# English in Use/Nouns


------------------------------------------------------------------------

:   *This page is written in English, and therefore needs to be
    translated at a later date to other languages for it to become more
    useful.*

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **Examples**                                                         |
+======================================================================+
| -   **Janet** is the **name** of a **girl**.                         |
| -   **Apple** is a **fruit** and a computer **company**.             |
|                                                                      |
| In the above sentence, \"computer\" is an adjective because it is    |
| describing \"company\".                                              |
|                                                                      |
| -   **Cleanliness** is next to **Godliness**.                        |
| -   The **World Wide Web** has become the least expensive **way** to |
|     publish **information**.                                         |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

A **noun**, or **noun substantive**, is a part of speech (a word or
phrase) which functions as the head of a noun phrase. The word \"noun\"
derives from the Latin *nomen* meaning \"name\", and a traditional
definition of nouns is that they are only those expressions that refer
to a person, place, thing, event, substance, quality, or idea. They
serve as the subject or object of a verb and as the governed term of a
preposition, and can co-occur with articles and attributive adjectives.

There are different groups of nouns:

-   **Common nouns**---\"*chair*\",
-   **Proper nouns**---\"*Fred*\",
-   **Abstract nouns**---\"*love*\",
-   **Collective nouns**---\"*gaggle*\",
-   **Compound nouns**---\"*butterfly*\",
-   **Verbal nouns**---\"*triumphing*\".

Each of these different groups of nouns have different properties, each
making them different in how we use them.

Thus, nouns are names of objects, places, people and things. They are
used with adjectives to describe something, and with verbs to show an
action.

## Concrete nouns

Concrete nouns are proper nouns and common nouns.

### Proper nouns

**Proper nouns** are the names of people, places, groups or dates: as,
*Adam*, *Boston*, *the Hudson*, *the Romans*, *the Azores*, *the Alps*.
They almost always have a capital letter as their first letter. Example:

-   \"*Timmy* is not someone to be toyed with.\"No one likes to hear
    other people boast their talents

### Common nouns

**Common nouns** are the names of a sort, kind, or class, of beings or
things: as, *beast*, *bird*, *fish*, *insect*, *creatures*, *persons*,
*children*. They often refer to objects or things which we can see,
touch and feel, like the word *chair*. Example:

-   \"I sat at the *table*.\"

#### Individual nouns

Their refer to only one thing of the same kind, for eg: man, player,
cow, chicken, minister.

#### Collective nouns

**Collective nouns** are the names of a groups of objects or many
individuals together: as, *council*, *meeting*, *committee*, *flock*.
Example:

-   \"They are a *group*.\"

## Abstract nouns

**Abstract nouns** are the names of some particular qualities considered
apart from its substance: as, *goodness*, *hardness*, *pride*,
*frailty*. They are often names of the things that we cannot touch or
see, but are there all the same. Example:

-   \"I think I\'ve fallen in *love*!\"

### Attribute

### Verbal nouns

**Verbal nouns** or **participial nouns** are the names of some actions,
or states of being; and are formed from a verb, like a participle, but
employed as a noun: as,

-   \"The *triumphing* of the wicked is short.\"---Job, XX, 5.

### Sui generis

A thing **sui generis**, (i.e., of its own peculiar kind,) is something
which is distinguished, not as an individual of a species, but as a sort
by itself, without plurality in either the noun or the sort of thing:
as, *galvanism*, *music*, *geometry*.

## Words and word groups used as nouns

### Adjectives made nouns

-   \"The Ancient of days did sit.\"---*Bible*.
-   \"Of the ancients.\"---*Swift*.
-   \"For such impertinents.\"---*Steele*.
-   \"He is an ignorant in it.\"---*Id*.
-   \"In the luxuriance of an unbounded picturesque.\"---*Jamieson*.
-   \"A source of the sublime;\"---*Burke*.
-   \"The vast immense of space:\"---*Murray*.
-   \"There is none his like.\"---*Job, XLI, 33*.
-   \"A little more than a little, is by much too
    much.\"---*Shakespeare*.
-   \"And gladly make much of that entertainment.\"---*Sidney*.
-   \"A covetous man makes the most of what he has.\"---*L\'Estrange*.
-   \"It has done enough for me.\"---*Pope*.
-   \"He had enough to do.\"---*Bacon*.
-   \"All withers here; who most possess, are losers by their gain,
    stung by full proof, that bad at best, life\'s idle all is
    vain.\"---*Young*.
-   \"Nor grudge I you the much the Grecians give, nor murmuring take
    the little I receive.\"---*Dryden*.

