The Noun

Main Theoretical Aspects

Definition
The noun is the part of speech that is used to name or identify a person, place, thing, quality or action. Most nouns have a singular and a plural form, and can be preceded by an article and/or one or more adjectives.

Classification/Typology
1. According to word-formation, nouns can be: a) simple: pencil, dog, mountain; b) derived: driver, responsibility, discontent, childhood, disadvantage, unhappiness; c) compound: postcard, dining-room, editor in chief. d) formed by contraction: ad (advertisement), fridge (refrigerator), pub (public house); e) formed by changing the word class (conversion): the rich, the disabled, the accused, reading, swimming, cook etc.

Classification/Typology
2. According to the degree of individualization: a) common nouns: table, street (appellative nouns they name any element of a class of objects), family, people (collective nouns), wood, steel (concrete nouns), worry, peace (abstract nouns); b) proper nouns: names of persons, cities, countries, mountains, titles of books, newspapers, magazines, names of institutions, historical eras or events, the months of the year, the days of the week, names of holidays etc.

Classification/Typology
3. According to countability, nouns can be: a) countable/variable: they can have a plural form; they can be used with the indefinite article (a/an), a numeral and with many, few/a few, several: apple, lesson, son; the grammatical concord/agreement can be done both in the singular and plural; b) uncountable/invariable: they cannot be used in the plural, with a numeral or with the indefinite article; they can be used with much, little/a little: noise, milk.

Number of nouns. The plural

A. Variable/countable nouns form the plural in the following ways: 1.s is added to the singular: book books, cat cats; 2. es is added to the singular nouns ending in s, z, x, ch, sh: bus buses, box boxes, watch-watches, brush-brushes; 3. es is added to nouns ending in y preceded by a consonant (y changes into i): city cities, but boy boys.

The plural of the noun

4. es is added to nouns ending in o preceded by a consonant: hero heroes, potato potatoes, but photo photos (this word is an abbreviation), piano pianos (this word is borrowed), radio - radios (-o is preceded by a vowel) etc. 5. (e)s is added to nouns ending in f(e), which changes into v: knife knives, leaf leaves, wife wives, but roof roofs, chief chiefs, belief beliefs etc. 6. en is added to the singular: child children, ox oxen, brother brethren (different in meaning from the plural brothers)

The plural of the noun

7. Mutation/change of the root vowel changes (irregular plural): man men, woman women, foot feet, tooth teeth, goose geese, louse lice, mouse mice. 8. Foreign nouns and their plurals (coming especially from Latin and Greek) are preserved: stimulus stimuli, larva larvae, basis bases, criterion criteria, datum data, phenomenon phenomena, focus foci, bacterium bacteria, crisis crises, corpus corpora, thesis thesis, graffito graffiti, erratum errata etc.

The plural of the noun

9. s is added to the last element of a compound noun: washing machine washing machines, forget-me-not forget-me-nots. 10. s is added to the first element of a compound noun: passer-by passers-by; sonin-law sons-in-law. 11. Both elements in a compound noun take the plural: woman driver women drivers.

The plural of the noun

12. Some nouns have the same form in the singular and in the plural: deer, sheep, fish, fruit, Chinese, Portuguese, Swiss, means, series, species etc. NOTE: The plural forms fishes, fruits denote different species or varieties. e.g. We studied the fishes of the Atlantic Ocean.

The plural of the noun

B. Invariable/uncountable nouns have either the singular (they are called singularia tantum nouns) or the plural (they are called pluralia tantum nouns).

The plural of the noun

Singular invariable nouns, which take a verb in the singular, are: a) concrete uncountable nouns: bread, meat, luggage, furniture, money, work, homework etc. b) abstract uncountable nouns: music, progress, nonsense, information, knowledge, advice etc. c) proper nouns that are singular in meaning: John, The United States, The Danube etc. d) nouns ending in s: news, measles, mumps (and other names of diseases), optics, mathematics (and other names of sciences), cards, skittles (and other names of games) etc.

