Nominative plural endings for nouns
Setting the correct ending for masculine nominative plural nouns often causes difficulty. Selecting ending type (-ы/-и or -а/-я ) is determined by the following factors:
- number of syllables in a word and stress location
a) Monosyllabic words more often form forms in -a/-z : snow - snow, house - houses, forest - forests, variety - varieties .
b) Monosyllabic words can also have endings - s/-s : court - courts, soup - soups, knife - knives, cat - cats . Frequent speech errors are caused by the word cake . The plural of this word is cakes .
c) Two-syllable words with stress on the 1st syllable usually have an ending -a/-z : evening - evenings, passport - passports, voice - votes, bill - bills.
d) Polysyllabic words with emphasis on the 2nd, 3rd, etc. syllables usually form forms on -s/-s : pharmacist - pharmacists, librarian - librarians, computer - computers, engineer - engineers.
Please note that the emphasis in these singular and plural forms is kept in the same place.
Exceptions: cuff - cuffs, sleeve - sleeves .
- origin of the word and its structural elements
a) Words with elements -er/-er have an ending - s/-s : actor - actors, driver - drivers, director - directors, conductor - conductors, etc. These are words of French origin.
b) Words of Latin origin with the element - torus – inanimate (objects) have the ending -ы: reflectors, detectors, refrigerators, capacitors .
c) Words with -tor animate (persons) have an ending -s : authors, lecturers, rectors, designers and ending -A : doctor, director, professor .
- difference in the meaning of words
In some cases the end -s And -A serve to distinguish the meaning of a word:
images
(artistic) – image
(icons);
farewell
(upon departure) – wires
(electric);
flowers
(plants) - colors
(color);
omissions
(oversights) – passes
(documents);
belts
(geographical) – belts
(clothes), etc.
There are normative variant forms (i.e. both forms are correct):
bunkers – bunkers
years - years
instructors - instructors
valves – valves
(technical term)
tunics - tunics
spotlights – spotlights
sectors – sectors
workshops - workshops
The most frequently used words with one and the other type of ending.
Forms on -i/-s
Forms on -a/-z
Genitive plural endings
When choosing an ending, you should be guided by the following rules:
Masculine
1. All names of paired items have a zero ending: shoe, boot, stocking, trousers, shoulder straps, scissors .
Exception: socks .
2. The names of nationalities are subject to the following rules:
a) words with a base in -n, -r have zero endings: Englishmen, Armenians, Georgians, Lezgins, Ossetians, Romanians, Turkmens, Gypsies, Bashkirs, Bulgarians.
Exception: blacks .
b) words with stems starting from other letters have endings -s : Kirghiz, Kalmyks, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Mongols, Yakuts.
Exception: Turk, Buryat .
3. The names of military groups and former branches of the military require the following endings:
a) without numerals they have a zero ending: partisan, soldier, grenadier, midshipman, hussar, dragoon, lancer;
b) the previous types of troops with numerals have endings -s : 10 hussars, 5 midshipmen, 6 hussars, 7 lancers.
4. The names of units of measurement vary:
A) ampere, watt, gram, kilogram, x-ray, coulomb ;
b) amperes, watts, grams, kilograms, roentgens, coulombs .
5. The names of the "vegetables - fruits" group have endings -s : oranges, tangerines, bananas, tomatoes, eggplants.
Feminine
1. Nouns on -lya, -nya have a null ending: waffles, roofs, gossip, nannies, cherries, apple trees .
2. Some nouns have an ending -to her : candles, rakes, sheets .
There are also variant forms: The game is worth the candle , But: There are no candles in the house . However, the word candle is used here in literal and figurative (phraseological) meanings (indicate which).
3. Nouns ending in -ia -th : auditoriums, academies, conservatories.
Neuter
1. A number of names have a zero ending: apples, shoulders, saucers of towels, mirrors .
Pay attention to the shape of the shoulders ( Dress with and without shoulders!)
2. Forms on -th : coasts, outbacks, drugs .
3. There are also forms on -ev : mouths, swamps, upper reaches, lower reaches .
Nouns that are always used only in the plural (without gender) form the genitive case using different types of endings:
zero: twilight; days ;
-s : frost ;
-to her
: everyday life, nursery, sleigh
.
Difficult plural forms of nouns
Among the forms of nouns, the formation of which may be associated with certain difficulties, include the plural forms of the nominative case ( directors or directors, valves or valve?) and the plural forms of the genitive case of some nouns ( five grams And five grams, five oranges or five orange?)
