- •Parts of speech
- •The noun General Characteristic
- •The Grammatical Category of Number
- •The Pronunciation
- •The Spelling/Formation
- •Nouns Used only in the Singular
- •Nouns Used only in the Plural
- •Collective nouns
- •The Category of Case
- •The Formation
- •The Pronunciation
- •V. Articles with Nouns in the Possessive Case
- •The adjective General Characteristic
- •Degrees of Comparison
- •Formation
- •Comparative Constructions
- •The adverb General Characteristic
- •Formation
- •II. Degrees of Comparison
- •Some, any, no, none
- •(A) few, (a) little
- •Much, many, a lot of, lots of, plenty of, etc.
- •The verb General Characteristic
- •Present tenses
- •The Present Indefinite (Simple)
- •I. The Formation:
- •II. Spelling of the third person singular forms.
- •III. The Meaning:
- •IV. The Use of the Present Indefinite
- •The Present Indefinite is used to denote future actions
- •The Present Indefinite is used to denote past actions:
- •The Present Continuous (Progressive)
- •I. The Formation.
- •II. Spelling of the –ing forms.
- •III. The Use of Present Continuous.
- •IV. Verbs Not Used in the Continuous Forms.
- •V. The Present Continuous vs. The Present Indefinite.
- •The Present Perfect
- •I. The Formation
- •III. Patterns
- •IV. Time Indication
- •V. The Present Perfect vs. The Past Indefinite
- •VI. The Past Indefinite and the Present Perfect as Variants
- •The Present Perfect Continuous
- •I. The Formation
- •II. The Use of the Present Perfect Continuous
- •III. The Present Perfect Continuous vs. The Present Perfect
- •IV. The Present Perfect Continuous and the Present Perfect as Variants
- •Past tenses
- •The Past Indefinite Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •The Past Continuous Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •III. The Past Continuous vs. The Past Indefinite
- •The Past Perfect Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •III. The Past Perfect vs. The Past Indefinite
- •The Past Perfect Continuous
- •I. The Formation
- •III. The Past Perfect Inclusive vs. The Past Perfect Continuous Inclusive
- •Future tenses
- •The Future Indefinite Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •III. ''Will'' as a modal verb
- •IV. ''Shall'' as a modal verb
- •The Future Continuous Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •The Future Perfect Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •The Future Perfect Continuous Tense
- •I. The Formation
- •Around the future
- •Reported speech
- •I. Statements
- •II. General Questions
- •III. Special Questions
- •IV. Short Answers
- •V. Commands and Requests
- •VI. Suggestions
- •VII. Advice
- •VIII. Offers
- •IX. Responses
- •Sequence of tenses
- •Modal Verbs in Indirect Speech
- •Question tags
- •I. Formation.
- •II. Agreeing and disagreeing with question tags
- •III. Echo tags
- •The imperative mood
- •I. Formation
- •II. Imperatives with 'let'
Parts of speech
All the words in the language can be classified according to the following principles:
the semantic principle
the morphological principle
the syntactical principle
These three principles considered we can distinguish between notional and functional parts of speech:
Notional parts of speech |
Functional parts of speech |
the noun the adjective the stative the pronouns the numeral the verb the adverb the modal words the interjections |
the preposition the conjunction the particle |
The noun General Characteristic
The noun is a part of speech which unites words with the general meaning of substance or thingness. Nouns are names of objects, i.e. things, human beings, animals, materials, abstract notions etc. The noun is the most numerous class of words and the most frequently used part of speech (in English nouns make up about 42% of all words). According to statistics every fourth word used in our speech belongs to the class of nouns.
Nouns may have different functions in the sentence. They can be:
a subject (The car was red.)
an object (You did such splendid work.)
a predicative (The place was in disorder.)
an adverbial modifier (He spoke in a different tone.)
an attribute (His officer’s uniform gave slimness to his already heavy figure.)
an apposition (He told us about his father, a teacher, who died in the war.)
Semantically all nouns can be divided into two main groups – proper nouns and common nouns. Common nouns are subdivided into countable nouns and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns can be counted, and uncountable nouns are names of objects that cannot be counted.
