grammatically ordinary names such as Reds, Knicks, and Canadiens, and straightforward compound names such as Blue Jays and Devil Rays—comprise a particular set of collective nouns. Closely related to the class of essentially plural headless nouns typified by Red Sox are the growing number of orthographically singular sports team names that may be classified as examples of a special type of collective noun—one that (a) has identical terms for both the collective and an individual thereof (as with the essentially plural headless noun) but (b) is not used as a counting noun beyond the singular. Two examples include the name of the Miami NBA team—Heat—and the name of the Colorado NHL team—Avalanche. While heat is a mass noun, whereas avalanche is a normal counting noun, in the context of a team name, both words operate as this special type of collective noun. Just as with the Sox, any one of the twelve current members of Miami's pro basketball squad is a Heat; similarly, any individual member of the Colorado Avalanche is an Avalanche. However, where one may say, for instance, that "two Red Sox struck out" or "four White Sox homered," the equivalent term is invariably used as an adjective when referring to multiple players of one of the teams named in this increasingly popular way: "two Heat players fought" or "four Avalanche players scored" (Avalanche followers have a little more flexibility, with "Avs" as the team's unofficial, but widely used nickname). Other examples include: Major league affiliations National League (1890–present) Central Division (1994–present) Current uniform Retired Numbers 1, 5, 8, 10, 13, 18, 20, 24, 42 Name Cincinnati Reds (1958–present) Cincinnati Redlegs (1953-1958) Cincinnati Reds (1882-1953) Cincinnati Red Stockings (1876-1882) Other nicknames Big Red Machine, Redlegs[1] Ballpark... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... The Montreal Canadiens (French: ) are a professional ice hockey team based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... Major league affiliations American League (1977–present) East Division (1977–present) Current uniform Retired Numbers 42 Name Toronto Blue Jays (1977–present) Other nicknames The Jays Ballpark Rogers Centre (1989–present) a. ... Major league affiliations American League (1998–present) East Division (1998–present) Current uniform Retired Numbers 12, 42 Name Tampa Bay Devil Rays (1998–present) Other nicknames The D-Rays, The Rays Ballpark Tropicana Field (1998–present) Major league titles World Series titles (0) none AL Pennants (0) none Division titles... Collective nouns (also known as terms of venery or nouns of assemblage) in English are subject-specific words used to define a grouping of people, animals, objects or concepts. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Colorado Avalanche are a professional ice hockey team based in Denver, Colorado, United States. ...

Note that in not every case above is it certain that the name is ever used in its noun form to refer to anything but the collective—i.e., not even to an individual player; in other cases, it is possible that the name is sometimes used in its noun form (with or without a terminal s appended) to refer to multiple players, short of the whole collective. The Tampa Bay Lightning is a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. ... The Indiana Fever is a professional womens basketball team that plays in the Womens National Basketball Association (WNBA). ... The Minnesota Wild are a professional ice hockey team based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. ... The New York Liberty is a Womens National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in New York City. ... The Minnesota Lynx are a Womens National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and play their home games at the Target Center. ... The Utah Jazz is a professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. ... The Phoenix Mercury is a Womens National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Phoenix, Arizona. ... The Orlando Magic is a professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. ... The Detroit Shock is a Womens National Basketball Association team based in Detroit, Michigan. ... The Chicago Sky are a current Womens National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Chicago, Illinois. ... Year founded 1994 League Major League Soccer Nickname The Crew, Americas Hardest Working Team Stadium Columbus Crew Stadium Columbus, OH Coach Sigi Schmid Owner Clark Hunt First Game Columbus Crew 4–0 D.C. United (Ohio Stadium; April 13, 1996) Largest Win Columbus Crew 6–1 New England Revolution... The Charlotte Sting are a Womens National Basketball Association team based in Charlotte, North Carolina and they were one of the eight original teams that began to see action in 1997. ... Year founded 2005 League Major League Soccer Nickname Dynamo, Orange Crush, La Naranja, The Men in Orange, The Orange Stadium Robertson Stadium Houston, TX Coach Dominic Kinnear, 2006— Owner AEG First Game Houston Dynamo 5–2 Colorado Rapids (Robertson Stadium; April 2, 2006) Largest Win 4-0, three times Worst... The Seattle Storm is a Womens National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Seattle, Washington. ... The phrase Chicago Fire can refer to: The Great Chicago Fire, the fire that burned much of Chicago in 1871 The Chicago Fire soccer club The Chicago Fire American football team in the defunct WFL The Chicago Fire Department This is a disambiguation page: a list of articles associated with... The Connecticut Sun are a Womens National Basketball Association team based in Uncasville, Connecticut. ... Year founded 1995 League Major League Soccer Nickname Gals, Cozmos, Goatbusters, Los Galacticos de Los Angeles Stadium The Home Depot Center Carson, CA Coach Frank Yallop Owner AEG First Game Los Angeles Galaxy 2–1 MetroStars (Rose Bowl; April 13, 1996) Largest Win Dallas Burn 1–8 Los Angeles Galaxy... Year founded 1995 League Major League Soccer Nickname Revolution, Revs Stadium Gillette Stadium Foxborough, MA Coach Steve Nicol, 2002— Owner Robert Kraft First Game Tampa Bay Mutiny 3–2 New England Revolution (Tampa Stadium; April 13, 1996) Largest Win New England Revolution 6–1 Colorado Rapids (Gillette Stadium; September 18... Port Adelaide Football Club logo Port Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club, nicknamed The Power in the Australian Football League (AFL), and nicknamed The Magpies in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). ... Year founded 1995 League Major League Soccer Nickname United, Black-and-Red, The Men in Black Stadium RFK Stadium Washington, D.C. Coach Tom Soehn, 2006— Owner D.C. United Holdings First Game San Jose Clash 1–0 D.C. United (Spartan Stadium; April 6, 1996) Largest Win D.C...

