Singulars

Defective nouns Plurals without singulars Some nouns have no singular form.

For singulars, the modern possessive or genitive inflection is a survival from certain genitive inflections in Old English, and the apostrophe originally marked the loss of the old e (for example, lambes became lamb’s).

For the (especially British) treatment of teams as plural even if they have singular names, see Singulars with collective meaning treated as plural above.

Singulars beginning in ki- take plurals in vi- and often refer to hand tools and other artefacts.

This article discusses the variety of ways in which English plural nouns are formed from the corresponding singular forms, as well as various issues concerning the usage of singulars and plurals in English.