The category of the number of a noun is an expression of the opposition of one object, a phenomenon to a separate set of the same objects, phenomena: house - houses, song - songs, cry - screams, travel - travel, etc. Most nouns in modern Russian change in numbers and express the meaning of either a single number (one object: a house, a lamp, a village) or a plural one (several of the same objects: houses, lamps, villages). This is shown in opposition case endings singular/plural. Cr
moreover, the form plural can be formed from the singular form: a) using the suffix: ear - ear-j-a; brother - brother-j-a; b) replacement of the suffix: kitten - kittens, chicken - chickens; c) a change in the place of stress: hand - hand, leg - legs, eyelid - eyelid, etc .; d) alternation of sounds: friend - friends; e) in a suppletive way: child - children, person - people.
The category of number is closely connected with extralinguistic reality and reflects real relationship between the things in it. If objects, phenomena in objective reality have an opposition: one - two or more of the same objects, then the nouns (concrete nouns) denoting them have correlative singular / plural forms (house - houses, notebook - notebooks, feeling - feelings). The only exception is the group specific nouns who name objects that contain
two (or more) identical parts: scissors, sledges, gates, trousers, shorts, as well as some specific nouns that name periods of time: holidays, days, etc. For these nouns, which have only the plural form, the opposition one - several is expressed by the combination them with quantitative numbers: "one scissors" - "five scissors", "one day" - "three days", etc. However, there are such objects, phenomena that cannot be counted and do not have the opposition of one - several, respectively, there are nouns.
having the form of only one number - singular or plural.
Unit number:

13) The use of singular forms of nouns that change in numbers. Use of plural forms of specific nouns. Using the plural form of nouns that do not change in number. Wrong use of the plural form.

Using the singular form of nouns that change in number
Singular nouns that change in numbers (i.e., specific), in addition to their main meaning - indications of a given separate object, a separate phenomenon, can also have other meanings: 1) generalized; 2) collective; 3) distribution.
1. Generalized value. In this case, the noun does not correspond to separate subject, and denotes a whole range of objects that have common characteristic properties, i.e. denotes a class of homogeneous objects: "To err is human." The word here appears in its generalizing or conceptual function.
Most often, singular nouns with the meaning of generalization are used in scientific and popular science styles of speech, in such contexts where general properties characteristic of a whole class of objects.
2. Collective meaning. Nouns in the singular form can replace the plural form, used to refer to a variety of objects, persons, phenomena associated with specific situations: "Stores are waiting for the buyer", "Mass newspaper reader". In this case, the singular form acquires a collective meaning. Compared with the synonymous form of the plural, the "collective" singular emphasizes that a given set of objects is presented as a single whole, as a collection.
In the collective meaning, there are nouns that name a person in the names that have become stable: Teacher's Day, Geologist's Day, Fisherman's House, Mother and Child Room.
AT collective meaning nouns of some other thematic groups: "Our factory has been manufacturing hand sewing needles and fishhooks for over fifty years"*; "Products of the workshop - polyvinyl chloride tiles for flooring"; section soft toys; "Toy House" Such cases are predominantly professional speech, therefore, in the newspaper their use is natural, first of all, in those contexts that are associated with professional area or reflect the professional features of the characters' speech.
3. Distributive (or distributive) value. The singular noun is sometimes used instead of the plural to refer to several objects, each of which belongs to one of the many persons: "The old people put glasses on their noses." The use of nouns in a distributive sense is important for distinguishing sense when it is necessary to emphasize that we are talking only about one object, a property inherent in each of this group of persons (cf.: "Participants raised their hands" - "Participants raised their hands."

Using the plural form of nouns that change in number

Sometimes the plural form of specific nouns can mean not a lot of objects, persons, but one object, one person. Such uses of the plural form are characteristic of the emotional, colloquial style speech. Therefore, in written texts they arise when it is necessary to reproduce the expression of direct oral speech.

Nouns that have only the singular form (singularia tantum)

They include nouns:
1. Substances: aspirin, iron, skin, milk, pemoxol, mercury, cellophane, halva, etc. They denote a substance that can be measured ("a kilogram of cereal", "a packet of milk", "skin flap"), but the account is not subject to.
2. Collective: youth, midges, guards (people), flock, periodicals, products, Cossacks, raw materials, equipment (machines), etc.
3. Abstract: lack of spirituality, fun, volleyball, grief, childhood, yellowness, pollution, sociability, redness, music, obligation, swimming, coolness, confusion, darkness, bullshit, chemicalization.
4. Own: geographical names: Yenisei, Mont Blanc, St. Petersburg, names: Skvoznik-Dmukhanovsky, Khlestakov, Chatsky, Newton, Bismarck, Tchaikovsky; titles works of art: "Crime and Punishment", "Overcoat", etc.

