Module 1. Parts of Speech. The noun.

The article

Topic: Parts of Speech. The noun. The article

Lesson №1

Topic: Parts of Speech. The noun. The plural of nouns

Contest:
1. Presentation of a new topic: Parts of Speech. The noun. The plural of nouns
(№1, p.13-16). Learn the material that is given below.

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH

According to their meaning, morphological characteristics and
syntactical functions, words fall under certain classes called parts
of speech.
We distinguish between notional and structural parts of speech.
The notional parts of speech perform certain functions in the sentence: the
functions of subject, predicate, attribute, object or adverbial modifier.
The notional parts of speech are:
(1) the noun;
(2) the adjective;
(3) the pronoun;
(4) the numeral;
(5) the verb;
(6) the adverb;
(7) the words of the category of state;
(8) the modal words;
(9) the interjection.
The structural parts of speech either express relations between words or
sentences or emphasize the meaning of words or sentences. They never perform
any independent function in the sentence. Here belong:
(1) the preposition;
(2) the conjunction;
(3) the particle;
(4) the article.
THE NOUN
The noun is a word expressing substance in the widest sense of the word.
In the concept of substance we include not only names of living beings (e. g.
boy, girl, bird) and lifeless things (e. g. table, chair, book), but also names of
abstract notions, i. e. qualities, states, actions (kindness, strength, sleep, fear,
conversation, fight), abstracted from their bearers.
The noun has the following morphological characteristics:
1. Nouns that can be counted have two numbers: singular and plural (e. g.
singular: a girl, plural: girls).
2. Nouns denoting living beings (and some nouns denoting lifeless things) have
two case forms: the common case and the genitive case.
It is doubtful whether the grammatical category of gender exists in Modern
English for it is hardly ever expressed by means of grammatical forms.
There is practically only one gender-forming suffix in Modern English, the
suffix -es, expressing feminine gender. It is not widely used.
heir — heir-ess
poet — poet-ess
actor — actr-ess
waiter — waitr-ess
host — host-ess
lion — lion-ess
tiger — tigr -ess1
1
Gender, i. e. the distinction of nouns into masculine, feminine and neuter, may be
expressed lexically by means of different words or word-compounds:
father —mother man—woman
boy —girl gentleman —lady
husband — wife cock-sparrow—hen-sparrow
boy-friend — girl-friend man-servant—maid-servant
Very often personal or possessive pronouns indicate the gender of the noun.

Nouns are: abstract (art, belief etc), concrete (artist, believer etc), proper (Jill, Peter,
Portugal etc), collective (group, crowd, team, flock, herd, family etc) and common
(woman, dog etc).
There are three genders of nouns: masculine (He - men and boys, animals when we
know their sex), feminine (She - women and girls, countries, ships, vehicles when
regarded with affection or respect, animals when we know their sex) and neutral (It -
things, babies and animals if we don’t know their sex).
Most nouns describing people have the same form whether they are male or female,
teacher, student etc. Some nouns have different forms, though, f.e. actor - actress, groom -
bride etc.

THE PLURAL OF NOUNS

Nouns are made plural by adding:

 -s to the noun (chair - chairs);
 -es to nouns ending in –s, -ss, -x, -ch, -sh, -z (bus - buses, glass - glasses, fox - foxes,
torch – torches, brush - brushes, buzz - buzzes);
 -ies to nouns ending in consonant + y (lady - ladies) but -s to nouns ending in
 vowel + y (day – days);
 -es to nouns ending in consonant + o (potato - potatoes);
 -s to nouns ending in vowel + o (studio - studios), double o (zoo - zoos),
abbreviations (photograph - photo - photos, autos, kilos, memos), musical
instruments (piano - pianos) and proper nouns (Eskimo -Eskimos). Some
nouns ending in –o can take either –es or -s. These are: buffaloes/buffalos,
mosquitoes/mosquitos, volcanoes/volcanos, zeroes/zeros, tornadoes/tornados
etc.
 -ves to some nouns ending in –f/-fe. (calf - calves, half - halves, knife - knives, leaf -
leaves, life – lives, self-selves, thief - thieves, wolf- wolves) (but: belief -
beliefs, chief - chiefs, cliff- cliffs, handkerchief - handkerchiefs, hoof -
hoofs/hooves, roof - roofs, safe - safes).
 Some nouns of Greek or Latin origin form their plural by adding Greek or Latin
suffixes: basis - bases, crisis - crises, terminus - termini, criterion - criteria,
phenomenon - phenomena, stimulus - stimuli, datum - data, medium -
media etc.

