The following nouns are treated as singular: news, pains (meaning care), acoustics, mathematics, economics, ethics, molasses, physics, politics, and other nouns ending in ics except athletics. With these always use the s-form of the verb. For example:
The news is distorted. Not, The news are distorted.
Economics is an important study. Not, Economics are, etc.
82. The following nouns are always plural:
alms
annals
amends
antipodes
bellows
billiards
clothes
dregs
eaves
fireworks
hysterics
measles
mumps
matins
nippers
nuptials
oats
premises
proceeds
pincers
riches
rickets
suds
scissors
thanks
tidings
tongs
trousers
vitals
victuals
vespers
With all these nouns always use the form of the verb which is used with the plural subject. Thus:
Alms are given.
Riches are easily lost.
83. The following nouns have the same form for both plural and singular, corps, cannon, deer, grouse, heathen, hose, means, odds, series, sheep, species, swine, vermin, wages. You can tell whether the singular or plural is meant by the meaning of the sentence. For example:
The cannon is loaded. Here we are speaking of one cannon.
The cannon used in the war are of tremendous size. Here we know are meant all the big guns used in the war.
When you say, The sheep is lost, we know you mean one sheep, but when you say, The sheep are in the pasture, we know you mean the entire drove.
84. When preceded by a numeral, the following nouns have the same form for both singular and plural. Without the numerals, the plural is formed by the adding of s; brace, couple, dozen, hundred, pair, score, thousand, yoke. For example:
Thousands enlisted.
Three thousand enlisted.
Dozens came at my call.
Two dozen came when I called.
GENDER
85. All of the changes we have studied so far have been for the purpose of indicating number; but among the nouns that name living beings, many change to show to which sex the object named belongs. These nouns change in form to distinguish between the masculine and the feminine. This is called gender.
Gender is the distinction in words that denotes sex.
The nouns that denote females are called feminine nouns.
The nouns that denote males are called masculine nouns.
86. The feminine form is generally made by the addition of ess to the masculine form. Thus:
| prince | princess |
| master | mistress |
| host | hostess |
| count | countess |
| tiger | tigress |
| lion | lioness |
| actor | actress |
| god | goddess |
87. Names of things without sex are, of course, of neither gender, and are called neuter nouns. Neuter means literally neither. Such nouns as mountain, iron, river, chair, are neuter.
Sometimes the feminine is an entirely different word from the masculine. Thus:
| king | queen |
| lord | lady |
| man | woman |
| youth | maiden |
| sir | madam |
| stag | hind |
88. Many nouns that denote living beings apply alike to male and female, and are said to be of common gender. As woman enters more and more into the business world and pursues the same occupations as man, the change in form to denote the feminine is used less frequently, and what we have called the masculine form is used for both sexes, thus:
Poet, waiter, doctor, editor—these nouns are used for both men and women.
POSSESSIVE FORM
89. There is just one more change made in the form of a noun, and that is when we wish to show who or what owns or possesses a thing. Thus we write:
John's book.
The boy's hat.
And since this form of the noun denotes possession, it is called the possessive form. Some grammarians call this the possessive case.
The possessive form of nouns is made by adding an apostrophe and s, ('s); thus, day's, lady's, girl's, clerk's.
To plural nouns ending in s add only an apostrophe; thus, days', ladies', girls', clerks'.
When plural nouns do not end in s, their possessive forms are made by adding the apostrophe and s, the