The category of numbe r.English countable nouns have two numbers — the singular and the plural
.The main types of the plural forms of English nouns are as follows:
I. 1. The general rule for forming the plural of English nouns is by adding the ending -s (-es) to the singular;-s is pronounced in different ways:[Iz]noses, horses, bridges.[z]after voiced consonants other than sibilants and after vowels: flowers,beds, doves, bees, boys.[s] after voiceless consonants other than sibilants: caps, books, hats, cliffs.
2.If the noun ends in-s, -ss, -x, -sh, -ch, or -tch, the plural is formed by adding –es to the singular:
bus — buses glass — glasses box — boxes brush — brushes
3. If the noun ends in-y preceded by a consonant, уis changed into i before -es. fly — flies army — armies lady — ladies
In proper names, however, the plural is formed by adding the ending-s to the singular: Mary, Marys.
The plural forms of some nouns are survivals of earlier formations.
1. There are seven nouns which form the plural by changing the root vowel:
man — men woman — women foot — feet tooth — teeth goose — geese mouse — mice
Some nouns have only the plural form:
1.Trousers, spectacles, breeches, scissors, phonetics, physics, politics, optics,
The category of case. Tense
The verb has the grammatical categories of person, number,tense,aspect,voice and mood
The category of tense is very clearly expressed in the forms of the English verb. This category denotes the relation of the action either to the moment of speaking or to some definite moment in the past or future. The category of tense and the category of aspect are intermingled. Some of the English tenses denote time relations, others denote both time and aspect relations. There are four groups of tenses: Indefinite, Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous. TheIndefinite form has no aspect characteristics whatever, the Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous forms denote both time and aspect relations. Each of these forms includes four tenses: Present, Past, Future and Future in the Past, i. e. future from the point of view of the past. Thus there are 16 tenses in English.
The category of aspect shows the way in which the action develops, whether it is in progress or completed, etc. In Russian the category of aspect predominates,and the category of tense is subordinated to it.
