Plural

“ The first person singular and all three persons of the plural are alike. The simplest form of the verb is used and no personal ending is added.
2. The past tense has but one personal ending,—est or st in the second person singular.31
The forms in est or st are confined to poetry and the solemn style. In ordinary language, the second person plural is used to address a single person. ”

“ That, except in the case of the word there, the word which comes first is generally the subject.
Rule 3. That no number of connected singular nouns can govern a plural verb, unless they be connected by a copulative conjunction. The sun and moon shine,—the sun in conjunction with the moon shines.
§ 479. Plural subjects with singular predicates.—- [335] The wages of sin are death.—Honest men are the salt of the earth. ”

“ NOTE TO RULE XV. A collective noun conveying the idea of unity, requires a verb in the third person, singular; and generally admits also the regular plural construction: as, "His army was defeated."—"His armies were defeated."
IMPROPRIETIES FOR CORRECTION. FALSE SYNTAX UNDER RULE XV. UNDER THE RULE ITSELF.—THE IDEA OF PLURALITY. "The gentry is punctilious in their etiquette." ”

“ The double plural of the first person, of which both the rule and examples have been incidentally given in the remarks on the substantive, is one of those peculiarities of the language, which may, perhaps, serve to aid in a comparison of it, with other dialects, kindred and foreign. ”

“ Isthmus, prospectus, rebus, take only the English plural.
Apparatus has no plural. Avoid apparatuses.
The plural of genius, as applied to a man of unusual vigor of mind, is geniuses. When applied to a good or bad spirit, the plural is genii.
Formula
Formulas, larvas, stigmas, are regular English plurals; formulae, larvae, and stigmata are the classical plurals. Nebulae and alumnae are the proper plurals, the latter being the feminine noun corresponding to the masculine plural alumni. ”

“ There are many other words in our language which have the plural termination; as billiards, ethics, metaphysics, mathematics, measles, hysterics, and many others; [Pg 215] which properly belong to the singular number. Ethics is a science, is better English than ethics are.
On the other hand, there are many words, which, without ever taking the plural termination, often belong to the plural. ”

“ So darkness, which in English appears to have no plural, is expressed in Latin by tenebræ, in French by ténèbres, which have no singular. It is necessary that every noun should be understood to be of one number or the other; for, in connecting it with a verb, or in supplying its place by a pronoun, we must assume it to be either singular or plural. ”

“ But when the noun conveys the idea of unity or takes the plural form, the verb or pronoun has no other than a literal agreement by the common rule; as,
"A priesthood, such as Baal's was of old, A people, such as never was till now."--Cowper. OBS. 3.--Of the construction of the verb and collective noun, a late British author gives the following account: "Collective nouns are substantives which signify many in the singular number. Collective nouns are of two sorts: 1. Those which cannot become plural like other substantives; as, nobility, mankind, &c. ”

“ Two or more singular nouns connected by and take a verb in the plural; as, James and Mary are here. Music and drawing were taught during the term.
If two or more singular nouns connected by and are preceded by each, every, or no, the verb is in the singular, because they refer to things considered separately; as, Every man and woman was lost. ”

“ It is submitted to the reader, that in phrases like you are speaking, &c., even when applied to a single individual, the idea is really plural; in other words, that the courtesy consists in treating one person as more than one, and addressing him as such, rather than in using a plural form in a singular sense. It is certain that, grammatically considered, you=thou is a plural, since the verb with which it agrees is plural:—you are speaking, not you art speaking. ”

“ Then will the discovery of the right plural be a matter of enjoyment, leading one on to another discovery, and to work all the better; whereas, with the grammatical routine that we still pursue, I wonder, when we reach to middle or old age, after following the literary profession, that we are not more dull or confused than we are at present. ”

“ The verb, however, agrees in sense with its nominative in the plural, as well as in the singular. Exercise a little mind, and you will perceive that agreement and government in language do not consist merely in the form of words. Now, is it not clear, that when I say, I walk, the verb walk is singular, because it expresses but one action? And when I say, Two men walk, is it not equally apparent, that walk is plural, because it expresses two actions? In the sentence, Ten men walk, the verb walk denotes ten actions, for there are ten actors. ”

“ There are as many modes of forming the plural, as there are vowel sounds, yet there is no distinction between a limited and unlimited plural; although there is, in the pronoun, an inclusive and an exclusive plural. Whether we say man or men, two men or twenty men, the singular, inin ́i, and the plural inin ́iwug, remains the same. But if we say we, or us, or our men, (who are present,) or we, or us, or our Indians, (in general,) the plural we, and us, and our—for they are rendered by the same form—admit of a change to indicate whether the objective person be included or excluded. ”

“ Whenever the sentence is introduced by a phrase consisting in part of a noun in the plural, or several nouns in the singular or plural, and, especially, where the subject follows the verb; care must be taken to keep the nominative well in mind, so that the verb may be in strict accord with it. ”

“ Which undeniable grammatical rule, might be enough to satisfy any, that have not forgotten their accidence, that we are not beside reason in our practice. For if thou lovest, be singular, and you love, be plural; and if thou lovest, signifies but one; and you love, many; is it not as proper to say, thou lovest, to ten men, as to say, you love, to one man? Or, why not, I love, for we love; and we love, instead of I love? Doubtless it is the same, though most improper, and in speech ridiculous. ”

“ The plural of ūnus is used to agree with a plural noun of a singular meaning, as, ūna castra, one camp; and with other nouns in the sense of only, as, Gallī ūnī, only the Gauls.
b. Learn the declension of duo, two; trēs, three; and mīlle, a thousand. (§ 479.)
c. The hundreds above one hundred are declined like the plural of bonus; as,
330. We have already become familiar with sentences like the following:
In such sentences the genitive denotes the whole, and the word it modifies denotes a part of that whole. ”

