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In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb
agreement Agreement may refer to: Agreements between people and organizations * Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law * Trade agreement, between countries * Consensus, a decision-making process * Contract, enforceable in a court of law ** Meeting o ...
that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and other languages present number categories of singular or plural, both of which are cited by using the hash sign (#) or by the
numero sign The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a Typography, typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal number, ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For exampl ...
s "No." and "Nos." respectively. Some languages also have a
dual Dual or Duals may refer to: Paired/two things * Dual (mathematics), a notion of paired concepts that mirror one another ** Dual (category theory), a formalization of mathematical duality *** see more cases in :Duality theories * Dual (grammatical ...
, trial and paucal number or other arrangements. The count distinctions typically, but not always, correspond to the actual count of the
referent A referent () is a person or thing to which a name – a linguistic expression or other symbol – refers. For example, in the sentence ''Mary saw me'', the referent of the word ''Mary'' is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken of, ...
s of the
marked In linguistics and social sciences, markedness is the state of standing out as nontypical or divergent as opposed to regular or common. In a marked–unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one. The dominant defau ...
noun or pronoun. The word "number" is also used in linguistics to describe the distinction between certain grammatical aspects that indicate the number of times an event occurs, such as the
semelfactive In linguistics, semelfactive is a class of aktionsart or lexical aspect (verb aspects that reflect the temporal flow of the denoted event, lexically incorporated into the verb's root itself rather than grammatically expressed by inflections or aux ...
aspect, the iterative aspect, etc. For that use of the term, see "
Grammatical aspect In linguistics, aspect is a grammatical category that expresses how an action, event, or state, as denoted by a verb, extends over time. Perfective aspect is used in referring to an event conceived as bounded and unitary, without reference to ...
".


Overview

Most languages of the world have formal means to express differences of number. One widespread distinction, found in English and many other languages, involves a simple two-way number contrast between singular and plural (''car''/''cars'', ''child''/''children'', etc.). Discussion of other more elaborate systems of number appears below. Grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. As an example, consider the English sentences below: : ''That apple on the table is fresh.'' : ''Those two apples on the table are fresh.'' The number of apples is marked on the noun—"apple" singular number (one item) vs. "apples" plural number (more than one item)—on the demonstrative, "that/those", and on the verb, "is/are". In the second sentence, all this information is redundant, since quantity is already indicated by the numeral "two". A language has grammatical number when its nouns are subdivided into morphological classes according to the quantity they express, such that: #Every noun belongs to a unique number class (nouns are partitioned into disjoint classes by number). #Noun modifiers (such as adjectives) and verbs may also have different forms for each number class and be inflected to match the number of the nouns to which they refer (number is an agreement category). This is partly the case in English: every noun is either singular or plural (a few forms, such as " fish" and " cannon", can be either, according to context), and at least some modifiers of nouns—namely the
demonstrative Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...
s, the
personal pronouns Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...
, the
articles Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...
, and verbs—are inflected to agree with the number of the nouns to which they refer: "this car" and "these cars" are correct, while "*this cars" or "*these car" are ungrammatical and, therefore, incorrect. However, adjectives are not inflected, and some verb forms do not distinguish between singular and plural ("She/They went", "She/They can go", "She/They had gone", "She/They will go"). Only count nouns can be freely used in the singular and in the plural. Mass nouns, like "milk", "silverware", and "wisdom", are normally used in only the singular form. (In some cases, a normally mass noun ''X'' may be used as a count noun to collect several distinct kinds of ''X'' into an enumerable group; for example, a cheesemaker might speak of goat, sheep, and cow milk as ''milks''.) Many languages distinguish between count nouns and mass nouns. Not all languages have number as a grammatical category. In those that do not, quantity must be expressed either directly, with numerals, or indirectly, through optional quantifiers. However, many of these languages compensate for the lack of grammatical number with an extensive system of measure words. There is a hierarchy among number categories: no language distinguishes a trial (indicating the number 3) unless it has a dual, and no language has a dual without a plural.


Geographical distribution

Obligatory plural marking of all nouns is found throughout western and northern Eurasia and in most parts of Africa. The rest of the world presents a heterogeneous picture. Optional plural marking is particularly common in Southeast and East Asia and Australian languages, and complete lack of plural marking is particularly found in New Guinea and Australian languages. In addition to the areal correlations, there also seems to be at least one correlation with
morphological typology Morphological typology is a way of classifying the languages of the world (see linguistic typology) that groups languages according to their common morphological structures. The field organizes languages on the basis of how those languages for ...
:
isolating languages An isolating language is a type of language with a morpheme per word ratio close to one, and with no inflectional morphology whatsoever. In the extreme case, each word contains a single morpheme. Examples of widely spoken isolating languages a ...
appear to favor no or non-obligatory plural marking. This can be seen particularly in Africa, where optionality or absence of plural marking is found particularly in the isolating languages of West Africa.


