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Nouns not normally countable in English
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| accommodation | chaos | furniture | luggage | permission | travel |
| advice | damage | information | machinery | progress | wealth |
| baggage | equipment | jewelry | money | scenery | weather |
| behavior | evidence | luck | news | traffic | work |
· But: It is possible to say “ works” when it means «труды» (the works of Plato and Aristotel)
· They are not used with “a”, or with numbers.
Political behavior is studied by political scientists.
· Uncountable nouns are used with “the” when they refer to something that is specified or known.
A polity is a system of social organization centered upon the machinery of government.
· Some uncountable nouns end in “- s ” but are actually singular and take singular verbs. They refer to:
| subjects of study: | economics | politics | statistics | mathematics | physics |
| activities: | athletics | gymnastics | |||
| games: | darts | cards | |||
| illnesses: | measles | mumps |
Politics is the activity through which people make, preserve and amend the general rules under which they live.
· But when the reference is specific, the verb must be plural.
Their statistics are extremely helpful(статистические данные).
2. Is the form of a noun correct?
| Singular | Plural |
| politician | politician s (most count nouns have an ” - s”) |
| class; box; watch; dish; gas | class es; box es; watch es; dish es; gas es (after “ -ss”, “-x”, “-ch”, “-sh’, ‘-s” we add “-es” ending) |
| photo; piano | photo s; piano s (some nouns ending in “-o” add “-s”) |
| hero; potato | hero es; potato es (some nouns ending in “-o” add “-es”) |
· Some common nouns have irregular plurals.
| woman-women | tooth-teeth |
| man-men | foot-feet |
| child-children | mouse-mice |
· Note the following nouns, which have irregular spelling in the plural:
| Singular | Plural | |
| alumna | бывшая студентка | alumnae |
| alumnus | бывший студент | alumni |
| analysis | анализ (разбор) | analyses |
| bacterium | бактерия | bacteria |
| basis | базис | bases |
| ′ bureau/ bu′ reau | бюро, отдел, управление, | bureaus/bureaux |
| ′ caput | голова (на душу населения) | capita (per capita) |
| crisis | кризис | crises |
| criterion | критерий | criteria |
| curriculum | курс обучения, учебный план | curricula |
| datum | данная (величина) | data * |
| medium | средство | media * |
| memorandum | меморандум | memoranda |
| phenomenon | явление | phenomena |
| stratum | слой (общества) | strata |
· Exports, imports (количество или стоимость вывезенных или ввезенных товаров) take a plural verb but export, import (процесс ввоза или вывоза) are singular.
· Note that dozen and score have the same plural and singular form if they go after the numeral: two dozen (of) eggs, three score (of) years (but scores / dozens of people).
· When a noun is used as an adjective, it takes a singular form.
Political science has been developed for 2, 500 years.
This is a 2, 500- year development of political science.
· Collective nouns (crowd, firm, team, group, etc.) refer to an entire group. When these are groups of people we often think of them as a number of people (=”they”), not as one thing (=”it”). So we often use a plural verb:
The staff at the firm (=they) are not happy with outside consultants.
· When a noun indicates a period of time, a sum of money, or a measurement, it takes a singular verb.
Two weeks is not enough time to study politology.
Ten dollars is not enough to meet the needs of a family.
· Goods (товар), clothes (одежда), riches (богатство), proceeds (выручка), wages (заработная плата), contents (содержание) normally occur only in the plural and are followed by a plural verb.
Some consumer goods, such as, food, do not last for a long time.
Exercise 1