Noun's plural, possessive and genitive

NOUN is a word that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. If they refer to the physical things they are called concrete nouns whereas abstract nouns refer to events, states, activities, occasions. Common nouns denote things that are not specific (woman, city, dog) whereas proper nouns are names for specific things (Leia, Tokyo, Snitter).

Countable nouns are things that can be counted and therefore have a plural form and indefinite articles a/an (a sword/swords). Collective nouns are count nouns but even in singular they refer to groups of people, animals or things (team, family, government, committee, army, audience). They have an ability to go with plural verb even when they are singular, often depending on how we feel about them. (Her family live/lives here. The police are investigating the crime.)

With uncountable nouns we do not normally use a/an in front of them or the number so we use special expressions for more of them: (as bunch of, crowd, flock, gang, group, set, herd, pack, series, mass of), for just one (a bit of, grain, item, piece, sheet, slice), for container (box of, cup of), shape (pile of, handful, spoonful), measure (pint, gallon, litre, kilogram), pair of applies to two things which occur together (arms, eyes, glasses, gloves, socks). Mass nouns refer to substances, qualities and have no plural (flour, sadness) so we use these special expressions.

Number

= grammatical category for nouns, pronouns and verbs that is used depending on the number of entities involved (singular or plural)

Regular plurals

1. The plural is formed by adding -s to the singular (rabbit –> rabbits)

We pronounce /s/ after these sounds: /f/ chiefs; /k/ cakes; /p/ taps; /t/ pets; /ø/ months.

But pronounce /z/ after these sounds: /b/ verbs; /d/ friends; /g/ bags; /l/ bells; /m/ names.

2. Nouns ending in -s, -ss, -x, -ch, -sh or -tch form their plural by adding -es. Pronounced [-iz].

glass – glasses, box – boxes, match – matches

3a. Nouns ending in -o form their plural by adding –es.

hero – heroes, tomato – tomatoes

3b. But nouns of foreign origin or abbreviated words ending -o add -s only.

radio – radios, zoo – zoos, piano – pianos, kilo – kilos, photo – photos

3c. There are a few nouns ending in -o which form the plural both in -s and –es.

cargo – cargos or cargoes, volcano – volcanos or volcanoes

4a. Nouns ending in -y following a consonant form plural by dropping the -y and adding –ie.

baby – babies, country – countries, fly – flies, lady – ladies

4b. If the final -y is preceded by a vowel letter the plural is formed by simply adding –s.

boy – boys, day – days, guy – guys, key – keys

Irregular plurals

1a. Nouns ending with –f(e)  take plurals -ves.

elf – elves, knife – knives, leaf – leaves, shelf – shelves, thief – thieves, wife – wives, wolf – wolves.

1b. But! Regular plural only: belief, chief, proof, roof

1c. Both regular and irregular: dwarf – dwarfs or dwarves, hoof – hoofs or hooves

2. Mutation involves a change of vowel.

 foot – feet, goose – geese, louse – lice, man – men, mouse – mice, tooth – teeth, woman – women.

3. The –en plural.

brother – brethren (members of some group, regular brothers), child – children, ox - oxen

4. Zero plural

Some nouns have the same form in both singular and plural like names of certain animals especially when they are used in a hunting context (deer, mackerel, salmon, sheep, trout) Sportsmen who shoot duck, pheasant, etc. use the same form for singular and plural. But other people normally add -s for the plural: ducks, pheasants.

5. Some nouns borrowed from Greek and Latin retained their original plural endings.

crisis – crises, criterion – criteria, phenomenon – phenomena, radius – radii

But some follow the English rules: album – albums, dogma – dogmas, gymnasium – gymnasiums

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: formula – formulae/formulas.

Plurals with different meanings

The plurals of some nouns have two or more meanings, one of the singular meaning, the other entirely different.

colours – 1. hues 2. national flags

draughts – 1. a game 2. currents of air

grounds – 1.land 2. reasons

spirits – 1. souls 2. alcoholic liquors 3. mental or moral attitude

 

Double plural forms

In some cases the two plurals have different meanings.

die - 1. dies (= metal stamps for making money) 2. dice (= small cubes of bone or wood used in games of chance).

cloth - 1. cloths (= different pieces or kinds of cloth) 2. clothes (= articles of dress)

Plural of compound nouns

1. Plural in the last element (boyfriends, travel agents, merry-go-rounds)

2. Plural in both first and last element (menservants, women doctors)

3. Plural in first element (editors-in-chief, brothers-in-law, runners-up)

Case

The only case-form for nouns that exists in English is the genitive/possessive case. We use the possessive form with living things like personal names (John’s computer), personal nouns (doctor’s surgery), indefinite pronouns (someone’s responsibility), collective nouns (army’s weaponry), animals (horse’s stable). Also some non-living things like geographical or institutional references (America’s policy), churches (St. Paul’s Cathedral), time references (today’s work) and fixed expressions (at death’s door, journey’s end). The pronunciation of ‘s and s’ depends on the sound that precedes them and follows the same rules as for plural nouns.

1. ‘s is used with singular nouns and plural nouns not ending in –s.

an actress’s career, the dog’s kennel, children’s games, men’s work

If two names are joined by and, we add ‘s to the second (Scott and Amundsen’s race)

2. An apostrophe is used with plural nouns ending in –s. (boys’ school, the soldiers’ horses)

3a. Classical names ending in -s usually add only the apostrophe (Archimedes’ Law)

3b. Other names ending in -s can take ‘s or the apostrophe (Charles’s address or Charles’ address)

5. When the possessor is represented by a compound noun, the possessive ending is added at the end (brother-in-law’s face). The rule also applies to titles (Henry the Eighth’s marriages, the Secretary of State’s visit). Two genitives are also possible (My brother’s neighbour’s sister is a nurse.)

Omission of the noun after ‘s

We can omit nouns where someone lives (I’m staying at my aunt’s.) and with shops and businesses (Would you mind going to the chemist’s for me? I’ve got an appointment at the dentist’s.)

 

The use of the of-construction

We normally use the of-construction when referring to things (the look of the film; the shade of a tree), parts of things (the bottom/top/side/inside of the box), abstract reference (the cost of living; the price of success). But of-construction cannot be used with genitives that are completely adjectival (He has a doctor’s degree.)

 

The double genitive

An of-genitive can be combined with an -s genitive in a construction called the double genitive. The noun with the -s genitive inflection must be both definite and personal.

a friend of my father’s (= one of my father’s friends), a play of Shakespeare’s (= one of Shakespeare’s plays) , a criticism of Shaw’s (=opinions by Shaw), an opera of Verdi’s