THE NOUN

 The noun denotes thingness in a general sense. Thus nouns name things (book, table), living beings (man, tiger), places (valley, London, England), materials (iron, oil),
processes (life, laughter), states (sleep, consciousness), abstract notions (socialism, joy) and qualities (kindness, courage).

Semantic characteristics
Proper nouns are geographical names (New York, the Thames, Asia, the Alps), names Common nouns can be classified into nouns denoting objects that can be counted and
of individual (unique) persons (John, Byron, Brown), names of the months and the days those that cannot. So there are count and non-count and collective common nouns. The
of the week (January, Sunday), names of planets (the Moon, the Sun, the Earth), names former are inflected for number, whereas the latter are not. Further distinction is into
of ships, hotels, clubs (Shepherd's Hotel), of buildings, streets, parks, bridges concrete nouns, abstract nouns and nouns of material.
(Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Regent Street, Charing Cross Road, Piccadilly
Circus, Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Waterloo Bridge), of institutions, organizations,
magazines and newspapers (the United Nations, the New Times, the Guardian). They are
written with capitals.

Semantic classification of English nouns is shown in the following scheme:

 Morphological composition

According to their morphological composition nouns can be divided into

simple, derived, and compound
 Simple nouns consist of only one root-morpheme: dog, chair, room, roof, leaf.

 Derived nouns (derivatives) are composed of one root-morpheme and one or more derivational morphemes (prefixes or suffixes).
The main noun-forming suffixes are those forming abstract nouns and those forming concrete, personal nouns.
Abstract nouns Concrete nouns
-age: leakage, vicarage -(i)an: physician, Parisian, republican
-al: betrayal, portrayal, refusal -ant/-ent: assistant, student, informant
-ancy/-ency: vacancy, tendency -arian: vegetarian
-dom:freedom kingdom -ее: refugee, employee, payee
-hood: brotherhood, childhood -er: teacher, worker, singer
-ing: meaning, cleaning -ician: musician, politician
-ion/~sion/-tion/-ation: operation, tension, examination -ist: socialist, artist
-ism: darvinism, patriotism -or: visitor, actor
-ment: agreement, unemployment -let: booklet, leaflet
-ness: darkness, weakness -ess: actress, tigress, waitress
-ship: friendship, membership -ine: heroine
-ty: cruelty, sanity, banality -ix: proprietrix
-th: growth, strength -ette: usherette
-y: difficulty, honesty
The four suffixes -ess, -ine, -ette are feminine.

 Compound nouns consist of at least two stems. The meaning of a compound is not a mere sum of its elements. The main types of compound nouns are:
noun stem + noun stem: seaman
airmail
adjective stem + noun stem: bluebell
blackbird
verb stem + noun stem: pickpocket
gerund + noun stem: looking-glass
dancing-hall
noun stem + prepositions + noun stem: father-in-law
mother-in-law
man-of-war
substantivised phrases: forget-me-not
pick-me-up

The category of number

English nouns that are inflected for number (count nouns) have singular and plural forms.
Singular denotes one, plural denotes more than one. Most count nouns are variable and can occur with either singular or plural number. In Modern English the singular form of
a noun is unmarked (zero). The plural form is marked by the inflexion -(e)s. The spelling and the pronunciation of the plural morpheme vary.
Regular plurals

I. Nouns ending in vowels and voiced consonants have the plural ending pronouced as [z]:

bee - bees
dog - dogs

II. Nouns ending in voiceless consonants have a voiceless ending:

book - books

III. Nouns ending in -s, -sh, -as, -ch, -x, -z, (sibilants) have the ending [iz]:

actress - actresses
bush - bushes
watch - watches
box - boxes

IV. Nouns ending in -o have the ending [z]:

hero - heroes ['hɪǝrouz]

photo- photoes ['foutouz]

The regular plural inflexion of nouns in -o has two spellings; -os which occurs in the following cases:

a) after a vowel - bamboos, embryos, folios, kangaroos, radios, studios, zoos;

b) in proper names - Romeos, Eskimos, Filipinos;

c) in abbreviations, kilos (kilogramme), photos (photograph), pros (professional);

d) also in some borrowed words: pianos, concertos, dynamos, quartos, solos, tangos, tobaccos.

In other cases the spelling is -oes: tomatoes, echoes, Negroes, potatoes, vetoes, torpedoes, embargoes

Note:

Some nouns may form their plural in either way:

oes/os: cargo(e)s, banjo(e)s, halo(e)s.

V. The letter -y usually changes into -i:

sky skies [skaiz]

But the letter -y remains unchanged -ys:

 a) after vowels:
days (except in nouns ending in -quy: soliloquy - soliloquies).

b) in proper names:
the two Germanys, the Kennedys, the Gatsbys;

c) in compounds:
stand-bys, lay-bys.

The word penny has two plural forms:

pence (irregular) - in British currency to denote a coin of this value or a sum of money:

Here is ten pence (in one coin or as a sum of money);

pennies (regular) - for individual coins.

Here are ten pennies.

VI. Thirteen nouns ending in -f(e) form their plural changing -f(e) into -v(e): the ending in this case is pronounced [z]:

calf - calves life - lives thief - thieves

elf - elves loaf - loaves wife - wives
half - halves self - selves wolf - wolves
knife - knives sheaf - sheaves (снопы)
leaf - leaves shelf – shelves

Other nouns ending in -f(e) have the plural inflexion -s in the regular way: proof - proofs, chief - chiefs, safe - safes, cliff - cliffs, gulf - gulfs, dwarf - dwarfs, reef- reefs, grief -
griefs; the ending is pronounced [s].

