This almes schalt thou doon.-Chaucer.

A plural almesses also occurs:

These ben general almesses, or werkes of charity.

Chaucer.

Riches is derived from the Norman-French richold English, richesse and riches :

esse;

Richesse that cometh litel and litel.-Id.

A plural richesses is not unfrequently found:

By concord and pees the smalé riches wexen grete, and by debaat and discord the grete richesses fallen down.-Id.

108. Some nouns, though singular in form, have occasionally a collective plural meaning: crowd, people, army, navy, &c.

The merchandise which thou hast brought to Rome
Are all too dear for me: lie they upon thy hand.

Shakspere.

109. Politic-s, ethic-s, optic-s, and similar words, are literal translations of the plural terms that express these sciences in Greek. Ta politika, "things relating to the state," politics; ta ethika, "things relating to morals," ethics. They are frequently used as singulars.

110. A few English nouns have no singular:

111. A certain class of nouns, from their nature, have no plural: gold, silver, armour, pride, &c.

112. The plurals of a few nouns differ in meaning from the singulars. Compass, compasses; corn, corns ; iron, irons; salt, salts; content, contents; domino, dominoes; cloth, cloths; pincer, pincers; good, goods;

vesper, vespers.

113. A few foreign words still retain the plural form of the languages from which they were taken. Hebrew, seraph-im, cherub-im; Italian, dilettanti ; Greek, antipod-es; Latin, tumuli, strata, &c.

The present tendency of the English language is to reject these foreign plurals. Hence we find crocuses, genius-es, terminus-es, vivarium-s, &c.

Case.

114. A syllable or a single consonant is frequently suffixed to a noun or pronoun to mark the relation in which it stands to other words. Thus, in the bird-s song,' the letter s shows the relation existing between the bird and the song, viz. that the song proceeds from the bird.

The simple word and the suffix are together called a Case.

With one exception, this suffix is usually lost in the English language.

115. There are five cases commonly recognised: the Nominative, the Accusative or Objective, the Genitive or Possessive, the Dative, and the Ablative.

116. The Nominative denotes the source of an action, as, 'the bird sings.' The act of singing proceeds from the bird. It is often called the Subject.

117. The Accusative marks the object to which the action is directed, as, 'the boy strikes the ball.' The act of striking is directed to the ball. It is often called the Object and the Objective case.

118. The Genitive shows the source from which some object proceeds, as, 'the sun-'s light:' sun-'s marks the source from which the light proceeds. The person from whom an article is obtained is frequently the owner of the article. Hence this case is often called the Possessive.

119. The Dative originally denoted locality, i. e. the place at, or in, which something rests. 'I stand he-re,' i. e. in this place. It is now frequently used with verbs of motion; 'come he-re,' 'go the-re.'

120. The Ablative marks the means, instrument, or manner, and is also used to denote the agent with a passive verb.

121. When we address an object, we sometimes name the object addressed:

Enchantress, fare thee well.-Scott.

This use of a noun is frequently termed the Vocative case.

122. In English, and in many modern languages, the case-suffixes are lost, and their places supplied by prepositions: the dog-s collar,' or 'the collar of the dog.'

123. No example of a nominative suffix occurs in English. I, thou, he, she, we, they, are sometimes called nominatives, but they have no case-suffix.

124. In Anglo-Saxon -n was an accusative suffix. It is still retained in the words whe-n, the-n, tha-n. Compare the Latin forms quo-m, tu-m, qua-m.

Me, thee, us, you, are sometimes called accusatives, but they have no case-suffix.

125. The genitive suffix in most of the IndoEuropean languages is s preceded by a vowel. We find -is, -es, -as, -os, -us. In Anglo-Saxon the form -es was often used, as, bird-es; in old English, -es or -is, bird-es, bird-is. In modern English the vowel is omitted, and its place indicated by ('), bird's. The vowel is still seen in Wedn-es-day, i. e. Woden-es-day.

126. The omission of the vowel produces euphonic changes, similar to those required in forming the plural, viz.:

(a) 8 is added when the noun ends in a sharp mute.
(b) ≈ (written s) when it ends in a flat mute, a vowel,
or a liquid.

(c) ez (written es) when the noun ends in a sibilant.

In the genitive plural s is lost, except when the plural is formed by an obsolete process; 'the dogs' tails,' 'the judges' wigs,' 'the children's laugh,' 'the men's hats.'

Sometimes it is lost in the singular when the dependent noun ends in a sibilant, and the noun upon which it is dependent begins with a similar letter. 'For goodness' sake,' 'for conscience' sake.'

In who-se, tho-se, and hi-s, the vowel was omitted in Anglo-Saxon.

127. In the plural and in the feminine singular the genitive suffix in Anglo-Saxon was -re. This is still retained in the possessive pronouns he-r and thei-r.

128. Another genitive suffix in Anglo-Saxon was -n. Traces of this are still preserved in mi-ne and thi-ne, and in such adjectives as gold-en, of gold' (§ 134).

129. Another mode of expressing the genitive is by substituting the preposition of for the case-suffix ; 'the song of the bird.'

130. A common suffix of the dative singular and plural in Anglo-Saxon is -m or -um. A few examples survive in modern English: hi-m, the-m, who-m, now used as accusatives; whil-om and seld-om.

131. The dative singular feminine in Anglo-Saxon sometimes has the suffix -re. It is preserved in the following words: he-r (now used as an accusative),