In English distinct distributive numerals exist, such as
singly,
doubly, and
triply, and are derived from the corresponding multiplier (of Latin origin, via French) by suffixing
-y (reduction of Middle English
-lely >
-ly). However, this is more commonly expressed
periphrastically, such as "one by one", "two by two"; "one at a time", "two at a time"; "one of each", "two of each"; "in twos", "in threes"; or using a counter word as in "in groups of two" or "two pieces to a ...". Examples include: • Please get off the bus
one by one so no one falls. • She jumped up the steps
two at a time. • Students worked in the lab
in twos and threes. • Students worked
in groups of two and three. and • Students worked
two people to a team. The suffixes
-some (as in
twosome,
threesome) and
-fold (as in
two-fold,
three-fold) are also used, though also relatively infrequently. For musical groups
solo,
duo,
trio,
quartet, etc. are commonly used, and
pair is used for a group of two. A conspicuous use of distributive numbers is in
arity or
adicity, to indicate how many parameters a function takes. Most commonly this uses Latin distributive numbers and
-ary, as in
unary,
binary,
ternary, but sometimes Greek numbers are used instead, with
-adic, as in
monadic,
dyadic,
triadic. ==Other languages==