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English plurals include the plural forms of English nouns and English determiners. This article discusses the variety of ways in which English plurals are formed from the corresponding singular forms, as well as various issues concerning the usage of singulars and plurals in English. For plurals of pronouns, see English personal pronouns.
A loaf (pl.: loaves) is a (usually) rounded or oblong quantity of food, typically and originally of bread. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] It is common to bake bread in a rectangular bread pan or loaf pan because some kinds of bread dough tend to collapse and spread out during the cooking process if not constrained; [ 3 ] [ 4 ] the shape of less viscous doughs can ...
Irregularly, English nouns are marked as plural in other ways, often inheriting the plural morphology of older forms of English or the languages that they are borrowed from. Plural forms from Old English resulted from vowel mutation (e.g., foot/feet), adding –en (e.g., ox/oxen), or making no change at all (e.g., this sheep/those sheep).
Loaves prepared for Artoklasia. On feast days towards the end of vespers there is a blessing of loaves, [ n 6 ] wheat, wine, and oil, whereafter the priest breaks one of the loaves from which action the rite receives its name: Artoklasia , "breaking of bread".
A leaf (pl.: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, [1] usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis.Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", [2] [3] while the leaves, stem, flower, and fruit collectively form the shoot system. [4]
Some languages may possess a massive plural and a numerative plural, the first implying a large mass and the second implying division (like the English modifer "respective[ly]"). For example, "the [combined] waters of the Atlantic Ocean" versus, "the waters of [each of] the Great Lakes [respectively]".
In American English (AmE), collective nouns are almost always singular in construction: the committee was unable to agree. However, when a speaker wishes to emphasize that the individuals are acting separately, a plural pronoun may be employed with a singular or plural verb: the team takes their seats, rather than the team takes its seats.
Most Prescriptivists consider these forms incorrect, but descriptivists may simply describe them as a natural evolution of language; some prescriptivists do consider some such forms correct (e.g. octopi as the plural of octopus being analogous to polypi as the plural of polypus). Some English words of Latin origin do not commonly take the Latin ...