The absence of -s in the plural form of animal names ( hunting for bear, a herd of buffalo) probably arose by analogy with animals like deer and sheep whose plurals have been unmarked since the earliest beginnings of the English language.Are you looking for engaging first grade grammar resources for teaching common nouns, plural nouns, possessive nouns and pronouns? This noun bundle will provide you with the materials that you need to teach these.This ending has long since fallen away, leaving behind the unmarked root forms. These adjective phrases derive from an -a suffix in Old English that marked plural adjectives. In adjectival constructions even Standard English has no -s plural: a five-pound box of candy is acceptable, whereas a five-pounds box is not.It appears in literary works dating from the Middle English period to the present day, including works of dialect writers, such as this example from Mark Twain's Huck Finn: "The nearest white settlement warnt nearer nor four mile." This zero plural has a long history and was not formerly as socially stigmatized as it is today. Some vernacular varieties of English do not use plural endings in measurement phrases such as three mile and ten pound. Our Living Language In English, plurals of nouns are normally indicated by the ending -s or -es, or in a few cases by -en, as in children and oxen.
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