Nouns that are only in the plural. How to form the plural of nouns in English
The main components of our speech are nouns, because, in fact, our sentences are built from them, which are given style and coloring. When a person speaks, you can immediately understand whether he is educated or does not have a large vocabulary; many interlocutors do not pay attention to the correct spelling of words or their inflection, which is heard in their conversation. Therefore, knowing the rules and being able to clearly express your thoughts is so important in our time. Knowledge of Russian grammar and basic rules will help in communicating with people different levels and classes.
Definition of "number"
The number is grammatical category verb and names. A noun can be modified by numbers. There are two numbers - singular and plural. In the first case, a single object is designated, for example, “He placed a chair” or “They brought him a roll.” In the second - more than two items, for example: “We washed the windows” or “They went for watermelons and melons.”
Examples of plural nouns only
Separately, we can distinguish a group of nouns that are only in the plural and do not have a singular. Such words do not have a gender category, do not belong to any declension, but are declined in a special way.
So, by changing the number of a noun, its form and ending change, which in the plural can be -и, -ы (I have one flower - all the flowers smell delicious) or -а, -я (there is only one poplar near the house - poplars grow along roads).
There are many other nouns that have both forms of declension, for example, pouf - poufs, laptop - laptops, mouse - mice, proofreader - proofreaders, etc.
If you divide nouns by meaning, then plurals are divided into the following groups:
- Nouns with a real meaning: slops, canned food, ink, sawdust, rouge, cleaning, wallpaper, shavings.
- Denoting names of games, states of nature or periods of time, for example: tag, weekdays, hide and seek, towns, day, twilight, vacation, darkness, frost.
- Names of paired or complex items: shorts, jeans, glasses, bloomers, sleds, sleds, sleds, railings, scissors, pliers, trousers, wire cutters, stretchers.
- Examples of proper nouns are the following words: Sayans, Cordillera, Pyrenees, Carpathians, Himalayas, Velikiye Luki.
- Names of actions: tours, elections, maneuvers, beatings, negotiations, farewells, name days, troubles.
Although in principle everything is clear, people often doubt the correctness of the formation of a particular word, and most often this concerns the plural. For example, in some cases, the spelling of words in the genitive case is slightly different, for example: “These are green apples” - “We didn’t have green apples”, “It’s raining outside, and I’ll put on my boots” - “I won’t go for a walk, I have no boots”, “All the places were taken” - “We have no more places, come back tomorrow.”
Even in stores you can often see or hear mistakes made by sellers and buyers - “Take your kilogram of tangerines” or “We have a large selection of tomatoes, come in and choose.” There are also several groups of nouns that are used.
IN English language, as in many others, the names of many paired objects are used only in the plural, for example, scissors (scissors), trousers (trousers), glasses/spectacles (glasses), tongs (forceps), scales (scales):
- These scissors are for cutting paper.
These scissors are for cutting paper. - Your trousers are too long.
Your trousers are too long. - Where are my glasses/spectacles ? I want to read the newspaper.
Where is my glasses? I want to read the newspaper.
Some of these nouns are often used with the expression a pair of (pair...), which emphasizes that they consist of two parts:
- a pair of trousers (pair of trousers)
- a pair of jeans (a pair of jeans)
- a pair of shoes (pair of boots/shoes)
- a pair of slippers (pair of slippers)
- a pair of glasses (pair of glasses)
- a pair of gloves
- a pair of earrings
Note
It was said above that the noun scales (scales) is used only in the plural as the name of a paired object. This is true for scales in their original form, when they were a pair of cups suspended from a rocker. But today the scales represent electronic device for weighing, which has nothing in common with scales in their original form. Therefore, the scales on which you weigh yourself in your bathroom can be called both “scales” and “scale”. In the US, this noun is usually used in the singular ( scale), and in Great Britain - in the plural ( scales), although Americans also often say “scales”.
