- •The Functions of Nouns in the Sentence
- •Classification of Nouns
- •Morphological Composition of Nouns
- •3. Compound nouns.
- •Selected uncountable nouns and their countable equivalents
- •Appendix 4
- •Partitives: nouns which refer to part of a whole
- •Appendix 5
- •Collective nouns followed by 'of
- •Appendix 6
- •3. The category of number
- •Irregular Plurals
- •Compound nouns and their plurals
- •Agreement between subject and predicate (concord).
- •The category of gender.
- •Identifying masculine and feminine through nouns
- •Make-female-young-group distinctions for some animals
- •Identifying masculine or feminine through pronouns
- •6. The category of case.
- •The Nominative Case
- •The Possessive Case
- •The Objective Case
- •7. The use of indefinite article (including - a or an, a/an or one). The Use of the Indefinite Article
- •8. The use of definite article with common nouns. The Use of the Definite Article
- •9. Zero article with common nouns.
- •10. Definite and zero articles with proper nouns. The Use of the Definite Article with Proper Nouns
- •11. Special cases in the use of articles. Special cases in the use of articles
- •12. Classification of pronouns. Personal, pronoun ‘one', possessive and reflexive pronouns.
- •14. Demonstratives. Some, any, no, every and their compounds. Demonstrative Pronouns
- •15. Either/neither/both, none/all/whole/each, (an)other.
Irregular Plurals
1. There are seven nouns which form the plural by changing the root vowel: man – men, woman – women, foot – feet, tooth – teeth, goose – geese, mouse – mice, louse – lice.
Note! We also use the words men and women in: Frenchmen, Frenchwomen, policemen, policewomen.
2. child - children; оx - oxen; penny - pence; person - people; brother – brethren (religious context)
3. In some nouns the plural form does not differ from the singular:
sheep, deer, grouse, swine, fish, carp, cod, mackerel, pike, plaice, salmon, trout, aircraft, hovercraft, spacecraft, offspring.
Nouns ending in –ese, -ss that denote nationality also belong to these group: a Chinese – the Chinese; a Swiss – the Swiss.
4. Nouns with foreign plurals
There is a natural tendency to make all nouns conform to the regular rules for the pronunciation and spelling of English plurals. The more commonly a noun is used, the more likely this is to happen. Some native English speakers avoid foreign plurals in everyday speech and use them only in scientific and technical contexts.
Nouns of foreign origin with anglicized plurals, e.g. album, albums, apparatus/apparatuses, genius/geniuses.
Nouns with both foreign and anglicized plurals, e.g.
-us: cactus/cacti/cactuses,
-a: antenna/antennae/antennas, formula – formulae - formulas
-ex/ix: index/indices/indexes appendix/appendices/appendixes
-um: medium/media/mediums,
-on: automaton/automata/automa
-eu/-eau: adieu/adieux/adieus, plateau/plateaus/plateaux.
Alternative plurals can have different meanings: e.g. antennae is a biological term; antennas can describe e.g. radio aerials.
Nouns with foreign plurals only, e.g.
-us: alumnus/alumni;
-a: alumna/alumnae,
-um: stratum/strata, datum – data
-is: analysis/analyses,crisis – crises
-on: criterion/criteria, phenomenon – phenomena
Media + singular or plural verb is used to refer to the press, TV, etc , data is used with a singular or plural verb; agenda is a foreign plural used in the singular in English with a regular plural, agendas.
Compound nouns and their plurals
Plural mainly in the last element
The tendency is to:
- put a plural ending (-s -es, etc.) on the second noun in noun + noun combinations: boyfriends, flower shops, matchboxes, etc. and in gerund + noun combinations: frying pans
- put a plural ending on the noun: onlookers, passers-by
- put a plural ending on the last word when no noun is present: breakdowns, forget-me-nots, grown-ups, lay-offs, etc.
Plural in the first element in some compounds
attorney general/attorneys general, court-martial/courts-martial, man-of-war/men-of-war, mother-in-law/mothers-in-law (but in-laws in general references: Our in-laws are staying with us)] notary public/notaries public, spoonful/spoonsful (or spoonfuls).
Plural in the first and last element
When the first element is man or woman, then both elements change man student - men students, woman student - women students, but note compounds with lady: lady friend - lady friends. Other compounds with man and woman form their plurals only in the second word: man-eaters, manholes, woman-haters, etc.