A practical english grammar - Vyssaja skola 1978
Nouns
Sound symbols
The subject of a sentence is always a noun or something that can be substituted for a noun. Nouns are one of the four large word classes in the English language, the others being verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Nouns are probably more numerous than any of the others. They name things. They also name people, places, processes, abstract qualities, and any other object, real or imaginary, that English speakers may want to talk about. Some nouns are extremely ancient (water, man) and have been spoken in English in one form or another for many centuries. Others are as recent as yesterday (nylon, transistor) and name new inventions. The thing that a noun refers to is called its referent.
There are several ways to identify and classify nouns in English. The most reliable way to identify them is by form, that is, by discovering whether or not they have characteristics that only nouns have. We find that most nouns (not all) in English can be identified by their ability to show two qualities that other words in the language do not, or, as grammarians say, to be inflected in ways that other words are not. These two inflections are for number and for the possessive case.
Number: singular and plural. Nouns that are inflected for number are called count nouns. They are always either singular (naming one of the referent) or plural (naming more than one). The plain, or base, form of the noun is singular; the plural form has one of three endings in speech (/s/, /z/, or /az/) and the spelling -s or -es. (A few irregular
nouns form their plurals in other ways.) The choice of plural ending depends on the sound of the base form of the word.
The plural ending is /s/ (spelled -s) if the base ends in
The plural ending is /əz/ (spelled -es) if the base ends in
This plural ending always constitutes an extra syllable. If the base is spelled with a final -e, only -s is added: rose, roses.
Other nouns form their plurals by adding the sound /z/, spelled -s. This includes all those ending in vowel sounds or in voiced consonants (except those listed above). The examples that follow are not a complete list of the possibilities, but will illustrate this type of noun:
bay bays rod rods
fee fees bill bills
boy boys sum sums
view views rug rugs
Here are some common nouns with irregular plurals:
2 The final sound 
does not occur in native English words, but is often heard in those borrowed from French: camouflage, garage, massage, rouge, etc.
A small number of common nouns ending in the sound /f/ have plurals in which the /f/ changes to /v/ and the ending /z/ is added:
life /layf/ lives /layvz/
knife /nayf/ knives /nayvz/
wife /wayf/ wives /wayvz/
Likewise:
The plural of house /haws/ is houses /hawzaz/. No other word ending in /s/ behaves this way.
The possessive case. The other inflection that nouns can have is for the possessive. The singular possessive ending is the same as the one used for the regular plural, namely, /s/, /z/, or /az/, depending on the last sound of the base:
Frank Frank’s hat
John John’s hat
James James’s hat
The spelling is always -’s, even when the sound is /əz/.
There is no plural possessive ending in speech for nouns whose plurals are formed in the regular way. In writing, you must remember to put an apostrophe after the final s:
the boys the boys’ hats
the students the students’ grades
the judges the judges’ decisions
For nouns with irregular plurals, the plural possessive is formed by the addition of /s/, /z/, or /əz/, spelled -’s, to the plural form:
the men the men’s hats
the sheep the sheep’s tails
In regular nouns, the plural possessive is ambiguous; there is no way to tell the difference in speech between it and the singular possessive, since their sound is exactly the same:
the boy’s hats (one boy)
the boys’ hats (two or more boys)
The plural possessive in -s’ is not very frequent in speech.
The meaning of the possessive is usually ownership or close association or belonging:
John’s car the child’s mother
Mr. Turner’s house the man’s wife and children
Ellen’s dress the student’s teacher
the boy’s arm
Sometimes the association between the possessive and the following noun is temporary, or of a special nature:
For the use of the possessive with the gerund, see Chapter 11.
Own can be used with any possessive noun or “first-possessive” pronoun as an intensifying word: my own car, their own house, Charles’s own parents. The noun may be omitted after own: my own, your own, Mary’s own.
The possessive is used in a number of stereotyped phrases where it functions as a noun adjunct (see Chaper 14). The stress is always on the possessive word in these phrases, and the possessive acts as a classifying or categorizing modifier rather than an expression of ownership:
men’s room
peacock’s feather
hen’s egg
teachers’ college (often written in the U.S.A. without the apostrophe, indicating that the possessive feeling has been completely lost)
boys’ school
hound’s tooth
beeswax (no longer written as a possessive)
cow’s milk
The true possessive is not regularly used with inanimate objects. Thus, we do not usually say things like the chair’s leg, the tree’s leaves, the storm’s strength, although all of these are grammatically possible.
The possessive noun either precedes another noun to express the meanings just mentioned or stands alone, with the object possessed indicated by the context.
Henry’s car is over there. Mary’s is over here.
Whose hat is this? It’s John’s.
Count nouns and mass nouns. Not all nouns in English can be used in the plural. Those that have plurals are called count nouns and those that do not are called mass nouns. This is a very important distinction, since it affects the behavior of many words that are associated with nouns in sentences.
In general, we can say that count nouns, as the name implies, refer to objects that can be counted:
two books
two men
six chairs
four cities
Mass nouns, on the other hand, name substances that are not counted by individual units or pieces but are measured:
water
air
strength
light
The student can not always depend on logic, however, to tell him which noun is which, since there are many irregularities. For example, rice and wheat are mass nouns, never used in the plural, while peas, beans, and oats, which name similar substances, are plural count nouns. People (in its ordinary meaning) is a plural count noun, despite the fact that it lacks the final -s, and news, which has the -s, is a mass noun. A great many nouns can function both ways.