If a noun is plural, then its verb must be plural: "The scales aren't weighing correctly … I’m sure of it!” = “These scales are weighing incorrectly... I’m sure of it!”
clothes (cloth), goods (goods, goods), stairs (ladder), arms (weapon), riches (wealth, riches), proceeds (revenue) are used, unlike the Russian language, only in the plural:
- Your clothes are dirty.
Your clothes are dirty. - In these years of globalization the free trade of goods should not be questioned.
In these times of globalization, freedom of trade cannot be questioned. - I ran up the stairs and tore the door open.
I ran up the stairs and yanked open the door. - The police used firearms to disperse the crowd.
The police used firearms to disperse the crowd. - The proceeds on the sale of the goods have been transferred into your account.
Proceeds from the sale of goods have been transferred to your account.
Nouns in English wages (wage ) And contents (content) are used, as a rule, in the plural, while in Russian the corresponding nouns are used only in the singular:
- My wages are high.
My salary is high. - The table of contents should not contain any pictures.
The table of contents (of books) should not contain any pictures.
Nouns potatoes (potato), onions (onion), carrots (carrot), oats (oats) are used, unlike the Russian language, in the plural:
- Potatoes are very cheap in autumn.
Potatoes are very cheap in the fall. - Carrots are very healthy.
Carrots are very healthy. - Spanish onions are sweet.
Spanish onions are sweet. - Oats are used as fodder for horses.
Oats are used as horse feed.
However, these nouns can also be used in the singular: a potato (potato, one piece of potato), an onion (bulb), a carrot (carrot, one carrot root).
Nouns people (People) And police (police), although they have a singular form, are used with a plural meaning and should always be carried with you plural verb:
- People say that the police are investigating the case.
(People) They say the police are investigating the matter.
If a noun people has the meaning “people as a nation, believers of the same religion or people of the same race”, then this noun is used in the singular and the verb must be singular:
- Hungarians are a hospitable people.
Hungarians are hospitable people.
In the same meaning, the noun people may also have plural. Then it takes the form peoples:
- The peoples of Europe have been living together for centuries.
The peoples of Europe have lived together for many centuries.
- trousers, rakes, sleds, scissors, pitchforks, pants, shorts, tights, wire cutters, spikes, pliers.
What words in Russian do not have a singular number?
In the Russian language, nouns denote objects that can be counted and, accordingly, have singular and plural forms. But some nouns have both singular and plural forms, but are more often used in the plural form, for example: skis, socks, reins and others.
There are also nouns that have only a singular form and only a plural form. In this case, we are interested in those nouns that have only a plural form. They can be divided into several categories:
- Category of paired items: scissors, sled, asshole, trousers, tights, etc.
- Category of temporary representations: vacations, days, weekdays, etc.
- Category of any indeterminate mass of matter: cream, yeast, perfume, etc.
- Category of uncertain activities or games: chess, hide and seek, get-togethers, towns, backgammon, checkers, etc.
- Category of proper names in their original meaning : Carpathians, Alps, Essentuki, etc.
The question arises: how to explain that some nouns in the Russian language have exclusively a plural form. The idea naturally suggests itself that these nouns denote objects that are, so to speak, paired, like, say, scissors, socks, glasses, trousers, and so on. This is understandable logically, but the use of the remaining categories of nouns listed above only in the plural cannot be explained logically, and here, most likely, there are other, more in-depth explanations that require a professional approach.
There are many such words. For example, rakes, shorts, trousers, etc.
There are words in the Russian language that only have a plural form. Accordingly, their gender is not determined, so you cannot classify them into one of the three declensions and they are declined according to the type of nouns that have a plural form.