Compound nouns form their plural by adding –s/es:

 to the second noun if the compound consists of two nouns. ball game - ball
games;
 to the noun if the compound consists of an adjective and a noun. frying pan -
frying pans;
 to the first noun if the compound consists of two nouns connected by a
preposition or to the noun if the compound has only one noun. mother-in-law -
mothers-in-law, passer-by - passers-by;
 at the end of the compound if it does not include any nouns. letdown – letdowns.
Irregular Plurals: man-men, woman-women, foot-feet, tooth-teeth, louse-
lice, mouse-mice, child-children, goose-geese, sheep-sheep, deer-deer, fish-
fish, trout-trout, ox-oxen, salmon-salmon, spacecraft-spacecraft, aircraft-
aircraft, means-means, species-species.

SINGULAR / PLURAL VERB FORMS

We use singular verb forms with:

♦ a) nouns which refer to school subjects: economics, physics, mathematics
(maths), politics, etc.
b) nouns which refer to sports: gymnastics, athletics, bowls, etc.
c) nouns which refer to games: billiards, dominoes, darts, draughts, etc.
d) nouns which refer to illnesses: measles, mumps, etc.
e) the word news.
e.g. I think physics is a very interesting subject. The news isn't very
encouraging, I'm afraid.
 ♦ plural nouns when we talk about an amount of money, a time period,
weight, distance, etc.
e.g. Five hundred thousand pounds was donated to build a new hospital wing.
♦ group nouns such as jury, family, team, group, crew, crowd, class,
audience, committee, council, army, club, press, government, company,
etc. when we mean the group as a unit. But we use plural verbs when we
mean the individuals who make up the group.
e.g. The jury is ready to give the verdict. (We mean the jury as a unit.)
The jury are all staying at the Park Hotel. (We mean the individual members of
the jury.)
We use plural verb forms with:
♦ nouns such as: clothes, people, police, stairs, (good) looks, surroundings,
outskirts, premises, earnings, wages, cattle, poultry, etc.
e.g. Designer clothes are rather expensive.
♦ nouns which refer to objects that consist of two parts, such as: trousers,
binoculars, shorts, shoes, gloves, pyjamas, tights, glasses, earrings, socks,
scissors, etc.
We do not use a/an or a number with these words. We use the phrase pair of...
instead.
e.g. Where are your gloves? I was given a pair of gloves.

2. Testing of the material. № 5, р. 157, ех. 3. Do the following exercises.

Exercise 1. Fill in the plural as in the example:

I wonder who decides what sort of 1) animals (animal) are kept in 2)....….(zoo)?
You expect to see a lot of 3)……… (monkey), 4)……….(rhino), and 5)……....
(lion), but you rarely see 6)……..(ox), 7)…….. (sheep), 8)……….(deer) or 9)
………(goose), probably because these can be seen commonly enough in the wild.
Each day large 10)……(delivery) of food arrive for the 11)………(beast) to eat.
Not expensive items like 12)………(salmon) or 13)………….(trout), but ordinary
things like 14)………….(potato) and 15)…………..(tomato) - although the 16)
………..(panda) like 17)………(bamboo). The whole family, 18)…………(man),
19)…………(woman) and 20)…………(child) can take 21)…………(photo) or
make 22)………….(video) of them eating with their 23)…………(paw) and 24)
…………(tooth), since animals do not use 25)…………(knife) and 26)…………
(fork) to eat.
Exercise 2. Write the plural of the following nouns.

nanny bush ferryboat

father-in- pen-friend watch
law
headache video medium
dictionary pillowcase bay
pincushion violin flamingo
phone wife taxi-driver
hoof volcano potato
radio mouse safe
train godfather onlooker
robbery
painkiller wish walking-
stick

Exercise 3. Fill in the gaps with an appropriate noun + of to indicate quantity.

