1. Cupful, cupfuls; basketful, basketfuls; bucketful, bucketfuls; spoonful, spoonfuls; mouthful, mouthfuls. 2. Give me two teaspoonfuls of cream. (Two teaspoons full of cream means 'two separate teaspoons filled with cream '.) 2 28. Nouns in -o. Nouns ending in o preceded by a vowel form their plural regularly, by adding s (§ 24). Most nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant form their plural by adding es; some of the most important add s; a few add either es or s: a. By adding es: echo, embargo, hero, innuendo, manifesto, mosquito, motto, potato, tomato, tornado, torpedo, veto, etc. c. By adding es or s (the Oxford University Press prefers es): 29. Peculiar plurals. Some nouns have peculiar plurals: Foot, feet; goose, geese (§ 30); mouse, mice; tooth, teeth; man, men; woman, women; ox, oxen; child, children. 30. Two plurals. Some nouns have two plurals, usually with different meanings; one of the plurals is sometimes like the singular, but is used in a collective sense (§ 36): 1. Brother, brothers; or brethren (members of a society, etc.). 2. Cloth, cloths (pieces of cloth); or clothes (dress). 3. Fish, fishes (individually); or fish (collectively: 'Few fish are caught here'). 4. Genius, genii (nature demons); or geniuses (persons of unusual mental power). 5. Goose, geese (fowls); or gooses (tailors' smoothing irons). 6. Head, heads; or head: 'There are a thousand head of cattle'. 7. Sail, sails; or sail: 'Twenty sail were in view'. 31. Plural like singular. Some nouns have the same form for the singular and the plural: Sheep, trout, Chinese, corps (§ 39), molasses, Sioux (§ 423). 32. Plural as singular. Some nouns which are plural in form are singular in meaning (§ 205): Mathematics, news, physics, acoustics, measles. 33. Plural or singular wanting. Some nouns naturally have no plural; others have no singular: 1. Gold, integrity, wisdom, music, pride. 2. Goods (§ 417), scissors, teens, tongs, riches. 34. Compound nouns. In compound nouns the sign of the plural is usually put at the end, as in other nouns; sometimes it is attached to the first part of the word; rarely it is attached to both parts: 1. Bookcase, bookcases; handful, handfuls; horsewoman, horsewomen; Frenchman, Frenchmen; forget-me-not, forget-me-nots. 2. Son-in-law, sons-in-law; hanger-on, hangers-on; court-martial, courts-martial; knight-errant, knights-errant; notary public, notaries public. 3. Knight Templar, Knights Templars; manservant, menservants. NOTE. Such words as Brahman, German, Mussulman, Ottoman, Roman, talisman, and Turkoman are not compounded with man, and have the plural in -s (as, Brahmans). The word Norman, although originally a compound of man, has the plural Normans. 35. Letters, figures, signs. The plural of letters, figures, signs, and the like is generally formed by the addition of 's (some writers omit the apostrophe): k, k's; 3,3's; T, T's; if, if's; IOU, IO U'S. 36. Collective nouns. Some nouns, called collective nouns, denote in the singular number a group of persons or things (for the agreement of the verb, see § 197); in the plural they denote two or more groups: Class, classes; crowd, crowds; flock, flocks; group, groups; jury, juries; kind, kinds (§§ 72, 197); people, peoples; sort, sorts (§§ 72, 197); swarm, swarms. 37. Proper names. Proper names form their plural regularly, by adding s or es to the singular (§ 24): Adam, Adams; Adams, Adamses; Burroughs, Burroughses; Charles, Charleses; Davies, Davieses; Davis, Davises; George, Georges; Jones, Joneses; Knox, Knoxes; Lewis, Lewises; Marx, Marxes; Moses, Moseses; Woods, Woodses. NOTE. French surnames usually remain unchanged in French, the plural being indicated by the definite article or the like; in English they take a final s, unless they end in s, x, or z, and they are usually pronounced with a final s-sound: les Didot (lā dē'do'), the Didots (dē-dōz'); les deux Louis (lā dû lōo ́ē'), the two Louis (looʻiz). 38. Proper names with titles. When proper names are used with titles, sometimes the names and sometimes the titles are made plural (for titles, see §§ 529, 544, 545): 1. Mr. Thomson, the Messrs. Thomson; Messrs. Thomson; Messrs. Thomson and French. (For Messrs., see §§ 423, 529.) 2. Master Thomson, the Masters Thomson. (A title prefixed to the name of a boy who is not considered old enough to be called Mr.) 3. Doctor Thomson, the Doctor Thomsons; but, Doctors Thomson and Wadsworth (titles like Captain, Doctor, and Professor are made plural when used with more than one proper name). 4. Mrs. Thomson, the Mrs. Thomsons (Mrs. has no plural, and the name must be made plural; compare Madam and Mesdames, § 544, II, III). 5. Miss Thomson, the Misses Thomson (formal style, as in addressing a letter, § 544, 11); the Miss Thomsons (informal style, as in conversation). 39. Foreign nouns. Foreign nouns usually retain their foreign plurals, especially in scientific works. The following are examples of French, Italian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew nouns which have kept their own plurals or have adopted English forms with s or es (for the pronunciation of Latin and Greek words, see § 402; a key to the English sounds is given in §423; for the endings of Latin and Greek nouns, see §605): 1 The singular form now commonly used is the English word animalcule (ăn-i-măl'kūl), with a plural in -s; the singular form 'animalcula ' and the plural' animalculæ' are incorrect; the Latin plural, animalcula, is frequent in scientific use. 2 Pronounced kōr. 4 Pronounced kroo'sēz (§ 402). 8 Pronounced kōrz. 5 Data is plural; do not use it as singular: 'I have not a datum'; 'These data are sufficient'. 6 Pronounced fùn ́ji (§ 402). 40. Case. Nouns used as the subject of a sentence (§ 4) are in the nominative case. (For the predicate nominative, see §158; for the nominative absolute, § 233; for the nominative of address, § 471.) Nouns used as the object of a verb (§156) or of a preposition (§ 285) are in the objective case (accusative, §§ 604, 606; for the indirect object, see § 212). Nouns keep the same form in the nominative and the objective case: 1. Dogs bark. (Nominative case.) 2. Children love dogs. (Objective case.) 3. Dogs play with children. (Objective case.) 1 Exponents in mathematics are called indices (în'di-sēz); the tables of subjects at the ends of books are usually called indexes. 2 Pronounced loo'i (see § 37, N.). 8 Stamina in the sense of vigor, staying power, is used as a singular: His stamina is gone'. |