I. The Pronunciation

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.

I. 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.

II. The Spelling/Formation

In writing the following spelling rules should be observed:

1) the suffix –es is added to nouns ending in -s, -sh, -ch, -x, -z: glasses, boxes, brushes, etc.

2) 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.

3) 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.

4) 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

5) 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

6) 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

7) 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

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