Latin Grammar: Singular and Plural Magister Henderson Latin I

Grammatical Number The difference between singular and plural is one of grammatical number. Singular is used for a unit or one or for a group that is treated collectively. Plural is used for sets of two or more. Some languages have more than two grammatical numbers; Ancient Greek had a “dual” that was used for pairs.

Plural Verbs in Latin So far we have seen the “–t” ending is used for singular verbs. It corresponds to the subject pronouns “he”, “she”, or “it”. The “-nt” ending is used for plural verbs. It corresponds to the subject pronoun “they”.

Plural Nouns in Latin We’ve seen that the “–a” ending is used for singular nouns. To make a noun plural we change the ending to “-ae”.

Adjectives in Latin In English we typically do not change the ending of adjectives when the noun they modify becomes plural. However in Latin you must also change the adjective ending to “-ae” to form the plural.

Subject-Verb Agreement Singular subjects require singular verbs Plural subjects require plural verbs. Multiple singular subjects also require plural verbs.