### Pronouns made nouns

-   \"A love of seeing the what and how of all about him.\"---Story\'s
    Life of Flaxman: Pioneer, Vol. i, p. 133.
-   \"The nameless he, whose nod is Nature\'s birth.\"---Young, Night
    iv.
-   \"I was wont to load my she with knacks.\"---Shak. Winter\'s Tale.
-   \"Or any he, the proudest of your sort.\"---Shak.
-   \"I am the happiest she in Kent.\"---Steele.
-   \"The shes of Italy.\"---Shak.
-   \"The hes in birds.\"---Bacon.
-   \"We should soon have as many hes and shes as the
    French.\"---Cobbet\'s E. Gram., Para. 42.
-   \"If, for instance, we call a nation a she, or the sun a
    he.\"---Ib., Para. 198.
-   \"When I see many its in a page, I always tremble for the
    writer.\"---Ib., Para. 196.
-   \"Let those two questionary petitioners try to do this with their
    whos and their whiches.\"---Spect: Ash\'s Gr., p. 131.
-   \"Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua\'s law is death to any he
    that utters them.\"---Shak.

### Verbs made nouns

-   \"Avaunt all attitude, and stare, and start theatric.\"---Cowper.
-   \"A may-be of mercy is sufficient.\"---Bridge.
-   \"Which cuts are reckoned among the fractures.\"---Wiseman.
-   \"The officer erred in granting a permit.\"
-   \"Feel darts and charms, attracts and flames.\"---Hudibras.
-   \"You may know by the falling off of the come, or
    sprout.\"---Mortimer.
-   \"And you have talked of sallies and retires.\"---Shak.
-   \"For all that else did come, were sure to fail; yet would he
    further none, but for avail.\"---Spenser.

### Participles made nouns (gerunds)

-   \"For the producing of real happiness.\"---Crabb.
-   \"For the crying of the poor and the sighing of the needy, I will
    arise.\"---Bible.
-   \"Surely the churning of milk brings forth butter, and the wringing
    of the nose brings forth blood; so the forcing of wrath brings forth
    strife.\"---Prov., xxx, 33.
-   \"Reading, writing, and ciphering, are indispensable to civilized
    man.\"
-   \"Hence was invented the distinction between doing and
    permitting.\"---Calvin\'s Inst., p. 131.
-   \"Knowledge of the past comes next.\"---Hermes, p. 113.
-   \"I am my beloved\'s, and his desire is toward me.\"---Sol. Song,
    vii, 10.
-   \"Here\'s---a simple coming-in for one man.\"---Shak.
-   \"What are your rents? What are your comings-in? O Ceremony, show me
    but your worth.\"---Id.

### Adverbs made nouns

-   \"In these cases we examine the why, the what, and the how of
    things.\"---L\'Estrange.
-   \"If a point or now were extended, each of them would contain within
    itself infinite other points or nows.\"---Hermes, p. 101.
-   \"The why is plain as way to parish church.\"---Shak.
-   \"It is heaven itself that points out an hereafter.\"---Addison.
-   \"The dread of a hereafter.\"---Fuller.
-   \"The murmur of the deep amen.\"---Sir W. Scott.
-   \"For their whereabouts lies in a mystery.\"---Book of Thoughts,
    p. 14. Better.
-   \"Bid them farewell, Cordelia, though unkind; you lose here, a
    better where to find.\"---Shak.

### Conjunctions made nouns

-   \"The if, which is here employed, converts the sentence into a
    supposition.\"---Blair\'s Rhet.
-   \"Your if is the only peacemaker; much virtue is in if.\"---Shak.
-   \"So his lordship decreed with a grave solemn tone, decisive and
    clear, without one if or but---that whenever the nose put his
    spectacles on, by daylight or candlelight---eyes should be
    shut.\"---Cowper.

