Learn English – Can only nouns can be plural in English

american-englishplural-forms

Perhaps this is a silly question, but still:

Can only nouns can be plural in English? In other words, the plurality "term" doesn't usually apply to any other part of speech, correct?

Best Answer

In English, it's mostly nouns that take a plural mark, and in particular adjectives don't. There are however other words that take a plural mark:

  • some (but not all) pronouns: “I see the house, I see it” vs “I see the houses, I see them”
  • some (but not all) determiners: “I see a house” vs “I see ∅ houses”

The indicative present form of verbs is also different for the third person singular and for the third person plural (“I see”, “she sees”, “they see”). With the verb be, this also applies to the simple past, and for both the present and the simple past, the first person singular takes a different mark (“I am”, “she is”, “we are”, “they are”; “I was”, “she was”, “we were”, “they were”).

Related Topic