1. General characteristics.

The noun is the central lexical unit of language. It is the main nominative unit of speech. As any other part of speech, the noun can be characterised by three criteria: semantic (the meaning), morphological (the form and grammatical catrgories) and syntactical (functions, distribution).

According to different principles of classification nouns fall into several subclasses:

1. According to the type of nomination they may be proper and common;

2. According to the form of existence they may be animate and inanimate. Animate nouns in their turn fall into human and non-human.

3. According to their quantitative structure nouns can be countable and uncountable.

In accordance with the morphological structure of the stems all nouns can be classified into: simple, derived ( stem + affix, affix + stem – thingness); compound ( stem+ stem – armchair ) and composite ( the Hague ). The noun has morphological categories of number and case. Some scholars admit the existence of the category of gender.

The noun can be used in the sentence in all syntactic functions but predicate.

A Proper Noun (Name) is the special word (or name) that we use for a person, place or organization, like John, Marie, London, France or Sony. Proper nouns have special rules.

2. The category of number.

The grammatical category of number is the linguistic representation of the objective category of quantity. The number category is realized through the opposition of two form-classes: the plural form / the singular. The number category is realized only within subclass of countable nouns.

Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: dog, cat, animal, man, person etc.

Countable nouns can be singular or plural: My dog is playing. - My dogs are hungry.

We can use the indefinite article a/an with countable nouns: A dog is an animal.

When a countable noun is singular, we must use a word like a/the/my/this with it:

• I want an orange. (not I want orange.)

• Where is my bottle? (not Where is bottle?)

When a countable noun is plural, we can use it alone: I like oranges.

We can use some and any with countable nouns: I've got some dollars. - Have you got any pens?

We can use a few and many with countable nouns: I've got a few dollars. - I haven't got many pens.

"People" is countable. "People" is the plural of "person". We can count people:

• There is one person here.

• There are three people here.

Uncountable nouns ("mass nouns") are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example: music, art, love, happiness, advice, information, news, money, currency etc.

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example: This news is very important. - Your luggage looks heavy.

We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with uncountable nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can say a something of:

• a piece of news

• a bottle of water

• a grain of rice

We can use some and any with uncountable nouns: I've got some money. - Have you got any rice?

We can use a little and much with uncountable nouns: I've got a little money. - I haven't got much rice.

Sometimes, the same noun can be countable and uncountable, often with a change of meaning:

Have you got a paper to read? (newspaper) - I want to draw a picture. Have you got some paper?

There are two hairs in my coffee! - You don't have much hair.

The grammatical meaning of number may not coincide with the notional quantity: the noun in the singular does not necessarily denote one object while the plural form may be used to denote one object consisting of several parts. The singular form may denote:

1. oneness (individual separate object – a cat);

2. generalization (the meaning of the whole class – The cat is a domestic animal);

3. indiscreteness (or uncountableness - money, milk).

The plural form may denote:

1. the existence of several objects (cats);

2. the inner discreteness (pluralia tantum, jeans).

To sum it up, all nouns may be subdivided into three groups:

1. The nouns in which the opposition of explicit discreteness/indiscreteness is expressed : cat - cats;

2. The nouns in which this opposition is not expressed explicitly but is revealed by syntactical and lexical correlation in the context. There are two groups here:

1)Singularia tantum. It covers different groups of nouns: proper names, abstract nouns, material nouns, collective nouns;

2)Pluralia tantum. It covers the names of objects consisting of several parts (jeans), names of sciences (mathematics), names of diseases, games, etc.

3. The nouns with homogenous number forms. The number opposition here is not expressed formally but is revealed only lexically and syntactically in the context: e.g. Look! A sheep is eating grass. Look! The sheep are eating grass.

With most of the nouns in English we make the plural number by adding "-s" to the singular. But there are some that make their plural differently:

Noun ending:	Forming the plural:	Example:
-s, x, ch or sh	-es	boss → bosses
-consonant + y	y → i+es	baby → babies
-ending with –fe	change -f → v then add –s	life → lives wife → wives
-ending with -f	change -f → v then add -es	half → halves wolf → wolves
-ending with -o	add -es	potato → potatoes volcano → volcanoes
-ending with -us	change -us → -i	cactus → cacti nucleus → nuclei
-ending with -is	change -is→ -es	analysis → analyses crisis → crises
-ending with -on	Change -on → a	phenomenon → phenomena
-ALL KINDS	change the vowel/ change the word/ add a different ending	man → men, foot → feet child → children, person → people, tooth → teeth, mouse → mice, woman → women, ox → oxen, goose → geese
-Unchanging	singular and plural are the same	sheep, deer, fish (sometimes), swine

A compound noun is a noun that is made with two or more words. A compound noun is usually [noun + noun] or [adjective + noun], but there are other combinations. Each compound noun acts as a single unit and can be modified by adjectives and other nouns.

There are three forms for compound nouns:

1. open or spaced - space between words (tennis shoe)

2. hyphenated - hyphen between words (six-pack)

3. closed or solid - no space or hyphen between words (bedroom)

Some compound nouns have no obvious base word and you may need to consult a dictionary to find the plural: go-betweens, good-for-nothings, grown-ups etc.