### Prepositions made nouns

-   \"O, not like me; for mine\'s beyond beyond.\"---Shakspeare: Cymb.,
    iii, 2.
-   \"I.e., her longing is further than beyond; beyond anything that
    desire can be said to be beyond.\"---Singer\'s Notes.
-   \"You whirled them to the back of beyont to look at the auld Roman
    camp.\"---Antiquary, i. 37.

### Interjections or phrases made nouns

-   \"Come away from all the lo-heres! and lo-theres!\"---Sermon.
-   \"Will cuts him short with a \'What then?\'\"---Sermon.
-   \"With hark and whoop, and wild halloo.\"---Scott.
-   \"And made a pish at chance and sufferance.\"---Shak.
-   \"A single look more marks the internal wo, than all the windings of
    the lengthened oh.\"---Lloyd.

## Countable and uncountable nouns

## Inflections of Nouns

Nouns have modifications of genders, numbers, and cases.

### Genders

Genders, in grammar, are modifications that distinguish objects in
regard to sex.

There are three genders; the masculine, the feminine, and the neuter:

1.  The **masculine** gender is that which denotes persons or animals of
    the male kind: as, *man, father, king*.
2.  The **feminine** gender is that which denotes persons or animals of
    the female kind: as, *woman, mother, queen*.
3.  The **neuter** gender is that which denotes things that are neither
    male nor female: as, *pen, ink, paper*.

Hence, names of males are masculine; names of females, feminine; and
names of things inanimate, literally, neuter.

-   Masculine nouns make regular feminines, when their termination is
    changed to *ess*: as,

:   *Hunter, huntress; prince, princess; lion, lioness*.

-   In some instances the syllable *ess* is simply added: as,

:   *Accuser, accuseress; advocate, advocatess; archer, archeress;
    author, authoress; avenger, avengeress; barber, barberess; baron,
    baroness; canon, canoness; cit, cittess; coheir, coheiress; count,
    countess; deacon, deaconess; demon, demoness; diviner, divineress;
    doctor, doctoress; giant, giantess; god, goddess; guardian,
    guardianess; Hebrew, Hebrewess; heir, heiress; herd, herdess;
    hermit, hermitess; host, hostess; Jesuit, Jesuitess; Jew, Jewess;
    mayor, mayoress; Moabite, Moabitess; monarch, monarchess; pape,
    papess; or, pope, popess; patron, patroness; peer, peeress; poet,
    poetess; priest, priestess; prior, prioress; prophet, prophetess;
    regent, regentess; saint, saintess; shepherd, shepherdess; soldier,
    soldieress; tailor, tailoress; viscount, viscountess; warrior,
    warrioress*.

-   In other instances, the termination is changed, and there is no
    increase of syllables: as,

:   *Abbot, abbess; actor, actress; adulator, adulatress; adulterer,
    adulteress; adventurer, adventuress; advoutrer, advoutress;
    ambassador, ambassadress; anchorite, anchoress; or, anachoret,
    anachoress; arbiter, arbitress; auditor, auditress; benefactor,
    benefactress; caterer, cateress; chanter, chantress; cloisterer,
    cloisteress; commander, commandress; conductor, conductress;
    creator, creatress; demander, demandress; detractor, detractress;
    eagle, eagless; editor, editress; elector, electress; emperor,
    emperess, or empress; emulator, emulatress; enchanter, enchantress;
    exactor, exactress; fautor, fautress; fornicator, fornicatress;
    fosterer, fosteress, or fostress; founder, foundress; governor,
    governess; huckster, huckstress; or, hucksterer, hucksteress;
    idolater, idolatress; inhabiter, inhabitress; instructor,
    instructress; inventor, inventress; launderer, launderess, or
    laundress; minister, ministress; monitor, monitress; murderer,
    murderess; negro, negress; offender, offendress; ogre, ogress;
    porter, portress; progenitor, progenitress; protector, protectress;
    proprietor, proprietress; pythonist, pythoness; seamster,
    seamstress; solicitor, solicitress; songster, songstress; sorcerer,
    sorceress; suitor, suitress; tiger, tigress; traitor, traitress;
    victor, victress; votary, votaress*.