An exceptional case is that of the St. Louis Blues hockey team. The club is named after the song "St. Louis Blues," which makes the team name Blues an irregularly pluralized word to begin with—one whose plural is identical to its singular. By this reckoning, then, an individual team member would also be a "Blues." However, because the name is spelled like a regular plural, its use as a collective noun leads to a process of back-formation, with the result that a single player on the team is known as a Blue. The club name's distinctive orthographical nature further allows it to be used freely as a counting noun, so that one may speak of, for instance, "two Blues in the penalty box." The St. ... St. ... In etymology, the process of back-formation is the creation of a neologism by reinterpreting an earlier word as a compound and removing the spuriously supposed affixes. ...

Pinker discusses a case that could be construed as opposite, that of the Florida Marlins baseball team. Describing how the issue was raised by talk show host David Letterman, Pinker asks, Why is the name Marlins "given that those fish are referred to in the plural as marlin?" An analogous question could be asked about the Maple Leafs. Pinker's answer comes down to this: "A name is not the same thing as a noun."^[5] Consequently, names (and nouns that derive from names) based on nouns with irregular plurals do not acquire them—though, as we see with Red Sox, new irregularities may arise. Major league affiliations National League (1993–present) East Division (1993–present) Current uniform Retired Numbers 5, 42 Name Florida Marlins (1993–present) Ballpark Dolphin Stadium (1993–present) a. ... David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947, in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA) is an award-winning American comedian, late night talk show host, television producer, philanthropist, and IRL IndyCar Series car owner. ...

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.

Note 11: Childer has all but disappeared, but can still be seen in Childermas (Innocents' Day).

Note 12: Clothes refers collectively to all of a household's washable cloth articles, but is now used almost exclusively of garments.

Note 13: Kine is still used in some rural English dialects.

Note 14: 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. Dice is also the accepted plural form of die in the semiconductor industry. Two standard six-sided pipped dice with rounded corners. ...

Note 15: Fish: the plural for one species of fish, or caught fish, is fish^{[citation needed]}, but for live fish of many species, in poetic usage, and in some dialects fishes is used.

Note 16: For multiple plants, iris is used, but irises is used for multiple blossoms.

Note 17: 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. The suffixed minor currency unit of 'p' (/pi/) is often vocalised, where such small divisions of currency are discussed in common speech, and used for both the singular and the 'amount plural', but 'number plurals' build upon the base values and any omission of the unit shifts the plural to the coin's numerator (e.g. "I have a one /pi/ and three twenty /piz/ and two fifties in my pocket. I can't believe I only have one pound, sixty-one /pi/ left after last night."). In written speech, a number of coins might be "two 10ps", although those that prefer to use apostrophes for initialisms may decide to use the "two 10p's" variant. “GBP” redirects here. ... In the English language, nouns are inflected for grammatical number—that is, singular or plural. ...

Note 18: Penny and pennies also refer to one or more U.S. one-cent pieces, though in American usage, a nickel is worth five cents, not five pence.

