In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. Modern English like most other languages distinguishes two numbers: singular and plural. The meaning of singular and plural seems to be self-explanatory, that is the opposition: one and more than one. With all this, expression of number in different classes of English nouns presents certain difficulties for a foreigner to master.
Beard, R. (1992). Number. In W. Bright (ed.) International Encyclopedia of
Corbett, G. (2000). Number. Cambridge University Press.
Deutschbein. M. System der neuenglischen Syntax, 1928; G. Сurme. A Grammar of the English Language. London-New York, 1931.
Francis. W. N. The Structure of American English. New York, 1958, p. 234; see also: R. Quirk. The Use of English. London, 1964, p. 74.
Fries. Ch. The Structure of English. An Introduction to the Construction of English Sentences. London, 1963, pp. 62-63, pp. 94тАФ100.
Illyish B. The structure of Modern English M.- L. 1965