twain and its contracted form twin, the latter having a newly formed plural twins. Another trace of the distinction between dual and plural is found in the reciprocal pronoun phrases "each other" and "one another."

Number is the most widely extended of all the inflections. It belongs to most nouns, to the personal pronouns, to some verbal forms, and to the adjectives this and that. This range does not seem very large, however, and beyond this we look in vain for the grammatical inflection of number.

The regular plurals in English now end in s. To conform to certain laws of spelling or of euphony the termination is often es, as, ladies, taxes. After x, sh, ch, s, and other sibilant sounds this must be pronounced as a separate syllable.

The so-called irregular plurals are mostly survivals of old Saxon regular forms. They are not to be thought of as defects but should be explained and classified. There are the strong plurals formed by an internal change, as teeth, mice. These were formerly more numerous than at present. Another form of Saxon plural is found in oxen. Some plurals in n that were formerly in use may still be heard in some parts of England and Scotland, as hosen, shoon.

A few forms show the results of mixed processes, as children, brethren. Thus child had an old plural childer, and the present form combines this with the plural inflection in n.

Notwithstanding its larger extent, number seems,

at first thought, to be the simplest of the inflections. Certainly, the main rule for plurals of nouns is easy to be understood and can be learned by children at an early age. Yet when the specific and exceptional rules have also been mastered, the teacher may well feel that a large territory has been covered. There are nouns ending in y, o, f, and fe to be considered. There are old English plurals, and foreign plurals, nouns with two plurals and with no plurals, nouns which are compound words, and those consisting of a title and a name together, all of these requiring special treatment. Among the nouns ending in f, it will be noticed that those that retain the ƒ in the plural are mostly Norman French, as chiefs, while those that have ves are Saxon in origin, as wives. Beef, however, is an exception. Its plural beeves suggests an analogy with the Latin boves. News and tidings, now singular, were originally treated as plurals. Thus Roger Ascham wrote (1550) "There are many news. Wages, dregs, pains, ashes and other words have all been treated in both ways. A large class of plurals is made up of the names of pairs, as tongs, reins, snuffers, etc. These are sometimes called false plurals. It is often well to use the word pair with these and give the phrase its true singular construction as, "A pair of scissors."

Many foreign words introduced into English have brought their plurals with them, as phenomena, foci. The grammar student should classify these foreign plurals according to the principles of the languages from which they come,

But it is no part of the purpose of this book to set forth specifically the irregularities of English number. These are included in every text-book in grammar and are discussed minutely in the orthographic chapters of the dictionaries. The subject is an important one, but the forms are to be learned chiefly in the constructive lessons of elementary language teaching rather than as a part of the science of grammar.

After the study of number forms, comes the syntax of number. Verbs must be kept in proper agreement, with special attention given to cases where the subject is a collective noun, or is accompanied by a modifier. The agreement of the pronoun with its antecedent requires careful consideration, especially when the possessive forms are used, as "Each of them took his books."

In some instances the number form of the verb is determined by the general sense to be conveyed, rather than by the number form of the subject, as “Bread and milk is good food for children.' This is especially true when a collective noun is limited by a following phrase, as "A large number of the men were disappointed."

There are many words and phrases that contain a hovering sense of either singular or plural, so that personal judgment is sometimes a factor in determining the form to be used, as "Already a train or two (has? have?) come in." But such questions should usually be avoided by a change in construction.

Many passages in literature might be quoted in which the number agreement is different from that

which modern English requires, as "How many numbers is in nouns? Two."-Shakespeare.

Shall we say "Twice two are four," or "is four ?" Is "Measles are prevalent," or "is prevalent," the correct form of speech? These and kindred questions are often presented to the grammarian, who sometimes has to fling himself free from the tendency to hair-splitting and belittling discussions, and enter larger fields of linguistic thought.

What is the plural of tailor's goose? Is it geese or gooses? This is an example of a class of grammatical questions that are often asked. The story is told of a tailor who avoided the question by writing his order for two of these useful implements as follows:

Wanted-one goose.

Also-another goose.

And was he not right? "Good style" avoids even the appearance of grammatical incongruity. Yet another has rightly said, "The plural of tailor's goose is goose

irons."

Number is a grammatical property that must be dealt with, and many specific points must be noted. Yet the wise student will not linger too long over its minute details but pass on to larger investigations of more broadening grammatical truths.

XVII

GENDER

English surpasses in the simplicity of gender all other languages, and has established its claim to be the most philosophic among idioms.-M. SCHELE DE VERE.

Latin has the English gender distinction by sex, and in addition to it (but not in conflict with it) the system of gender by endings. Only those nouns which have no gender according to the English Syntax, are divided into masculine, feminine, and neuter endings.-HARPER AND BURGESS.

"Young nations, and those having a lively imagination impute sex to many lifeless objects. Thus the Algonquin tribes, as well as the German nation have many facts of gender that come from the imaginary world in which the people are inclined to dwell. * * * But English is a practical business-like language."

Sex, whether fanciful or real, has no proper connection with gender.—Strong, Logeman and WheELER.

Gender is no natural distinction in language.—PEILE'S PHILOLOGY.

Nothing hinders us from supposing that grammatical gender originally meant something quite different from sex. JESPERSON.

"In Germany, a gentleman writes a masculine letter of feminine love to a neuter young lady, with a feminine pen and feminine ink on masculine sheets of neuter paper, and encloses it in a masculine envelope with a feminine address to his darling, though neuter, Gretchen. He has a masculine head, a feminine hand and a neuter heart. A masculine