§ 1. Nouns are names of objects, I.E. Things, human beings, ani- mals, materials and abstract notions (e.G. Table, house, man, girl, dog, lion, snow, sugar, love, beauty).

Semantically all nouns can be divided into two main groups: proper names (e.g. John, London, the Thames) and common nouns.

Common nouns, in their turn, are subdivided into countable nouns and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns denote objects that can be counted. They may be either concrete (e.g. book, stu- dent, cat) or abstract (e.g. idea, word, effort). Uncountable nouns are names of objects that cannot be counted. They may also be con- crete (e.g. water, grass, wood) and abstract (e.g. information, amazement, time).

Nouns have the grammatical categories of number and case (see "Nouns", §§ 3-19).

They are also characterized by the functions they perform in the sentence (see "Nouns", § 20).

The Gender of Nouns

§ 2. In accordance with their meaning nouns my be classed as belonging to the masculine, feminine and neuter gender. Names of male beings are masculine (e.g. man, husband, boy, son, ox, cock), and names of female beings are feminine (e.g. woman, wife, girl, daughter, cow, hen). All other nouns are said to be neuter (e.g. pen, flower, family, rain, opinion, bird, horse, pride). Gender finds its formal expression in the replacement of nouns by the pronouns he she or it.

However, there are nouns in English which may be treated as either males or females (e.g. cousin, friend). They are said to be of common gender. When there is no need to make a distinction of sex, the masculine pronoun is used for these nouns.

Sometimes a separate form for a female is built up by means of the suffix -ess (e.g. host — hostess, actor — actress, waiter — waitress, prince — princess, heir — heiress, tiger — tigress, lion — lioness).

It is also possible to indicate the gender of a noun by forming different kinds of compounds (e.g. a man servant — a maid ser- vant, a man driver — a woman driver, a boy-friend — a girl- friend, a tom-cat — a tabby-cat, a he-wolf — a she-wolf).

Nouns denoting various kinds of vessels (e.g. ship, boat, etc.), the noun car as well as the names of countries may be referred to as she.

e.g. Sam joined the famous whaler "Globe". She was a ship on

which any young man would be proud to sail. Getting out of the car he said to the man in the overalls, "Fill

her up, please."

He said, "England is decadent. She's finished because she is living in the past."

The Number of Nouns

§ 3. Number is the form of the noun which shows whether one or more than one object is meant. Some nouns in English may have the singular and the plural forms (e.g. room — rooms, worker — workers, lesson — lessons). Other nouns are used either only in the singular (e.g. freedom, progress, machinery, steel, milk) or only in the plural (e.g. spectacles, goods, billiards).

§ 4. The plural of most nouns is built up by means of the suffix -s or -es. It is pronounced [z] after vowels and voiced consonants (e.g. days, dogs, birds), [s] after voiceless consonants (e.g. books, coats) and [iz] after sibilants (e.g. horses, roses, judges, brushes).

It should be noted that some nouns in the plural change the pro- nunciation of their final consonants: [s] -> [ziz] (e.g. house — hous- es) and [в] -» [Sz] (e.g. bath — baths, mouth — mouths, path — paths, truth — truths, youth — youths).