-   In a few instances the feminine is formed as in Latin, by changing
    *or* to *rix*; but some of these have also the regular form, which
    ought to be preferred: as,

:   *Adjutor, adjutrix; administrator, administratrix; arbitrator,
    arbitratrix; coadjutor, coadjutrix; competitor, competitress, or
    competitrix; creditor, creditrix; director, directress, or
    directrix; executor, executress, or executrix; inheritor,
    inheritress, or inheritrix; mediator, mediatress, or mediatrix;
    orator, oratress, or oratrix; rector, rectress, or rectrix;
    spectator, spectatress, or spectatrix; testator, testatrix; tutor,
    tutoress, or tutress, or tutrix; deserter, desertress, or
    desertrice, or desertrix*.

-   The following are irregular words, in which the distinction of sex
    is chiefly made by the termination:

:   *Amoroso, amorosa: archduke, archduchess; chamberlain, chambermaid;
    duke, duchess; gaffer, gammer; goodman, goody, or goodwife; hero,
    heroine; landgrave, landgravine; margrave, margravine; marquis,
    marchioness; palsgrave, palsgravine; sakeret, sakerhawk; sewer,
    sewster; sultan, sultana; tzar, tzarina; tyrant, tyranness; widower,
    widow*.

### Numbers

Numbers, in grammar, are modifications that distinguish unity and
plurality.

There are two numbers; the **singular** and the **plural**.

The singular number is that which denotes but one: as,

-   \"The boy learns.\"

The plural number is that which denotes more than one: as,

-   \"The boys learn.\"
-   Plurals in meaning and form:

:   *Analects, annals, archives, ashes, assets, billiards, bowels,
    breeches, calends, cates, chops, clothes, compasses, crants, eaves,
    embers, estovers, forceps, giblets, goggles, greaves, hards or
    hurds, hemorrhoids, ides, matins, nippers, nones, obsequies, orgies,
    piles, pincers or pinchers, pliers, reins, scissors, shears,
    skittles, snuffers, spectacles, teens, tongs, trowsers, tweezers,
    umbles, vespers, victuals*.

-   Plurals by formation, derived chiefly from adjectives:

:   *Acoustics, aeronautics, analytics, bitters, catoptrics, commons,
    conics, credentials, delicates, dioptrics, economics, ethics,
    extraordinaries, filings, fives, freshes, glanders, gnomonics,
    goods, hermeneutics, hustings, hydrodynamics, hydrostatics,
    hydraulics, hysterics, inwards, leavings, magnetics, mathematics,
    measles, mechanics, mnemonics, merils, metaphysics, middlings,
    movables, mumps, nuptials, optics, phonics, phonetics, physics,
    pneumatics, poetics, politics, riches, rickets, settlings, shatters,
    skimmings, spherics, staggers, statics, statistics, stays,
    strangles, sundries, sweepings, tactics, thanks, tidings, trappings,
    vives, vitals, wages, withers, yellows*.

-   Plurals by composition:

:   *Backstairs, cocklestairs, firearms, headquarters, hotcockles,
    spatterdashes, self-affairs. To these may be added the Latin words,
    aborigines, antipodes, antes, antoeci, amphiscii, anthropophagi,
    antiscii, ascii, literati, fauces, regalia, and credenda, with the
    Italian vermicelli, and the French belles-lettres and entremets*.

#### Regular plurals

The plural form is usually represented orthographically by adding *s* to
the singular form. The phonetic form of the plural morpheme is
 by default. When the preceding sound is a
voiceless consonant, it is pronounced .
Examples: *boy* makes *boys*; *girl*, *girls*; *chair*, *chairs*; *cat*,
*cats*.

Where a noun ends in a sibilant sound, the plural is formed by adding
*es* (pronounced ), which is spelled *es* if
the word does not already end with *e*: *glass* makes *glasses*; *dish,
dishes; witch, witches; phase, phases; judge, judges*.

Most nouns ending in *o* preceded by a consonant also form their plurals
by adding *es* (pronounced ): *hero* makes
*heroes*; *potato, potatoes; volcano, volcanoes*.

Nouns ending in a *y* preceded by a consonant drop the *y* and add *ies*
(pronounced ): *cherry* makes *cherries*;
*lady, ladies*.

