Write the plurals of the following words, and tell how they are formed in each case: dainty, sauce, eulogy, feast, city, chief, calf, day, lily, copy, loaf, roof, half, valley, donkey.

There are two plurals to express the word "we," one of which includes, and the other excludes, the person addressed.

Thus the plural of Koan, snow, would be koanad; of ais, shell, aisad; moaz, moas, moazad, &c. Variety in the production of sounds, and of proper cadences in composition, might dictate retention of a certain class of the dissyllablesas ossin a stone, opin a potato, akki earth, mejim food, assub a net, aubo a liquid, mittig a tree, &c., the plurals of which would be assinad, opinad, akkid, mejimad, assubad, aubad, mittigad.

And even in English, where the article a cannot be used, as in plurals, its force is exprest by the same NEGATION."Harris's Hermes, p. 218.

So sometimes before plurals; as, "He carves a Sundays."Swift.

Churchill and others call them nouns, and suppose the plurals which follow, to be always in the objective case governed by of, understood: as, "A few [of] years,""A thousand [of] doors;"like the phrases, "A couple of fowls,""A score of fat bullocks.

3.Though the irregular plurals of our language appear considerably numerous when brought together, they are in fact very few in comparison with the many thousands that are perfectly simple and regular.

There are also some other difficulties respecting the plurals of nouns, and especially respecting those of foreign words; of compound terms; of names and titles; and of words redundant or deficient in regard to the numbers.

6.The vowel a, at the end of a word, (except in the questionable term huzza, or when silent, as in guinea,) has always its Italian or middle sound, as heard in the interjection aha! a sound which readily unites with that of s flat, and which ought, in deliberate speech, to be carefully preserved in plurals from this ending: as, Canada, the Canadas; cupola, cupolas; comma, commas; anathema, anathemas.

As any vowel sound may be uttered with an s, many writers suppose these letters to require for plurals strictly regular, the s only; and to take es occasionally, by way of exception.

19.Of nouns purely English, the following thirteen are the only simple words that form distinct plurals not ending in s or es, and four of these are often regular: man, men; woman, women; child, children; brother, brethren or brothers; ox, oxen; goose, geese; foot, feet; tooth, teeth; louse, lice; mouse, mice; die, dice or dies; penny, pence or pennies; pea, pease or peas.

22.There is neither difficulty nor uncertainty respecting the proper forms for the plurals of compound nouns in general; but the two irregular words man and woman are often varied at the beginning of the looser kind of compounds, contrary to what appears to be the general analogy of similar words.

And it is desirable that singulars and plurals should always abide by their appropriate forms, so that they may be thereby distinguished with readiness.

Thus, a council, a committee, a jury, a meeting, a society, a flock, or a herd, is singular; and the regular plurals are councils, committees, juries, meetings, societies, flocks, herds.

Thus, cattle, for beasts of pasture, and pulse, for peas and beans, though in appearance singulars only, are generally, if not always, plural; and summons, gallows, chintz, series, superficies, molasses, suds, hunks, jakes, trapes, and corps, with the appearance of plurals, are generally, if not always, singular.

Though these three classes of plurals may not be perfectly separable, I shall endeavour to exhibit them in the order of this explanation.

Plurals by composition: backstairs, cocklestairs, firearms, headquarters, hotcockles, spatterdashes, self-affairs.

Thus, deer, folk, fry, gentry, grouse, hose, neat, sheep, swine, vermin, and rest, (i. e. the rest, the others, the residue,) are regular singulars, but they are used also as plurals, and that more frequently.

UNDER NOTE VI.ARTICLES OR PLURALS.

The words, separately considered, are singular; but, taken together, they imply plurality; and they can be properly construed only after plurals, or singulars taken conjointly.

"Some nouns have plurals belonging only to themselves.

"Those nouns, that end in f. or fe (except some few I shall mention presently), form plurals by changing those letters into ves: as, thief, thieves; wife, wives.

"From words ending with y preceded by a consonant, we form the plurals of nouns, the persons of verbs, agent nouns, perfect participles, comparatives, and superlatives, by changing the y into i, and adding es, ed, er, eth, or est."Walker, Murray, et al. cor.

"This and that, and their plurals these and those, are often opposed to each other in a sentence.

Cherubim and seraphim, Heb. plurals, sometimes mistaken for singulars.