Plurale Tantum - Usage in Non-English Languages

Usage in Non-English Languages

Pluralia tantum vary arbitrarily between languages. For example, Swedish en sax ("a scissor") is not a plurale tantum, while in English it is (scissors).

In some other languages, rather than quantifying a plurale tantum noun with a measure word, special numeral forms are used in such cases. In Polish, for example, "one pair of eyeglasses" is expressed as either jedne okulary (one-plur. glasses-plur.) or jedna para okularów (one-sing. pair-sing. glasses-gen. plur.). For larger quantities, "collective numeral" forms are available: troje drzwi (three doors), pięcioro skrzypiec (five violins). Compare these to the ordinary numeral forms found in Polish: trzy filmy / pięć filmów (three films / five films)

Russian деньги = "money" originally had a singular деньга which meant a copper coin worth half a kopeck.

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