plurale

Plurale, or plural, is the grammatical category that marks more than one referent. It is the counterpart of the singular and appears in many languages with varying rules for formation and agreement. The term comes from Latin pluralis and is widely used in grammar descriptions to describe the form, use, and behavior of plural nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and verbs in some languages.

In Italian, the plurale is typically expressed by changing the noun ending and by ensuring determiners and adjectives agree in number. Most masculine nouns ending in -o become -i in the plural, and feminine nouns ending in -a become -e. Nouns ending in -e usually become -i. There are irregular plurals, such as uomo → uomini, mano → mani, and some nouns with shared patterns across genders like bambino → bambini and amico → amici. Adjectives and determiners adjust to match the plural form of the nouns they modify.

In English, the plural is usually formed by adding -s or -es, but many words are irregular. Regular examples include book → books and bus → buses; irregular plurals include man → men, child → children, and mouse → mice. Some nouns have the same form in both singular and plural (deer, species), and others are mass or collective nouns that do not always take a plural form when referring to the group as a unit.

Beyond these languages, plural systems vary widely. Some languages distinguish more than two number categories (such as dual or trial), while others use zero plural forms or rely on context rather than explicit marking. Plural formation often interacts with adjective agreement, article use, and verb conjugation, reflecting broader patterns of number theory in language.