Number in specific languages


Basque

Basque declension has four grammatical numbers: indefinite, definite singular, definite plural, and definite close plural: * The indefinite is used after the question words ''Zer?'' ("What?"), ''Zein?'' ("Which?") and ''Zenbat?'' ("How much? / How many?"), after indefinite numerals, such as ''zenbait'' ("some"), ''hainbat'' ("several"), ''honenbeste / horrenbeste / hainbeste'' ("so many / so much"), ''bezainbeste'' ("as much as / as many as"), and before ''asko'', ''anitz'' (this one can go before nouns), ''ugari'', ''pilo bat'', ''mordo bat'', after ''makina bat'' ("much, many, a lot, lots of, plenty of..."), before ''gutxi'' ("a few, little") and ''batzuk'' ("some"), and the numbers, if they do not refer to a defined amount: ''Zer etxe eraberritu duzu?'' ("What house have you renewed?"), ''Zer etxe eraberritu dituzu?'' ("What houses have you renewed?"). ''Zein etxetan bizi zinen?'' ("In what house were you living?"). ''Zenbat etxe dituzu?'' ("How many houses have you got?"). ''Lapurrak hainbat etxetan sartu dira'' ("The thieves have broken into a number of houses"). ''Lapurra hainbeste etxetan sartu da!'' ("The thief has broken into so many houses!"). A noun followed by an adjective or a demonstrative is in the absolutive case, and the last word in the phrase is declined: ''Etxea'' ("The house / House"). ''Etxe bat'' ("A house"). ''Etxe handi bat'' ("A big house"). ''Etxe handi batean'' ("In a big house"). ''Etxe handi hori'' ("That big house"). ''Etxe zuri handi horretan'' ("In that big white house"). If the amount is known, the plural grammatical numbers are used: ''Lapurrak bi etxetan sartu dira'' ("The thieves have broken in two houses" ndefinite: the houses are unknown to the speakers. ''Lapurrak bizpahiru etxetan sartu dira'' ("The thieves have broken in two or three houses" ndefinite: the speakers does not know the exact amount of houses. ''Lapurrak bi etxeetan sartu dira'' ("The thieves have broken in both houses" efinite plural: both are known to the speakers. ''Lapurrak bi etxeotan sartu dira'' ("The thieves have broken in these two houses" efinite close plural: both are being shown by the speaker. The indefinite is also used in some idioms and set phrases: ''Egun on!'' ("Good day! / Good morning!"), ''On egin!'' ("Bon appetit!"), ''Etxez etxe'' ("From house to house"), ''Mezatara joan'' ("Go to the mass"), ''Etxe bila ibili'' ("To look for a house"), and as the root for compound words (''etxe-galgarri'', ''etxekalte'', "Person or thing which brings loss to a home") or derivative words (''etxeratu'', "To go home / To send home"; ''etxekoi'', "fond of home"; ''etxegile'', "house-builder"). * The definite singular is used to designate a person or thing known or to present: ''Zer da eraikin hori? Nire etxea da.'' ("What is that building? It is my home"). ''Etxea nirea da'' ("The house is mine"). * The definite plural designates people or things known or present: ''Zer dira eraikin horiek? Nire etxeak dira.'' ("What are those buildings? They are my houses"). ''Etxeak nireak dira'' ("The houses are mine"). * The definite close plural refers to people or things which are in the vicinity of the speakers: ''Zer dira eraikinok? Nire etxeak dira.'' ("What are those buildings? They are my houses"). ''Etxeok nireak dira'' ("These houses are mine"). It is also used to include oneself in the group referred to: ''Nafarrak festazaleak dira'' ("The Navarrese like celebrations": the speaker is not a Navarrese). ''Nafarrok festazaleak gara'' ("We Navarrese like celebrations": the speaker is a Navarrese). Verbs have four singular persons and three plural ones, as follows: Singular: * First person (the speaker): ''Euskalduna naiz'' ("I am Basque"). ''Testua idatzi dut'' ("I have written the text"). * Informal second person (the person the speaker is addressing to, i.e., an inferior, an animal, a child, a monologue with oneself): ''Euskalduna haiz'' ("Thou art Basque"). In some tenses, there are different verbs for a man or a woman: ''Testua idatzi duk'' ("Thou hast written the text
aid to a man, a boy In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Ai ...
, ''Testua idatzi dun'' ("Thou hast written the text
aid to a woman, a girl In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Ai ...
). * Formal second person (the person the speaker is addressing to: a superior, somebody older, one's parents), the most frequent one: ''Euskalduna zara'' ("You ingularare Basque"). ''Testua idatzi duzu'' ("You
ing. Ing, ING or ing may refer to: Art and media * '' ...ing'', a 2003 Korean film * i.n.g, a Taiwanese girl group * The Ing, a race of dark creatures in the 2004 video game '' Metroid Prime 2: Echoes'' * "Ing", the first song on The Roches' 1992 ...
have written the text"). * Third person (neither the speaker nor the listener): ''Handia da'' ("He / She / It is big"). ''Testua idatzi du'' ("He / She / It has written the text"). Plural: * First person (the speaker and somebody else at least): ''Euskaldunak gara'' ("We are Basque"). ''Testua idatzi dugu'' ("We have written the text"). * Second person (the addressees): ''Euskaldunak zarete'' ("You luralare Basque
aid to a group, either informally or formally In international relations, aid (also known as international aid, overseas aid, foreign aid, economic aid or foreign assistance) is – from the perspective of governments – a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another. Ai ...
). ''Testua idatzi duzue'' ("You l.have written the text"). * Third person (more than one person outside the conversation): ''Handiak dira'' ("They are big"). ''Testua idatzi dute'' ("They have written the text").


English

English is typical of most world languages, in distinguishing only between singular and plural number. The plural form of a noun is usually created by adding the
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
''-(e)s''. The pronouns have irregular plurals, as in "I" versus "we", because they are ancient and frequently used words going back to when English had a well developed system of declension. English verbs distinguish singular from plural number in the third person present tense ("He goes" versus "They go"). English treats zero with the plural number.
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
also contained dual grammatical numbers; Modern English retains a few residual terms reflective of dual number (such as ''both'' and ''neither'', as opposed to ''all'' and ''none'' respectively), but they are generally considered to no longer constitute a separate grammatical number.


