Common nouns

The referent may be perceived as a countable [C] entity (dog – dogs), or as an indivisible, uncountable [U] mass
entity (sugar). Many nouns which are basically uncountable also have countable uses with a difference of meaning:

I had ham, chicken and fish for dinner. ‘meat’ [U]

They have some chickens and two turkeys. ‘bird’ [C]
Noun formation
derivation and compounding.

Suffix meanings examples

-ance ‘action/state of V-ing’ assistance

-ant, -ent ‘person who V-s’ assistant
-dom ‘state of being A/N’ freedom
-ee ‘person who has been V-ed’ employee
-er ‘person who V-s’ farmer
‘smth. used for V-ing’ computer
-ful amount that fills N’ handful
-ician ‘person concerned with N’ mathematician
-ing ‘action of V-ing’ reading
-ism ’doctrine of N’ Marxism
-ist ‘person believing in N-ism’ Marxist
-ness ‘state of quality of being A’ blindness
-ship ‘state of being N’ friendship
‘skill as N’ craftsmanship

a) nouns denoting the type of container

barrel of brandy, fish

basket of eggs, fruit, flowers
box of chocolate, matches, soap
cup of coffee, tea
sack of grain, potatoes, rice, mail

b) nouns denoting shape

heap of leaves, blankets

pile of bills, bricks, rocks, wood

There's heaps of time before the plane leaves.

c) standardized measure terms

pint, gallon, quart, liter of beer, gas, milk, water

foot, inch, yard, meter of material, wire, cloth
ounce, pound, gram, kilo(gram) of cheese, butter, flour
ton, tone of aluminum, bricks

d) plural numerals

tens, hundreds, millions of dollars, accidents

dozens, scores of animals, books

There were scores of boxes and crates, all waiting to be checked and loaded.

e) nouns ending in -ful: the suffix –ful can be added to almost any noun denoting some
kind of container to form a quantifying noun: basketful, bellyful, mouthful, plateful,
pocketful, teaspoonful:

armful of straw, grass, flowers

handful of salt, pencils

She scooped up handfuls of loose earth.

f) nouns denoting two items:

pair of eyes, gloves, hands, socks

 couple of days, hours, boys

I've seen her a couple of times before.

She’s going to buy a new pair of shoes.
A. Complete each sentence with one suitable word from the list. Use each word once only: blade,
flight, item, piece, sheet, head, lump, set, slice. Write your answers in the spaces provided below and
compare them with those given at the end of the unit:

1) Let me give you a ……… of advice.

2) There is an interesting ……… of news in the paper.
3) A ……… of stairs takes you to the top of the house.
4) Can I have another ……… of paper, please?
5) Put another ……… of coal on the fire.
6) Helen has a lovely ……… of hair.
7) Do you want another ……… of toast?
8) We bought Mary a ……… of cutlery for a wedding present.
9) There was not a single ……… of grass left standing.

Compound nouns form the plural in different ways:

a) plural in the first element:

attorney general attorneys general

notary public notaries public
passer-by passers-by
mother-in-law mothers-in-law
grant-in-aid grants-in-aid

b) plural in both first and last element:

gentleman farmer gentlemen farmers

manservant menservants
woman doctor women doctors

c) plural in the last element:

grown-up grown-ups
stand-by stand-bys
forget-me-not forget-me-nots
sit-in sit-ins
Foreign plurals
g) Nouns in –us /ə s/ with plural –i /ai/:

bacillus - bacilli
stimulus - stimuli

h) Nouns in –us /ə s/ with plural –a /ə / (only in technical use):

corpus - corpora
genus - genera

i) Nouns in –a /ə / with plural –ae /i:/ or /ai/:

regular plural foreign plural

formula - formulas formulae
vertebra - vertebras vertebrae

j) Nouns in –um /əm/ with plural –a /ə: /:

curriculum - curricula
stratum - strata

k) Nouns in –ex, -ix with plural –ices /isi:z/:

index - indices
matrix - matrices
 l) Nouns in –is /is/ with plural –es /i:z/:

analysis - analyses
axis - axes
basis - bases
crisis - crises
hypothesis - hypotheses
parenthesis - parentheses
thesis - theses

m) Nouns in –on /ə n/ with plural –a /ə/:

criterion - criteria
phenomenon - phenomena

n) Some nouns from French sometimes retain a French plural in writing, with the
French zero ending in speech or, more usually, a regular English plural:

