plural

Examples of plural in the following topics:

• Number

  • The Latin has two Numbers,—the Singular and Plural.
  • The Singular denotes one object, the Plural, more than one.

• Winning an Election: Majority, Plurality, and Proportional Representation

  • Common voting systems are majority rule, proportional representation, or plurality voting with a number of criteria for the winner.
  • The most common system, used in Canada, the lower house (Lok Sabha) in India, the United Kingdom, and most elections in the United States, is simple plurality, first-past-the-post or winner-takes-all.
  • Common voting systems are majority rule, proportional representation, or plurality voting with a number of variations and methods such as first-past-the-post or preferential voting.
  • In political science, the use of the plurality voting system alongside multiple, single-winner constituencies to elect a multi-member body is often referred to as single-member district plurality (SMDP).
  • Compare and contrast the voting systems of majority rule, proportional representation and plurality voting

• The Five Declensions

  • In Neuters the Accusative and Nominative are always alike, and in the Plural end in -ă.
  • In the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Declensions, the Accusative Plural is regularly like the Nominative.

• Subject-Verb Agreement

  • Otherwise, it's plural.
  • Some indefinite pronouns can take a singular or plural verb based on whether the noun to which they are referring is uncountable (singular) or countable (plural).
  • Mass nouns, like "water" or "mud" are neither singular nor plural.
  • [The subject bags is a plural noun, so the verb were is also plural to agree with the subject.]
  • Some words ending in "s" refer to single objects but are considered plural and so should take plural verbs, unless they are preceded by "pair of" (in which case "pair" would be the subject).

• Third Declension

  • With the exception of Comparatives, and a few other words mentioned below in § 70, 1, all Adjectives of the Third Declension follow the inflection of ĭ-stems; i.e. they have the Ablative Singular in -ī, the Genitive Plural in-ium, the Accusative Plural in -īs (as well as -ēs) in the Masculine and Feminine, and the Nominative and Accusative Plural in -ia in Neuters.
  • Celer, celeris, celere, swift, retains the e before r, but lacks the Genitive Plural.
  • Ablative Singular in -e, Genitive Plural in -um, Nominative Plural Neuter in -a, and Accusative Plural Masculine and Feminine in -ēs only.
  • Inops, needy, and memor, mindful, have Ablative Singular inopī, memorī, but Genitive Plural inopum, memorum.

• Polite and plural forms of "you"

  • German also distinguishes between a singular  and plural "you".  

• Fourth Declension

  • The ending -ubus, instead of -ibus, occurs in the Dative and Ablative Plural of artūs (Plural), limbs; tribus, tribe; and in dis-syllables in -cus; as, artubus, tribubus, arcubus, lacubus.
  • The following nouns in -us are Feminine: acus, needle; domus, house; manus, hand; porticus, colonnade; tribus, tribe; Īdūs (Plural), Ides; also names of trees (§ 15, 2).

• Defective Nouns

  • Nouns used in the Plural only.3.
  • But the above classes of words are sometimes used in the Plural.
  • Several nouns have the entire Singular of one declension, while the Plural is of another; as,—
  • Other nouns have one gender in the Singular, another in the Plural; as,—
  • The following nouns have one meaning in the Singular, and another in the Plural:—

• Making Subject and Verbs Agree

  • To assure this, writers need to consider whether the subject of her sentence is singular or plural, and whether the subject is first-person, second-person, or third-person.
  • Some nouns are mass or non-count nouns, meaning that they are neither singular nor plural.
  • Mass nouns always take singular verbs, even if the noun represents an object that may be plural.
  • If a sentence has a compound subject, you should use a plural verb even if all the components of the subject are singular nouns.
  • Note that this is the case specifically because of the word "or. " If the phrase was "the monkey's antics and the handler's chagrin," it would be a compound subject and take the plural verb "cause. "

• Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

  • "Singular" means "one of something," whereas "plural" means "more than one."
  • Examples of plural pronouns include we, us, they, and others.
  • [The plural pronoun they refers to the antecedent George, Omar, and Phil.]
  • In English, the pronoun "you" is the same whether it is singular or plural.
  • [By making the antecedent plural, you can use the gender-neutral plural pronoun their.]