“ In grammar it is a pronoun of the first person and singular number. Its plural is said to be We, but how there can be more than one myself is doubtless clearer to the grammarians than it is to the author of this incomparable dictionary. ”

“ Under what figure of syntax did the old grammarians rank the plural construction of a noun of multitude? 31. Does a collective noun with a singular definitive before it ever admit of a plural verb or pronoun? 32. Do collective nouns generally admit of being made literally plural? 33. When joint antecedents are of different persons, with which person does the pronoun agree? 34. When joint antecedents differ in gender, of what gender is the pronoun? ”

“ Even in languages which, like English, would naturally express the plural by some plural termination, we find words denoting a plurality, and, indeed, a definite number, conceived and spoken of as a unity. ”

“ UNDER RULE III.—OF APPOSITION. "In Latin there are six cases namely the nominative the genitive the dative the accusative the vocative and the ablative." "Most English nouns form the plural by taking s; as boy boys nation nations king kings bay bays." "Bodies are such as are endued with a vegetable soul as plants a sensitive soul as animals or a rational soul as the body of man." ”

“ A practical test as to whether an abstract term, in any given case, is being used as a singular or common term, is to try whether the indefinite article or the sign of the plural can be attached to it. ”

“ Should a conjunction disjunctive occur between a singular noun or pronoun, and a plural one, the verb agrees with the plural noun or pronoun: as, "Neither a king nor his courtiers are averse to butter:" (particularly when thickly spread.) "Darius or the Persians were hostile to Greece."
RULE IV.
A noun or multitude, that is, one which signifies many, can have a verb or Pronoun to agree with it either in the singular or plural number; according to the import of such noun, as conveying unity or plurality of idea: as, "The nations humbugged."
"The multitude have to pay many taxes." ”

“ Observe that the second person singular of the present passive imperative is like the present active infinitive, and that both singular and plural are like the second person singular2 and plural, respectively, of the present passive indicative. ”

“ Most indefinites may be either pronouns or adjectives. But none is always a substantive in modern use, and every is always an adjective.
137. None may be either singular or plural. When it means distinctly not one, it is singular. In many instances either construction is permissible. ”

“ Conflicts is a common noun, of the third person, plural number, neuter gender, and nominative case: and is the subject of are; according to Rule 2d, which says, "A noun or a pronoun which is the subject of a finite verb, must be in the nominative case." ”

“ Some nouns ending in f or fe form the plural by changing f or fe to v and adding es; as, knife, knives.
Note the following:—wife, life, wolf, loaf, half, leaf, thief, shelf, calf, self.
5. A few nouns form the plural by adding en to the singular form; as, ox, oxen; child, children; brother, brethren.
6. Some nouns form the plural by changing the vowel of the singular; as, man, men; goose, geese.
7. Most nouns taken from foreign languages retain their foreign plurals:
8. Some compound nouns make the principal word plural, and some make both words plural ”

“ To the same class of words belong pains, news, and perhaps some others. Every person who has read good English authors, or lived where the language is spoken in purity, must have observed that the word pains is usually preceded by much, and followed by a verb in the singular number; much pains was taken. If the word is a plural noun, it should neither be followed by a singular verb, nor preceded by much; for we never prefix much to plurals. The most untutored ear would be offended at much papers, much labors. But do we not always say much pains? ”

“ Own. Formerly a man's own was what he worked for, own being a past participle of a verb signifying to work.
Restrictive. Some restrictives, in modern times, are applied only to singular nouns; such as a or an, another, one, this, that, each, every, either. Others, only to plural nouns; as, these, those, two, three, few, several, all. But most restrictives, like adjectives, are applied to both singular and plural nouns: first, second, last, the, former, latter, any, such, same, some, which, what. ”

“ That when it is the first word of the proposition it determines the concord of the verb, unless its character of a noun of the singular number and third person be disguised by the prominence of some plural form, or some pronoun of the first or second person in the latter part of the term.
5. That in a simple disjunctive proposition (i.e., one where either does not occur) all nouns are subordinate to the first. ”

“ Were there space we might go on to point out how this law of life is traceable, not only in the origin but in the development of language; how in primitive tongues the plural is made by a duplication of the singular, which is a multiplication of the word to make it like the multiplicity of the things; how the use of metaphor—that prolific source of new words—is a suggesting of ideas that are like the ideas to be conveyed in some respect or other ”

“ A hen-egg, uḃ ċirce. Oatmeal, min ċoirce. 479. Collective nouns (except in their own plurals) always take the article and qualifying adjectives in the singular; they sometimes take a plural pronoun, and may take a plural verb. ”

“ For example he says in a Letter to the Governors, Instructors, and Trustees of the Universities and other Seminaries of Learning in the United States, "According to the grammars, the pronoun you, being originally plural, must always be followed by a plural verb, though referring to a single person. ”

“ The verb has the usual moods and tenses, and is inflected throughout for number and person. In the first person of the dual and plural there is a variation in the affix to the verb to indicate the inclusion or exclusion of the person spoken to. ”

“ Sometimes, when different numbers occur together, we find the plural noun put last, and the pronoun made plural after both, especially if this noun is a mere substitute for the other; as,
"What's justice to a man, or laws,
That never comes within their claws."—Hudibras.
OBS. 2.—When antecedents of different persons, numbers, or genders, are connected by or or nor, they cannot very properly be represented by any pronoun that is not applicable to each of them. ”

“ These things seem very clear to me and it appears both reasonable and necessary that one should use the singular rather than the plural in addressing God, lest the true faith be debased by the use of plural expressions and the cunning adversaries obtain the worship that a simple and true faith refuses them. But now I wish to have you turn to what I asked about the mighty men of this world, and explain why it seems better to address them in plural than in singular terms. ”