Translate into Russian and then back into English. Pay attention to the use of countable and uncountable nouns.

1) Ann hasn’t got accommodation. 2) She gave me plenty of good advice. 3) We shall meet at “Arrivals and departures”. 4) I have some fears that he would get lost. 5) It’s a picture of a fish. 6) I like to eat fish. 7) There are many fish here. 8) Real friendship is more valuable than money. 9) His friendships never last very long. 10) Frost has killed our young plants. 11) Early frosts spoil the last of the flowers.	19) Don’t walk on the grass. 20) He hid behind some tall grasses. 21) She has beautiful hair. 22) There was a hair in the soup. 23) There is a lot of homework to do. 24) He was filled with joy. 25) I saw the joy in her smiling face. 26) She is such a great joy to me! 27) He is looking for a new job. 28) Knowledge is power. 29) Did you report the loss of your jewellery to the police? 30) I want to wish you good luck. 31) Money doesn’t always bring happiness. 32) I have good news and bad news. 33) The good news is that he is alive.
12) Fruit is good for you. 13) There are many fruits in this store. 14) We still have much fruit; don’t buy any. 15) We had a lot of fun. 16) I don’t listen to gossip. 17) She is a gossip. 18) Grass is green.	34) The bad news is we don’t know where he is now. 35) Bad news doesn’t make people happy. 36) The ship made slow progress through the rough sea. 37) What lovely scenery! 38) What a lovely view! 39) I am looking for work.
40) We made a loss on these shoes. 41) It’s a great loss for us. 42) What is the departure time of the flight?	43) The new system is a departure from our usual way of keeping records.

 

 

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English nouns have three grammatical categories: number, case and gender; the latter, however, is mainly expressed lexically, not by grammatical means, and there is a close relation of gender in English with a biological sex.

 

UNIT 3 N U M B E R

Most nouns make a distinction between singular and plural numbers, they are variable (a student – students).

But some nouns are invariable, they have only one form, singular (news) or plural (trousers).

3. 1. Variable nouns

Regular plurals

 

1. Most nouns form their plurals by adding - s to the singular: daughter – daughter s, son – son s, mouth – mouth s.

2. Nouns ending in - s, -sh, -ch, -x, or - z add - es to the singular: a dish – dish es, a match -- match es.

3. Nouns ending in - y preceded by a consonant change the - y to - i and add - es: a li l y – li l ies, ba b y -- ba b ies.

4. Nouns ending in - y preceded by a vowel keep the - y and add - s: a d a y – d a ys

5. The majority of nouns ending in - o add - es when forming their plurals: a her o – her oes.

6. Compound nouns written as one word make their plurals by adding - s/ - es: sunrise – sunrise s or by vowel shift if the second part of the compound needs it: postm a n – postm e n.

7. Compound nouns consisting of a noun plus a modifier pluralize the modified word, NOT the modifier: passer-by – passer s -by. If the first part of the compound noun is the word man or woman, then both the parts of the

compound become plural: a man-servant – m e n-servant s, a woman-doctor – wom e n-doctor s.

8. Letters, signs, and words as countable items add an apostrophe plus - s: one l – two l's, one no – three no's, in 1990 – in the 1990's.

 

E x e r c i s e s

 

Put the nouns into the plural and explain the use of the form.

a) A star, a cloud, a bird, a bottle, a person, a train, a desk, a student, a teacher, a dog, an M.A. degree, a speaker, a lecture, a thing, a machine, a lawyer, an economist;

 

b) boss, horse, house, gas, class, church, dish, judge, place, prize, tax, waltz;

 

c) a bottle, a cottage, an egg, an orange, a car, a book, a house, a box, an elephant, a rose, a waltz, a tax, a doll, a desk, a boss, a glass, a dish, a bee, a match, an answer;

 

d) army, factory, penny, laboratory, city, country, spy, lily;

 

e) day, boy, key, journey, toy, valley, chimney;

 

f) buffalo, cargo, domino, embargo, echo, hero, mosquito, potato, tomato;

 

g) cupful, leftover, schoolboy, housewife, postman, sportsman;

h) notary public, brother-in-law, man-of-war, attorney general, editor-in-chief; hotel-keeper, watch-maker;

 

i) one c, one but, in 1980.