NUMBER.-There are two numbers in grammar, the Singular (singulus, single), and the Plural (plus, pluris-more); the former referring to a single individual, the latter to more than one.

There are many ways of expressing the plural of nouns in English, and the following are the most common modes of inflexion.

I. WORDS OF LATIN ORIGIN.-Those nouns which have been adopted from the Latin, and retain the mode of formation of the plural which is made use of in that tongue, are such as belong to the five Latin declensions, and have the following singular and plural endings respectively:

(1) Words ending in a, make their plural in æ, larva, larvæ.

as

(2) Words ending in us, make their plural in i, as convolvulus, convolvuli. Words ending in um, make their plural in a, as stratum, strata.

(3) Words ending in is, make their plural in es, as basis, bases. Words ending in x, take an additional syllable, as index, indices.

(4) Words ending in us, (not belonging to class 2), take the same form in the singular and plural, as apparatus, apparatus.

(5) Words ending in ies take the same form in the singular and plural, as series, series.

II. In like manner words of GREEK origin form their plurals after the mode of that language, according to the declensions or classes of nouns from which they were imported; or,

(1) Words ending in on, take a in the plural, as phenomenon, phenomena.

(2) Words ending in a, take an additional syllable, as dogma, dogmata.

(3) Some words in other endings take an additional syllable, as tripos, tripodes.

III. Words which have been derived from оTHER TONGUES form their plurals in a similar manner, as Cherub, Cherubim, from the Hebrew; banditto, ban

ditti, from the Italian; madame, mesdames, from the French. The following are examples of I. to III. :

IV. Nouns of ANGLO SAXON Origin form their plurals

in the following manner:

(1) By the addition of s, sharp or flat, as rick, ricks; dog, dogs. If the nouns end in s, sh, ch, (soft) x or z so that the additional s could not be marked in pronunciation, es is the sign of the plural, as kiss, kisses; brush, brushes; march, marches; box, boxes; topaz, topazes this ending is also used with some words of foreign origin ending in o, but not with all, as potato, potatoes; motto, mottos. It also is added to nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant, as cry, cries; and in this case the y is changed to i. If the y of the singular be preceded by a vowel, the plural is formed by the mere addition of a final s, as toy, toys; donkey, donkeys.

(2) Anglo Saxon nouns ending in f also add es to form the plural, changing the f into v for euphony

(sweet sound), as loaf, loaves. If the f be, however, preceded by a double vowel, as roof, reef, the plural is formed by the addition of only, as roofs, reefs.

(3) The plural is formed from the singular sometimes by the addition of en as a termination, as ox, oxen; hose, hosen; close (a field) closen,-(a form still extant in the Midland Counties); shoe, shoon; cow, kine; sow, swine. The pupil must not, however, think that the ending in en is always a sign of the plural, as sometimes it is used as a diminutive or term expressive of smallness, as maid, maiden; at others it means made of, as wood, wooden, while it is also used like the Latin suffix, fy, to make, as in whiten, fasten, and in "Enable with perpetual light,” meaning make able with perpetual light.

(4) Another common mode of forming the plural in Auglo Saxon nouns is by what is known as a Vowel Change, as foot, feet; goose, geese; tooth, teeth; mouse, mice.

Besides these regular modes of formation we have the following exceptional forms:

(5) Certain nouns have no Singulars, as the names of objects which are double in formation, as trousers, scissors, &c. Along with these we must also include the following, for which we have not this good reason for the absence of the singular form; hustings, measles, tidings, and even in the word small-pox we find people in country districts always use the word with a plural notion, speaking of a person being affected with them and not it. On the other hand there are some words which, apparently, are plural in form with no singular, but really are singular in both form and meaning, the derivation giving the word a seeming plural form, as alms, from the French almesse; riches from the French richesse, &c.

(6) Certain nouns have no plural forms: this is the converse of the preceding, as in the case of pride, gold, &c.

(7) Other nouns, if they are used in the plural, take a different meaning, as iron, (the name of a metal),

and irons, (the instrument for smoothing linen). With these we may include those which have two plurals, one denoting more than one individual, as penny, pennies; and the other used in a collective sense, as penny, pence, as in the phrases,-12 pence are 12 pennies, and 12 pence are 12 pence (one shilling). Such collectives may be even used as singular and plural, though singular only in form, as army, cattle; as in the cattle were browsing, and the cattle was sold for £100 altogether.

(8) Some nouns are both singular and plural in form, but not in meaning, as deer, sheep, cod.

(9) In compound forms, such as Misses Robinson, we may either give the plural form to the first word, regarded as the noun, qualified by the second as an adjective; or we may give the plural form to the second word, regarded as the noun, qualified by the first as by an adjective, as the Misses Robinson and the Miss Robinsons.

(10) It must be noted that such words as Mussulman, Turkoman, talisman, and German, do not take the termination, man, as implying a male, as is the case with Englishman, and consequently do not form their plurals in men, as Englishmen, but by the ordinary addition of the final s, Mussulmans.

GENDER.

Gender is the grammatical form denoting the sex to which the object named belongs. In other languages gender merely depends on the form of the word without regard to the sex of the object, as when the Latins called mensa a table feminine because it ended in a and belonged to a particular class or declension of nouns; but in English the gender depends generally nly on the question of sex. It must always, however, be remembered that sex is applied only to the objects themselves, and gender to the grammatical representation of this; and thus man belongs, as an animal, to the male sex, but as a name, grammatically, to the masculine gender.