Finnish

The
Finnish language Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ...
has a plural form of almost every noun case (except the comitative, which is formally only plural). * ''talo'' – house * ''talot'' – houses * ''taloissa'' – in the houses However, when a number is used, or a word signifying a number (monta- many), the singular version of the partitive case is used. * ''kolme taloa'' – three houses and where no specific number is mentioned, the plural version of the partitive case is used * taloja and in the possessive (genitive) * talon ovi (the house's door) * talojen ovet (the houses' doors)


French

In modern Romance languages, nouns, adjectives and articles are declined according to number (singular or plural only). Verbs are conjugated for number as well as person. French treats zero as using the singular number, not the plural. In its written form,
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
declines nouns for number (singular or plural). In speech, however, the majority of nouns (and adjectives) are not declined for number. The typical plural suffix, ''-s'' or ''-es'', is silent, no longer indicating a change in pronunciation. Spoken number marking on the noun appears when liaison occurs. * some plurals do differ from the singular in pronunciation; for example, masculine singulars in ''-al'' sometimes form masculine plurals in ''-aux'' . * Proper nouns are not pluralized, even in writing. (''Les voitures'', but ''Les Peugeot 404'') Normally, the article or determiner is the primary spoken indicator of number.


Hebrew

In Modern Hebrew, a Semitic language, most nouns have only singular and plural forms, such as ספר "book" and ספרים "books", but some have distinct dual forms using a distinct dual suffix (largely nouns pertaining to numbers or time, such as אלפיים "two thousand" and שבועיים "two weeks"), some use this dual suffix for their regular plurals (largely body parts that tend to come in pairs, such as עיניים "eyes", as well as some that do not, such as שיניים "teeth"), and some are inherently dual (such as מכנסיים "pants" and אופניים "bicycle"). Adjectives, verbs, and pronouns agree with their subjects' or antecedents' numbers, but only have a two-way distinction between singular and plural; dual nouns entail plural adjectives, verbs, and pronouns.


Mortlockese

The Mortlockese language of the Mortlock Islands uses a base 10 counting system. Pronouns, nouns and demonstratives are used exclusively in the singular and plural forms through the use of classifiers, suffixes and prefixes. There are no other dual or trial grammatical forms in the Mortlockese language. Different forms that can be used in the language include first person singular and plural words, second person singular words like "umwi," second person plural words like "aumi" used to refer to an outside group, and third person plural words.


Russian

Modern Russian has a singular vs plural number system, but the declension of noun phrases containing numeral expressions follows complex rules. For example, "У меня (есть) одна книга/три книги/пять книг" ("I have one book-''nom. sing.''/three book-''gen. sing.''/five book-''gen. plur.''"). See Dual number: Slavic languages for a discussion of number phrases in Russian and other Slavic languages. The numeral "one" also has a plural form, used with
pluralia tantum A ''plurale tantum'' (Latin for "plural only"; ) is a noun that appears only in the plural form and does not have a singular variant for referring to a single object. In a less strict usage of the term, it can also refer to nouns whose singular fo ...
: одни джинсы/одни часы "one pair of jeans, one clock". The same form is used with countable nouns in meaning "only": Кругом одни идиоты "There are only idiots around".


Swedish

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
inflects nouns in singular and plural. The plural of the noun is usually obtained by adding a suffix, according to the noun's declension. The suffixes are as follows: -or in the 1st declension (e.g. flicka – flickor), -ar in the 2nd (e.g. bil – bilar), -er in the 3rd (e.g. katt – katter), -n in the 4th (e.g. äpple – äpplen) and no inflectional suffix is added for the nouns in the 5th declension (e.g. bord – bord). Verbs in Swedish do not distinguish singular from plural number, but adjectives do.


Wuvulu-Aua

Wuvulu Wuvulu Island (also known as Mary Island, Matty, Maty Island, Tiger Island, Tiger-Inseln and Wuwulu) is part of the Western Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, part of Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. It is the west ...
is an Austronesian language spoken on
Wuvulu Island Wuvulu Island (also known as Mary Island, Matty, Maty Island, Tiger Island, Tiger-Inseln and Wuwulu) is part of the Western Islands of the Bismarck Archipelago in the western Pacific Ocean, part of Manus Province, Papua New Guinea. It is the wes ...
located in the Manus Province of Papua New Guinea. The language's numbering system is multiplicative construction, where each number is based on multiplying pre-existing numbers smaller than five. Wuvulu is most similar to most Oceanic languages, and their numbering system is representative of some systems found in the Marshall Islands. For example, the number two in Wuvulu is ''roa'', and the number four in both
Proto-Oceanic language Proto-Oceanic (abbr. ''POc'') is a proto-language that historical linguists since Otto Dempwolff have reconstructed as the hypothetical common ancestor of the Oceanic subgroup of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Oceanic is a descendant ...
and Wuvulu is ''fa''. Therefore, the number eight in Wuvulu is constructed from two and four, resulting in ''fainaroa'', translating into "four multiply two". Moreover, the Wuvulu language has different numerical systems for animate objects and inanimate objects. When referencing an inanimate object, the number seven is ''oloompalo''; however, if it is an animate object, the word changes to ''oloromea''. The structure of a noun phrase looks like NP=(ART/DEMONSTRATIVE+)(NUMBER/QUANTIFIER+)(PREMODIFIERS+)NOUN(+MODIFER.) The number or quantifier appears in the middle of the noun phrase.


