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26. What nouns can be countable or uncountable depending upon their meaning in the context?

Some nouns can be countable or uncountable depending upon the meaning in which they are used in the context To this group there belong:

1. Common concrete collective nouns

family, crew, committee.

If they denote all the people forming the collective taken together, they function as countables:

This family is large. These families are large.

If they denote members of the collective viewed separately, they are uncountable and function as Pluralia Tantum

My family are early risers.

The Rainbow family were well known timber merchants. (Eyre} "I", I said, "am going to take care of a little boy on San Cristobal. The family is kin to my mother."

Note: Among collective nouns there is a group of words which always denote members of the group taken separately ("names of multitude"):

police, gentry, cattle, poultry, etc. They always function as Pluralia Tantum: Charles, the police are interested. That's why I ran away.

Some collective nouns always denote the collective as one undivided whole and thus are Singularia Tantum:

the bourgeoisie, the aristocracy, the peasantry, machinery, foliage.

I have looked at the machinery of the sugar mills myself, and none of it is new.

2. Abstract nouns, denoting feelings, emotions, qualities

love, hatred, joy, pleasure, strength, weakness

These nouns are generally used as Singularia Tantum. Occasionally, however, when they indicate special manifestations of the abstract ideas, they become countables, may be used in the singular with the indefinite article and are sometimes pluralized.

He hates weakness.

She had a weakness for good clothes.

She had many small vanities and weaknesses.

What did she know of the possible hatreds in or against the family? There had been one fall already, accident or not. Hatred or something deeper.

Note: Abstract nouns ending in "-ics" (acoustics, phonetics, mathematics, etc.) when used as names of sciences often agree with the verb in the singular.

Phonetics is a branch of linguistics. But they agree with the verb in the plural when denoting the quality of somebody or something.

Her phonetics have become much better this year.

27. What cases does the English noun have? Do these cases have endings?

The nouns (though not all of them) have two cases: the common case and the genitive case. The common case has no ending; the genitive case is formed by adding "-'s" to the stem of the singular or the apostrophe -' to the plural stem.

the boy the boy's books

the boys the boys' books

The common case has a wide range of meanings and applications. The English noun in the common case (alone or preceded by a preposition) will be found in contexts similar to those in which in Russian there will be different cases: nominative, dative, accusative, instrumental or prepositional.

The boy was reading a book. мальчик

I gave the book to the boy мальчику

I saw a boy there. мальчика

I went there with the boy с мальчиком

I spoke to her about the boy о мальчике