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3.3. Put the nouns into plural and explain the use of the form:

a) elf, half, wife, shelf, scarf, leaf, knife, loaf, wolf, thief;

B) roof, chief, cliff, proof

3.4. Read the following humorous poem and pay special attention to the correct form of plural nouns: the craziest language

We’ll begin with a box and the plural is boxes;

But the plural of ox should be oxen not oxes.

Then the fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,

Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse in a nest full of mice;

Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

As the plural of man is always called men,

Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet,

And if I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,

Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,

Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,

And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.

We speak of a brother and also a brethren,

But though we say mother, we never say mothren.

Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,

But imagine the feminine, she, shis and shim.

So English (I fancy you will agree),

Is the craziest language you ever did see.

3.5. Learn the irregular plurals of the following nouns.

Singular Plural

Singular Plural

alumna –alumnae

alumnus – alumni

analysis – analyses

antithesis – antitheses

appendix – appendices

axis – axes

bacterium – bacteria

basis – bases

cannon – cannon

child – children

curriculum – curricula

datum – data

deer – deer

die – dice

dynamo – dynamos

ellipsis – ellipses

emphasis – emphases

fish – fish (fishes – different

kind of fish)

focus – foci

foot – feet

fungus – fungi

goose – geese

hypothesis – hypotheses

louse – lice

man – men

maximum – maxima (maxims)

minimum – minima

mouse – mice

oasis – oases

ox – oxen

parenthesis – parentheses

phenomenon – phenomena

piano – pianos

radio – radios

sheep – sheep

swine – swine

thesis – theses

tooth – teeth

vertebra – vertebrae

virtuoso – virtuosi

woman – women

3.6. Supply the plural form for the singular nouns listed below and explain the use of the form:

Criterion, deer, datum, analysis, foot, child, loaf, phenomenon, life, basis, woman, alumnus, thief, focus, tooth, sheep, louse, goose, hoof, mouse, fish, swine, elf, ox, curriculum, basis, datum, thesis fisherman, statesman, a woman-doctor, a house-wife, a pocket-knife.

3.2. Invariable nouns

Always singular (singularia tantum) are:

1) uncountable nouns that may belong to different grammatical groups: proper nouns (Minsk), mass nouns (butter), most abstract nouns (music) and some collective nouns (furniture).

2) some nouns ending in -s, naming:

a) some diseases: shingles, measles;

b ) subject names in -ics: mathematics, economics1;

c) some games: billiards, darts, draughts;

d) some proper nouns: Athens, Brussels, Naples, the Thames, Wales;

e) miscellaneous nouns like a chemical works (‘a place of work’), a barracks (‘a building that soldiers live in; a big plain and usually ugly building’), headquarters as in The headquartes consists of the commander and five members of his staff; customs (in the meaning of ‘the agency for collecting duties on import and export’).

Always plural (pluralia tantum) are nouns denoting:

1) things consisting of two or more parts: scales; trousers, pyjamas, shorts, scissors;

2) other pluralia tantum in -s: thanks, customs (in the meaning of ‘duties, tolls imposed on import and export’), lodgings, auspices, arms (in the meaning of ‘guns’), quarters (in the meaning of ‘assigned position, lodgings, esp.for soldiers’), valuables, goods, wages, stairs, clothes, contents;

3) some other collective nouns with no -s at the end (unmarked plural): cattle, police, the rich.

NOTE that the category of number may not coincide in English and Russian nouns.

Thus, nouns potato, onion, carrot, oat may be plural in English (potatoes, onions, carrots, oats) while in Russian they are usually singular: Potatoes are cheap in this countryВ этой стране картофель дешевый. ‘A potato’ means ‘одна картошка’.

The words wages and contents are plural in English but their correlated words ‘зарплата’, ‘содержание’ are singular in Russian.

The following English words are always singular advice, information, knowledge, money, news, permission and progress, while their Russian equivalents are either plural (деньги) or can be both singular and plural (новость, новости).

The English nouns watch and sledge are regular nouns and can be used both in the singular and the plural while Russian часы and сани are pluralia tantum.

E x e r c i s e s