These nouns include:
1) the name of the time periods: weekdays, days, holidays
2) the name of composite and paired items: scissors, wire cutters, tongs, trousers
3) name of the actions: chores, farewells, elections, funerals, gatherings
4) names of materials, waste: whitewash, yeast, perfume, canned food, cream, bran, wallpaper
5) some geographical names: Carpathians, Zhiguli, Kholmogory, Fili
In the Russian language there are many words in the plural, for example the following: sleigh, scissors, pitchforks, everyday life, twilight, gates, checkers, day, ticks, cream, perfume, glasses, trousers, railings, chess, pasta, finances, cleats, sawdust , vacations, chores, cutters, wallpaper, funeral, tights, yeast are the most commonly used words.
I suggest the following word options:
panties, name days, christenings, glasses, pitchforks, rakes, cream, gates, ink, chess, checkers, sawdust, eyes, yeast, blush, sleigh, blind man's buff, elections, chores, frosts, days, weekdays, holidays, Alps, Carpathians, people, perfume, pasta, ticks.
In the Russian language, there are quite a lot of such words. For example, these are cream, rakes, trousers, trousers, vacations, days, scissors, canned food, yeast, bran, pasta, tongs, pliers (tools), wire cutters, waste, gates and many others.
In Russian, nouns have two numbers: singular and plural. Or rather, nouns change according to number- singular and plural.
Singular denotes an object always denotes one object, for example: school, pen, desk, chair, blackboard; A plural denotes two or more objects, for example: schools, pens, desks, chairs, blackboards.
But in Russian there are nouns that are used only in the plural; for example: sleigh, glasses, trousers, pitchforks, rakes; among such nouns that do not have a singular form, there are nouns that indicate paired items: trousers, glasses, scissors.
There are many such words in the Russian language, they can only be in the plural:
scissors, glasses, rakes, wire cutters, pliers, tongs, jeans, trousers, hide and seek, rosary beads, beads, scales, slops, people, sleds, milk (for fish), name days, christenings, Christmastide, lies
Well, also the name of the mountains, for example: Andes, Alps, countries - Netherlands and others geographical names.
There are plenty of such words in the Russian language, for example: sleigh, scissors, gates, tongs, glasses, trousers, checkers, chess, day, pasta, cream, everyday life.
Vacations, twilight, perfume, ink, chores, finances, canned food, darkness, whitewash, sawdust, rakes, railings, vices.
There are really a lot of words that are in the Russian language and are used only in the plural, for example: ink, name day, elections, attacks, intrigues, Karakum, Carpathians, beatings, twilight, day, weekdays, vacations, sawdust, cleaning, money, finances, wilds.
Nouns that have only a plural form are otherwise called pluralia tantum. There are about 600 such words in the Russian language. The bulk of them are divided into several categories:
1) proper nouns - geographical or astronomical names (Balkans, Gorki, Pyrenees, Carpathians, Cherkassy, Kholmogory, Zhiguli, Libra, Gemini, Alps, etc.)
2) abstract nouns denoting complex actions, processes, rituals, games (elections, holidays, farewells, funerals, bridesmaids, name days, blind man's buff, catch-up, hide and seek, etc.), natural phenomena(twilight, frost, darkness), time periods (days), etc.;
3) concrete nouns denoting composite objects, including paired objects (forks, vices, glasses, scissors, trousers, railings, rakes, checkers, chess, swings, tongs, watches, etc.);
4) real nouns, denoting either the substance itself, the material, or its waste, residues (firewood, bran, pasta, canned food, whitewash, sawdust, perfume, yeast, shavings, ink, cream, etc.)
Funeral is always plural.
In fact, there are many such words that initially only have a plural. Here are just some examples
Difficult plural forms of nouns
Among the forms of nouns, the formation of which may be associated with certain difficulties, include the plural forms of the nominative case ( directors or directors, valves or valve?) and the plural forms of the genitive case of some nouns ( five grams And five grams, five oranges or five orange?)
1. Plural forms of the nominative case of nouns: directors or directors?
The nominative plural form of nouns is checked in dictionary order (according to the dictionary). See section "Word Check" on our portal. Please note: searching for a word in dictionaries is carried out using initial form(nominative case, singular)!
