Kinds of adjectives

N O U N

Kinds of nouns

There are four kinds of nouns in English:

Common nouns: man, cat, book

Proper nouns: England, New York, Mr Smith, Jane

Abstract nouns: beauty, freedom, fear, happiness

Collective nouns: crowd, group, team, family

Gender

A. Masculine: men, boys, male animals (pronouns he/they)

Feminine: women, girls, female animals (pronounsshe/they)

Neuter: inanimate things, animals whose sex we don’t know

and babies if we don’t know their sex (pronouns it/they).

As you see there are no problems of grammatical gender in English but one or two points can cause difficulty.

1. Pet animals are called he or she by their owners.

Tim, find the cat and put her out.

2. Some people use she for cars, motorbikes and other kinds of

vehicles; sailors use she for ships.

Getting out of the car at the petrol station he said, ‘Fill her up, please’.

She is the ship on which any young man would be proud to sail.

3. Countries are often referred to as if they were female.

France has decided to increase her wine export.

B. Masculine/feminine nouns denoting people

1. Different forms:

a) boy, girl gentleman, lady son, daughter

bachelor, spinster husband, wife uncle, aunt

bridegroom, bride man, woman widower, widow

father, mother nephew, niece

Main exceptions:

baby, child, cousin, infant, parent, relative, spouse, teenager

b) duke, duchess lord, lady

earl, countess prince, princess

king, queen

2. The majority of nouns indicating occupation have the same form:

artist, assistant, cook, dancer, driver, doctor, guide etc.

Main exceptions:

actor, actress host, hostess

conductor, conductress manager, manageress

heir, heiress steward, stewardess

hero, heroine waiter, waitress

also salesman, saleswoman, postman, postwoman, etc., but sometimes
person is used instead of -man, -woman: salesperson.

C. Domestic animals and many of the larger wild animals have different forms:

bull, cow lion, lioness

cock, hen stallion, mare

dog, bitch tiger, tigress

Plurals

A. The plural of a noun is usually made by adding s to the singular:

s is pronounced [z] after vowels and voiced consonants

[s] after voiceless consonants

[iz] after sibilants

B. Nouns ending ino or ch, sh, ssor x form their plural by adding es:

tomato-tomatoes brush-brushes box-boxes

church-churches kiss-kisses

But words of foreign origin or abbreviated words ending in o add sonly:

kilo-kilos photo-photos piano-pianos

kimono-kimonos soprano-sopranos

C. If nouns end in y following a consonant we change y in i and add es:

baby-babies country-countries lady-ladies

But nouns ending in y following a vowel form their plural by adding s:

boy-boys day-days donkey-donkeys

D. Several nouns ending in f or fechange them in ve and add s:

calf-calves leaf –leaves shelf- shelves wolf-wolves

half-halves life-lives sheaf-sheaves

elf-elves loaf-loaves thief-thieves

knife-knives self-selves wife-wives

Several nouns take either s or ves in the plural:

hoof - hoofs/hooves scarf - scarfs/scarves wharf - wharfs/wharves

handkerchief–handkerchiefs/handkerchieves

Other words ending in for fe add s in the ordinary way:

cliff - cliffs roof - roofs safe - safes

E. A few nouns form their plural by a vowel change:

foot-feet mouse-mice child-children

goose-geese tooth-teeth ox-oxen

man- men woman-women

F. Names of certain creatures do not change in the plural. Fish is normally un
changed, fishes exist but is uncommon.

Some types of fish do not change in the plural:

carp mackerel salmon

cod pike trout

but if used in a plural sense they would take a plural verb.

Others add s:crabs, herrings, lobsters, sardines, sharks.

Deer and sheep do not change: one sheep - two sheep

G. Collective nouns crew, team, family, government etc. can take a singular or a
plural verb.

Plural - this generally happens when we think of the group as people, doing the sort of things that people do (for instance, making plans, wanting
things, being disappointed, amusing themselves). In these cases, a plural
verb is used, and the group is referred to by the pronouns they and who.

My family are wonderful. They do all they can for me. I don’t know
any other family who would do so much.

‘How are the team?’ - ‘Oh, they’re very optimistic.’

Singular - if we see the group as an impersonal or unit:

Our team is the best.

The average family (which now consists of four members at most)

is a great deal smaller than it used to be.

The other words and expressions that can be used in this way:

committee, club, class, school, choir, orchestra, staff, jury, firm,

The B.B.C., The Bank of England.

H. Certain words are always plural and take a plural verb:

clothes police

articles of clothes consisting of two parts:

breeches pants pyjamas trousers etc.

and tools and instruments consisting of two parts:

binoculars pliers scissors spectacles

glasses scales shears etc.

Also certain other words including:

arms (weapons) savings

goods spirits (alcohol)

greens (vegetables) stairs

outskirts surroundings etc.

I. Words that end in -ics (like mathematics, athletics, politics) are sometimes
used as plurals, but more often as singulars.

Politics is a complicated business. What are your politics?

J. Words plural in form but singular in meaning include:

news The news is good.

certain diseases: mumps, measles, rickets, shingles

and certain games: billiards, darts, draughts, dominoes

K. Some words show no difference between the singular and the plural, both
forms end in -s.

They are: crossroads, works (= factory), means (= method), headquarters.

