Collective nouns followed by 'of

These describe groups (or 'collections') of people or things:

People: an army of soldiers a board of directors

Animals, birds, insects: a flock of birds/sheep, a swarm of bees

Appendix 6

Collective nouns followed by 'of: e g

a band of soldiers, a bouquet of flowers, a bunch of grapes, a circle of friends, a clump of trees, a collection of coins, a colony of ants, a crew of sailors, a crowd of people, a deck of cards, a drove of cattle, a fleet of ships, a gang of thieves, a group of people, a herd of cattle, a hive of bees, a horde of children, a mass of people, a mob of hooligans, a pack of cards, a panel of experts, a party of visitors, a plague of locusts, a school of fish, a set of teeth, a shelf of books, a string of pearls

3. The category of number

English countable nouns have two numbers – the singular and the plural.

The main types of the plural forms of English nouns are as follows:

I. 1. The general rule for forming the plural of English nouns is by adding the ending -s (es) to the singular; –s is pronounced in different ways:

[iz] after sibilants: noses, horses, bridges.

[z] after voiced consonants other than sibilants and after vowels: flowers, bed, bees, boys.

[s] after voiceless consonants other than sibilants: caps, books, hats, cliffs.

2. If the nouns ends in –s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -tch, x, the plural is formed by adding –es to the singular:

a bus – buses a lunch – lunches

a class – classes a watch – watches

a bush – bushes a box – boxes

3. If the nouns ends in –у preceded by a consonant, у is changed into і before -es:

a story – stories a fly – flies

In proper names, however, the plural is formed by adding the ending –s to the singular: Mary – Marys

NB! If the final –у is preceded by a vowel, the plural is formed by simply adding –s to the singular:

day – days monkey - monkeys

4. If the nouns ends in –о preceded by a consonant, the plural is generally formed by adding -es:

a hero – heroes a tomato – tomatoes

NB!

-abbreviations: kilos (for kilograms),photos (for photographs)

- Italian musical terms: concertos, pianos, solos, sopranos

~ proper nouns: Eskimos, Filipinos

All nouns ending in –о preceded by a vowel form the plural in –s:

сuckoo – cuckoos portfolio – portfolios

The following nouns are spelt with-oes or-os: buffalo, cargo, commando, grotto, mosquito, tornado, volcano. All these endings are pronounced /əʊz/.

5. Nouns ending in –f или –fe, change it into v when adding –(e)s; –ves is pronounced [vz]:

a wife – wives leaf - leaves

a knife – knives calf – calves

There are some nouns ending in -f which have two forms in the plural: dwarf – dwarfs, dwarves; hoof – hoofs, hooves; scarf – scarfs, scarves; wharf – wharfs, wharves.

Nouns roof, belief, chief, handkerchief, safe, proof, cliff, cuff, fife form the plural adding -s: roof – roofs.