The dictionary entry is read as follows: if the entry does not special instructions to the plural form (mark pl.), then to form the nominative plural, the ending is used -And or -s. If a different ending is required (or options are acceptable), then a note is placed: pl. -A. For example:
In the modern Russian literary language, variants fluctuate in the form named after. p.m. hours, number over 300 words. The center of the spread of inflexion -and I) are the areas of vernacular and professional language. In this regard, the forms on -and I) often have a colloquial or professional connotation: contract, mechanic, turner. The forms are on -s(s) more neutral and for most words meet traditional norms literary language. However, in some cases the forms on -and I) have already replaced forms with -s(s).
In addition, you can remember a number of patterns that make it easier to choose the inflection (ending) of the nominative plural:
Declined neuter nouns, the initial form of which ends in -KO, have an unstressed plural inflection. h. them. P. -And (faces, feathers, apples). The exception is nouns with stressed endings pl. h.: troops And clouds.
The remaining neuter nouns are in the plural form. h. accept the ending -and I): swamps, fields, seas, windows.
Form on -and I for some words it may be the only or predominant: side - sides (sides only in phraseological combination hands on hips); century - centuries (eyelids only in phraseological combinations for once, forever and ever, forever and ever), eye - eyes, meadow - meadows, fur - furs, snow - snow, haystack - haystacks, silk - silk.
Forms may have different meaning: tones(about color) and tones(about sound) of bread(about cereals) and breads(about baked bread) workshops And workshops(at the enterprise) and workshops(medieval organizations of artisans).
Forms of nouns may vary according to stylistic coloring: sides and outdated sides; Houses and outdated houses; stern and outdated stern; horns and outdated and poet. horns; varieties and outdated varieties; volumes and outdated then we, and thunder and poet. thunder; coffins and poet. coffin
Finally, the forms of nouns can be equivalent and interchangeable: of the year And years(But: years of youth, severe hardships; nineties, zero years), workshops And workshops(at the enterprise), storms And storms.
To resolve the issue of the status of a “controversial” form of a word (non-normative, variant, stylistically colored, etc.), in any case, you need to consult a dictionary.
Non-standard plurals are formed for words child - children, person - people, bottom - donya and some others.
2. Plural forms of the genitive case of nouns: five grams or five grams?
For most masculine nouns ending in a hard consonant ( orange, tomato, fly agaric, computer, sock), the ending is typical -s in the genitive plural form: oranges, tomatoes, fly agarics, computers, socks etc. A wide range of exceptions can be identified from this rule - similar nouns, but having a plural genitive form null ending: one stocking - no stockings, one Ossetian - five Ossetians, one gram - five grams And five grams etc. Such words include:
Names of people by nationality and affiliation military units, mainly used in plural forms in the collective meaning: Magyars - Magyars, Turkmens - Turkmens, midshipmen - midshipmen and midshipmen, partisans - partisans, soldiers - soldiers; this also includes the form p. p.m. h. Human.
Names of paired items: boots - boots, eyes - eyes, cuffs - cuffs, shoulder straps - shoulder straps, stockings - stockings, epaulettes - epaulettes, boots - boots.
Names of measures and units of measurement: 220 volts, 1000 watts, 5 amps, 500 gigabytes. If such names are used outside the “measuring” context (in other words, the genitive case form is not countable), then the ending is used -s: live without excess kilograms, not enough gigabytes.
It should be noted that the names of fruits, fruits and vegetables, which are masculine nouns, ending in a hard consonant ( orange, eggplant, tomato, tangerine), in the genitive plural form. hours have an ending -s: five oranges, a kilogram of eggplants, New Year without tangerines, tomato salad.
For some nouns, plural forms are formed. Part gen. n. difficult; these are words dream, prayer, head. On the contrary, the words shchetz And firewood have no other forms except the plural form. Part gen. case.
See: "Russian Grammar", M., 1980.