L. Some words which retain their original Greek or Latin forms make their
plurals according to the rules of Greek and Latin:

crisis-crises phenomenon-phenomena

datum-data radius-radii

memorandum-memoranda terminus-termini

But some follow the English rules:

dogma-dogmas formula-formulas gymnasium-gymnasiums

Sometimes there are two plural forms with different meanings:

appendix, appendixes or appendices (medical terms)

appendix, appendices (addition/s to a book)

index, indexes (in books), indices (in mathematics)

M. Compound nouns

1. Normally the last word is made plural:

boy-friends break-ins travel agents

But if the first word is man or woman both parts are made plural:

men pilots women pilots

2. The first word is made plural with compounds formed of

a) noun + adverb (if the noun is made of verb + er)

hangers-on lookers-on runners-up

b) noun + preposition + noun

sisters-in-law wards of court

3. Initials can be made plural:

MPs (Members of Parliament)

UFOs (unidentified flying objects)

VIPs ( very important persons)

Uncountable nouns

A. 1. Names of substances considered generally:

bread coffee dust glass ice oil paper soap water wood etc.

2. Abstract nouns:

advice experience horror pity

beauty fear information relief

courage help knowledge suspicion

death hope mercy work

3. Also considered uncountable in English:

accommodation furniture scenery shopping

baggage luggage traffic weather

behaviour permission travel

camping parking work

B. Uncountable nouns are always singular and are not used with a/an. These
nouns are often preceded by some, any, no, a little etc. or by nouns such as
bit, piece, slice etc. + of:

a bit of news a grain of sand

a bar(cake) of soap a piece of advice

a drop of oil a sheet of paper

C. Many of these nouns can be used either countable or uncountable but with
some difference in meaning:

paper I bought a paper (=a newspaper).

I bought some paper to write on.

hair There’s a hair in my soup! (=one single hair)

She has beautiful hair.

experienceWe had many interesting experiences during our holiday.
(=things that happened to us)

You need experience for this job. (=knowledge of

something because you have done it before)

D. Remember these things:

travelonly has a general meaning (‘the activity of travelling in general’); a
particular movement from one place to another is called a journey or a trip:

I like travel. but How was your journey?

Note these pairs of countable and uncountable nouns:

I’m looking for a job. I’m looking for work.

What a lovely view! What lovely scenery!

Possessive case

A. Form

1.’s is used with singular nouns and irregular plural nouns (i.e. not ending
in s):

a man’s job men’s job

a woman’s intuition women’s intuition

a child’s room children’s room

the butcher’s (shop), the people’s choice

2. An apostrophe (’) only is used with plural nouns ending in s:

a girls’ school the parents’ house the Smiths’ car

3. Classical names ending in s usually add only the apostrophe:
Archimedes’ Law Sophocles’ plays

4. Other names ending in s can take ’s or the apostrophe alone:

Yeats’s (or Yeats’) poems

5. With compounds, the last word takes the ’s:

my sister-in-law’s parents

6. ’s may be added not only to a single word but to a whole group of words:

Henry the Eighth’s wives

Mr and Mrs Smith’s children

the Prime Minister of England’s residence

7. ’s can also be used after initials:

the MP’s speech the VIP’s escort

B. Use of the possessive case

The possessive case can be used in several different ways: to talk about
possession, relationship, physical features and characteristics, non-physical
qualities, and measurements.

It is chiefly used of people, animals and countries. But it can be also used:

1. Of ships and boats: the ship’s bell

2. In time expressions: a week’s holiday today’s paper

in two years’ time tomorrow’s weather

ten minutes’ break two hours’ delay

a ten-minute break, a two-hour delay are also possible, but with another
punctuation: We have ten minutes’ break / a ten-minute break.

3. In expressions of money + worth:

$1’s worth of stamps ten pounds’ worth of ice-cream

4. With for + noun + sake: for heaven’s sake for goodness’ sake

5. In some set phrases:

a pin’s head journey’s end a needle’s point duty’s call

6. Sometimes certain nouns can be used in the possessive case without the
second noun which usually denotes a building (a school, a church, a
hospital, a house, a shop, an office, a surgery etc.):

You can buy it at the chemist’s. He went to the dentist’s.

Names of the owners of some businesses can be used in the same way:

Sotheby’s Claridge’s

But some very well-known shops call themselves without the apostrophe:
Harrods.

7. Names of people can be used similarly to mean ‘....’s house’:

We’ll have a party at Bill’s.

8. Possessive case can be used as a pronoun, with no following noun (with
the same kind of meaning as mine, yours, etc.):

‘Whose is that?’ - ‘Virginia’s’

Escalation is neither in Russia’s interests nor in the West’s.

9. Double possessive.

Note the special construction: of + possessive

He’s a friend of my father’s.(=one of my father’s friends)

He turned up wearing an old coat of Patrick’s.

In other cases it is safer to use of + noun construction.

C. of + noun is used for possession

1. When the possessor noun is followed by a phrase or clause:

I met the wife of the man who lent us the money.

(the underlined expression is too long to be followed be ’s)

2. With inanimate ‘possessors’, except those listed in A above:

the walls of the town the roof of the church

However, it is often possible to replace these expressions by the others:

the town walls the church roof

The first noun becomes an adjective and cannot be plural:

the roofs of the churches = the church roofs

Unfortunately these replacements are not always possible so it is
recommended to use of when in doubt.

ADJECTIVES

An adjective is a word which tells us more about a noun and is used when we describe people, things, events, etc. We use adjectives beforenouns and after some verbs.

Kinds of adjectives

a) Demonstrative: this, that, these, those

b) Distributive: each, every, either, neither

c) Quantitative: some, any, no; little, few; many, much; one, twenty

d) Interrogative: which, what, whose

e) Possessive: my, your, his, her, its, our, their

f) Of quality: clever, dry, fat, golden, good, heavy, square

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 792