Plural only nouns (pluralia tantum)

Some nouns belong to them:
1. Material: yeast, perfume, sawdust, lumps, slop, cream.
2. Collective: money, jungle, manufactured goods, cereal.
3. Abstract, denoting complex or multiple actions, processes in which several people take part: running, elections, negotiations; funerals, bridesmaids; states of nature: frosts, twilight.
4. Own: Alps, Budeyovitsy, Vasyuki, Zhiguli, Kholmogory.
The mutability or immutability of a noun in terms of numbers is closely related to polysemy. A word that has several meanings, in each of its meanings, can relate differently to the category of number, depending on what phenomenon of reality it denotes. So, the noun grain, according to Ozhegov's dictionary (13th edition), has the following meanings: 1. Fruit, seed of cereals; 2. collected Cereal seeds; 3. Small item, a particle of something.; 4. trans. The nucleus, the germ of something, book. Dictionary examples illustrating these meanings show how the relation of a noun to the category of number changes: 1. - "Rye grain", "coffee beans" - a concrete noun, changes in numbers. 2 - "Bread in grain" - a collective noun, has only a singular form. 3. - " pearl grain", "grains of starch" - in this sense the word has both singular and plural: a concrete noun. 4. - "Grain of truth" - an abstract noun, has only a singular.

Erroneous use of the plural form of nouns

Erroneous, unsuccessful should be considered those cases of non-traditional use of the plural form of abstract and real nouns, when their appearance is not motivated by a change in the lexical meaning of the word, when an additional expressive connotation does not appear in the text (which the plural form expresses by itself). So, examples of the type seem to be unsuccessful: "reinforcements for the interventionists" - this was the title of a small note in Vechernyaya Moskva, written during the Vietnam War, which announced the intention of the American government to increase the number of US troops in South Vietnam. The concretization of the lexical meaning was not supposed here, therefore, it was necessary to use the singular form reinforcement. Or in the information about the opening of the World Cup in Mexico: "Who and what does not express anything about the outcome of the championship! Even an electronic computer was connected to the case" (Pr. 1970. April 1). It is obvious that in this case with many opinions expressed, the outcome of the championship can be only one. Therefore, the singular form would be more appropriate; "regarding the outcome of the championship." The use of the plural form of the noun surface in following example: "The first instructor pilot was Nikolai Nikolaevich Novikov, now a candidate technical sciences, lecturer at the Moscow aviation institute named after Sergo Ordzhonikidze. He taught us seriously, forced us not to skim over surfaces, but to penetrate into the essence of phenomena "(Av. i kosm. 1968. No. 11). The author uses the stable phrase to slide over the surface, replacing the singular form in it with the plural form (maybe under the influence of the number form of the noun in synonymous phraseological units "slide over the top", "grab the top"). The plural form leads to an unintentional concretization of the meaning, the abstract (as part of the phraseological unit) noun returns its direct meaning: "surface - the outer side of something" As a result, an ambiguity arises, causing an undesirable ironic effect in this case.

Animated and inanimate

To a large extent, the concepts of "animate", "inanimate" coincide with the everyday idea of ​​the living and the inanimate. Thus, the names of people, animals, birds, fish, insects (and mythological living creatures - centaur, cyclops, argus, etc.) are attributed by grammar to animate noun; names of objects, phenomena, processes, events, etc. in the vast majority of cases, they belong to inanimate nouns. The grammatical meaning and basis of this division is that animate and inanimate nouns of the same type of declension different forms in accusative plural. For the former, it coincides with the genitive form: "I saw friends (= no friends), familiar girls (= no familiar girls), strange animals (= no animals)" (in words male not on -a / -i this coincidence is also in singular: "I saw my brother" (= no brother). For the latter, the accusative plural form coincides with the nominative form: "I saw new houses, schools, buildings (= houses, scales, buildings built)" (in the singular, the difference between animate and inanimate nouns appears only in masculine words not in -a / -ya).

