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Noun Plurals

The general rule to form the plural forms of the nouns is to add “-s” to the noun in singular.

book – books; house – houses

When the singular noun ends in: -sh, -ch, -s, -ss, -x, -o we form their plural form by adding “-es”.

sandwich – sandwiches; box – boxes;

potato – potatoes

When the singular noun ends in “y”, we change the “y” for “i” and then add “-es” to form the plural form. But do not change the “y” for “ies” to form the plural when the singular noun ends in “y” preceded by a vowel.

nappy – nappies; day – days

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

cuckoo – cuckoos

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

The following nouns ending in -f (in some cases followed by a mute e) change it into v in the plural:

wife – wives; knife – knives

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

scarf – scarfs or scarves wharf – wharfs or wharves

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

man – men; goose – geese;

woman – women; mouse – mice;

foot – feet; louse – lice;

tooth – teeth

There are two nouns which form the plural in -en:

ox – oxen; child – children

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

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).

In compound nouns the plural is formed in different ways.

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

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

lady-bird – lady-birds

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

Some nouns have only the plural form:

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.

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

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

It was not practical politics!

All party politics are top dressing.

The word news is treated as a singular.

When she goes to make little purchases, there is no news for her.

1.3. The category of case

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 case and an inflected form called the genitive case.

The genitive case is formed by adding –’s to the noun in the singular and only to plural forms ending in -s.

a girl’s book a girls’ school

Nouns forming their plural by changing the root vowel take the apostrophe s in the plural.

a man’s hat men’s hats

Nouns ending in -s form the genitive case in two ways: Dickens’ novels, Dickens’s novels.

Sometimes ’s may refer to a whole group of words (the group-genitive): Jane and Mary’s room. The last word of the group need not even be a noun: I shall be back in an hour or 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.

A. The Dependent Genitive.

1. The chief meaning of the genitive case is that of possession:

He stayed at Fanny’s flat.

2. Very close to the meaning of possession is that of a part to a whole:

A faint smile had come on Victorine’s face – she was adding up the money she might earn.

3. The Dependent Genitive may express the doer of an action (the so-called subjective genitive) or show that some person is the object of the action (the so-called objective genitive):

It was Tom’s step, then, that Maggie heard on the steps.

4. The noun in the genitive case may denote qualitative relations:

He looked ever so much smarter in his new officer’s clothes with the little blue chevron.

The use of the genitive case of nouns denoting inanimate things and abstract notions is rather limited.

The genitive case of nouns denoting inanimate things may denote the relations between a part and the whole.

... the sudden shaking of an aspen’s leaves in the puffs of breeze that rose along the river.

The genitive case of nouns expressing time, space and weight is widely used.

They both quite took to him again and during his month’s leave gave him a good time.

The genitive case is used in some set expressions: for heaven’s (God’s) sake; to one’s heart’s delight; at one’s wit’s end; a stone’s throw; a hair’s breadth.

B. The Absolute Genitive.

1. The Absolute Genitive may be used anaphorically.

Mrs. Moss’s face bore a faded resemblance to her brother’s.

2. The Absolute Genitive may have local meaning: the stationer’s, the baker’s, the tobacconist’s, my uncle’s, etc.




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The Article | The use of articles with names of seasons. | Practice in usage | Practice in usage | Practice in usage | Calculations. | Practice Tests | Systematization of primary data. | Calculation arithmetic means by three ways (by a simple mean, weighted mean in discrete and interval variational series of distribution). Conclusions. | The mode and the median in the interval variational series of distribution. |


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