The category of number

English countable nouns have two numbers — the singularandthe plural.

The main types of the plural forms of English nouns are as follows:

 

I. 1. The general rule for forming the plural of English nouns is by adding the ending ‑s (-es) to the singular; ‑s is pronounced in different ways:

[Iz] after sibilants: noses, horses, bridges.

[z] after voiced consonants other than sibilants and after vowels: flowers, beds, doves, bees, boys.

[s] after voiceless consonants other than sibilants: caps, books, hats, cliffs.

2.If the noun ends in ‑s, ‑ss, ‑x, ‑sh, ‑ch, or ‑tch, the plural is formed by adding ‑es to the singular:

 

bus — buses

glass — glasses

box — boxes

brush — brushes

bench — bencftes

match — matches

 

3. If the noun ends in ‑y preceded by a consonant, у is changed into i before ‑es.

fly — flies

army — armies

lady — ladies

 

In proper names, however, the plural is formed by adding the ending ‑s to the singular: Mary, Marys.

 

N o t e. — If the final ‑y is preceded by a vowel the plural is formed by simply

adding ‑s to the singular.

 

day — days

play — plays

key — keys

monkey — monkeys

toy — toys

boy — boys

 

4. If the noun ends in ‑o preceded by a consonant, the plural is generally formed by adding ‑es. Only a few nouns ending in ‑o preceded by a consonant form the plural in ‑s.

 

cargo — cargoes

hero — heroes

potato — potatoes

echo — echoes

b u t: piano — pianos

solo — solos

photo — photos

 

All nouns ending in ‑o preceded by a vowel form the plural in ‑s and not in ‑es.

 

cuckoo — cuckoos

portfolio — portfolios

 

There are a few nouns ending in ‑o which form the plural both in ‑s and ‑es:

 

mosquito — mosquitos or mosquitoes

 

5. With certain nouns the final voiceless consonants are changed into the corresponding voiced consonants when the noun takes the plural form.

(a) The following nouns ending in ‑f (in some cases followed by a mute e) change it into v (both in spelling and pronunciation) in the plural:

 

wife — wives

thief — thieves

knife — knives

calf — calves

life — lives

half — halves

sheaf — sheaves

shelf — shelves

leaf — leaves

wolf — wolves

 

There are some nouns ending in ‑f which have two forms in the plural:

 

scarf — scarfs or scarves

wharf — wharfs or wharves

 

(b) Nouns ending in ‑th [T] after long vowels change it into [D] in pronunciation (which does not affect their spelling).

 

bath [bRT] — baths [bRDz]

path [pRT] — paths [pRDz]

oath [quT] — oaths [quDz]

 

But [T] is always retained after consonants (including r) and short vowels:

 

smith — smiths [smITs]

month — months [mAnTs]

myth — myths [mITs]

birth — births [bWTs]

health — healths [helTs]

 

(c) One noun ending in [s] changes it into [z] (in pronunciation):

 

house [haus] — houses ["hauzIz]

II. The plural forms of some nouns are survivals of earlier formations.

1. There are seven nouns which form the plural by changing the root vowel:

 

man — men

woman — women

foot — feet

tooth — teeth

goose — geese

mouse — mice

louse — lice

 

2. There are two nouns which form the plural in ‑en:

 

ox — oxen

child — children

 

N o t e. — The noun brother has, beside its usual plural form brothers,

another plural form brethren, which is hardly ever used in colloquial

language. It belongs to the elevated style and denotes people of the same

creed and not relationship.

The noun cow has, beside its usual plural form cows, a plural kine, which

sometimes occurs in poetry.

 

3. In some nouns the plural form does not differ from the singular: deer, sheep, swine, fish, trout.

 

III. Some words borrowed from Latin or Greek keep their Latin or Greek plural forms: e. g. phenomenon, phenomena; datum, data; crisis, crises; stimulus, stimuli; formula, formulae; index, indices. Some of these nouns have acquired English plural forms: memorandums, formulas, indexes, terminuses, etc.

The tendency to use the foreign plural is still strong in the technical language of science, but in fiction and colloquial English there is an evident inclination to give to certain words the regular English plural forms in ‑s. Thus in some cases two plural forms are preserved (formulae, formulas; antennae, antennas).

 

IV. In compound nouns the plural is formed in different ways.

1. As a rule a compound noun forms the plural by adding ‑s to the head-word:

 

editor-in-chief — editors-in-chief

brother-in-law — brothers-in-law

looker-on — lookers-on

 

2. In some compound nouns the final element takes the plural form:

 

lady-bird — lady-birds

 

3. If there is no noun-stem in the compound, ‑s is added to the last element:

 

forget-me-not — forget-me-nots

merry-go-round — merry-go-rounds

 

V. Some nouns have only the plural form:

1. Trousers, spectacles, breeches, scissors, tongs, fetters. These are for the most part names of things which imply plurality or consist of two or more parts.

2. Billiards, barracks, works. These nouns may be treated as singulars. We may say: a chemical works, a barracks, etc.

3. Words like phonetics, physics, politics, optics, etc. are usually treated as singulars except in some special cases.

 

It was not practical politics!(Galsworthy)

All party politics are top dressing. (Galsworthy)

 

4. The word news is treated as a singular.

 

When she goes to make little purchases, there is no news forher. (Thackeray)

The newshe gave them was to be read in the lamentations. (Sabatini)

 

№5 категория падежа. Абсолютный родительный падеж.

 

Case indicates the relations of the noun (or pronoun) to the other words in the sentence.

English nouns denoting living beings (and some nouns denoting lifeless things) have two cases, an uninflected form called the common caseand an inflected form called the genitive case.

1. The genitive caseis formed by adding -’s (the apostrophe s) to the noun in the singular and only ’ (the apostrophe) to plural forms ending in ‑s.

 

SINGULAR: a girl’s book PLURAL: a girls’ school

 

N o t e 1. — Nouns forming their plural by changing the root vowel take the

apostrophe s in the plural.

 

SINGULAR: a man’s hat PLURAL: men’s hats

 

N o t e 2. — Nouns ending in ‑s form the genitive case in two ways: Dickens’

novels, Dickens’s novels.

The pronunciation of the genitive case ending follows the same rules as the pronunciation of the plural ending:

[Iz] after sibilants: prince’s, judge’s, witch’s, etc.

[z] after voiced consonants other than sibilants and after vowels: boy’s, man’s, king’s.

[s] after voiceless consonants other than sibilants: Smith’s, count’s, bishop’s.

 

N o t e. — With nouns ending in ‑s and forming the genitive case in two ways

(Dickens’ novels, Dickens’s novels) the ending is pronounced [Iz] whether the

letter s is written or not.

 

2. Sometimes the apostrophe s may refer to a whole group of words (the group-genitive): Jane and Mary’sroom. The last word of the group need not even be a noun: I shall be back in an houror two’s time.

As to its use the genitive case falls under:

 

(A) The Dependent Genitive.

(B) The Absolute Genitive.

 

The Dependent Genitive is used with the noun it modifies and comes before it.

The Absolute Genitive may be used without any noun or be separated from the noun it modifies.