1. Nouns

Countable

Uncountable

Collective

VERB (сказуемое – глагольная форма)

SUBJECT

(подлежащее)

Глагол в единственном числе (does/is/has/was)

Глагол во множественном числе (do/are/have/were)

Форма числа глагола меняется в зависимости от числа существительного перед глаголом, либо по иным причинам

NOUN singular (or pronoun he/she/it)

He is a qualified lawyer.

The judge presides in court room.

His folder with documents was in the safe.

NOUN plural (or we, they, you)

We have no questions.

Advocates act for their clients in court.

Noun AND noun

Jake and Monty are policemen.

My brother and I work together

Everyone; anyone; someone, no one; nobody

Everyone wants to do this research.

Someone is calling.

Has anyone seen my phone?

Nobody comes earlier than 9 o’clock.

SOME of …………..

ALL of …………

Some of the facts show that this man has violated the law.

All of the evidence shows that he is guilty.

EACH of

Each of the witnesses was interrogated.

NONE of

None of the documents are ready (all documents are not ready).

None of the documents was prepared (not any of the documents was prepared).

None of the food tastes good. (food – uncountable)

NEITHER / EITHER

Neither of the lawyers deals with such cases.

Either of these problems seems difficult.

NEITHER ….. NOR…..

EITHER ….. OR

Neither Mr. Kelly nor Mr. Blake is our client.

Neither Mr. Kelly nor his partners are our clients.

Either the secretary or the assistant has done this mistake.

Either his assistant or his partners have drafted this contract.

BOTH ….. AND ……

Both Alex and Fred act for this client.

Both solicitors and attorneys provide advice to their clients.

Nouns used only in plural - glasses; trousers; jeans; shorts, tights; scissors; binoculars etc

- clothes; earnings; headquarters; goods; etc

The glasses were found under the seat.

The scissors have been lost.

The ABC headquarters are in New York.

Our goods always sell well.

Nouns ending with S

- mathematics, physics, economics; aerobics etc

- news; means; series

Mathematics is my favorite subject.

Bad news travels fast.

This means of communication has no future.

“LA Law” series was very popular some years ago.

Collective nouns

- group; company; team; staff; police; jury; government; committee; crowd; family etc)

The team is very effective.

(as one unit).

The team are developing a new method (all team members).

The police are looking for the criminal.

Police is a law enforcement body.

The jury has been selected.

The jury were in total disagreement.

Phrases introduced by

along with …. ;

together with ….;

as well as …. ;

such as …. ;

do not affect the verb form

The Director as well as other executives doesn’t want to start a legal action.

The detective together with his assistants was not able to track down the criminal.

Fractional expressions such as

half of, a part of,

one-third …… etc,

a percentage of,

… percent of ,

the majority of

are sometimes singular and sometimes plural, depending on the meaning.

A large percentage of the older population is voting against her.

Two-fifths of the products were lost in a fire.

Two-fifths of the plant was destroyed by fire.

Forty percent of the students are in favor of changing the policy.

Forty percent of the student body is in favor of changing the policy.

The majority of the workers were fired.

The majority of the staff was dissatisfied.

more than one

More than one man has seen the accident.

Money and measurement

Eight dollars an hour is a poor rate.

Twenty kilometers is a long distance to walk to

work each day

Two and two is four.

Four times four divided by two is eight.

The number of ….

The number of trials on such cases is increasing.

A number of …..

A number of people are leaving.