Proper nouns (particularly those for people or places) ending in a *y*
preceded by a consonant form their plurals regularly: *Harry* makes
*Harrys*; *Germany, Germanys*.

This does not apply to words that are merely capitalised common nouns:
as, *P&O Ferries*.

A few common nouns ending in a *y* preceded by a consonant form their
plurals regularly: *henry* makes *henrys*; *zloty, zlotys*.

Words ending in *ey* form their plurals regularly, in order to avoid the
unpleasant-appearing vowel sequence *eie*: *monkey, monkeys*.

#### Almost-regular plurals

Many nouns of Italian or Spanish origin are exceptions to the **oes
rule**: *canto* makes *cantos*; *piano, pianos; portico, porticos;
quarto, quartos; solo, solos*.

Many nouns ending in a voiceless fricative mutate that sound to a voiced
fricative before adding the plural ending. In the case of
 changing to  the
mutation is indicated in the orthography as well: *calf* makes *calves*;
*bath, baths; mouth, mouths; house, houses*.

Some retain the voiceless consonant: *proof* makes *proofs*; *moth,
moths; place, places; dwarf, dwarfs or dwarves; hoof, hoofs or hooves;
staff, staffs or staves; turf, turfs or turves; roof, roofs or rooves*.

#### Irregular plurals

There are many other less regular ways of forming plurals. While they
may seem quirky, they usually stem from older forms of English or from
foreign borrowings.

#### Irregular Germanic plurals

The plural of a few Germanic nouns can also be formed from the singular
by adding *n* or *en*, stemming from the obsolete weak declension: *ox*
makes *oxen*; *child, children*.

The plural is sometimes formed by simply changing the vowel sound of the
singular, in a process called umlaut (these are sometimes called
*mutated plurals*): *foot* makes *feet*; *goose, geese; louse, lice;
man, men; mouse, mice; tooth, teeth; woman, women*.

Some nouns have singular and plural alike, although they are sometimes
seen as regular plurals: as, *aircraft, sheep, deer, fish, cod, trout,
head, cannon*.

Generally, plurals refer to several species or kinds of animal, while
the unmarked plural is used to describe multiple individual animals; one
would say *the classification of fishes*, but *five fish in an
aquarium*.

#### Irregular plurals of foreign origin

Such nouns often retain their original plurals. In some cases both forms
are still vying: for a librarian, the plural of *appendix* is
*appendices*; for physicians, the plural of *appendix* is *appendixes*.
A radio engineer works with *antennas* and an entomologist deals with
*antennae*. The \"correct\" form is the one that sounds better in
context. Correctly formed Latin plurals are the most acceptable, in
academic and scientific contexts. In common usage, plurals with *s* are
sometimes preferred.

-   Final *a* becomes *ae* (also *æ*) or just adds *s*:

:   *Formula* makes *formulae*, *lamina*, *laminae*; *macula*,
    *maculae*; minutia, *minutiae*; *nebula*, *nebulae*; *siliqua*,
    *siliqiuae*; *dogma*, *dogmas* or *dogmata*; *exanthema*,
    *exanthemas* or *exanthemata*; *miasm* or *miasma*, *miasms* or
    *miasmata*; *stigma*, *stigmas* or *stigmata*.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```

:   *Saliva* and *scoria* have no occasion for the plural.

-   Final *ex* or *ix* becomes *ices* (pronounced
     or ) or
    just adds *es*. Of nouns in *x*, there are few, if any, which ought
    not to form the plural regularly, when used as English words; though
    the Latins changed *x* to *ces*, and *ex* to *ices*, making the *i*
    sometimes long and sometimes short: as,

:   *Apex, apices, for apexes; appendix, appendices, for appendixes;
    calix, calices, for calixes; calx, calces, for calxes; calyx,
    calyces, for calyxes; caudex, caudices, for caudexes; cicatrix,
    cicatrices, for cicatrixes; helix, helices, for helixes; index,
    indices, for indexes; matrix, matrices, for matrixes; quincunx,
    quincunces, for quincunxes; radix, radices, for radixes; varix,
    varices, for varixes; vertex, vertices, for vertexes; vortex,
    vortices, for vortexes*.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```

:   Some Greek words in *x* change that letter to *ges*: as, *larynx,
    larynges, for larinxes; phalanx, phalanges, for phalanxes*.
    *Billet-doux*, from the French, is *billets-doux* in the plural.

