NUMBER 



4310 



NUMBERS 



Number and Inflection. Number affects 

 nouns, pronouns and verbs. The great ma- 

 jority of nouns and pronouns are inflected for 

 number that is, changed in form; but in the 

 case of verbs, which must agree with the num- 

 ber of their subjects, such inflection is limited 

 to the present tense, third person singular; as, 

 he skates, they skate; but, he skated, they 

 skated. See INFLECTION. 



Plurals Formed Regularly. Most English 

 nouns are pluralized by adding s to the singu- 

 lar: cake, cakes, frog, jrogs, crow, crows, barn, 

 barn*. In the following cases this regular end- 

 ing becomes es: 



1. When the singular ends with s, z, x, sh or 

 r/i. since a alone would not result in a pronounce- 

 able word ; as, loss, losses, circus, circuses, waltz, 

 waltzes, affix, affixes, brush, brushes, church, 

 churches. 



2. When the singular ends in o preceded by a 

 consonant ; as, echo, echoes, potato, potatoes. 

 There is an exception in the case of certain words 

 borrowed from foreign languages, such as canto, 

 cantos, zero, zeros. In a few nouns either ending 

 is allowable: buffaloes or buffalos; mosquitoes or 

 mosquitos. If a vowel precedes the o, the plural 

 is regularly formed : cameos, kangaroos. 



hen the singular ends in y preceded by a 

 consonant, in which case the y is changed to f ; as, 

 cherry, cherries, firefly, fireflies, duty, duties. 



4. In many words ending in /, in which case 

 the / is changed to v; as wharf, wharves, loaf, 

 loaves, half, halves. 



Irregularities. In a few nouns of Anglo- 

 Saxon origin the root vowel is changed in the 

 plural; tooth,. teeth, man, men, woman, women. 

 In several other old English words the plural 

 form has an irregular ending ; child, children, . 

 ox, oxen. 



Special Cae. 1. Some old English plurals 

 exist side by side with a modern regular plural, 

 the two forms having different uses, as, brothers 

 (members of the same family), brethren (mem- 

 bers of the same church or society). Other such 

 words are die, dies, dice; penny, pennies, pence; 

 pea. peas, pease. The meaning of each plural 

 should be carefully studied from the dictionary. 



2. In some words the singular and plural forms 

 are alike: series, heathen, sheep, deer, moose, 

 quail, perch, fish. The last three, however, have 

 ;i regular plural when individuals are singled 

 out ; as, The last two perches I caught are much 

 smaller than the perch for which this lake is 

 noted. 



3. Some words, like proceeds, alms, riches, 

 thanks, have no corresponding singular form ; 

 some, like brightness, patience, perseverance and 

 other abstract nouns, are never used in the plural. 

 Others have plural form but singular meaning 

 and always take a singular verb ; as news, 

 physics, economics, molasses, summons. 



Plurals of Compounds. It is the important 

 part of the compound that takes the plural 



form the word described by the rest. Thus, 

 we pluralize the first word in sisters-in-law, but 

 the last in .s-/i psijittrs. Similar examples are car- 

 loads, handfuls, mcn-oj-war, commander s-in- 

 chiej. One or two compound nouns pluralize 

 both parts: mcnscrvants, womenscrvants. 



Plurals of Foreign Words. Many foreign 

 words in regular use form their plurals in the 

 English way. We commonly say bandits, not 

 the Italian banditti; indexes, not the Latin in- 

 dices. Others, however, retain their foreign plu- 

 rals; axis, axes, datum, data, radius, radii, phe- 

 nomenon, phenomena. Some have both an 

 English and a foreign plural form; beau, JXH//X. 

 beaux. No rules can be formulated to cover 

 these cases; each one must be learned for itself. 



Pluralizing Proper Names. If there is no 

 title, we simply add s: the Franklins, the 

 Smiths. If the name is preceded by a title, the 

 present tendency is to pluralize the title, un- 

 less it is preceded by a numeral ; as, the Misses 

 Wilson; the two Miss Wilsons. Some good 

 writers prefer to pluralize the name in all cases, 

 saying the Miss Wilsons; but it is no longer 

 considered good form to pluralize both. 



Agreement in Number. A pronoun must 

 agree with the number of its antecedent and a 

 finite verb with the number of its subject; as, 

 Each of the women who were present at the 

 banquet was given a valuable souvenir. Col- 

 lective nouns derive their number, not from 

 their form, which is always singular, but from 

 their meaning, which is frequently distributive 

 and therefore plural. Thus, we say, The com- 

 mittee is to meet here on Thursday; but, The 

 committee were unable to bring their conflict- 

 ing opinions into harmony. See NOUN, sub- 

 head Collective Nouns. W.F.B. 



NUMBERING MACHINE, a device for 

 stamping consecutive numbers on checks, rail- 

 way tickets, etc. The type machine has a num- 

 ber of disks with figures on the circumference, 

 revolving upon a single axle. The first, or unit, 

 wheel contains numbers up to 9, and is moved 

 forward with each pressure upon the wheel. 

 When the units are thus exhausted, the wheel 

 registering the tens comes into play. For every 

 ten units registered, an additional ten is marked 

 up until the hundred mark is reached, when 

 the next wheel in the series is called into action. 

 The wheels can be so multiplied as to register 

 numbers of five or six figures automatically. A 

 good numbering machine may be purchased for 

 less than ten dollars. 



NUMBERS, the fourth book of the Penta- 

 teuch, continuing the narrative of Exodus and 