There are very few exceptions that violate this pattern. These include: 1) the names of chess and card pieces (they are animated): "beat the jack", "put the queen under attack"; 2) nouns dead, dead, deceased, dead, drowned, strangled (they are animated, in contrast to the word corpse); 3) the noun doll, traditionally referred to as animated (see below for more details about it), as well as the nouns marionette, parsley (varieties of dolls).
The names of microorganisms and germs have two forms of the accusative case: bacterium, bacillus, amoeba, embryo, krill, germ, larva. In general literary use, these are inanimate words.
Everything that has been said so far about the semantics of nouns and the form of the accusative case associated with it, referred to the direct meanings of words. However close connection concepts of "really alive" - ​​"animate", "really inanimate" - "inanimate" is found and when portable use words. So, inanimate (in the literal sense) nouns pass into the category of animate in those figurative meanings when they denote creature. Compare: "Beskov collects stars" (Moscow Nov. 1981. 2 Aug.); "They sent medicines by plane, invited medical luminaries" (Koms. pr. 1989. June 3).
The only exceptions are words that form nominal azeologisms of the adjective + noun model: garden head (bright head, etc.), coffin coffin, cut off chunk, broad nature etc. For the accusative case of nouns in these phraseological units, the most characteristic form is the same as the form of the nominative. For example: "The youngest daughter was expected by the same fate, i.e., at the age of sixteen to marry some kind of coffin" (G.Usp.);
As for nouns, in the direct meaning of naming a living being, the vast majority of them portable use to designate an inanimate object, they also change their category, i.e. become inanimate. The form of the accusative case, coinciding with the form of the nominative, have nouns in figurative meaning, which serves as the name of press organs, enterprises, sports teams, societies, sports figures, mechanisms, devices, modern games, sets for children, etc.
Some categories of nouns that are used figuratively in relation to inanimate object, keep in portable use morphological properties his direct meaning, i.e. animation. These include: 1) the names of objects depicting a living being; toys, sports equipment, figures, items in games, decorations, prizes, awards, (usually as part of a phrase), sculptural images 2) the names of traditional games in the singular: "play goat, rooster, king, throw fool", "play chizhik". (The names of modern games, sets for games, etc., as well as the names of traditional games, but in the plural form, are inanimate nouns: "play erudite", "play soldiers, Cossack robbers, mother daughters " etc.); 3) names of literary, musical, etc. works 4) names of animals, birds, fish, etc. 5) the names of the courts (in unprepositional use) 6) the names of the assigned rank, the awarded order (colloquially): "to assign a lieutenant", "to give Alexander Nevsky"; 7) nouns in -tel with the meaning of what produces an action or is intended to carry out an action called a motivating word 8) the word character in the plural ( literary norm admits and accusative inanimateness)
The listed categories of nouns that retain animation when denoting an inanimate object are words that are the name of something, i.e. have a nominative function. However, as animate, those nouns are also used that do not act in a nominative function, they serve figurative characteristic objects, figurative designation of their role, state, position, etc. Using means of expression attributing signs, actions, etc. to an inanimate object. living creature ("the car returned", "defeat the Lord of Heaven", "courts fought", etc.), referring to an inanimate object as a living thing ("offending a green friend"), the authors of the above (and similar) contexts are logical, regularly use accusative animation.

Case category - a category denoting the relation of a name to another word of a phrase, sentence or to a whole syntactic construction. For example: "Days of the Turbins" (M. Bulg.); "Two captains" (Kav.) (relation to the word in the phrase); "It's sleepy and twilight in the cabin" (Paust.) (relation to the Proposal as a whole).
The meaning of case forms is complicated. It also depends on the nature of the grammatical connection between the given case form and the subordinate word (control, adjunction or agreement; the latter happens in the application), and on lexical meanings the words of the subordinate and subordinate (i.e. given case form), and from the semantics of the preposition.

Nominative. Central to it are the subjective meanings, reflected in the subject, in nominal sentences, and the attributive, reflected in the nominal part of the predicate and in the application. For example: "Spring this year turned out to be even" (Kupr.); "Night. Street. Lantern. Pharmacy" (Bl.) (subjective); "Be I a scoundrel and anathema, if I ever sit down with this stellate sturgeon again" (Ch.); "The chizha was slammed by the villainous trap" (King.) (definitive). Besides, nominative often acts as an appeal: "Let's join hands, friends, so as not to disappear one by one" (B. Ok.); "Oh, the city of Yershalaim! What can you not hear about it" (M. Bulg.).

