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3. By a noun, pronoun, or adjective, being prefixed to

the substantive, as,

A cock-sparrow.

A man-servant.

A he-goat.

A he-bear.

A male-child.

Male descendants.

A hen-sparrow.
A maid-servant.

A she-goat.

A she-bear.

A female-child.

Female descendants,

It sometimes happens, that the same noun is either masculine or feminine. The words parent, child, cousin, friend, neighbour, servant, and several others, are used indifferently for males or females.

Nouns with variable terminations contribute to conciseness and perspicuity of expression. We have only a sufficient number of them to make us feel our want; for when we say of a woman, she is a philosopher, an astronomer, a builder, a weaver, we perceive an impropriety in the termination, which we cannot avoid; but we can say, that she is a botanist, a student, a witness, a scholar, an orphan, a companion, because these terminations have not annexed to them the notion of sex.

SECT. 3. Of Number.

NUMBER is the consideration of an object, as

one or more.

E

Substantives are of two numbers, the singular and the plural.

The singular number expresses but one object; as, a chair, a table.

The plural number signifies more objects than one; as chairs, tables.

Some nouns, from the nature of the things which they express, are used only in the singular form; as, wheat, pitch, gold, sloth, pride, &c. ; others only in the plural form; as bellows, scissors, lungs, riches, &c.

Some words are the same in both numbers; as deer, sheep, swine, &c.

The plural number of nouns is generally formed by adding s to the singular as dove, doves ; face, faces; thought, thoughts. But when the substantive singular ends in x, ch soft, sh, ss, or s, we add es in the plural: as box, boxes; church, churches; lash, lashes; kiss, kisses; rebus, rebusses. If the singular ends in ch hard, the plural is formed by adding s; as, monarch, monarchs; distich, distichs.

· Nouns which end in o, have sometimes es, added to the plural; as cargo, echo, hero, negro, manifesto, potato, volcano, wo and sometimes only; as folio, grotto, junto, nuncio, portico, punctilio, tyro.

Nouns ending in f, or fe, are rendered plural by the change of those terminations into ves: as loaf, loaves; half, halves; wife, wives; except grief, relief, reproof, and several others, which form the plural by the addition of s. Those which end in ff, have the regular plural as ruff, ruffs; except, staff, staves.

Nouns which have y in the singular, with no other vowel in the same syllable, change it into ies in the plural: as,

beauty, beauties; fly, flies. But the y is not changed, when there is another vowel in the syllable: as, key, keys, delay, delays; attorney, attorneys.

Some nouns become plural by changing the a of the singular into e: as, man, men: woman, women; alderman, aldermen. The words ox and child, form oxen and children; brother, makes either brothers, or brethren. Sometimes the diphthong oo is changed into ee in the plural: as, foot, feet; goose, geese, tooth, teeth. Louse and mouse make lice and mice. Penny makes pence, or pennies, when the coin is meant; die, dice (for play); die, dies (for coining.)

It is agreeable to analogy, and the practice of the generality of correct writers, to construe the following words as plural nouns ; pains, riches, alms : and also, mathematics, metaphysics, politics, ethics, optics, pneumatics, with other similar names of sciences.

Dr. Johnson says that the adjective much is sometimes a term of number, as well as of quantity. This may account for the instances we meet with of its associating with pains as a plural noun: as, " much pains." The connexion, however, is not to be recommended.

The word news is now almost universally considered as belonging to the singular number.

The noun means, is used both in the singular and the plural number.

The following words, which have been adopted from the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, are thus distinguished, with respect to number.

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* Genii, when denoting aerial spirits: Geniuses, when signifying

persons of genius.

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Some words, derived from the learned languages, are confined to the plural number: as, antipodes, credenda,. literati, minutix.

The following nouns being, in Latin, both singular and plural, are used in the same manner when adopted into our tongue hiatus, apparatus, series, species.

SECT. 4. Of Case.

THE Cases of substantives signify their different terminations, which serve to express the relations of one thing to another.

In English, substantives have but two cases, the nominative, and the possessive or genitive. The nominative case simply expresses the name of a thing, or the subject of the verb: as, "The boy plays;" "The girls learn."

The possessive or genitive case expresses the relation of property or possession; and has an apostrophe with the letter s coming after it as

*Indexes, when it signifies pointers, or Tables of contents: Indi ces, when referring to Algebraic quantities.

"The scholar's duty;" "My father's house :" that is, "The duty of the scholar ""The house of my father."

When the plural ends in s, the other s is omitted, but the apostrophe is retained: as, "On eagles' wings;""The drapers' company."

Sometimes also, when the singular terminates. in ss, the apostrophic s is not added: as, "For goodness' sake:" "For righteousness' sake." English substantives may be declined in the following manner :/

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The English language, to express different connexions and relations of one thing to another, uses, for the most part, prepositions. The Greek and Latin among the ancient, and some too among the modern languages, as the German, vary the termination or ending the substantive, to answer the same purpose; an example of which, in the Latin is inserted, as explanatory of the nature and use of cases, viz...

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