Download Notes on Nouns in 2016 EVM - Progetto e

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Single Cycle Degree Programme in Veterinary Medicine
November 2, 2015
Word-classes in English for
Veterinary Medicine
1. NOUNS
Features of Nouns in English for AWP
² noun or name? (see the handout 1, “Name Words”, unit 2)
² countable and/or uncountable
Here follows the main features in the behaviour of a C-noun
compared to an U-noun:
Countable nouns [C]
ü have singular
forms
and
ü take singular
verbs
and
Uncountable nouns [U]
plural
ü always take a singular verb
plural
ü can have a/an (= indefinite
article) and numbers in
front of them
ü have many / a lot of / lots
of in front of them
ü
ü only have one form
have few / a few in front of
them
ü never have a/an or a
number directly in front of
them
ü have much / a lot of / lots of
in front of them
ü have little / a little in front of
them
ü have some / any / no in
front of them
ü have some / any / no in
front of them (plural forms)
It can be useful to list uncountable nouns into the following
categories:
ü substances: blood, glass, iron, gold, oil, oxygen, plasma,
plastic, water, wax, etc.;
© 2016 Rosati F. and F. Vaccarelli
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Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Single Cycle Degree Programme in Veterinary Medicine
November 2, 2015
ü abstract ideas: access, evidence, freedom,
humour, love, progress, relevance, safety, etc.;
health,
ü verbal nouns (i.e. -ing verbal forms used as nouns):
training, rendering, neutering, spaying, breathing,
coughing, etc. as well as all the nouns indicating the act
of parturition of an animal (see the handout 2, “Species
Names”; and the handout 3, “Common Species Names”,
unit 2);
ü diseases: BSE, chickenpox, cold, influenza, measles,
rabies, salmonellosis, smallpox, etc.;
ü subjects: biology, chemistry, etiology, mathematics /
maths, physics, statistics, etc;
ü miscellanea:
accommodation,
advice,
damage,
equipment, evidence, hardware, information, money,
news, research, software, traffic, training, transport,
travel, weather, work, etc.
Moreover note that:
1 some words which are countable in some other languages
are uncountable in English (e.g. advice, information,
management, news);
2 some words can be used in two different ways – one
countable, one uncountable (e.g. business, contagion,
glass, infection, hair, paper);
3 collective nouns can take singular and plural verbs (e.g.:
board, committee, government, team; cattle, livestock,
offspring, wildlife, poultry); and some of them (e.g.: board,
committee, government, team) are considered regular Cnouns, thus having a plural form of their own;
4 to make countable quantities of uncountable nouns
you can
a) use the formula “a/an … of …” as in the following
examples:
− an item of information;
− two phials of blood;
© 2016 Rosati F. and F. Vaccarelli
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Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Single Cycle Degree Programme in Veterinary Medicine
November 2, 2015
− four pieces of reasearch;
− six surgeries of neutering;
− ten books of physics.
Apart from “an item of …” and “a piece of …” that can be
used with almost all the U-nouns, each item needs an
adequate periphrasis.
b) use another similar word, i.e. a synonym (e.g. work è a
job / a task; progress è a step forward);
c) use a compound noun (e.g. training è a training course;
blood è a blood clot).
² standard plural formation with the ending -(e)s plus:
♦ a set of nouns of classical (Greek or Latin) origin (see the
handout 4, “Plural Formation”, unit 2);
♦ a small group of nouns maintaining a Germanic plural
formation (e.g. child è children; foot è feet; goose è
geese; louse è lice; man è men; mouse è mice; ox è
oxen; tooth è teeth; woman è women);
♦ a small group of lexical items with a double spelling
adaptation – both in the final “f” of the word changing into
“v” and in the ending itself where a euphonic “e” goes
before final “s” (e.g. knife è knives; wolf è wolves).
However, such adaptation is not a permanent feature: in
fact, pay attention to chief è chiefs, roof è roofs;
♦ a set of nouns of classical origin ending in -x such as
appendix, index, matrix with a double chance of plural
formation: respectively, appendices and appendixes;
indices and indexes; matrices and matrixes (see also the
handout 4, “Plural Formation”, unit 2).
Anyway, pay attention to cervix è cervices; cortex è
cortices; phalanx è phalanges; thorax è thoraces as well
as to box è boxes; fax è faxes; fox è foxes;
♦ a set of nouns ending in -sis such as analysis, crisis,
diagnosis, meiosis, prognosis whose plural forms are
© 2016 Rosati F. and F. Vaccarelli
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Faculty of Veterinary Medicine
Single Cycle Degree Programme in Veterinary Medicine
November 2, 2015
respectively
prognoses;
analyses,
crises,
diagnoses;
meioses
and
♦ a set of countable nouns where singular and plural form are
the same1: e.g. deer è deer; offspring è offspring; salmon
è salmon; sheep è sheep; species è species; status è
status;
² no gender, but in some cases and in Veterinary English
above all (see the handout 2, “Species Names”; and the
handout 3, “Common Species Names”, unit 2) …
² compound nouns (forthcoming)
² collocations (forthcoming)
² false friends (forthcoming)
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Anyway, be careful to any variations you may find in scientific texts, which not
always are reported in dictionaries such as the www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com,
www.macmillandictionary.com or http://www.wordreference.com/
© 2016 Rosati F. and F. Vaccarelli
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