The plural of the noun

NOTE: To express quantity of singularia tantum nouns, we can use the words: piece, item, bar, slice, loaf, pound, cup, glass etc. a piece of news/information/furniture a slice/loaf of bread, a slice of bacon a bar of chocolate/soap a pound of sugar/flower a cup of tea a glass of water

The plural of the noun

Plural invariable nouns, which take a verb in the plural, are: a) articles of clothing, tools and instruments which are considered to be summation plurals (formed of two equal parts): trousers, pyjamas, scales, scissors, tongs, compasses etc. b) proper nouns that are plural in meaning: The Alps, The Highlands etc. c) substantivized adjectives: the rich, the poor etc. d) collective nouns (unmarked plurals): cattle, infantry, people, police etc. e) other examples: savings, surroundings, contents, wages, stairs etc.

The plural of the noun

NOTES: 1. To express quantity of pluralia tantum nouns, we can use the word pair: a pair of trousers/scissors. 2. Some collective nouns like: family, team, crew, jury etc., take a verb in the plural when reference is made to the component elements, and a verb in the singular, when they are used generically. e.g. His family is large. His family are at home.

Case of Nouns. The Genitive

1. The analytical/prepositional genitive: - formed with the preposition of; - used with neuter nouns or with longer phrases; e. g. the cover of the book, the handle of the door, the wife of the man you have met.

Case of Nouns. The Genitive

2. The synthetical genitive: - formed with s added to singular nouns or irregular plurals and with added to regular plurals, or to proper nouns ending in s. e.g. the mans performance, the mens results, the students answers, Dickens work etc. - it may be used with the following: a) nouns denoting persons or other beings: Georges letter, the doctors order, the cows milk;

Case of Nouns. The Genitive

b) nouns denoting measurement, time, space, quantity, value: a two months vacation, a lifes work, a miles drive, a moments hesitation/silence etc. c) collective nouns: the firms investment, the governments decision etc. d) nouns that can be personified (geographical names, vehicles, natural phenomena): Englands history, the ships crew, the days heat, truths victory, lifes joys, the winds whip etc. e) nouns followed by the word sake: for pitys sake, for heavens sake etc. f) in expressions: a needles eye, to her hearts desire, at a snails pace etc.

Case of Nouns. The Genitive

NOTE: 1. In the elliptic genitive, the head noun is not expressed: the bakers (shop), my grandmothers (house), St. Pauls (Cathedral). e.g. Ive seen some of Toms drawings, but none of Marys (drawings). 2. The double genitive (which is different from the analytical genitive): e.g. This is one of Dickens novels. Compare: This is a description of Galsworthys. This is a description of Galsworthy.

Gender of Nouns
There are four types of gender in English (based on natural, not grammatical gender): a) masculine: man, brother, uncle; b) feminine: woman, sister, aunt; c) neuter: book, house, snow; d) common: cousin, friend, patient, librarian, doctor, teacher, artist, neighbour, student.

Gender of Nouns
Gender contrasts are expressed with the help of: a) different words: husband wife, boy girl, king queen, father mother etc. b) compounds: schoolboy schoolgirl, landlord landlady, male cousin, female cousin, he-bear she bear, bull-elephant cow-elephant, tom-cat tabby-cat etc. c) suffixes: host hostess, hero heroine, bridegroom bride, widower widow etc. d) personal/possessive/reflexive pronouns and possessive adjectives: his/hers/her; himself/herself; she/he.

Gender of Nouns
In order to avoid the domination of one sex over the other, politically correct words have replaced the traditional ones:
Traditional usage
postman fireman policeman chairman air hostess mankind

Current usage
mail carrier firefighter police officer chairperson/chair flight attendant humankind

Did you know that?

Funny facts about English nouns

Most Frequent Nouns

According to researchers at Oxford University Press, are the ten most frequently used nouns in English: 1. time; 2. person; 3. Year; 4. way; 5. day; 6. thing; 7. man; 8. world; 9 life; 10. hand. "Woman" comes in at number 14, "work" at 15, and "war" at 49. Neither "play" nor "peace", unfortunately, is ranked in the top 100.

Funny collective nouns for animals

army/colony of ants congress/tribe of baboons congregation/flight of birds army of caterpillars troop of monkeys bed of snakes school of whales

Strange plural forms

The plural of man is men. The plural of woman is women. The plural of human is humans. The plural of moose is moose. The plural of goose is geese. The plural of mongoose is mongooses. The plural of foot is feet. The plural of goosefoot is goosefoots. The plural of mouse, the rodent, is mice. The plural of mouse, the computer hardware device, is mouses.