Читать книгу An English Grammar - James Witt Sewell - Страница 18

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40. Examples of this inflection are—

 man—men

 foot—feet

 goose—geese

 louse—lice

 mouse—mice

 tooth—teeth

Some other words—as book, turf, wight, borough—formerly had the same inflection, but they now add the ending -s.

41. Akin to this class are some words, originally neuter, that have the singular and plural alike; such as deer, sheep, swine, etc.

Other words following the same usage are, pair, brace, dozen, after numerals (if not after numerals, or if preceded by the prepositions in, by, etc, they add -s): also trout, salmon; head, sail; cannon; heathen, folk, people.

The words horse and foot, when they mean soldiery, retain the same form for plural meaning; as—

The foot are fourscore thousand, The horse are thousands ten. —Macaulay.

Lee marched over the mountain wall—

Over the mountains winding down,

Horse and foot, into Frederick town. —Whittier.