-   Final *is* becomes *es* (pronounced . Of
    nouns in *is*, some are regular: as, *trellis, trellises: so,
    annolis, butteris, caddis, dervis, iris, marquis, metropolis,
    portcullis, proboscis*.

:   Some seem to have no need of the plural: as, *ambergris,
    aqua-fortis, arthritis, brewis, crasis, elephantiasis, genesis,
    orris, siriasis, tennis*.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```

:   But most nouns of this ending follow the Greek or Latin form, which
    simply changes *is* to *es*: as, *amanuensis, amanuenses; analysis,
    analyses; antithesis, antitheses; axis, axes; basis, bases; crisis,
    crises; diaeresis, diaereses; diesis, dieses; ellipsis, ellipses;
    emphasis, emphases; fascis, fasces; hypothesis, hypotheses;
    metamorphosis, metamorphoses; oasis, oases; parenthesis,
    parentheses; phasis, phases; praxis, praxes; synopsis, synopses;
    synthesis, syntheses; syrtis, syrtes; thesis, theses*.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```

:   In some, however, the original plural is not so formed; but is made
    by changing *is* to *ides*: as, *aphis, aphides; apsis, apsides;
    ascaris, ascarides; bolis, bolides; cantharis, cantharides;
    chrysalis, chrysalides; ephemeris, ephemerides; epidermis,
    epidermides*.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```

:   So *iris* and *proboscis*, which we make regular; and perhaps some
    of the foregoing may be made so too.

-   Final *ies* remains unchanged: as, *series, species*.
-   Final *on* becomes *a*. Of nouns in *on*, derived from Greek, the
    greater part always form the plural regularly: as, *etymons,
    gnomons, ichneumons, myrmidons, phlegmons, trigons, tetragons,
    pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, octagons, enneagons, decagons,
    hendecagons, dodecagons, polygons*.

:   So *trihedrons, tetrahedrons, pentahedrons*, etc., though some say,
    these last may end in *dra*.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```

:   For a few words of this class, however, there are double plurals in
    use; as, *automata* or *atomatons*, *criteria* or *criterions*,
    *parhelia* or *parhelions*; and the plural of *phenomenon* appears
    to be always *phenomena*.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```

:   The plural of *legumen* is *legumens* or *legumina*; of *stamen*,
    *stamens* or *stamina*: of *cherub*, *cherubs* or *cherubim*; of
    *seraph*, *seraphs* or *seraphim*; of *beau*, *beaus* or *beaux*; of
    *bandit*, *bandits* or *banditti*.

-   Final *um* becomes *a* or just adds *s*: as, *addendum* makes
    *addenda*, *medium* makes *media* or *mediums*. Of nouns in *um*,
    some have no need of the plural: as,

:   *Bdellium, decorum, elysium, equilibrium, guaiacum, laudanum, odium,
    opium, petroleum, serum, viaticum. Some form it regularly; as,
    asylums, compendiums, craniums, emporiums, encomiums, forums,
    frustums, lustrums, mausoleums, museums, pendulums, nostrums,
    rostrums, residuums, vacuums. Others take either the English or the
    Latin plural; as, desideratums or desiderata, mediums or media,
    menstruums or menstrua, memorandums or memoranda, spectrums or
    spectra, speculums or specula, stratums or strata, succedaneums or
    succedanea, trapeziums or trapezia, vinculums or vincula. A few seem
    to have the Latin plural only: as, arcanum, arcana; datum, data;
    effluvium, effluvia; erratum, errata; scholium, scholia*.

-   Final *us* becomes *i* (second declension), *era*, *ora* (third
    declension), or just adds *es* (especially in fourth declension,
    where it would otherwise be the same as the singular): as, *alumnus*
    makes *alumni*, *viscus viscera, corpus corpora, prospectus
    prospectuses*.

