NOUNS

§ 1. Nouns are names of objects, I.E. Things, human beings, ani- mals, materials and abstract notions (e.G. Table, house, man, girl, dog, lion, snow, sugar, love, beauty).

Semantically all nouns can be divided into two main groups: proper names (e.g. John, London, the Thames) and common nouns.

Common nouns, in their turn, are subdivided into countable nouns and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns denote objects that can be counted. They may be either concrete (e.g. book, stu- dent, cat) or abstract (e.g. idea, word, effort). Uncountable nouns are names of objects that cannot be counted. They may also be con- crete (e.g. water, grass, wood) and abstract (e.g. information, amazement, time).

Nouns have the grammatical categories of number and case (see "Nouns", §§ 3-19).

They are also characterized by the functions they perform in the sentence (see "Nouns", § 20).

The Number of Nouns

§ 3. Number is the form of the noun which shows whether one or more than one object is meant. Some nouns in English may have the singular and the plural forms (e.g. room — rooms, worker — workers, lesson — lessons). Other nouns are used either only in the singular (e.g. freedom, progress, machinery, steel, milk) or only in the plural (e.g. spectacles, goods, billiards).

§ 4. The plural of most nouns is built up by means of the suffix -s or -es. It is pronounced [z] after vowels and voiced consonants (e.g. days, dogs, birds), [s] after voiceless consonants (e.g. books, coats) and [iz] after sibilants (e.g. horses, roses, judges, brushes).

It should be noted that some nouns in the plural change the pro- nunciation of their final consonants: [s] -> [ziz] (e.g. house — hous- es) and [в] -» [Sz] (e.g. bath — baths, mouth — mouths, path — paths, truth — truths, youth — youths).

§ 5. In writing, the following spelling rules should be observed: The suffix es is added to nouns ending in s, sh, ch, x and z (e.g- glass — glasses, brush — brushes, watch — watches, box — boxes).

It is also added to nouns ending in о preceded by a consonant

(e.g. tomato — tomatoes, potato — potatoes, hero — heroes). But if

a noun ends in о preceded by a vowel or it happens to be a noun of

' foreign origin, only -s is added (e.g. cuckoo — cuckoos, radio —

radios, piano — pianos, kilo — kilos, photo — photos).

Nouns ending in -y preceded by a consonant change the -y into -ies (e.g. story — stories, fly — flies, country — countries).

But if a noun ends in -y preceded by a vowel, only -s is added (e.g. key — keys, boy ~ boys, day — days).

The following nouns ending in -f or -fe have the ending -ves in

the plural: wife — wives, life — lives, knife — knives, wolf — wolves, calf — calves, shelf — shelves, leaf — leaves, thief — thieves, half — halves.

But other nouns ending in -f or -fe take only -s in the plural (e.g. roof — roofs, cliff — cliffs, gulf — gulfs, proof — proofs, safe — safes, grief — griefs, cuff — cuffs, belief — beliefs).

The following nouns have both forms in the plural: scarf — scarfs/scarves, wharf — wharfs/wharves, hoof — hoofs/hooves, handkerchief — handkerchiefs/handkerchieves.