Types of number


Singular versus plural

In most languages with grammatical number, nouns, and sometimes other parts of speech, have two forms, the singular, for one instance of a concept, and the plural, for more than one instance. Usually, the singular is the unmarked form of a word, and the plural is obtained by inflecting the singular. This is the case in English: ''car/cars, box/boxes, man/men''. There may be exceptional nouns whose plural form is identical to the singular form: ''one sheep/two sheep'' (which is not the same as nouns that have only one number).


Singulative versus collective

Some languages differentiate between an unmarked form, the collective, which is indifferent in respect to number, and a marked form for single entities, called the singulative in this context. For example, in Welsh, ''moch'' ("pigs") is a basic form, whereas a suffix is added to form ''mochyn'' ("pig"). It is the collective form which is more basic, and it is used as an adjectival modifier, e.g. ''cig moch'' ("pig meat", "pork"). The collective form is therefore similar in many respects to an English mass noun like "rice", which in fact refers to a collection of items which are logically countable. However, English has no productive process of forming singulative nouns (just phrases such as "a grain of rice"). Therefore, English cannot be said to have a singulative number. In other languages, singulatives can be regularly formed from collective nouns; e.g.
Standard Arabic Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or Modern Written Arabic (MWA), terms used mostly by linguists, is the variety of standardized, literary Arabic that developed in the Arab world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; occasionally, it also refe ...
''tuffāḥ'' "apple" → ''tuffāḥah'' "(individual) apple", ''baqar'' "cattle" → ''baqarah'' "(single) cow". In Russian, the suffix for forming singulative form is -ин- ''-in-''; e.g. град ''grad'' "hail" → градина ''gradina'' "hailstone", лёд ''lyod'' "ice" → льдина ''l'dina'' "block of ice". In both Russian and Arabic, the singulative form always takes on the feminine gender. In Dutch, singulative forms of collective nouns are occasionally made by diminutives: ''snoep'' "sweets, candy" → ''snoepje'' "sweet, piece of candy". These singulatives can be pluralised like most other nouns: ''snoepjes'' "several sweets, pieces of candy".


Dual

The distinction between a "singular" number (one) and a "plural" number (more than one) found in English is not the only possible classification. Another one is "singular" (one), "dual" (two) and "plural" (more than two). Dual number existed in Proto-Indo-European, persisted in many ancient Indo-European languages that descended from it— Sanskrit, Ancient Greek,
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
, Old Norse, and
Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
for example—and can still be found in a few modern Indo-European languages such as Slovene. Many more modern Indo-European languages show residual traces of the dual, as in the English distinctions ''both'' vs. ''all'', ''either'' vs. ''any'', ''neither'' vs. ''none'', and so on. Former dual forms may broaden their meanings to become paucal forms: Norwegian ''både'', for example, though cognate with English ''both'', can be used with more than two things, as in ''X sparer både tid, penger, og arbeid'', literally "X saves both time, money, and labour". Many Semitic languages also have dual number. For instance, in Arabic all nouns can have singular, plural, or dual forms. For non-
broken plural In linguistics, a broken plural (or internal plural) is an irregular plural form of a noun or adjective found in the Semitic languages and other Afroasiatic languages such as Berber. Broken plurals are formed by changing the pattern of consonants ...
s, masculine plural nouns end with ون ' and feminine plural nouns end with ات ', whilst ان ', is added to the end of a noun to indicate that it is dual (even among nouns that have broken plurals). Pronouns in Polynesian languages such as Tahitian exhibit the singular, dual, and plural numbers. The dual may be restricted to certain morphological categories. For example, in
North Saami North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...
, in possessive forms the possessor has three numbers (singular, dual, plural) whereas the noun possessed only has two (singular, plural).


Plural

In contrast to 'singular' (one item) and 'dual' (two items), 'plural' refers to three or more items. The Oxford English Dictionary lists no word that specifically refers to three items. Several Austronesian languages distinguish numbers that refer to three items with pronouns and bound person agreement markers, e.g. Larike or the
Oceanic languages The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...
Mussau,
Raga A ''raga'' or ''raag'' (; also ''raaga'' or ''ragam''; ) is a melodic framework for improvisation in Indian classical music akin to a musical mode, melodic mode. The ''rāga'' is a unique and central feature of the classical Indian music tradit ...
, and
Anejom̃ Anejom̃ or Aneityum (also spelled ''Anejom'', and formerly ''Aneiteum'', ''Aneityumese'') is an Oceanic language spoken by 900 people () on Aneityum Island, Vanuatu. It is the only indigenous language of Aneityum. Classification Anejom̃ i ...
, with Lihir even having distinct pronouns for trial ''and'' paucal. Also the Austronesian-influenced creole languages Bislama and Tok Pisin have the trial number in their pronouns.


Quadral

The quadral number, if it existed, would denote
four 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...
items together. No known natural language has it, nor is there any proof that any natural language ever did. It was once thought to exist in the pronoun systems of Marshallese, spoken in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, and in Sursurunga, in Tangga, and in several other Austronesian languages. While not all of these languages are adequately attested, it turns out that Sursurunga instead has both a "lesser paucal" (labeled "trial", but in fact referring to small groups, with typically three or four members) and a "greater paucal" (misnamed the "quadral", as it has a minimum of four, e.g. a pair of
dyadic kin Dyadic kinship terms (abbreviated or ) are kinship terms in a few languages that express the relationship between individuals as they relate one to the other. In English, there are a few set phrases for such situations, such as "they are father and ...
terms)—the distinction is along the lines of "a few" vs. "several"; —and that what Marshallese actually has is a trial and a paucal. None of them has a "quadral"; in at least two cases the field workers who originally suggested they did have a "quadral" were also the first to publish a peer-reviewed article contradicting that suggestion.