1. A ...carton/glass/jug of... orange juice
2. A...........................................................................................cheese.
3. A...........................................................................................bread.
4. A...........................................................................................coffee.
5. A...........................................................................................water.
6. A...........................................................................................wine.
7. A...........................................................................................chocolate.
8. A...........................................................................................crisps.
9. A ...........................................................................................honey.
10. A...........................................................................................meat.
11. A...........................................................................................spaghetti.
12. A...........................................................................................flour.

Home assignment
Learn by heart theoretical material according to the topic, be ready for oral quiz
and writing a test. №1, p. 13-16, № 2, p. 5, ex 1-2. Do the following exercises that
are given below.

Exercise 4. Fill in the plurals as in the example:

Dear Manager,
I’m writing to complain about the terrible evening I had at your restaurant. We had
reserved a table but when we arrived, there weren’t enough 1) chairs (chair) for
us to sit on. Even though we’d checked beforehand, we were told that there were
no 2)…………(meal) especially for 3)……………….(child). We had keep asking
the waiter to bring us some 4)…………….(glass) and when he gave us our 5)
…………………(knife) and 6)……………(fork), they were dirty. We were
informed that not all the 7)……………(dish) were available that evening and,
when we did receive our food, the 8)………………(potato) were raw and the
meat was so tough I nearly broke my 9)………………(tooth) when I bit into it.
However, that was nothing! The real horror was when I saw two 10)……………
(mouse) running across the floor. I think I’m entitled to some compensation as
long as it doesn’t include free 11)……………(meal) at your restaurant! I look
forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
M. Bennet
Exercise 5. Underline the correct word.

A: I have a Physics exam tomorrow.

B: Oh dear. Physics is/are a very difficult subject.
A: My office is three miles from my house.
B: Three miles is/are a long way to walk to work.
A: My little brother has got measles.
B: Oh dear. Measles is/are quite a serious illness.
A: Jane looked nice today, didn’t she?
B: Yes. Her clothes were/was very smart.
A: I’ve got two pounds. I’m going to buy a CD.
B: Two pounds is/are not enough to buy a CD.
A: The classroom was empty when I walked past.
B: Yes. The class was/were all on a school outing.
A: Have you just cleaned the stairs?
B: Yes, so be careful. They is/are very slippery.
A: Did you ask John to fix your car?
B: Yes. His advice was/were that I take it to a garage.
A: Did you enjoy your holiday?
B: Yes, thank you. The weather was/were wonderful.
A: These trousers is/are very old.
B: You should buy a new pair.
A: How is/are the company doing lately?
B: Great. We opened up two more branches.
A: I am going to travel for two years when I finish school.
B: Two years is/are a long time to be away from home.

Literature
Basic
1. Каушанская В.Л. Грамматика английского языка. – Москва: Страт,
2006. – 319 с.
2. Каушанская В.Л. Сборник упражнений по грамматике английского
языка. – Москва: Страт, 2000. – 216 с.
3. Thomson A.J. A Practical English Grammar. – Oxford University press,
2003. – 383 p.
4. Longman New Round-up 5. English Grammar Practice. – Pearson Education.
– England, 2011. – 208 p.
5. Longman New Round-up 6. English Grammar Practice. – Pearson Education.
– England, 2011. – 257 p.

Additional
1. Голіцинський Ю.Б. Граматика. Збірник вправ. – К.: Тандем, 2004. – 400
с.
2. Керножицька О.А. Граматика. – К.: Тандем, 1997. – 253 с.
3. Мансі Є.А. Практикум з граматики англійської мови. – К.: АСК, 1999. –
352 с.
4. Barabash T.A. A Guide to Better Grammar. – M., 1975. – 200 p.
5. Dooley J., Evans V. Grammarway. – Express Publishing, 1999. – 278 p.
6. Thomson A.J., Martinet A.V. A Practical English Grammar: Exercises 1.  –
Oxford University press, 2009. – 181 p.
7. Thomson A.J., Martinet A.V. A Practical English Grammar: Exercises 2.  –
Oxford University press, 2009. – 200 p.