В пособии рассматриваются основные моменты английской грамматики: части речи имя существительное, имя прилагательное и наречие; видо-временные формы глагола; модальные глаголы; неличные формы глагола

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1. Kinds of nouns

There are four kinds of nouns in English:
Common nouns: man, cat, book
Proper nouns: England, New York, Mr Smith, Jane
Abstract nouns: beauty, freedom, fear, happiness
Collective nouns: crowd, group, team, family

2. Gender

A. Masculine: men, boys, male animals (pronouns he/they)
Feminine: women, girls, female animals (pronouns she/they)
Neuter: inanimate things, animals whose sex we don’t know
and babies if we don’t know their sex (pronouns it/they).
As you see there are no problems of grammatical gender in English but one or two points can cause difficulty.
1. Pet animals are called he or she by their owners.
Tim, find the cat and put her out.
2. Some people use she for cars, motorbikes and other kinds of
vehicles; sailors use she for ships.
Getting out of the car at the petrol station he said, ‘Fill her up, please’.
She is the ship on which any young man would be proud to sail.
3. Countries are often referred to as if they were female.
France has decided to increase her wine export.


B. Masculine/feminine nouns denoting people
1. Different forms:
a) boy, girl gentleman, lady son, daughter
bachelor, spinster husband, wife uncle, aunt
bridegroom, bride man, woman widower, widow
father, mother nephew, niece
Main exceptions:
baby, child, cousin, infant, parent, relative, spouse, teenager
b) duke, duchess lord, lady
earl, countess prince, princess
king, queen

2. The majority of nouns indicating occupation have the same form:

artist, assistant, cook, dancer, driver, doctor, guide etc.

Main exceptions:

actor, actress host, hostess
conductor, conductress manager, manageress
heir, heiress steward, stewardess
hero, heroine waiter, waitress
also salesman, saleswoman, postman, postwoman, etc., but sometimes
person is used instead of -man, -woman: salesperson.


C. Domestic animals and many of the larger wild animals have different forms:
bull, cow lion, lioness
cock, hen stallion, mare
dog, bitch tiger, tigress