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EXPRESIN DE LA CANTIDAD 1. INTRODUCTION 2. PLURAL IN ADJECTIVES 3. PLURAL IN PRONOUNS 4. PLURAL IN VERBS 5. PLURAL IN NOUN Regular plural Irregular plural Foreign Plurals 6. USE OF SINGULAR AND PLURAL IN NOUNS "Singularia Tantum" /"Pluralia Tantum Zero Plural Differentiated Plurals 7. COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE Definition Semantic aspect Partitive Constructions

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INTRODUCTION

In English only two numbers are distinguished, singular, which denotes "one" and plural, which denotes "more than one". The survivals of a dual number are few. The two numbers are distinguished in: nouns, pronouns and verbs but not as a rule in adjectives and never in adverbs. 2. PLURAL IN ADJECTIVES The only quantitative words in which distinction between the two numbers exist or has existed in modern English period are: little (bread) less (courage) much (money) few (loaves) fewer (pins) many (books)

The adjective several is generally used to qualify a plural word. Both, of course, is plural but all and whole may be used with singular and plural nouns, eg. all the money, all the men; one whole year, the whole lambs. And such numerical adjectives as four, forty, ... are always plural. 3. PLURAL IN PRONOUNS The irregularity of pronominal inflection makes it necessary to enumerate here all the forms. SINGULAR I, me myself you (thou, thee) yourself he, him himself she, her herself
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PLURAL we, us ourselves you (ye) yourselves they, them themselves these

it this that one 4. PLURALS IN VERBS

itself

those ones

No distinction is made between the two numbers except in the present tense, and there it is found in the 3rd person singular only, which ends genarally in " s". In the past simple we have the solitary example "was", plural "were", in all other verbs the plural is like the singular. 5. PLURAL IN NOUNS 5.1 REGULAR PLURAL is formed by means of an "-s" suffix. Spelling: The plural suffix is written "-s" after most nouns including nouns ending in silent "e". There are, however, several classes of exceptions: ? The ending is spelled " -es" after nouns ending in sibilants, unless the noun is written with a silent "e". -s ??gas, gases -ch ? porch, porches -z ? buzz, buzzes -sh ? bush, bushes -x ? box, boxes -ze ? size, sizes ? "- y" + "s" becomes "- ys": after vowels (days) and in proper nouns (the Kennedys). ? "- y" + "s" becomes "- ies" after consonant, eg. spy, spies; fly, flies. ? Doubling of consonants in a few words: quiz, quizzes. ? Apostrophe ('s) in letters (dot your i's) and numerals (in the 1970's / 1970s). ? The regular plural suffix of nouns in " o" has two spellings: " -os" and " -oes". In the following cases the spelling is "-os": after a vowel: Kangaroos, radios, studios,... in proper names: Romeos, Eskimos, ... in abbreviations: kilos, photos, pros, pianos, ...

5.2 IRREGULAR PLURALS. The particular plurals of some nouns have to be learned as individual lexical items, we can find: ? Mutation, which involves a change of the media vowel, for example: foot - feet; tooth - teeth, woman - women; man - men; mouse - mice. ? "-en" plural, this occurs in nouns such as: child - children; ox - oxen. 5.3 FOREIGN PLURALS Many foreign words, especially Latin and Greek, keep their origianl naminative plurals, though in the more familiar words there is a strong tendency to form a regular English plural. ? ? Singular "-a", plural "-ae": alga,-ae, formula, -ae, penumbra, -ae Singular "- us", plural "- i" /ai/: cactus, -i /-uses; stimulus, -i
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? ?

Singular "- us", plural "- us": apparatus -us /-uses Singular "- um/-on" (Greek), plural "-a": aquarium, -a /-ums; criterion, -a. But there are some words that have the singular with "-um", that only take "-s" plural: decorum,-s; millenium, -s; museum, -s

? ? ?

Singular "- is", plural "-es": basis, bases; analysis, analyses; crisis, crises French plurals: bureau, bureaux; madam, mesdames; adieu, adieux Hebrew plurals in "- im": cherub, cherubim (cherubs); seraph, seraphim (seraphs)

6. USE OF SINGULAR AND PLURAL IN NOUNS "SINGULARIA TANTUM" /"PLURALIA TANTUM Some nouns have only one number form. Thus, many concrete mass nouns (gold, silver, uranium ...) and abstract mass nouns (courage, music, dirt, ...) never take a plural suffix. The same applies to proper nouns, which take a singular verb and are typically invariable, and to many collective nouns, such as, police, cattle, clergy. All these nouns are called "Singularia Tantum", because they never take the plural form. We can also find words which were originally plurals and now are used in singular, although they still have the final "-s". For example: news; some diseases: mumps, measles; some subjects and sciences: physics, politics; some games: billiards, bowls, dominoes; some proper names: Athens, Brussels, Wales. On the contrary, some others never appear in the singular form, for example: instruments or tools and articles of dress consisting of two equal parts which are joined, such as, scissors, glasses, trousers, tights, ... The noun of which they are head can be made singular and countable by means of " a pair of". ZERO PLURAL They are words that don't change their form when they are used in singular or plural. For example: These sheep looks small or All those sheep are mine. We can find zero plurals with names of nationalities in "-ese": Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, ... Nouns denoting measure or quantity normally have zero plural when they are premodifiers in noun phrases: a six-mile walk, a two-hour exam, a five-second pause, a ten-pound note, ... THE DIFFERENTIATED PLURAL In many cases the plural has a meaning which is more or less different from that of the same word in the singular. For example: advice: counsel advices: information force: strength forces: army manner: mode manners: behaviour
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effect: result effects: goods, personal property custom: habits customs: duties, taxes on imported goods

Let's move now to the following point 7. COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE 7.1 DEFINITIONS Some grammarians have defined countable nouns as nouns denoting countable phenomena, ie. nouns denoting things that can be counted. Such concepts refer to: material things: chair, table, window, ... immaterial things of various orders: week, knock, talk.,...

On the other hand, uncountable nouns are nouns denoting non-countable phenomena, ie. nouns denoting concepts that cannot be counted. They may be: material, in which case they denote some stuff or substance in itself independent of form: wine, gold, air, ... immaterial, such as: anxiety, confusion, boredom, music, and most words ending in tion, - ment and - ness. Other grammarians use other terms to define such concepts: Jespersen calls them thing -words (countable) and mass-words (uncountable) and Zandvoort class-nouns and material-nouns respectively. 7.2 DISTINCTION FROM A SEMANTIC CRITERION The distinction between countable and uncountable is easy if we look at the idea that is expressed in each single instance. But in practical language the distinction is not carried through in such a way that one and the same word stands always for one and the same idea. The language makes it posssible to look upon some objects from the point of view of both count and noncount, as in the case of 'cake': Would you like a cake? (Countable) No, I don't like cake (Uncountable) Such nouns are said to have dual class me mbership. In other cases, for example 'paper', there is no readily perceptible parallelism, but a notable difference in meaning between the two nouns: I want an evening paper (newspaper) Wrap the parcel up in brown paper (wrapping paper) Moreover, we can find a separate count noun and a separate non-count referring to the same area of meaning: COUNTABLE a loaf a meal a poem UNCOUNTABLE bread food poetry COUNTABLE UNCOUNTABLE a laugh laughter a weapon arms a suitcase luggage

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