1. Plural forms of the nominative case of nouns: directors or directors?
The nominative plural form of nouns is checked in dictionary order (according to the dictionary). See section "Word Check" on our portal. Please note: searching for a word in dictionaries is carried out using the initial form (nominative case, singular)!
The dictionary entry is read as follows: if the entry does not specifically indicate the plural form (mark pl.), then to form the nominative plural, the ending is used -And or -s. If a different ending is required (or options are acceptable), then a note is placed: pl. -A. For example:
In the modern Russian literary language, variants fluctuate in the form named after. p.m. hours, number over 300 words. The center of the spread of inflexion -a(s) are the areas of vernacular and professional language. In this regard, the forms on -a, (-i) often have a colloquial or professional connotation: contract, mechanic, turner. The forms are on -s(s) more neutral and for most words meet the traditional norms of the literary language. However, in some cases the forms on -a, (-i) have already replaced forms with -s(s).
In addition, you can remember a number of patterns that make it easier to choose the inflection (ending) of the nominative plural:
Declined neuter nouns, the initial form of which ends in -KO, have an unstressed plural inflection. h. them. p. -And (faces, feathers, apples). The exception is nouns with stressed plural endings. h.: troops And clouds.
The remaining neuter nouns are in the plural form. h. accept the ending -a(s): swamps, fields, seas, windows.
Form on -a, -i for some words it may be the only or predominant: side - sides (sides only in phraseological combination hands on hips); century - centuries (eyelids only in phraseological combinations for once, forever and ever, forever and ever), eye - eyes, meadow - meadows, fur - furs, snow - snow, haystack - haystacks, silk - silk.
Shapes can have different meanings: tones(about color) and tones(about sound) bread(about cereals) and breads(about baked bread) workshops And workshops(at the enterprise) and workshops(medieval organizations of artisans).
Forms of nouns can differ in stylistic coloring: sides and outdated sides; Houses and outdated houses; stern and outdated stern; horns and outdated and poet. horns; varieties and outdated varieties; volumes and outdated volumes, and also thunder and poet. thunder; coffins and poet. coffin
Finally, the forms of nouns can be equivalent and interchangeable: year And years(But: years of youth, severe hardships; nineties, zero years), workshops And workshops(at the enterprise), storms And storms.
To resolve the issue of the status of a “controversial” form of a word (non-normative, variant, stylistically colored, etc.), in any case, you need to consult a dictionary.
Non-standard plurals are formed for words child - children, person - people, bottom - donya and some others.
2. Plural forms of the genitive case of nouns: five grams or five grams?
For most masculine nouns ending in a hard consonant ( orange, tomato, fly agaric, computer, sock), the ending is typical -s in the genitive plural form: oranges, tomatoes, fly agarics, computers, socks etc. A wide range of exceptions can be identified from this rule - similar nouns, but having a zero ending in the genitive plural: one stocking - no stockings, one Ossetian - five Ossetians, one gram - five grams And five grams etc. Such words include:
Names of people by nationality and by belonging to military units, mainly used in the plural forms in the collective meaning: Magyars - Magyars, Turkmens - Turkmens, midshipmen - midshipmen and midshipmen, partisans - partisans, soldiers - soldiers; this also includes the form p. p.m. h. Human.
Names of paired items: boots - boots, eyes - eyes, cuffs - cuffs, shoulder straps - shoulder straps, stockings - stockings, epaulettes - epaulettes, boots - boots.
Names of measures and units of measurement: 220 volts, 1000 watts, 5 amps, 500 gigabytes. If such names are used outside the “measuring” context (in other words, the genitive case form is not countable), then the ending is used -s: live without excess kilograms, not enough gigabytes.
It should be noted that the names of fruits, fruits and vegetables, which are masculine nouns, ending in a hard consonant ( orange, eggplant, tomato, tangerine), in the genitive plural form. hours have an ending -s: five oranges, a kilogram of eggplants, New Year without tangerines, tomato salad.
For some nouns, plural forms are formed. Part gen. n. difficult; these are words dream, prayer, head. On the contrary, the words shchetz And firewood have no other forms except the plural form. Part gen. case.
See: "Russian Grammar", M., 1980.