Genitive. Central values its - definitive, objective and subjective. The determinative meaning is realized when indicating the relation, belonging of an object to another object, person, when indicating an object that generates something, objects, persons that are the source of something: "Everything fainter sounds old harpsichords, old voices "(B.Ok.); "She fell in love with the deceptions of both Richardson and Rousseau" (P.); when indicating the property, quality of someone or something: "judge of an international category", "man of action" , "Country of birch chintz" (Ec.); "land not frightened idiots"(I. and P.). The object meaning is typical for a phrase with verbal nouns, with nouns denoting action, process: "My discovery of America" ​​(Lighthouse); "storm of space", "film presentation". It is also found when expressing quantitative relations: “a piece of cheese”, “a liter of milk”, “And then he rushed to the cashier to buy a bottle of kvass” (Chuk.). The object value is also realized in the expression direct object at transitive verbs with a negative: "I haven't received letters for a long time", "Don't promise a young maiden eternal love on earth" (B.Ok.); when pointing to an object that they are deprived of, they are afraid: "to lose support (help)", "to be afraid of the dark", "to be afraid of danger (reproaches)". The subjective meaning appears in phrases containing an indication of a person, an object that produces an action: "The arrival of a father to his son" (the title of the story by E.G. Kazakevich); "The appearance of the hero" (the title of the chapter from the novel "The Master and Margarita"). subjective meaning genitive may also be found not in the phrase: "Hey, you cherubim and seraphim!" said Ostap, challenging the enemies to a dispute, "there is no God!" (I. and P.); “Narzan is gone,” the woman replied and for some reason got offended” (M. Bulg.).

Dative. Basic values dative case are object and subject values. The object meaning is realized when referring to the person or object to which the action is directed, in whose interests or to the detriment of which the action is performed: "write to a friend", "promote success", "harm health"; "And when he shouts to the whole world, he is not about you - about himself" (B.Ok.). The dative object value is also used when indicating the person or object for which it is intended, to whom it is addressed, etc. anything

The main one for the accusative case is the objective meaning: the accusative case without a preposition denotes a person or an object that is completely and directly covered by the action, an object or a person to whom someone's attitude, someone's feelings are addressed: "I invited you, gentlemen, so that to tell you unpleasant news ... "(Gog.); The accusative case is widely used in the adverbial sense, indicating time limits, quantity, measure, size, etc. something: "run a kilometer", "it costs a million";

Basic values instrumental- objective and determinative. Objective meaning appears when pointing to the tool or object of action, experienced feelings; "cut with a knife", "heat wood", "admire success", "enjoy music". The determinant value appears when using the instrumental case as a predicate: "He wants to be a pilot", "He is a director here."

The prepositional case (always used with a preposition) has an objective meaning: "think about your future", "talk about lofty matters" and a circumstantial meaning when denoting a place, time, state, etc.: "Somewhere under your feet and above your heads - only earth and sky" (B. Ok.); "In the year there are five or six weeks Odessa, By the will of the stormy Zeus, Drowned, Dammed" (P.); "... He spent the whole century in prayers and fortune-telling" (P.).

Observation of word-objects (nouns) that have the plural form, but they name one object: trousers, glasses, scissors, gates, etc. Observation of word-objects (nouns), which have the singular form, but name many objects: children, wheat, grapes, etc. A conversation about borrowed, mainly from French, words (coat, coupe, highway, jury, etc.).
Compiling sentences with words that have only one number form, observing the agreement of the verb with these words (the gates creak, the children have fun). A conversation about how you can find out about one or more items is discussed in the sentence (Scissors are sold in a department store. Scissors shine in the hands of a dressmaker).

1. Acquaintance with words that do not have a singular form.

Together with the children, we call the pictures placed around the word they (trousers, pills, ball, turban, berries, telephone, canned food, stretchers, gloves, watches; as they call, the teacher replaces the picture with a word or puts a word under it - depending on whether how students read it). Establishing a word link they with words - the names of the pictures and draw lines from the word to the corresponding picture. At the same time, we pay attention to whether one or more objects are named by this word.

In the course of work, students will make sure that there are words that can be replaced by the word they, (i.e., the words are in the plural), but these words name only one object ( trousers, watches, pincers, canned food). After the first such word we come across, we will do together with the students conclusion: the word is plural, but names one thing. We will repeat this conclusion every time we encounter this phenomenon.

- Repeat, please, once again all the words in the plural, and at the same time point to the pictures.
Now think, discuss among yourselves and answer the question: does the number of a word and the number of objects always coincide?