Note 19: 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"). In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is the use of one word as the inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. ...

Plurals of symbols and initialisms

Individual letters 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

A.A.'s and B.A.'s

the note had three PS's

Opinion is divided on whether to extend this use of the apostrophe to related but nonambiguous cases, such as the plurals of numerals (e.g., 1990's vs. 1990s) and words used as terms (e.g., "his writing uses a lot of but's" vs. "his writing uses a lot of buts"). Some writers favor the use of the apostrophe as consistent with its application in ambiguous cases; others say it confuses the plural with the possessive -'s and should be avoided whenever possible in pluralization, a view with which The Chicago Manual of Style concurs. An apostrophe An apostrophe (French, from the Greek αποστροφος προσωδια, the accent of elision) ( ’ ) is a punctuation and sometimes diacritic mark in languages written in the Latin alphabet. ... Possessive case is a case that exists in some languages used for possession. ...

Acronyms are initialisms used as if they are words. Clearly, it is not desirable to pluralize the acronym laser as laser's. Thus the most consistent approach for pluralizing acronyms is to simply add a lowercase -s as a suffix. This works well even for acronyms ending with an s, as with 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 was naturally extended to acronyms when they were commonly written with periods. This form is still preferred by some people for all initialisms and thus -'s as a suffix is often seen in informal usage. Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. ... Acronyms and initialisms are abbreviations formed from the initial letter or letters of words, such as NATO and XHTML, and are pronounced in a way that is distinct from the full pronunciation of what the letters stand for. ...

Plural to singular by back-formation

Some words have unusually formed singulars and plurals, but develop "normal" singular-plural pairs by back-formation. For example, pease (modern peas) was in origin a singular with plural peasen. However, pease came to be analysed as plural by analogy, from which a new singular pea was formed; the spelling of pease was also altered accordingly. Similarly, termites and primates were the three-syllable plurals of termes and primas; these singulars were lost, however, and the plural forms reduced to two syllables. 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. In etymology, the process of back-formation is the creation of a neologism by reinterpreting an earlier word as a compound and removing the spuriously supposed affixes. ... According to Bulfinchs Mythology, Syrinx (Greek Συριγξ) was a nymph and a follower of Artemis, known for her chastity. ... Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. ...

Kudos is a singular Greek word meaning praise, but is often taken to be a plural. At present, however, kudo is considered an error, though the usage is becoming more common as kudos becomes better known. The name of the Greek sandwich style gyros is, increasingly, undergoing a similar transformation. This article is about the food dish. ...

The singular form of Spanish tamales (IPA: [ta ˈmal es]) is tamal ([ta ˈmal]). The anglicized version of tamales is pronounced [tə ˈmɑl iz] and the back-formed singular is tamale [(tə ˈmɑl i)]. It has been suggested that nacatamal be merged into this article or section. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...

The term, from Latin, for the main upper arm flexor in the singular is the "biceps muscle" (from "biceps brachii"); however, many English speakers take it to be a plural and refer to the muscle of only one arm, by back-formation, as "a bicep". The correct—although very seldom used—Latin plural would be bicipites. A person flexing his biceps brachii In human anatomy, the biceps brachii is a muscle on the upper arm that acts to flex the elbow. ...

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. A demonym or gentilic is a word that denotes the members of a people or the inhabitants of a place. ...

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.) Scotch is an obsolescent adjective meaning of Scotland. Common contemporary usage is Scottish or Scots in Britain but Scotch is still in contemporary use outside of England and Scotland. ...

Several peoples have names that are simple nouns and can be pluralized by the addition of either -s or -ish (the later case often calls for the elimination of terminal letters so the pluralizing suffix can be connected directly with the last consonant of the root):

Names of peoples that end in -ese take no plural:

Other names of peoples that have no plural form include Swiss and Québécois.

Most names for Native Americans are not pluralized:

Blood

Hopi

Iroquois

Mi'kmaq

Ojibwa

Sioux

Some exceptions include Algonquins, Aztecs, Chippewas, Crees, Hurons, Mohawks, and Oneidas. Note also the following words borrowed from Inuktitut: Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ...

