One way to check whether a noun phrase is singular or plural is by seeing whether it triggers singular or plural agreement with a verb when it appears as the subject of a sentence:
- Singular: This monkey likes bananas. [and not This monkey like...]
- Plural: These monkeys like bananas. [and not These monkeys likes...]
Another way, also illustrated in the above examples, is by looking at whether a singular or plural determiner is used (in these examples, the determiner this is singular and the determiner these is plural), though with a determiner like the, the form doesn't change, and there are a few cases where the determiner appears to be singular, but plural agreement is triggered:
- Plural: A few/dozen/hundred/million monkeys like bananas.
When one is plural
It's possible to construct examples where, mathematically speaking, the subject refers to one item, but it still triggers plural agreement:
- Plural: 3 minus 2 people live there. [plural even if 3-2=1]
Some nouns are also grammatically marked as plurals even when talking about an individual item:
- Plural: These scissors are sharp. [and not This scissors is sharp...]
Other nouns that behave like this include trousers and spectacles. Each of these nouns refers to objects with multiple parts that are alike, but each blade of a pair of scissors is not called a scissor, each leg of a pair of trousers is not called a trouser and so on. For this reason, the British television word game Countdown bans contestants from using the singular forms of these words. This is an unfortunate rule because singular forms of these words are perfectly acceptable in English under certain conditions (see below for more).
When greater than one is singular
Regardless of the number of referents, nouns almost always appear in the singular when modifying another noun:
- A three-day ticket [and not A three-days ticket]
- A toothbrush [and not A teethbrush]
- A man eater [and not A men eater]
This is just as true of the words that Countdown claims do not have singular forms:
- A scissor kick [and not A scissors kick]
- My trouser pockets [and not My trousers pockets]
There are also examples where nouns are clearly plural, but trigger singular agreement with the verb. This often happens with measurements:
- 2.7 grams is too much. [and not 2.7 grams are too much.]
- 27 people is too many. [and not 27 people are too many]
Zero and negative numbers
Zero can be marked as either singular or plural in English:
- Plural: No monkeys are...
- Singular: No monkey is...
- Singular: Neither monkey is... [Note that neither is always singular so cannot be used with the plural monkeys]
- Plural: Zero monkeys are... [but not Zero monkey is...]
Minus one is usually marked as singular, while all other negative numbers are marked as plural:
- Singular: The temperature dropped to minus one degree.
- Plural: The temperature dropped to minus one degrees. [Also used, but less often]
- Plural: The temperature dropped to minus two degrees.
When the semantics matters
Sometimes expressions for collections of things allow or force plural agreement even if the head noun is grammatically singular:
- A couple of monkeys like bananas. [couple is singular, but like is plural]
- Led Zeppelin was/were touring. [Both singular and plural agreement are widely used with names for bands and other groups]
Below some Spanish translations - Mexican variant
ReplyDeleteA este[singular] chango[singular] le gustan los plátanos
*As in English
A estos[plural] changos les[plural] gustan los plátanos
*As in English
A /unos[plural] pocos/una[singular] docena de/un[singular] ciento/un[singular] millón de/ changos les[plural] gustan las bananas
*Some forms as in English
3 menos 2 gente[wrong use of "gente"] viven allá
3 menos 2[3-2=1] personas[plural of "persona" instead] viven allá
An interesting thing to observe here is that, this sentence is a short form of:
3 personas[plural] menos 2 personas[plural] viven[plural] allá
Stylistically best written as:
tres menos dos personas viven allá
*Similar to English
Estas tijeras[plural] son[plural] filosas
*As in English
The word trousers translates to pantalón[singular]
(when talking about a singular (often specific) pair of trousers)
*Different to English usage
The word scissors translates to tijeras[plural]
(when refering to the cutting tool, the word is plural regardless of being singular or not, RAE differs)
singular form is often used in figurative language as in the sentence:
Metió un gol de media tijera
literally meaning
He scored a half sissor kick goal
*As in English
Un boleto[singular] de tres dias[plural]
I believe this is because tres dias (three days) is treated as a modifier, as it would:
Un boleto[singular] de un día[singular]
the modifier won't change the fact that it is a single ticket
*Different to English usage
Un cepillo[singular] de dientes[plural]
As in the previous sentence, "cepillo de dientes" is treated as a modifier
*Different from English usage
Una[singular] come hombres[plural]
I guess this is because this person needs to eat several of them to gain that title
*Different from English usage
Una[singular] patada de tijera[singular]
*As in English
La bolsa[singular] de mi pantalón[singular]
*As in English
2.7 gramos[plural] son[plural] demasiado
when referring to the exact grams
2.7 gramos[plural] es[singular] demasiado
when referring to the quantity (singular) 2.7 grams add up to
*Some forms as in English
27 gentes[challenged plural] es[singular] mucho
RAE would say the word "gentes" does not exist, but quite a few people use it in México
27 personas[plural] son[plural] muchas
when referring to the collective but preserving their individuality
27 personas[plural] es[singular] mucho
when referring to the mass
*Few times as in English
Ningún[singular] chango es[singular] ...