After that, we will ask the students to name the tools (images of a vise, tongs, nail scissors, wire cutters, tongs appear). Reading children can read their names. We consider the words, determine their number and circle the endings -i, -s with a square. Then we start changing the number.

With active assistance teacher students select a definition or action for each word ( handy pliers, vice compress, nail scissors etc.) and try to put words in the singular form ( handy tick - handy tick, handy tick). Does not work! This is not the way to say it.

– Think guys, what do all these items have in common, and glasses and trousers too. (They consist of two interconnected parts that cannot exist separately from each other).

- Maybe this is the reason that their names do not have a singular form, although the subject is one? And what do you think?

After the children express their thoughts, the Dunno will appear and declare that the words boots, shoes, shoes also do not have a singular form, because they always come in pairs. Let the children, as they can, object to Dunno.

Conclusion: we determine the number of words, not the number of objects; the subject may be one, but the word is plural .

2. Acquaintance with words that do not have a plural form.

We work with words like sea, coffee, heart, milk, lake, coat, movie, muffler.

Let's help the students see that there are letters at the end of these words - oh-e, and they can be replaced by the word it. Then we select words-signs for them and try to change the number: blue sea - blue seas(the teacher helps the students to pronounce the endings of the words very clearly), warm coat - warm coats. Perhaps there are students in the class who already know not to speak. polty, therefore, it must be said warm coats. Word coat cannot be pluralized.

During further work make sure the words coupe and cinema also do not have a plural. These words and many other words, the teacher will say, came to us from other languages ​​and continue to live according to the laws of their grammar.

But there are also Russian words that do not change in numbers. Let's remember the names of the berries: raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, gooseberries, blueberries, cranberries, cherries etc. Let's make phrases with them and try to change the number: sweet raspberries - sweet raspberries etc.

In the conversation it turns out that these words are not used in the plural, except, perhaps, the word cherry - cherries by analogy with apples, plums, pears, etc.

Next, ask the students to form the name of their meat from the names of animals: ram - lamb, pig - pork, cow - beef(because in Russia in ancient times the cow was called beef), turkey - turkey, hare - hare etc.

You can put the children in groups of 2-4 people and give cards that show one or two animals. Under each picture, a diagram is drawn in which there are more circles, fewer circles, or the same number as the sounds in the name of the meat of this animal. Students will write in these diagrams given letters, for example, consonants only, or the second vowel and the last two consonants.

Together we will make phrases with formed words and try to change the number: young lamb - young lamb. These words are also not used in the plural.

Here it will be interesting to speculate that practically from the name of any animal you can form the name of its meat, but for some reason the Russian lexicon does not contain the words fox, chipmunk, suslyatin, voronyatin, etc. Why?

3. Exercises in correlating the number of a word and the number of objects named by this word.

The teacher gives the students two sentences, for example: The department store sells scissors. Scissors shine in the dressmaker's hand. Comparing them, we pay attention to the number of the word-action and the object that this action performs. However, the first sentence refers to the many scissors that are sold in the store, and the second sentence refers to one item that is in the hands of a dressmaker.

Next, compare three or four more pairs of sentences (for example, Trousers lay on the shelves in even piles. Trousers were torn in four places. The largest cranberry adorned the middle of the cake. Ripe cranberries blushed on marsh bumps. Glasses covered half of Tanya's face. Glasses lay on all the shelves of the glass cabinet.), repeat and supplement the work done by the children a little earlier conclusion: we determine the number of the word, regardless of how many objects this word names; and if this object does something, then the word-action is in the same number as the noun.

1. Topic quiz

What is the singular number of nouns?

The singular number of nouns is grammatical sign, indicating the singularity of the named object, that is, that the named object is represented in the amount of one.

Examples of singular nouns: mother, grandfather, performer, sun, river, pear, sour cream, solution, thunderstorm, London, Moscow.

Features of the singular number of nouns

In Russian, for most nouns, the category of number is inflectional - they have both singular and plural forms. (apartment - apartments, ring - rings, doctor - doctors). However, there are two other classes of words for which the category of number is a non-inflective feature - these are nouns that do not have a singular number, as well as nouns that have only a singular form (they are used only in the singular).

The nouns that are used only in the singular include the following groups of words by meaning:

• Own (Paris, China, Danube, Saturn).
• Distracted, abstract (freshness, greed, good, evil);
• Collective (linen, foliage, humanity, children);
• Real (tin, milk, oxygen, barley);
• Names of states and actions (burning, walking, approval, boredom).