Paucal

Paucal number, for a few (as opposed to many) instances of the referent (e.g. in
Hopi The Hopi are a Native American ethnic group who primarily live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona, United States. As of the 2010 census, there are 19,338 Hopi in the country. The Hopi Tribe is a sovereign nation within the Unite ...
,
Warlpiri Warlpiri may refer to: * Warlpiri people, an indigenous people of the Tanami Desert, Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Au ...
, Lower Sepik-Ramu languages, some
Oceanic languages The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...
including Fijian, Motuna, Serbo-Croatian, and in Arabic for some nouns). Paucal number has also been documented in some
Cushitic languages The Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They are spoken primarily in the Horn of Africa, with minorities speaking Cushitic languages to the north in Egypt and the Sudan, and to the south in Kenya and Tanzania. As ...
of Ethiopia, including Baiso, which marks singular, paucal, plural. When paucal number is used in Arabic, it generally refers to ten or fewer instances. Of the Indo-European languages, Kurmanji (also known as Northern Kurdish) is one of the few known languages with paucal number. For instance: "car-IN-an" (sometimes), cf. "gelek car-an" (many times) and "car" (time). Another example is "sêv-IN-an" (some apples), "sêvan" (the apples), "sêv" (apple). It can be applied to basically all nouns. In Russian, the
genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
singular is also applied to two, three or four items (2, 3, 4 ка́мня – stones, gen. sg.; but 5...20 камне́й – stones, gen. pl.), making it effectively paucal (cf. э́тот ка́мень – this stone, nom. sg.; э́ти ка́мни – these stones, nom. pl.).
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
functions similarly: 'one dog' is ''jeden pies''', while (2, 3, 4 psy – dogs, pl.; but ''5+ psów'' – dogs, gen. pl.). Slovene has one more distinction. With its use of dual ('one dog' is ''en pes'', 'two dogs' is ''dva psa''), paucal is only used for counting 3 and 4 (''3, 4 psi'' – dogs, pl.; but ''5+ psov'' – dogs, gen.pl.).


Distributive plural

Distributive plural number is for many instances viewed as independent individuals (for example, in
Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...
).


Superplural

Superplural is a grammatical number referring to "a lot of items", "heaps of items". Such massive plural is in contrast to normal "plural". For example, the Australian Aboriginal Barngarla language has four grammatical numbers: singular, dual, plural and ''superplural''. Zuckermann, Ghil'ad 2020, ''Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond''
Oxford University Press
/
For instance: * ''wárraidya'' "
emu The emu () (''Dromaius novaehollandiae'') is the second-tallest living bird after its ratite relative the ostrich. It is endemic to Australia where it is the largest native bird and the only extant member of the genus ''Dromaius''. The emu' ...
" (singular) * ''wárraidyalbili'' "two emus" (dual) * ''wárraidyarri'' "emus" (plural) * ''wárraidyailyarranha'' "a lot of emus", "heaps of emus" (superplural)