:   But such as have properly become English words, may form the plural
    regularly in *es*; as, *chorus, choruses*: so, *apparatus, bolus,
    callus, circus, fetus, focus, fucus, fungus, hiatus, ignoramus,
    impetus, incubus, isthmus, nautilus, nucleus, prospectus, rebus,
    sinus, surplus*.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```

:   *Radius* makes *radii* or *radiuses*. *Genius* has *genii*, for
    imaginary spirits, and *geniuses*, for men of wit. *Genus*, a sort,
    becomes *genera* in Latin, and *genuses* in English. *Denarius*
    makes *denarii* or *denariuses*.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```

:   Of nouns in *us*, a few have no plural: as, *asparagus*, *calamus*,
    *mucus*.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```

:   Some have only the Latin plural, which usually changes *us* to *i*:
    as, *alumnus, alumni; androgynus, androgyni; calculus, calculi;
    dracunculus, dracunculi; echinus, echini; magus, magi*.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```

:   Final *us* in nouns of Greek origin \"properly\" add *es*. These
    words are also heard with the Latin *i* instead, which is sometimes
    considered \"over-correct\", but this is so common as to be
    acceptable in most circumstances, even technical ones: *cactus*
    makes *cactuses* or *cacti*; *hippopotamus, hippopotamuses or
    hippopotami, octopus, octopuses, octopi, or octopodes; platypus,
    platypuses, rhinoceros, rhinoceroses or rhinoceri, uterus, uteruses
    or uteri*.

-   Final *as* in one case of a noun of Greek origin changes to *antes*:
    *Atlas* makes *Atlantes*; *atles, atlases*.
-   Final *ma* in nouns of Greek origin add *ta*: *stigma* makes
    *stigmata*; *stoma, stomata; zeugma, zeugmata*.

:   Though some take *s* more commonly: *schema* makes *schemata* or
    *schemas*; *dogma*, *dogmata* or *dogmas*; *lemma*, *lemmata* or
    *lemmas*.

-   Some nouns of French origin add *x*: *beau* makes *beaux*; *chateau,
    chateaux; bureau, bureaus or bureaux*.
-   Nouns from Slavic languages: *kniazhestvo* makes *kniazhestvos* or
    *kniazhestva*; *kobzar*, *kobzars* or *kobzari*, *oblast*, *oblasts*
    or *oblasti*.
-   Nouns of Hebrew language origin add *im*, *ot* (generally m/f), or
    just *s*: *cherub* makes *cherubim* or *cherubs*; *seraph, seraphim
    or seraphs; matzoh, matzot or matzos*.

:   The Hebrew plurals *cherubim* and *seraphim*, being sometimes
    mistaken for singulars, other plurals have been formed from them.

-   Some nouns of Japanese origin have no plural and do not change: as,
    *samurai, otaku*.

:   However, other nouns such as *kimonos*, *futons* and *tsunamis* are
    more often seen with a regular English plural.

-   In New Zealand English, nouns of Maori origin can either take an *s*
    or have no separate plural form: as, *waka* makes *waka*; *marae,
    marae; kohwai, kohwai or kohwais; tui, tuis or tui, kiwi, kiwi or
    kiwis*.
-   Nouns from languages that have donated few words to English, and
    that are spoken by relatively few English-speakers, generally form
    plurals as if they were native English words: *canoe* makes
    *canoes*; *kayak, kayaks; igloo, igloos; kangoroo, kangoroos; sauna,
    saunas; cwm, cwms; pizza, pizzas; kindergarten, kindergartens*.

:   In Canada and Alaska, some words borrowed from Inuktitut retain
    traditional plurals: *Inuk* makes *Inuit*; *inukshuk, inukshuit*.

-   Some words of foreign origin are much better known in the plural. In
    common usage, the proper plural is considered the singular form.
    Back-formation has usually resulted in a regularized plural:
    *candelabra* makes *candelabras*; *data, data; agenda, agendas or
    agendae; graffiti, graffiti; insignia, insignias; algae, algae or
    algaes; opera, operas; viscera, viscera; panini, paninis; phalanx,
    phalanges; magazine, magazines*.

### Cases

Cases, in grammar, are modifications that distinguish the relations of
nouns or pronouns to other words.

There are three cases; the nominative, the possessive, and the
objective.

