Dictionary of English - number

Number is a feature of nouns, verbs and pronouns. In present-day English it consists of two categories: singular and plural. Singular nouns and pronouns: car; I; it generally take a singular verb, plural nouns and pronouns: cars; we; they generally take a plural verb.

In practice there is little difference between singular and plural in English verbs. In the past tense they are identical. In the present tense, the only difference is that the third person singular usually has an s on the end, whereas the plural and the first and second person singular do not: I come, he comes, they come. Exceptions to this are the modal or auxiiliary verbs, such as: can, may, will, which do not have an s in the third person singular she can; and the verb to be, which has distinctive forms in the first and third person singular in both the present and the past tenses.

Some singular nouns which refer to groups of people or animals can take a plural verb. To find out more about this, see collective noun.

It can often happen that another noun or pronoun comes between the verb and its grammatical subject. If this is different in number from the subject, it can affect the number of the verb: The contents of the book submitted to our legal department has raised a few eyebrows. The subject of the verb here is contents, not book or department, so the verb should be plural: have, not singular: has.

Nouns and pronouns linked by and can take a plural or a singular verb. To find out more about this, see compound subject.

Measurements of quantity, distance, etc, that contain a plural noun can be regarded as a single unit, and therefore take a singular verb: Fifty pounds is too much to pay; Twenty miles is a long way to walk.

There are some nouns ending in -s that take a singular verb: The news is good. They include the names of certain games: Darts is my favourite game and the names of certain diseases: Mumps is unpleasant for adult males to catch. Some nouns ending in -s take a singular verb when they denote an area of study: Acoustics is a tricky subject but a plural verb when they have another meaning: The acoustics of the hall aren't very good.

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