Formal expression

Synthetic language A synthetic language uses inflection or agglutination to express Syntax, syntactic relationships within a sentence. Inflection is the addition of morphemes to a root word that assigns grammatical property to that word, while agglutination is the ...
s typically distinguish grammatical number by inflection. (
Analytic language In linguistic typology, an analytic language is a language that conveys relationships between words in sentences primarily by way of ''helper'' words (particles, prepositions, etc.) and word order, as opposed to using inflections (changing the ...
s, such as
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
, often do not mark grammatical number.) Some languages have no
marker The term Marker may refer to: Common uses * Marker (linguistics), a morpheme that indicates some grammatical function * Marker (telecommunications), a special-purpose computer * Boundary marker, an object that identifies a land boundary * Marke ...
for the plural in certain cases, e.g.
Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
''hus'' – "house, houses" (but ''huset'' – "the house", ''husen'' – "the houses"). In most languages, the singular is formally unmarked, whereas the plural is marked in some way. Other languages, most notably the
Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...
, mark both the singular and the plural, for instance
Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language official in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa * Swahili culture Swahili culture is the culture of ...
(see example below). The third logical possibility, found in only a few languages such as
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
and Sinhala, is an unmarked plural contrasting with marked singular. Below are some examples of number
affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...
es for nouns (where the inflecting morphemes are underlined): *
Affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...
ation (by adding or removing
prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
es,
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
es,
infix An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem (an existing word or the core of a family of words). It contrasts with ''adfix,'' a rare term for an affix attached to the outside of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix. When marking text for int ...
es, or
circumfix A circumfix (abbreviated ) (also confix or ambifix) is an affix which has two parts, one placed at the start of a word, and the other at the end. Circumfixes contrast with prefixes, attached to the beginnings of words; suffixes, attached at t ...
es): **
Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...
: ''puu'' "tree, wood" (singular) – ''puud'' "the trees, woods" (nominative plural), or ''kolm puud'' "three trees" ( partitive singular) ** Finnish: ''lehmä'' "cow, the cow" (singular) – ''lehmät'' "the cows" (
nominative In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
plural) **
Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...
: ''dağ'' "the mountain" (singular) – ''dağlar'' "mountains" (plural) ** Slovene: ' "linden" (singular) – ' "linden" (dual) – ' "linden" (plural) ** Sanskrit: पुरुषस् ''puruṣas'' "man" (singular) – पुरुषौ ''puruṣau'' "two men" (dual) – पुरुषास् ''puruṣās'' "men" (plural) ** Sinhala: මලක් ''malak'' "flower" (singular) – මල් ''mal'' "flowers" (plural) **
Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language official in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa * Swahili culture Swahili culture is the culture of ...
: ''mtoto'' "child" (singular) – ''watoto'' "children" (plural) **
Ganda Ganda may refer to: Places * Ganda, Angola * Ganda, Tibet, China * Ganda, the ancient Latin name of Ghent, a city in Belgium Other uses * Baganda or Ganda, a people of Uganda ** Luganda or Ganda language, a language of Uganda * ''Ganda'' and "Ga ...
: ''omusajja'' "man" (singular) – ''abasajja'' "men" (plural) **
Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...
: კაცი ''k'aci'' "man" (singular) – კაცები ''k'acebi'' "men" (where ''-i'' is the nominative case marker) **
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
: ''plant'' "children" (collective) – ''plentyn'' "child" (singulative) *
Simulfix In linguistics, a simulfix is a type of affix that changes one or more existing phonemes (usually vowels) in order to modify the meaning of a morpheme. Examples of simulfixes in English are generally considered irregularities, surviving results o ...
(through various kinds of internal sound alternations): ** Arabic: كِتَاب ''kitāb'' "book" (singular) – كُتُب ''kutub'' "books" (plural) * Apophony (alternating between different vowels): ** Dinka: ''kat'' "frame" – ''kɛt'' "frames" ** English: ''foot'' – ''feet'' **
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
: ''Mutter'' "mother" – ''Mütter'' "mothers" **
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
: ''bachgen'' "boy" – ''bechgyn'' "boys" *
Reduplication In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change. The classic observation on the semantics of reduplication is Edwa ...
(through doubling): **
Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...
: ''orang'' "person" (singular) – ''orang-orang'' "people" (plural); BUT ''dua orang'' "two people" and ''banyak orang'' "many people" (reduplication is not done when the context is clear and when the plurality is not emphasized) **
Pipil Pipil may refer to: *Nahua people of western El Salvador *Pipil language Nawat (academically Pipil, also known as Nicarao) is a Nahuan language native to Central America. It is the southernmost extant member of the Uto-Aztecan family. It was spo ...
: ''kumit'' "pot" (singular) – ''kuj-kumit'' "pots" (plural); similar to Indonesian, reduplication is omitted when plurality is marked elsewhere or not emphasized. ** Somali: ''buug'' "book" (singular) – ''buug-ag'' "books" (plural) *
Suppletion In linguistics and etymology, suppletion is traditionally understood as the use of one word as the inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. For those learning a language, suppletive forms will be seen as "irregular" or even ...
(the use of the one word as the inflected form of another word): ** Serbo-Croatian: ''čov(j)ek'' "man" (singular) – ''ljudi'' "men, folks" (plural) * Tonality (by changing a drag tone to a push tone) **
Limburgish Limburgish ( li, Limburgs or ; nl, Limburgs ; german: Limburgisch ; french: Limbourgeois ), also called Limburgan, Limburgian, or Limburgic, is a West Germanic language spoken in the Dutch and Belgian provinces of Limburg (Netherlands), L ...
: ''daãg'' "day" (singular) – ''daàg'' "days" (plural) ** Ancient Greek: γλῶσσα ''glôssa'' "tongue" (singular) – γλώσσα ''glǒssa'' "two tongues" (dual) Elements marking number may appear on nouns and pronouns in dependent-marking languages or on verbs and adjectives in head-marking languages. In the English sentence above, the plural suffix ''-s'' is added to the noun ''cowboy''. In the equivalent in Western Apache, a head-marking language, a plural infix ''da-'' is added to the verb ''yiłch'ígó'aah'' "he is teaching him", resulting in ''yiłch'ídagó'aah'' "he is teaching them" while noun ''idilohí'' "cowboy" is unmarked for number.


Number particles

Plurality is sometimes marked by a specialized number particle (or number word). This is frequent in Australian and Austronesian languages. An example from Tagalog is the word ''mga'' ɐˈŋa compare ''bahay'' "house" with ''mga bahay'' "houses". In
Kapampangan Kapampangan, Capampañgan or Pampangan may refer to: *Kapampangan people of the Philippines *Kapampangan language Kapampangan or Pampangan is an Austronesian language, and one of the eight major languages of the Philippines. It is the primary ...
, certain nouns optionally denote plurality by secondary stress: ''ing laláki'' "man" and ''ing babái'' "woman" become ''ding láláki'' "men" and ''ding bábái'' "women".