In a few cases both -fs and -ves forms are possible:

scarf - scarfs/scarves,
dwarf - dwarfs/dwarves,
hoof - hoofs/hooves.

VII. Nouns ending in -th after a short vowel have the ending -s [s]:

month — months [mʌnθs].

Nouns ending in -th after a long vowel or a diphthong have [9z] in the plural: baths [ba:ðz], paths [paðz], oaths [ouðz].

But: youths [ju:θs], births [bǝ:θs].

VIII. The plural of abbreviations is sometimes formed in spelling by doubling a letter:

Ms (manuscript) - MSS
 p. (page) - pp.
Mr (Mister) - Messrs ['mesǝz]
M.P. (Member of Parliament) - M.P.s ['em'pi:z]
M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) - M.D.s ['em'di:z]
Co. (Company) - Co.s [kouz]

In a phrase like "Miss Brown" two different forms are used for the plural. We may either say "the Miss Browns" or "the Misses Brown", the latter being generally considered
more correct.

Irregular plurals

§ 173. For historical reasons certain nouns form their plural differently.

1. Seven nouns distinguish plural from singular by vowel change:

man - men tooth - teeth goose - geese

woman - women foot – feet mouse - mice
louse - lice

2. Two nouns have -en to mark the plural:

ox - oxen, child - children.

Brother has two plural forms: brothers and brethren, the latter being used as a religious term or in elevated style to denote people of the same creed, not relations.

3. With some nouns the plural is identical with the singular form (for details see § 176, II):

a) sheep-sheep
swine - swine
deer - deer
grouse - grouse

This sheep looks small. All those sheep are good.

I bought a grouse (three grouse for dinner).
There’re so many fish, they splinter the paddles.

Note:

There, are some animal names that have two plurals:

fish - fish/fishes, pike - pike/pikes, trout - trout/trouts, carp –carp/carps, salmon - salmon/salmons.

The zero plural is more common to denote hunting quarries (We caught only a few fish. We caught five salmon. He shot quail
(перепелок) to make money), whereas the regular plural is used to denote different individuals, species, kinds of animal, especially
fish with the same name or insects or other small animals which cause disease or damage.

The plant was covered in greenfly. There are three greenflies on my hand.
This animal is infected with hookworm. Two large hookworms were found in his stomach.
There were two quails for sale.
 b) identical singular and plural forms are also typical of nationality nouns in -ese, -ss: Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Swiss.

We met a Japanese. We met many Japanese on our holiday.

Note:

The word for people of the country is the same as the plural noun; the other way is to use substantivized adjectives in this sense:
Englishmen - the English Dutchmen - the Dutch.

c) two nouns borrowed from Latin and one from French also have identical forms for singular and plural:

series - series
species - species
corps [ko:] - corps [ko:z]

d) names, indicating number, such as:

pair, couple, dozen, score

stone and
head

have the same form for both the singular and plural when they are preceded by a numeral, that is, they
function as an indication of a kind of -us [ǝs] -i [ai] measure: two dozen of handkerchiefs, five dozen of eggs. The child
weighs two stone. One thousand head of stimulus -ога [ǝrǝ] cattle.
nucleus -era [ǝrǝ]
But when they have no number as predeterminer radius stimuli they take the usual plural form: dozens of times, to go in pairs.
corpus nuclei
A number of foreign (particularly Latin and genus radii Greek) nouns have retained their original plural endings.
Loans of Greek origin corpora Loans of Latin origin
genera

-а [ǝ] -ае [i:]

formula formulae (or regular - formulas)
antenna antennae
As can be seen from the above list some loan vertebrae nouns may have two plural forms: the English plural and the original
foreign one: vertebra

memorandum memoranda um [ǝm] focus -a [ǝ] foci

memorandums datum data focuses
stratum strata
curriculum curricula erratum errata
curriculums

formula formulae -es,-ix [ɪks] -ices [ɪsi;z]

formulas index indices
appendix appendices
matrix matrices
 cherub cheribum
cherubs

There is a tendency to use the regular English plural forms in fiction and colloquial English and the foreign plural in academic or learned language.
Sometimes different plural forms have different meanings:

index indexes (list of contents of books)

indices (a mathematical term - показатель)

genius geniuses (men of talent)

genii (fabulous spirits guarding a place - духи, домовые)

Plural in compound nouns

1. As a rule in compounds it is the second component that takes the plural form:

housewives, tooth-brushes, boy-scouts, maid-servants.

2. Compounds in -ful have the plural ending at the end of the word:

handfuls, spoonfuls, mouthfuls, (though spoonsful and mouthsful are also possible).

3. Compounds in which the first component is man or woman have plurals in both first and last components:

men-servants, women-doctors, gentlemen-farmers.

4. Compounds ending in -man change it into -men in spelling. In pronunciation, however, there is no difference between the singular and plural forms, both having [ǝ]:

policeman [ǝn] - policemen [ǝn].

Such nouns as German, Roman, Norman are not compounds, and therefore they have regular plurals:

Germans, Romans, Normans.

5. In compounds originating from a prepositional noun phrase where the preposition is a linking element only the first noun takes the plural form:

editors-in-chief, mothers-in-law, commanders-in-chief, coats-of-mail, men-of-war (военные корабли).

6. In compounds with a conjunction as a linking element the plural is taken by the second noun:

gin-and-tonics.

7. In compound nouns formed by a noun plus a preposition, or an adverb, or an adjective only the first element takes the plural:
 passers-by, lookers-on, courts-martial, attorneys-general.

8. When the compound is a substantivized phrase which does not contain a noun, the last element takes the plural ending –s:

forget-me-nots, breakdowns, stand-bys, grown-ups, close-ups,

pick-ups
drop-outs
go-betweens