Plural

==Use in systems of grammatical number ==
In many languages, there is also a [[dual (grammatical number)|dual number]] (used for indicating two objects). Some other grammatical numbers present in various languages include [[trial (grammatical number)|trial]] (for three objects) and [[paucal]] (for an imprecise but small number of objects). In languages with dual, trial, or paucal numbers, plural refers to numbers higher than those. However, numbers besides singular, plural, and (to a lesser extent) dual are extremely rare. Languages with [[classifier (linguistics)|numerical classifiers]] such as [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]] lack any significant grammatical number at all, though they are likely to have plural [[personal pronoun]]s.

Some languages (like [[Mele-Fila language|Mele-Fila]]) distinguish between a plural and a greater plural. A greater plural refers to an abnormally large number for the object of discussion. The distinction between the paucal, the plural, and the greater plural is often relative to the type of object under discussion. For example, in discussing oranges, the paucal number might imply fewer than ten, whereas for the population of a country, it might be used for a few hundred thousand.

The [[Austronesian languages]] of [[Sursurunga language|Sursurunga]] and [[Lihir language|Lihir]] have extremely complex grammatical number systems, with singular, dual, paucal, greater paucal, and plural.

Traces of the dual and paucal can be found in some [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] and [[Baltic languages]] (apart from those that preserve the dual number, such as [[Slovene language|Slovene]]).  These are known as "pseudo-dual" and "pseudo-paucal" grammatical numbers.  For example, [[Polish language|Polish]] and [[Russian language|Russian]] use different forms of nouns with the numerals 2, 3, or 4 (and higher numbers ending with these{{cn|date=July 2021}}) than with the numerals 5, 6, etc. (genitive singular in Russian and nominative plural in Polish in the former case, genitive plural in the latter case). Also some nouns may follow different declension patterns when denoting objects which are typically referred to in pairs. For example, in Polish, the noun "{{Lang|pl|oko}}", among other meanings, may refer to a human or animal [[eye]] or to a drop of oil on water. The plural of "{{Lang|pl|oko}}" in the first meaning is "{{Lang|pl|oczy}}" (even if actually referring to more than two eyes), while in the second it is "{{Lang|pl|oka}}" (even if actually referring to exactly two drops).

Traces of dual can also be found in [[Modern Hebrew]].  [[Biblical Hebrew]] had grammatical dual via the suffix {{transl|he|-ạyim}} as opposed to {{Script/Hebrew|־ים}} {{transl|he|-īm}} for [[Grammatical gender#Hebrew|masculine words]].  Contemporary use of a true dual number in Hebrew is chiefly used in words regarding time and numbers. However, in Biblical and Modern Hebrew, the pseudo-dual as plural of "eyes" {{Script/Hebrew|עין / עינים}} {{transl|he|ʿạyin / ʿēnạyim}} "eye / eyes" as well as "hands", "legs" and several other words are retained.  For further information, see {{Section link|Dual (grammatical number)|Hebrew}}.

Certain nouns in some languages have the unmarked form referring to multiple items, with an inflected form referring to a single item. These cases are described with the terms ''collective number'' and ''[[singulative number]]''. Some languages may possess a '''massive plural''' and a '''numerative plural''', the first implying a large mass and the second implying division. For example, "the waters of the Atlantic Ocean" versus, "the waters of [each of] the Great Lakes".

[[Ghil'ad Zuckermann]] uses the term ''superplural'' to refer to massive plural. He argues that the Australian Aboriginal [[Barngarla language]] has four grammatical numbers: singular, dual, plural and ''superplural''.<ref name=Rev>[[Ghil'ad Zuckermann|Zuckermann, Ghil'ad]] 2020, [[w:en:Revivalistics|''Revivalistics: From the Genesis of Israeli to Language Reclamation in Australia and Beyond'']], [https://global.oup.com/academic/product/revivalistics-9780199812790 Oxford University Press]. (ISBN 9780199812790 / ISBN 9780199812776)</ref>{{rp|227-228}} For example:
*''{{Lang|bjb|wárraidya}}'' "[[emu]]" (singular)
*''{{Lang|bjb|wárraidya'''lbili'''}}'' "two emus" (dual)
*''{{Lang|bjb|wárraidya'''rri'''}}'' "emus" (plural)
*''{{Lang|bjb|wárraidya'''ilyarranha'''}}'' "a lot of emus", "heaps of emus" (superplural)<ref name=Rev/>{{rp|228}}