regular plural foreign plural

bureau - bureaus /-ə uz / bureaux /-ə u/
plateau - plateaus plateaux

bacterium, criterion, curriculum, datum, formula, fungus, index, larva, phenomenon, thesis, syllabus,
synthesis
Plural forms perceived as indivisible units
names of sciences ending in –ics: physics, acoustics
names of diseases: mumps, measles
names of games: billiards, dominoes
 The genitive case
The genitive is mainly used to express possession. That is why it is sometimes called the ‘possessive’ case. However,
besides showing possession the genitive has other meanings related to some basic sentence structure.
Choice of the ’s genitive
1. Proper names :
Deborah's native town
2. Names of persons :
 My sister's doll
Your neighbour's car
When the "possessor" is represented by several words, the possessive ending is added. after the last one only :
The boy and the girl's toys (they have the same toys)
If each "possessor" is followed by 's, this means that the possessed objects differ : The boy's and the
girl's toys (the boy has some toys and the girl has others)
Similarly, 's can also be added to a whole phrase : My brother-in-law's job
The woman next door's husband
3. ‘locative nouns’ denote regions, institutions, etc., can be very similar to geographical names and are often written
with initial capital letter:
the world’s economic organization
the Church’s mission
the country’s population
The government's decisions Our company's success
4. Living creatures other than humans
A spider's web, the cat's paws., a lion's mane
5. Personifications :
a) abstract nouns :
Liberty's defence
a) names of continents, countries, towns, universities:
Europe's future, Spain's imigrants, London's water supplies,
Harvard's Linguistics Department
b) names of celestial bodies : The Sun's rays
6. Names of vessels, boats, ships : Our ship's crew
7. Names of chronological divisions or nouns denoting measurements, distance, weight, worth, etc.:
the decade’s events this year’s sales
a day’s work a week’s holiday
You must come to tomorrow's meeting.
Have you read today's newspaper?
She came back after a year's absence.
We have got a week's holiday.
The patient needs eight hours' sleep every night.
They had a ten minutes' conversation.

Also :
• a foot's distance two dollars' worth
• a stone's throw within arm's reach
• a hair's bredth
8. Idiomatic expressions :
for God's sake to get one's money's worth
for goodness' sake a needle's eye
for heaven's sake one's heart's desire
out of harm's way at one's wit's end
to be at death's door a pin's head
to our heart's content at swords' points
in my mind's eye on a razor's edge
at one's finger's end the journey's end
Sometimes the Genitive is used elliptically, that is without the "possessed object" :
a) when the "possessed object" has already been mentioned and we want to avoid repetition :
Mary's blouse is more beautiful than your sister's.
b) when one of the following words : church, department store, hotel, shop, theatre, a person's house, etc.
is understood :
We visited St. Paul's.
She is going to the grocer's/butcher's/baker's.
 I will stay at my aunt's.
The Analytical/Prepositional/Periphrastic Genitive is made up with the help of the
preposition of and it is used :
1. When the "possessor" is a thing : The roof of the house
The garden of the school
2. In some geographical names : The Isle of Man
The city of London
3. Before substantivized adjectives : The needs of the poor
4. When we want to underline the importance of a proper name : We discussed about the
wars of Napoleon.
5. Before proper names followed by an apposition: This is the house of Mr.
Brown, the architect.

Gender
spinster – bachelor king - queen
lord – lady monk - nun
bull - cow cock - hen
fox - vixen stallion - mare
ram - ewe stag - hind
boar – saw

male nurse (female) nurse

(male) student (female) student
boy-friend girl-friend
Jack ass Jenny ass
billy-goat nanny-goat
cock sparrow hen sparrow
tom cat tabby cat
chairman chairwoman
spokesman spokeswoman
businessman businesswoman
congressman congresswoman
Mrs. Moon, their Chairperson, was interviewed yesterday.
actor → actress
governor → governess
mayor → mayoress
mister → mistress
god → goddess
hero → heroine
Dual gender nouns
journalist, friend, teacher, child, baby, pupil, doctor, student, etc.
fox, deer, sheep, pig, horse, fowl, etc.
Nobody in his right mind punishes a quarter-century-old dereliction.
Nowadays, a plural form pronoun is preferred as a way of purposely not
specifying the sex of the person referred to (although the expressions he or she, him or
her may also be used):

Nobody came, did they?

Everyone thinks they are in the centre of the universe.
Once you have let anybody in they'd chop you up and put you in their next
stew.