Nouns
Verbs
The term number refers to whether a noun is singular or plural. Most nouns can be either, depending on whether you are talking about one thing (dog) or more than one (dogs). You know the basic rule of adding - s to make the plural of a noun, and you also know that many nouns don't follow that rule—for example, sheep (singular), sheep (plural); enemy, enemies; wharf, wharves, hero, heroes, goose, geese, and so on. You should check your dictionary if you're not sure about a plural. Do not add - 's to a singular form to make it plural, even if the noun you are using is a family name: the Taylors, not the Taylor's; donkeys, not donkey's; taxis, not taxi's.
The singular and plural forms of some nouns with Latin and Greek endings can cause trouble. The noun data, for example, is actually a plural; datum is the singular.
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The final datum is not consistent with the preceding data, which are positive.
Although today the plural data is widely treated as singular, keep the distinction, particularly in scientific writing.
Here are some other examples of Latin and Greek singular and plural words: bacterium, bacteria, criterion, criteria, medium, media; alumnus (masculine singular) /alumni (masculine plural), alumna (feminine singular) /alumnae (feminine plural). If you are writing about television, use medium. If you are writing about radio, television, and the press, use media.