1. Some masculine nouns in the nominative plural are used with the endings -а, -я:
addresses, coast, century, city, director, doctor, chute, millstone, inspector, boat, stern, number, district, island, vacation, passport, cook, professor, variety, haystack, paramedic, stamp, anchor.
ending -ы, -и:
authors, pharmacists, agitators, accountants, elections, contracts, engineers, lecturers, leaders, designers, grooms, speakers, officers, verdicts, auditors, editors, snipers, trainees, cakes, drivers. Nouns differ in meaning: furs (made from animal skins) - bellows (blacksmith's), belts (belts) - belts (geographical), wires (electrical cords) - wires (of someone), passes (documents) - passes (that, what is missing), bills (documents for payment) - abacus (device for counting), brakes (device) - brakes (obstacles), teachers (teachers) - teachers (founders of scientific theory), bread (cereals) - bread (baked), colors (paints) - flowers (plants), teeth (in the mouth) - teeth (teeth), roots (in plants) - roots (dried vegetables), sheets (paper, iron, etc.) - leaves (in plants) , sons (of the Motherland) - sons (of the mother).
Two forms are possible for nouns (the endings -a, -ya are more typical of colloquial speech): winds - winds, carts - carts, years - years, spotlights - spotlights, trades - trades, workshops - workshops.
Write it down, opening the parentheses. Place stress on nouns and indicate endings.
Foreign (passport), collective (contract), experienced (doctor), upcoming (choice), young (officer), arrived (lecturer), famous (professor), newly appointed (director), skilled (cook), festive (cake) , new (variety) of wheat, fair (sentence), attentive (inspector), watchdog (boat).
Read, inserting the necessary nouns given in brackets instead of dots.
1) The workers gathered at... leaving for the construction site. Telegraph lines hummed quietly... (wires, wires). 2) The proofreader noticed in the manuscript... letters. The factory workers were given new... (passes, passes). 3) At the board stood large wooden.... Presented... must be paid on time (bills, bills). 4) They rustle a little... in the trees. On the shelf were... cardboard (sheets, leaves). 5) Got sick.... The gear broke... (teeth, teeth). 6) The car was damaged.... It was indicated... for the development of industry (brakes, brakes). 7) The houses are painted bright.... There were... (colors, flowers) on the window. 8) The school employs experienced.... Great... left a rich legacy (teachers, teachers).
More on the topic § 37. NOMINATIVE PLURAL OF SOME MASCULINE NOUNS:
- Variants of endings for the nominative plural of masculine nouns of the 1st declension
- Features of the formation of nominative plural forms of individual groups of nouns
- Categories of gender, number and case of nouns
- § 38. SPELLING OF NOUNS IN THE GENTIVE PLURAL CASE
- Genitive plural. Variants of genitive plural endings
Most masculine nouns of the 1st declension in the nominative plural are characterized by the main ending -ы/-и. This ending has:
1) nouns containing more than one syllable, of which the last one is stressed (in the nominative singular case): argument, boxer, vernissage, veteran, leader, debutant, defus, kurgan, motel, trainee, psychic, etc. The exceptions are two words: sleeve - sleeves and cuff - cuffs;
2) a considerable number of monosyllabic nouns with constant stress in case forms (singular): ball - balls, bass - basses, fight - boú, gol - goals, fat - fats, club - puffs (smoke), garden - gardens, soup - soups, cheese - cheeses; gene - genes, gram - grams, load - weights, probe - probes, club - clubs (association of people); varnish - varnishes, elevator - elevators, warehouse - warehouses, syllable - syllables, view - views, cake - cakes, toast - toasts, pound - pounds, chef - chefs and some. etc.
Note. A mistake, and a fairly common one, is the formation of the mopmá form.
The ending -ы also has the vast majority of borrowed words ending in -tor, -sor (such as vector, compressor, lecturer). The exceptions are the nouns director, doctor, professor, which form the nominative plural in -a: directorá, doctorá, professorá. A few words - the animate inspector, instructor, conductor (about a person), proofreader, editor, inanimate spotlight, sector, tractor (the rest of the inanimate -tor, -sor have the ending -s) have variant, stylistically equal forms: instructors and instructors, spotlights and spotlights, etc.
At the same time, a significant part of nouns is characterized by the form ending in -a as normative, i.e. the only one possible from the point of view of literary norms. Forms in -á/-я (percussive) have:
1) many monosyllabic nouns: side (but in phraseological units: hands on hips), century (but in phraseological units: live forever, forever, forever and ever), top (top in the meaning of 'lifting folding' carriage roof), eye, house, food, edge, forest, ravine, meadow, fur (in the meaning of 'cured skins' or 'products made from them'), horn, clan (in the meaning of 'species, type of army or weapon') , growth, snow, account (in the meaning of `money document`, `category of financial transaction`), current (in the meaning of `place of threshing`, `placing place`), tone (in the meaning of `color, shade of color`), bread ( in the meaning of 'cereal'), stable, color (as the color of something), silk (silk in the meaning of 'product').
