CHAPTER FIVE: NOUNS.
5.1
BASIC POINTS.
5.1.1 Firstly you must be able to tell the difference between "countable" and "uncountable"
nouns, as we saw in the chapter on the articles, so that you know when to use the indefinite
article and when not to use it. Secondly you must pay particular attention to the cases when
the English language leaves out the definite article, because a mistake in this type of case
makes a very bad and "un-English" impression.
5.1.2 The other basic point to remember is that the gender of nouns is "natural" in English,
which means that the foreign student learning English ought not to have too many problems
choosing the correct personal pronoun in each case; nouns designating men or male creatures
are masculine, those designating women or female creatures are feminine, and the rest are
neuter. (It can be said that a noun which designates both males and females is of "common"
gender, for example "a cousin.")
5.1.3 The only exceptions to these rules about gender come in cases of objects being
personified in some way or another, as in the expressions "England and her navy..." or "She
was a fine ship," but this does not happen all that frequently.
5.2
SPECIFIC POINTS ON GENDERS.
In certain cases the gender can be specified by a prefix, and there are also of course a
number of words which have specific masculine and feminine forms.
a boy-friend a girl-friend
a manservant a maidservant
a landlord
a landlady
a hero a heroine
a widower
a widow
an actor
an actress
a master
a mistress
a god a goddess
a host a hostess
a tiger a tigress
Note also the following "masculine and feminine" pairs.
a man a woman
a husband
a wife
a father
a mother
a son a daughter
a brother
a sister
an uncle
an aunt
a nephew
a niece
a bachelor
a spinster (a bachelor-girl)
5.3
THE PLURAL OF ENGLISH NOUNS.
5.3.1 In English the plural of a noun is practically always formed by adding "s" to the
singular form.
5.3.2 After "s," "x," "z," "sh," "ch" and "o" we add "es."
bosses - boxes - buzzes - dishes - churches - potatoes
An exception to the rule about nouns ending in "o" comes in words which have been
"stolen" from Italian, where we have plurals such as "pianos," "solos" and "concertos."
5.3.3 If the singular ends in a consonant plus "y," the plural ending is "ies."
cry / cries - reply / replies - Tory / Tories
5.3.4 A singular noun which ends in "f" or "fe" often has its plural in "ves," but this is not a
universal rule. Compare these two lists:
leaf - leaves chief - chiefs
half - halves roof - roofs
loaf - loaves proof - proofs
calf - calves gulf - gulfs
wife - wives cliff - cliffs
life - lives
knife - knives
thief - thieves
5.3.5 There are also a number of irregular plurals.
man - men
louse - lice
woman - women
goose - geese
child - children
tooth - teeth
ox - oxen
foot - feet
mouse - mice
5.3.6 Look at the following cases of words having Greek or Latin origins.
analysis - analyses basis - bases
crisis - crises hypothesis - hypotheses
parenthesis - parentheses
thesis - theses
bacterium - bacteria stimulus - stimuli
criterion - criteria
5.3.7 Note the plural forms of the following compound nouns.
a grown-up / grown-ups
(a toothbrush / toothbrushes)
a passer-by / passers-by
a looker-on / lookers-on
a sister-in-law / sisters-in-law, (brothers-in-law etc.)
5.4
INVARIABLE NOUNS.
The following nouns are invariable, which means that they can be either singular or
plural, but the form of the word doesn't change.
fruit - sheep - deer - fish - perch - trout - salmon - pike
We occasionally use the forms "fruits" and "fishes," when we want to talk about
"different sorts or species of fruits and fishes." Compare the two following examples:
We didn't catch many fish yesterday.
There are all sorts of fishes in the lochs in Scotland.
In fact, the words "series," "species" and "means" really belong here too:
There is a new series starting on B.B.C. tonight; I hope it isn't another one of those
boring American crime series.
5.5
UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS.
As we saw in the chapter on the articles, there are certain quite common nouns in
English which are singular only, and are considered to be "uncountable." Thus they are never
preceded by the indefinite article, they have no plural form and cannot be followed by a plural
verb. (See 4.3.)
(information - knowledge - progress - advice etc.)
5.6
COLLECTIVE NOUNS.
Collective nouns can pose one or two problems. The first group can take either a
singular or a plural verb, depending upon whether you consider them to be a single unit, or a
number of people acting together.
family - committee - government - team - firm - crew - group - (and there are others.)
The family is/are coming for tea tomorrow.
The team wasn't/weren't very good yesterday.
The second group always have their verbs in the plural.
police - poultry - cattle - people, (see also 5.8 for this one.)
The police are coming to visit the school this afternoon.
People are always criticizing what I do!
5.7
NOUNS ENDING IN "S."
Words which end in "s" can pose a problem too. These first ones are considered to be
singular.
news - economics - politics - physics - measles - works, (meaning "factory")
The news is very good today.
Politics is a fascinating subject to study.
These next ones are plural, however.
trousers - scissors - riches - goods - the Middle Ages - wages, (which we sometimes
use in the singular too, without the "s.")
My trousers have holes in them, and my wages are getting lower and lower too!
5.8
SINGULAR/PLURAL DIFFERENCES.
Note the following differences in meaning between singular and plural forms.
He had long, black hair, but the hairs on the back of his hands were quite fair.
It is my custom to hide a bottle of whisky in the bottom of my suitcase as I go through
customs.
You can have a second dish of pudding if you promise to help me do the dishes. (I
know chocolate mousse is your favourite sweet dish!)
Who is he doing business with now? How many businesses does he own, in fact?
Some people just don't seem to realize how much the peoples of the third world suffer.
My sister nearly broke the scales when she weighed herself yesterday.
What's the scale of marks for our test on English nouns and articles, Sir?
It's often hard for young people to find work nowadays.
There was an exhibition of Picasso's early works in the National Gallery recently.
The hurricane did a lot of damage to buildings in the town.
He had to pay her damages for his defamatory remarks.
5.9
WORDS WITH TWO PLURALS.
Note the different senses given with the following plural forms:
penny : pence - (to give the price of something)
That ice-cream cost me 35 pence.
penny : pennies - (the coins themselves)
I think there are some pennies upstairs, if you need change.
cloth: cloths - (pieces of material, tablecloths etc.)
She threw out all her old shoe-cloths last week.
(no singular): clothes - (the garments that we wear.)
She gave all my old clothes to the Red Cross.