Nouns have the grammatical categories of number and case.
The Grammatical Category of Number
Number is the form of the noun which shows whether one or more than one object is meant.
The Pronunciation
The plural of most nouns is formed by means of the suffix –s or –es. It is pronounced:
/z/ after vowels and voiced consonants: dogs, days, etc.
/s/ after voiceless consonants: books, coats, etc.
/iz/ after sibilants: horses, roses, brushes, etc.
Some nouns in the plural change the pronunciation of their final consonant:
/s/ - /ziz/ house – houses, etc.
/Ө/ - /∂z/ bath - baths, mouth - mouths, path – paths, etc.
The Spelling/Formation
In writing the following spelling rules should be observed:
the suffix –es is added to nouns ending in -s, -sh, -ch, -x, -z: glasses, boxes, brushes, etc.
nouns ending in –o usually have the plural ending –es, pronounced as [z]: hero -heroes ['hiərouz], etc.
Note 1: In some cases the nouns, ending in –o, have the plural ending –s. It occurs in the following cases:
after a vowel - bamboos, embryos, kangaroos, radios, studios, zoos, etc.
in proper names - Romeos, Eskimos, Filipinos, etc.
in abbreviations - kilos (kilogramme), photos (photograph), etc.
in some borrowed words - pianos, concertos, dynamos, solos, tangos, tobaccos, etc.
Nouns ending in –y usually have the plural ending –s, the letter –y changes into –i and the ending –s is added: sky – skies, etc.
Note 1: The letter -y remains unchanged -ys:
after vowels: days, etc.
in proper names: the Kennedys, the Gatsbys, etc.
in compounds: stand-bys, lay-bys, etc.
Thirteen nouns ending in -f(e) form their plural changing -f (e) into -v (e). The ending in this case is pronounced [z].
calf- calves self- selves elf- elves sheaf- sheaves half- halves shelf- shelves leaf - leaves |
knife- knives thief- thieves wife - wives life – lives wolf- wolves loaf- loaves |
Other nouns ending in -f(e) have the plural ending -s in the regular way, the ending is pronounced [s]. Examples are:
proof – proofs
chief- chiefs
safe – safes
cliff- cliffs
handkerchief – handkerchiefs
gulf-gulfs
belief – beliefs
reef -reefs
In a few cases both -fs and -ves forms are possible:
scarf- scarfs/scarves
dwarf- dwarfs/dwarves
hoof – hoofs/hooves
wharf-wharfs/wharves
For historical reasons certain nouns form their plural differently:
man – men child- children woman – women sheep - sheep tooth- teeth swine- swine foot - feet deer- deer goose- geese grouse - grouse |
mouse – mice aircraft – aircraft cod – cod Walkman – Walkmans series - series louse – lice brother-brethren species - species ox-oxen |
Some nouns borrowed from other languages keep their foreign plural forms:
agendum – agenda analysis – analyses bacterium – bacteria basis – bases datum – data phenomenon- phenomena thesis –theses |
crisis – crises parenthesis – parentheses diagnosis – diagnoses criterion – criteria nucleus – nuclei radius – radii formula – formulae |
Note 1: Some borrowed nouns can have two plural forms: the English plural and the original foreign one:
curriculum – curricula/curriculums
formula – formulae/formulas
index – indices/indexes,
genius – genii/geniuses
With compound nouns it is usually the final component that is made plural:
bookcase - bookcases
writing-table – writing-tables
toothbrush – toothbrushes
pick-up – pick-ups
touch-me-not – touch-me-nots
handful – handfuls
forget-me-not – forget-me-nots
postman – postmen
grown-up – grown-ups
lady-bird – lady-birds
In a few nouns the first component is made plural:
father-in-law – fathers-in-law
commander-in-chief – commanders-in-chief
passer-by – passers-by
looker-on – lookers-on/onlookers
court martial – courts martial
When the first component is man or woman, the plural is expressed twice:
man servant – men servants
woman doctor – women doctors