The ending -я (with an increasing suffix -j- or ovj-) has the nouns tooth, son-in-law, wedge, stake, lump, cry (in the meaning of “a device for carrying heavy loads”, “a point mounted on a pole”), godfather, husband ( in the meaning of 'a married man in relation to his wife');
2) many nouns with more than one syllable with constant stress on the first syllable (in singular forms): address (as a designation of place of residence), shore, bor (as part of a chimney), ber, buffer, fan, bill, monogram, skewer, evening, city, voice, doctor, hollow, huntsman, gutter, pearls (as products), millstone, zakrom, cutter, cover, clover (as “the crops of this culture”), bell, body (in all meanings except “torso”) and `typographic font`), dome, coachman, camp (in all meanings except `socio-political group`), ploughshare, master, number, image (in the meaning of `icon`), okorok, okrug, order (as a reward) , order (in the meaning of `document`), island, vacation, sail, passport, ash, cook, train, offal, cellar, belt, wire, pass (in the meaning of `document`), sugar (sugar - in special use in the meaning `varieties of this substance`), terem, grouse, poplar, torbas, tyes, cold (cold in the meaning of `cold weather period`), khutor, skull, best man, ramrod, cadencher (in the meaning of `graduate of a military school in pre-revolutionary Russia` and `volunteer non-commissioned officer` in the Russian army), anchor and some. etc.
Note. The forms found in written and oral speech in -a from the following words do not meet the literary norm: age, hair, choice, grazing, exit, admission, cone, lapel, lecturer, month, profile, sniper, rector, transport, coach, circle.
The ending -я (with the increasing suffix -j-) has the nouns ear, rim, rein (`belt for controlling a horse`).
Several dozen nouns have variant forms in -ы/-и and -á/-я. Some of these nouns are commonly used words, the variant forms of which are normative and stylistically equivalent. These include: bunker, heap, pennant, glider, jumper, asp, inspector, instructor, jacket, corrector, cruiser, pretzel (in phraseological units only the -i form is used: to write out pretzel), shred, flap, lighter, seine, gadfly , whirlpool, order (as an architectural term), baker, clerk, pole, mine (the search form is preferable), bailiff, handwriting, searchlight, poodle, report (report form is preferable), editor, mouthpiece, sweater, sector, scooter, locksmith, sable (meaning `fur, fur products` only sable), sauce, slipway, report card, tenor, turner, tractor, tumbler, truffle, non-commissioned officer, paramedic, courier, wing, weather vane, workshop, skipper, schnitzel, stack, stamp , plug, storm, sharpie, hawk.
A significant group consists of words (commonly used and assigned to one or another terminology), in which variant forms in -а/-я characterize professional speech (mechanics, technicians, sailors, etc.). Such forms are actively used from nouns, which are the names of mechanisms (and their parts), various kinds of devices, tools, equipment, etc. (valve - valve, grader - grader, throttle - throttle, dowel - dowel, tanker - tanker, etc.), names of professions, specialties, positions (pilot - pilot, navigator - navigator, etc.).
The number of words whose variant forms are characteristic of poetic, sublime speech is insignificant. Such variant forms include snow, wind, thunder, leaves (plants), men, sons, poplars. Compare, for example: “Through these simple autumn clearings, wild winds are blowing” (R. Kaz.); “I love you, My swinging winds” (A. Prokofiev); “As if creeping up on a quiet horizon, A cloud spread out. Lightning. Thunder. On the field there is a spruce tree with its green umbrella, Beyond the field - somewhere far away - there are houses” (A. Reshetov); “Ask those soldiers who lie under the birch trees, and let their sons tell you whether the Russians want war” (Eut.); “And spring whistles and mutters. Poplars are flooded knee-deep. Maples are awakening from sleep, So that the leaves flutter like butterflies” (Sick.).
Note. Forms ending in -а/-я and -ы/-и are not stylistic variants if they refer to homonyms or different meanings of a word. For example: teeth (in a saw) and teeth (in a person, animal); roots (`roots and leaves used in lishu') and roots (part of a plant; mathematical term); husbands (`men in relation to wives`) and husbands (`statesmen`), etc.
Rakhmanova L.I., Suzdaltseva V.N. Modern Russian language. - M, 1997.