("Ningún" is singular for a singular noun while "ningunos/ningunas" would be used for a plural noun")
Ningunos[plural] changos son[plural] ...
But you can use de singular for "ninguno" adding "de los[plural]" (of the)
Ninguno[singular] de los changos es[singular] ..
translates back to english as:
[none[?] of the monkeys[plural]][zero-singular?] are[plural]
*Similar to English
La temperatura[singular] bajó[singular] a menos un grado[singular]
*Sometimes as in English
A una pareja[singular] de changos[plural] les[plural] gustan los plátanos
Indeed only individual monkeys like bananas, couple is an abstract concept
* Same as in English
Led Zeppelin estuvo[singular] de gira
when on its own (no definite article), a group identifier can only be singular (even if their name is plural)
Los[plural] Led Zepplin estuvieron[plural] de gira
(short form of Los miembros del grupo Led Zeppelin estuvieron de gira)
*Some as in English
@smoonoz
ReplyDeleteMuchos gracias for all that data! It's great to have a direct comparison of Spanish and English side by side. Maybe I'll be able to progress a bit further with my Spanish after all.
A few comments on what you've said:
3 menos 2 gente[wrong use of "gente"] viven allá
3 menos 2[3-2=1] personas[plural of "persona" instead] viven allá
'Person' in English of course has two different plurals: (1) 'people', which is the form that you find in everyday modern use, and (2) 'persons', which is the form you find on signs in elevators (it's almost exclusively a legal term that can apply also to corporations, even if they don't ride in elevators!).
I think 'people' in the sense that I was using it would be translated as 'personas' in Spanish. English also has the word 'peoples', which is not used very often, but is found in sentences like "The peoples of the world are united" (meaning all types of 'people' are united). Is that the same meaning as 'gente'?
Un boleto[singular] de tres dias[plural]
We could say it the same way in English too which would make 'days' plural: "A ticket for three days". Spanish and other Romance languages don't allow the kind of construction I was talking about. English basically allows as many nouns as you like to appear all in a row. Here's an example with five nouns (note that all but the last one must be in the singular regardless of whether they are referring to multiple items or not):
e.g.,
The car door window glass fragments
This can be paraphrased (approximately) as:
The fragments of glass from the window(s) of the door(s) of the car(s)
English is not alone among the Germanic languages in allowing a string of nouns like this. In German, the convention is not to put spaces between them in writing so the whole sequence can look like one very long word, but it's essentially the same as English in this respect.
But you can use de singular for "ninguno" adding "de los[plural]" (of the)
Ninguno[singular] de los changos es[singular] ..
translates back to english as:
[none[?] of the monkeys[plural]][zero-singular?] are[plural]
In English it depends on whether you're talking about a count or mass noun, so with 'monkey' (a count noun), it would be "None of the monkeys are...", but with 'water' (a mass noun), it would be "None of the water is...". The trouble with that is it looks like the verb is agreeing with the wrong noun, but that is the reality of how people speak.
Thanks again for the comment!