View source for Number in grammar

'''Number''' is an important concept in [[grammar]].  It is a key attribute (quality) of [[noun]]s and [[verb]]s.  In English grammar, there are two numbers:
*'''singular''', which means a single example, as in "The man sings" or "a blue car" or "It is blue"; and 
*'''plural''', which means more than one, as in "They sing", "blue cars" or "They are blue".
'''Number''' is usually shown by [[inflect]]ions.  In English, the '''plural''' of the noun is most usually shown by the addition of '-s', or a variant spelling of this, while the '''singular''' is 'unmarked' (not inflected).  With verbs, the '''singular''' (of the [[third person]] of the [[present tense]] only) is marked by adding '-s' while the plural is normally unmarked.  (As is often the case, the verb '[[to be]]' is an exception - the [[past tense]] is also inflected to show number - 'I was' but 'we were'.)  This apparent contradiction may be a cause of non-native speakers making errors like using a singular verb with a plural [[subject]], and ''[[vice versa]]''. There is also a common  problem with [[3rd person]] [[personal pronoun]]s - see [[3rd person problem]].


:Other languages have more than two grammatical '''number'''s: both Arabic and classical [[Greek]], for example, have a special form (the '''dual''') to indicate two of something.
[[category:grammar]][[category:noun attributes]][[category:verb attributes]][[category:Grammar concepts]][[category:agreement]]