Form Classes Ed McCorduck English 402—Grammar SUNY Cortland http://mccorduck.cortland.edu

definition: any word that takes the characteristic endings of nouns slide 2: nouns nouns definition: any word that takes the characteristic endings of nouns English 402: Grammar

slide 3: the plural ending for regular nouns -(e)s for regular nouns exx dog – dogs cake – cakes box – boxes (this ending may be pronounced [s] or [z] or as an additional syllable depending on the final sound of the noun it is added to) English 402: Grammar

slide 4: the plural ending for irregular nouns no one form (though a few similar ones) for irregular nouns exx mouse – mice louse – lice foot – feet goose – geese child – children man – men fish – fish deer – deer regular inflections – follow a predictable pattern irregular inflections – don’t follow a pattern; unpredictable English 402: Grammar

slide 5: the possessive ending -’s added to singular nouns -s’ added to plural nouns -’s and -s’ are identical in pronunciation to regular plural ending, leading to “errors” (in the traditional grammar sense) in written language such as “the cars wheels” (= ‘the wheels of the car’ or ‘the wheels of the cars’) and to the contraction –’s of is, leading to errors such as “the mans at the apartment now” English 402: Grammar

definition: any word that takes the characteristic endings of verbs slide 6: verbs verbs definition: any word that takes the characteristic endings of verbs English 402: Grammar

slide 7: first two forms of verbs five forms for all verbs base form (a.k.a. present tense): no ending for all verbs third person singular -(e)s ending for all verbs except be English 402: Grammar

slide 8: remaining three forms of verbs past tense (a.k.a. –ed form) -(e)d ending for regular verbs past participle (a.k.a. –en form) Why “-en form”? To distinguish it from the past tense form using the fact that the past participles of many irregular verbs end in –n, e.g. know-known, speak-spoken, go-gone. present participle (a.k.a. –ing form) -ing ending for all verbs English 402: Grammar