Classifiers with number morphology

In Sanskrit and some other languages, number and case are fused categories and there is concord for number between a noun and its predicator. Some languages however (for example,
Assamese Assamese may refer to: * Assamese people, a socio-ethnolinguistic identity of north-eastern India * People of Assam, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious people of Assam * Assamese language, one of the easternmost Indo-Aryan language ...
) lack this feature. Languages that show number inflection for a large enough corpus of nouns or allow them to combine directly with singular and plural numerals can be described as non-classifier languages. On the other hand, there are languages that obligatorily require a counter word or the so-called classifier for all nouns. For example, the category of number in Assamese is fused with the category of classifier, which always carries a definite/indefinite reading. The singularity or plurality of the noun is determined by the addition of the classifier
suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
either to the noun or to the numeral. Number system in Assamese is either realized as numeral or as nominal inflection, but not both. Numerals k'one' and ui'two', can be realized as both free morpheme and
clitics In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a wo ...
. When used with classifiers, these two numerals are cliticised to the classifiers. Pingelapese is a Micronesian language spoken on the Pingelap atoll and on two of the eastern Caroline Islands, called the high island of Pohnpei. In Pingelapese, the meaning, use, or shape of an object can be expressed through the use of numerical classifiers. These classifiers combine a noun and a number that together can give more details about the object. There are at least five sets of numerical classifiers in Pingelapese. Each classifier has a numeral part and a classifier part that corresponds to the noun it is describing. The classifier follows the noun in a phrase. There is a separate set of numerical classifiers that is used when the object is not specified. Examples of this is the names of the days of the week.


Obligatoriness of number marking

In many languages, such as English, number is obligatorily expressed in every grammatical context. Some limit number expression to certain classes of nouns, such as animates or referentially prominent nouns (as with proximate forms in most Algonquian languages, opposed to referentially less prominent obviative forms). In others, such as Chinese and Japanese, number marking is not consistently applied to most nouns unless a distinction is needed or already present. A very common situation is for plural number to not be marked if there is any other overt indication of number, as for example in Hungarian: ''virág'' "flower"; ''virágok'' "flowers"; ''hat virág'' "six flowers".


Transnumeral

Many languages, such as
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
, Korean,
Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...
, Japanese and
Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...
, particularly spoken in Southeast and East Asia, have optional number marking. In such cases, an unmarked noun is neither singular nor plural, but rather ambiguous as to number. This is called ''transnumeral'' or sometimes ''general number,'' abbreviated . In many such languages, number tends to be marked for definite and highly
animate Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...
referents, most notably first-person pronouns.


Inverse number

The languages of the Tanoan family have three numbers – singular, dual, and plural – and exhibit an unusual system of marking number, called ''inverse number'' (or ''number toggling''). In this scheme, every
countable noun In linguistics, a count noun (also countable noun) is a noun that can be modified by a quantity and that occurs in both singular and plural forms, and that can co-occur with quantificational determiners like ''every'', ''each'', ''several'', e ...
has what might be called its "inherent" or "expected" numbers, and is unmarked for these. When a noun appears in an "inverse" (atypical) number, it is inflected to mark this. For example, in Jemez, where nouns take the ending ''-sh'' to denote an inverse number, there are four noun classes which inflect for number as follows: As can be seen, class-I nouns are inherently singular, class-II nouns are inherently plural, class-III nouns are inherently singular or plural. Class-IV nouns cannot be counted and are never marked with ''-sh''.* A similar system is seen in Kiowa (Kiowa is distantly related to Tanoan languages like Jemez): (See also Taos language: Number inflection for a description of inverse number suffixes in another Tanoan language.)


Number agreement


Verbs

In many languages, verbs are conjugated according to number. Using French as an example, one says ''je vois'' (''I see''), but ''nous voyons'' (''we see''). The verb ''voir'' (''to see'') changes from ''vois'' in the first person singular to ''voyons'' in the plural. In everyday English, this often happens in the third person (''she sees'', ''they see''), but not in other grammatical persons, except with the verb ''to be''.


Adjectives and determiners

Adjectives often agree with the number of the noun they modify. For example, in
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, one says ''un grand arbre'' "a tall tree", but ''deux grands arbres'' "two tall trees". The singular adjective ''grand'' becomes ''grands'' in the plural, unlike English "tall", which remains unchanged. Other
determiners A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
may agree with number. In English, the
demonstrative Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...
s "this", "that" change to "these", "those" in the plural, and the
indefinite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
"a", "an" is either omitted or changes to "some". In French and German, the definite articles have gender distinctions in the singular but not the plural. In Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, both definite and indefinite articles are inflected for gender and number, e.g. Portuguese ''o, a'' "the" (singular, masc./fem.), ''os, as'' "the" (plural, masc./fem.); ''um, uma'' "a(n)" (singular, masc./fem.), ''uns, umas'' "some" (plural, masc./fem.), ''dois, duas'' "two" (plural, masc./fem.), In the Finnish sentence ''Yöt ovat pimeitä'' "Nights are dark", each word referring to the plural noun ''yöt'' "nights" ("night" = ''yö'') is pluralized (night- is- dark-- partitive).