#### The nominative case

The nominative case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which
usually denotes the subject of a finite verb: as,

-   \"The boy runs;\"
-   \"I run.\"

The subject of a finite verb is that which answers to who or what before
it: as,

-   \"The boy runs.\"
-   Who runs? \"The boy.\"

Boy is therefore here a noun in the nominative case, or **nominative**.

For example:

-   I eat an orange
-   I buy a chocolate
-   I love my family
-   I love yellow

#### The possessive case

The possessive case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun, which
usually denotes the relation of property: as,

-   \"My hat;\"
-   \"The boy\'s hat.\"

Boy is here a noun in the possessive case, or **possessive**.

The possessive case of nouns is formed, in the singular number, by
adding to the nominative *s* preceded by an apostrophe; and, in the
plural, when the nominative ends in *s*, by adding an apostrophe only:
as, singular, boy\'s; plural, boys\'; sounded alike, but written
differently.

#### The objective case

The objective case is that form or state of a noun or pronoun which
usually tells the object of a verb, participle, or preposition: as,

-   \"I know the boy, having seen him at school; and he knows me.\"

The object of a verb, participle, or preposition, is that which answers
to whom or what after it: as,

-   \"I know the boy.\"
-   I know whom? \"The boy.\"

Boy is therefore here a noun in the objective case, or **objective**.

The nominative and the objective of nouns, are always alike in form,
being distinguishable from each other only by their place in a sentence,
or by their simple dependence according to the sense.

For example:

-   I am playing with my football.
-   I take her bag.
-   Anoud\'s room is dirty.

#### The declension of nouns

The declension of a noun is a regular arrangement of its numbers and
cases. Thus:

    Sing. Nom.  friend,    Plur. Nom.  friends,
          Poss. friend's,        Poss. friends',
          Obj.  friend;          Obj.  friends.

    Sing. Nom.  man,       Plur. Nom.  men,
          Poss. man's,           Poss. men's,
          Obj.  man;             Obj.  men.

    Sing. Nom.  fox,       Plur. Nom.  foxes,
          Poss. fox's,           Poss. foxes', 
          Obj.  fox;             Obj.  foxes.

    Sing. Nom.  fly,       Plur. Nom.  flies,
          Poss. fly's,           Poss. flies', 
          Obj.  fly;             Obj.  flies.

## The noun as a modifier

## A short syntax

The subject must be in the nominative case, as \"You say it.\"

The subject is placed before the attribute, as \"Peace dawned on his
mind,\" except the following cases: a question, as \"How many loaves
have you?\" imperative mood, as \"Go you,\" strong feeling, as \"May she
be happy!\" a supposition, as \"Were it true,\" *neither* or *nor*, as
\"Neither shall you touch it,\" emphasis, as \"Here am I,\" no regimen,
as \"Echo the mountains round,\" dialogue, as \"My name is Hassan,\" and
the adverb *there*, as \"There lived a man.\"

A noun in apposition is put in the same case as the noun it explains, as
\"But he, our gracious master, knows us.\"

A possessive is governed by the name of the thing possessed, as \"Man\'s
life.\"

A possessive comes immediately before the governing noun, as \"Nature\'s
peace,\" except the following cases: an intervening adjective, as
\"Flora\'s earliest smells,\" affirmation or denial, as \"The book is
not John\'s,\" a possessive without sign, as \"Brother Absalom\'s
house,\" or \"David and Jonathan\'s friendship.\"

The predicate is governed by attribute in objective case, as \"I found
her.\"

A noun or a pronoun put after a non-transitive verb or participle,
agrees in case with a preceding noun or pronoun referring to the same
thing, as \"The child was named John.\"

The case of absolute noun or pronoun depends on no other word, as \"Your
fathers, where are they?\"

## References

-   A part of the text in this article, was taken from the public domain
    English grammar \"The Grammar of English
    Grammars\" by Goold
    Brown, 1851.
-   An English
    Grammar
    by W. M. Baskervill and
    J. W. Sewell, 1895.
-   The Wikipedia article on Collective
    noun.
-   The Wikipedia article on Count noun.
-   The Wikipedia article on English
    plural.
-   The Wikipedia article on Mass noun.
-   The Wikipedia article on Noun.