Names of most other peoples of the world are pluralized using the normal English rules. Governing Body Iqaluit Municipal Council Location Land area 52. ... The Nunavik Region of Quebec, Canada Nunavik (ᓄᓇᕕᒃ) is a region making up the northern third of the province of Quebec, Canada. ... Motto: Nunavut Sannginivut (Inuktitut: Nunavut our strength or Our land our strength) Capital Iqaluit Largest city Iqaluit Official languages Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, English, French Government - Commissioner Ann Meekitjuk Hanson - Premier Paul Okalik (Consensus government) Federal representation in Canadian Parliament - House seats 1 (Nancy Karetak-Lindell) - Senate seats 1 (Willie Adams) Confederation...

Discretionary plurals

Main article: English collective nouns

A number of words like army, company, crowd, fleet, government, majority, mess, number, pack, and party may refer either to a single entity or the members of the set that compose it. Thus, as H. W. Fowler describes, in British English they are "treated as singular or plural at discretion"; Fowler notes that occasionally a "delicate distinction" is made possible by discretionary plurals: "The Cabinet is divided is better, because in the order of thought a whole must precede division; and The Cabinet are agreed is better, because it takes two or more to agree."^[6] Also in British English, names of towns and countries take plural verbs when they refer to sports teams but singular verbs when they refer to the actual place: England 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. In linguistics, a collective noun is a word used to define a group of objects, where objects can be people, animals, inanimate things, concepts, or other things. ... Henry Watson Fowler (10 March 1858 - 26 December 1933) was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on usage, notable for both Fowlers Modern English Usage (first published 1926) and his work on the Concise Oxford Dictionary. ... British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ... First international  Scotland 0 - 0 England (Partick, Scotland; 30 November 1872) Biggest win  Ireland 0 - 13 England (Belfast, Ireland; 18 February 1882) Biggest defeat  Hungary 7 - 1 England (Budapest, Hungary; 23 May 1954) World Cup Appearances 12 (First in 1950) Best result Winners, 1966 European Championship Appearances 7 (First in... A player (wearing the red kit) has penetrated the defence (in the white kit) and is taking a shot at goal. ... North American English is a collective term used for the varieties of the English language that are spoken in the United States and Canada. ...

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 "two lion" or "five pheasant". Eric Partridge 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".^[7] Eric Honeywood Partridge (February 6, 1894-June 1, 1979) was a noted lexicographer of the English language, and particularly of its slang. ...

The term snob plurals can be applied more generally to uses of forms of pluralization characterized, first, by their departure from the standard English rule of adding -(e)s, and, second, by the likelihood they are being so used to enhance the status of the speaker. While speaking to a group of monolingual Anglophone friends, someone talking about a recent trip to Russia who says, "We visited five oblasti," is most likely using a snob plural. Latinate plurals for nouns of Greek origin mentioned earlier in this article are often employed as snob plurals—e.g., cacti or hippopotami—although for substantial numbers of speakers they are simply the unmarked usages. The use of nonstandard plurals can be one convenient way to communicate the claim that the speaker has a certain level of knowledge associated with sophistication and, more generally, prestige. Because the pragmatics of this usage are heavily dependent on context, it's impossible to say that a particular use of pluralization is, or is not, a snob plural in the absence of situational information. Someone speaking at an academic conference to fellow Slavicists might use oblasti without the expectation of enhanced social status and, therefore, not be using a snob plural (on the other hand, the speaker might fear a loss of social status for using "oblasts"). Articles in encyclopedias are, on the whole, written for the general reader and avoid forms of plural that would likely confuse those not already familiar with the topic. Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... In linguistics and semiotics, pragmatics is concerned with bridging the explanatory gap between sentence meaning and speakers meaning. ...

References

A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, often referred to simply as Fowlers Modern English Usage, or Fowler, is a style guide to British English usage, authored by Henry W. Fowler. ... Sir Ernest Gowers (1880 - 1966) was a British civil servant, now best known for work on style guides for the writing of the English language. ...

See also

• English collective nouns
• English verbs
• English personal pronouns
• Count noun
• Mass noun
• Singular they

In linguistics, a collective noun is a word used to define a group of objects, where objects can be people, animals, inanimate things, concepts, or other things. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The English personal pronouns are classified as follows: First person refers to the speaker(s). ... A count noun is a noun which is itself counted, or the units which are used to count it. ... It has been suggested that Count noun be merged into this article or section. ... In English grammar, singular they (or generic they) is the use of the pronoun they and its inflected forms (them, their, etc. ...

External links

• Rules for Irregular Plural Formation of Nouns summary by Pat Byrd, Department of Applied Linguistics & ESL, Georgia State University