Nouns are the main component of our speech. From the many possible words, we always choose those that are more suitable for us in style and color. The way a person constructs his speech can say a lot about his personality and mentality to his interlocutor. Therefore, it is very important to be able to express your thoughts competently and clearly. To do this, you need to know the basics of Russian grammar and be able to apply them in real life while communicating with people. In this article we will analyze such a category as the number of nouns.
A noun in Russian can be used in one of two forms possible forms- in singular or plural. Number is one of the main characteristics of a part of speech called a noun. But there are Russian nouns that can be used in speech only in the singular or only in the plural. Let's figure it out in order.
Singular nouns
With singular nouns, in general, everything is clear and understandable even without grammatical rules: they denote one thing or person, that is, any (for example, a pen, a book, a house, a cat). Such singular nouns have their own gender (feminine, masculine or neuter; sometimes common), and also, regardless of number, are declined according to cases.
Plural nouns
The same nouns can also be used in the plural (pens, books, houses, cats). These are nouns that denote several things. Very often in the Russian language there are nouns that have only a plural form. You can read about them below.
Plural nouns that are often misspelled
More than one full-fledged article could be written about the most common mistakes in everyday speech in the Russian language, but here we will focus our attention only on the incorrect use of nouns. Nouns have plurals and proper education forms are very often questioned.
You should definitely pay attention to the spelling of the following words in the genitive case: boots - boot, felt boots - felt boots, boots - boot, soldiers - soldier, places-places, apples - apples.
And errors in the use of these words in the genitive case can be heard very often in grocery stores: tangerines - tangerines, nectarines - nectarines, tomatoes - tomatoes, oranges - oranges. Nouns that have only a plural form differ somewhat from the data in terms of case declension.
Formation of plural forms: features
Sometimes some difficulties arise in forming the plural form for a certain category of nouns. In the Russian language there are no rules as such that determine what ending is required for the plural of nouns that we need to apply at a particular moment. Therefore, it can be quite difficult to use the word correctly. Let's pay attention to special cases concerning the plural of nouns. It’s better to just memorize them so as not to make mistakes and not doubt the correct use of words.
First of all, these are masculine nouns (s in the singular), with endings -ы, -и, most often denoting professions. For example, a trainer - trainers (not trainers!), a contract - contracts, an accountant - accountants, a lecturer - lecturers, cream - creams, and so on.
The next group is the same nouns as in the previous one, but with the endings -a, -ya: professor - professors, doctor - doctors, director - directors, anchor - anchors and so on.
Nouns, always used in the singular
In the Russian language there are many nouns that do not change in number and are always used exclusively in the singular form. Let's consider the groups into which the following nouns can be divided:
Denoting different feelings, characteristics of the state and human qualities (tenderness, anger, malice, hatred, lust, dependence, security, weakness, kindness);
Denoting characteristics of an object (grayness, blueness, redness, thinness, fullness, density);
Material (oil, gold, steel, tin, silver, nickel, sugar, sour cream, butter, pearls);
Denoting several identical objects in the aggregate (dishes, foliage, children, animals);
Denoting objects that exist in all of nature in a single copy (Sun, Earth, sky, Moon); This group also includes geographical names (Argentina, Stockholm, Moscow, Irtysh, Novosibirsk, Crimea, Ob).
Nouns that have only plural forms
Only in the plural exist in Russian the following names nouns:
Denoting various kinds of substances (blush, perfume, ink, yeast);
Indicating objects in a pair (jeans, rakes, rollers, trousers, leggings, trousers, leggings, glasses, sleds, sleds);
Denoting games or some processes (checkers, tag, hide and seek, blind man's buff, catch-up, elections);
Denoting natural phenomena or time periods (days, holidays, twilight, weekdays);
Which are geographical or astronomical names (Sochi, Alps, Kuril Islands, Libra).
So, let’s summarize: in the Russian language there are two forms of nouns - singular and plural. Most words have both forms, but there are also nouns that have only a plural form, and, of course, those that are used only in the singular.