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Because many of these plurals do not end in -s, some of them have been reinterpreted as singular forms: particularly the words datum and medium (as in a "medium of communication"), where the original plurals data and media are now, in many contexts, used by some as singular mass nouns: "The media is biased"; "This data shows us that ...
A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, under the heading "The forms of the genitive inflection", similarly refers to the "genitive inflection with regular and irregular plurals", [27] but later – especially with regard to the "group genitive" – revises this to clarify that the -s ending is not a case ending as in German or Latin ...
's, an ending used to form the possessive of English nouns and noun phrases 's, a contraction of the English words is and has 's, a form of the English plural ending, written after single letters and in some other instances Greengrocers' apostrophes, a non-standard manner to form noun plurals 's, a contraction of the old Dutch genitive article ...
The apostrophe is also used to mark the genitive for words that end in an -s sound: words ending in -s, -x, and -z, some speakers also including words ending in the sound . As Norwegian does not form the plural with -s, there is no need to distinguish between an -s forming the possessive and the -s forming the plural.
Most nouns in English have distinct singular and plural forms. Nouns and most noun phrases can form a possessive construction. Plurality is most commonly shown by the ending-s (or -es), whereas possession is always shown by the enclitic-'s or, for plural forms ending in s, by just an apostrophe. Consider, for example, the forms of the noun girl.
In Latin, most second declension masculine nouns ending in -us form their plural in -i. However, some Latin nouns ending in -us are not second declension (cf. Latin grammar). For example, third declension neuter nouns such as opus and corpus have plurals opera and corpora, and fourth declension masculine and feminine nouns such as sinus and ...
See English plural § Singulars with collective meaning treated as plural. English nouns are not marked for case as they are in some languages, but they have possessive forms, through the addition of -'s (as in John's, children's) or just an apostrophe (with no change in pronunciation) in the case of -[e]s plurals (the dogs' owners) and ...
In terms of pronunciation, the ending is pronounced as / ɪ z / after sibilants (as in lurches), as / s / after voiceless consonants other than sibilants (as in makes), and as / z / otherwise (as in adds). These are the same rules that apply to the pronunciation of the regular noun plural suffix-[e]s and the possessive-'s. The spelling rules ...