{"id":6720,"date":"2018-07-26T13:29:45","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T17:29:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=6720"},"modified":"2018-07-26T13:29:45","modified_gmt":"2018-07-26T17:29:45","slug":"how-can-one-be-many","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/how-can-one-be-many\/","title":{"rendered":"How Can One be Many?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_6721\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6721\" class=\"size-large wp-image-6721\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/07\/One-in-many-1024x634.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"634\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/07\/One-in-many-1024x634.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/07\/One-in-many-350x217.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/07\/One-in-many-768x475.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/07\/One-in-many.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6721\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo courtesy of Pixabay,<br \/>CCO<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In English, some nouns can be both singular <u>and<\/u> plural. Yes, I know, that sounds like an impossible contradiction. But, this is English after all, and English is full of such maddening things. In fact, to add to the confusion there are several types of these nouns! There are <strong>irregular, non-changing<\/strong> nouns, which have the same plural and singular form. Additionally, nouns which only appear in their singular form are called a <strong><em>singulare tantum<\/em><\/strong>. Nouns which are grammatically always plural, and contain the typical plural suffix <em>s<\/em> are <strong><em>plurale tantum<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Most irregular, non-changing nouns are words from nature or transportation. One notable exception is <strong>offspring<\/strong>, a fairly common irregular plural noun.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Other examples of irregular, non-changing nouns<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Fish<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Moose<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Deer<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Salmon<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Cattle<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Sheep<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Aircraft<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Spacecraft<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Traffic<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Police<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Additionally, nouns which only appear in their singular form are called a <strong><em>singulare tantum<\/em><\/strong>. Nouns which are grammatically always plural, and contain the typical plural suffix <em>s<\/em> are <strong><em>plurale tantum<\/em><\/strong>. These terms come to us from Latin. <em>Tantum <\/em>translates into English as the adverb <em>only<\/em>. So, these words are either singular only, or plural only. However, <em>singulare tantum <\/em>are rare and depend entirely upon their <strong>lexical<\/strong> usage. These <em>singulare tantum <\/em>nouns are commonly known as <strong>mass nouns<\/strong> because they indicate things which have no distinct measure.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Examples of singulare tantum<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dirt<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Advice<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Progress<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Weather<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Knowledge<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Furniture<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Oxygen<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Jazz<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We often see words like land and water included among mass nouns, but it entirely depends on their lexical context. I can say, \u201cI look at all this water and see no land in sight.\u201d But, I could equally say, \u201cNot all the waters of Israel are as salty as the Dead Sea.\u201d The first example is <em>singulare tantum<\/em>, but the latter clearly, and correctly, pluralizes water.<\/p>\n<p>Other examples of <em>singulare tantum <\/em>which can be pluralized under certain lexical conditions include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Wine<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Tea<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Bread<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Cheese<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Hair<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are far more examples of the <em>plurale tantum <\/em>noun. Each word can indicate just one of something, or many, and appear to be plural words due to the word-ending.<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Examples of <em>plurale tantum <\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Clothes<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Scissors<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Glasses<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Amends<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Shenanigans<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Trousers<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Shorts<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Jeans<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Pliers<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Species<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some of these words can be found in a singular form as a verb. You can <strong>amend<\/strong> your statement. You can <strong>scissor<\/strong> someone\u2019s hair. You could hire someone to <strong>police<\/strong> an event.<\/p>\n<p>You may also see the word used in <strong>compound words or phrases<\/strong> where they become singular, or form another singular noun.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Cattleman<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Scissor kick<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Clotheshorse<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Clothespin<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Incidentally, <em>plurale tantum <\/em>is the singular form of the term. The plural form is <strong><em>pluralia tantum<\/em><\/strong>. Latin, unlike English, has enough sense to have both plural and singular versions of basically everything.<\/p>\n<p>Can you think of other English words which are both plural and singular? Please feel free to share them in the comments section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"217\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/07\/One-in-many-350x217.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/07\/One-in-many-350x217.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/07\/One-in-many-768x475.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/07\/One-in-many-1024x634.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2018\/07\/One-in-many.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>In English, some nouns can be both singular and plural. Yes, I know, that sounds like an impossible contradiction. But, this is English after all, and English is full of such maddening things. In fact, to add to the confusion there are several types of these nouns! There are irregular, non-changing nouns, which have the&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/how-can-one-be-many\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":6721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[134956,135139],"tags":[6,218940,140674,501111],"class_list":["post-6720","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-grammar","category-english-language","tag-grammar","tag-irregular-plurals","tag-parts-of-speech","tag-plural-and-singular-nouns"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6720"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6727,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6720\/revisions\/6727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}