Exceptions

Sometimes, grammatical number will not represent the actual quantity, a
form-meaning mismatch In linguistics, a form-meaning mismatch is a natural mismatch between the grammatical form and its expected meaning. Such form-meaning mismatches happen everywhere in language. Nevertheless, there is often an expectation of a one-to-one relation ...
. For example, in Ancient Greek neuter plurals took a singular verb. The plural form of a pronoun may also be applied to a single individual as a sign of importance, respect or generality, as in the '' pluralis majestatis'', the T–V distinction, and the generic "you", found in many languages, or, in English, when using the singular "they" for
gender-neutrality Gender neutrality (adjective form: gender-neutral), also known as gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement, is the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions (social structures or gender roles) should avoid distinguish ...
. In Arabic, the plural of a non-human noun (one that refers to an animal or to an
inanimate Animation is the interpolation of dissimilar frames over a finite period. Animate may also refer to: * Animate noun or animacy, a grammatical category * Animate (retailer), a Japanese anime retailer * "Animate" (song), by Rush * "Animate", a so ...
entity regardless of whether the noun is grammatically masculine or feminine in the singular) is treated as feminine singular—this is called the inanimate plural. For example: : رجل جميل (''rajul jamīl'') 'beautiful/handsome man': ''rajul'' (man) is masculine singular, so it takes the masculine singular adjective ''jamīl''. : بيت جميل (''bayt jamīl'') 'beautiful house': ''bayt'' (house) is masculine singular, so it takes the masculine singular ''jamīl''. : كلب جميل (''kalb jamīl'') 'beautiful dog': ''kalb'' (dog) is masculine singular, so it takes the masculine singular ''jamīl''. : بنت جميلة (''bint jamīlah'') 'beautiful girl': ''bint'' is feminine singular, so it takes the feminine singular ''jamīlah''. : سيارة جميلة (''sayyārah jamīlah'') 'beautiful car': ''sayyārah'' is feminine singular, so it takes the feminine singular ''jamīlah''. : رجال جميلون (''rijāl jamīlūn'') 'beautiful/handsome men': ''rijāl'' (men) is masculine plural, so it takes the masculine plural ''jamīlūn''. : بنات جميلات (''banāt jamīlāt'') 'beautiful girls': ''banāt'' is feminine plural, so it takes the feminine plural ''jamīlāt''. but : بيوت جميلة (''buyūt jamīlah'') 'beautiful houses': ''buyūt'' (houses) is non-human plural, and so takes the inanimate plural (feminine singular) ''jamīlah''. : سيارات جميلة (''sayyārāt jamīlah'') 'beautiful cars': ''sayyārāt'' is non-human plural, and so takes the inanimate plural ''jamīlah''. : كلاب جميلة (''kilāb jamīlah'') 'beautiful dogs': ''kilāb'' is non-human plural, and so takes the inanimate plural ''jamīlah''.


Collective nouns

A collective noun is a word that designates a group of objects or beings regarded as a whole, such as "flock", "team", or "corporation". Although many languages treat collective nouns as singular, in others they may be interpreted as plural. In British English, phrases such as ''the committee are meeting'' are common (the so-called agreement ''in sensu'' "in meaning"; with the meaning of a noun, rather than with its form, see
constructio ad sensum In linguistics, synesis () is a traditional grammatical/rhetorical term referring to agreement (the change of a word form based on words relating to it) due to meaning. A ''constructio kata synesin'' ( la, constructio ad sensum) is a grammatical ...
). The use of this type of construction varies with dialect and level of formality. In some cases, the number marking on a verb with a collective subject may express the degree of collectivity of action: * ''The committee are discussing the matter'' (the individual members are discussing the matter), but ''the committee has decided on the matter'' (the committee has acted as an indivisible body). * ''The crowd is tearing down the fences'' (a crowd is doing something as a unit), but ''the crowd are cheering wildly'' (many individual members of the crowd are doing the same thing independently of each other).


Semantic versus grammatical number

All languages are able to specify the quantity of referents. They may do so by lexical means with words such as English ''a few'', ''some'', ''one'', ''two'', ''five hundred''. However, not every language has a grammatical category of number. Grammatical number is expressed by morphological or
syntactic In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency), ...
means. That is, it is indicated by certain grammatical elements, such as through
affix In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...
es or number words. Grammatical number may be thought of as the indication of
semantic Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
number through grammar. Languages that express quantity only by lexical means lack a grammatical category of number. For instance, in Khmer, neither nouns nor verbs carry any grammatical information concerning number: such information can only be conveyed by lexical items such as ''khlah'' 'some', ''pii-bey'' 'a few', and so on..


Auxiliary languages

Auxiliary languages An international auxiliary language (sometimes acronymized as IAL or contracted as auxlang) is a language meant for communication between people from all different nations, who do not share a common first language. An auxiliary language is primaril ...
often have fairly simple systems of grammatical number. In one of the most common schemes (found, for example, in Interlingua and Ido), nouns and pronouns distinguish between singular and plural, but not other numbers, and adjectives and verbs do not display any number agreement. In
Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...
, however, adjectives must agree in both number and case with the nouns that they qualify.


See also

* Count noun *
Elohim ''Elohim'' (: ), the plural of (), is a Hebrew word meaning "gods". Although the word is plural, in the Hebrew Bible it usually takes a singular verb and refers to a single deity, particularly (but not always) the God of Israel. At other times ...
* Generic antecedent *
Grammatical agreement In linguistics, agreement or concord (abbreviated ) occurs when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates. It is an instance of inflection, and usually involves making the value of some grammatical category (such as gender ...
*
Grammatical conjugation In linguistics, conjugation () is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection (alteration of form according to rules of grammar). For instance, the verb ''break'' can be conjugated to form the words ''break'', ...
* Grammatical person * Inflection * Measure word *
Names of numbers in English English number words include numerals and various words derived from them, as well as a large number of words borrowed from other languages. Cardinal numbers Cardinal numbers refer to the size of a group. In English, these words are numerals. ...
* Noun class * Plurale tantum * Romance plurals


References


Citations


Works cited

*. *. * * *


General references

*. * *. *. * *. *. *. *. *. *. *. *


External links

* http://www.smg.surrey.ac.uk/features/morphosyntactic/number
doi:10.15126/SMG.18/1.02
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grammatical Number