A noun is an independent part of speech that denotes an object, person or phenomenon and answers the questions “who?” “what?” or “where?”

Аннотация

A noun is an independent part of speech that denotes an object, person or phenomenon and answers the questions “who?” “what?” or “where?”. A noun is an important word class in any language, including French. This article discusses the specific features of nouns in French. Keywords: noun, animate and inanimate objects, proper noun, common noun, definite noun, abstract noun, countable nouns, uncountable noun, simple noun, complex noun, grammatical category, number category, singular, plural, masculine, feminine. Introduction. A word group that denotes the names of animate and inanimate objects, actions, qualities, abstract concepts is called a noun. A noun is a label for places, things, and concepts. In French language nouns may be categorised: common or proper counting or mass singular (sg.) or plural (pl.), masculine (m.) or feminine (f.). It is important to recognise the gender and the number of a noun. These properties affect the form of the determiner, pronouns, and adjectival/participial agreement. Thus, most of time French nouns are preceded by a determiner. For example: C’est la vie! That’s life! The construction: *C’est vie is not possible in French. The most common determiners are articles, appearing before the noun, (e.g., la vie) and indicate definiteness. La introduces a feminine and singular noun. French articles change form to agree in gender and number with the noun. There is also a contracted form used before words starting with a vowel and most words beginning with “h”. Singular plural Singular plural Masculine Le Les Feminine La Les Before vowel or h L’ Les 175 ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN MODERN SCIENCE International scientific-online conference Some examples of noun with their corresponding definite article Le garçon/les garçons the boy(s) la fille/les filles the girl(s) L’appartement/les appartements the flat(s) L’université/les universités the universitie(s) Main part. In this article, we will discuss the peculiarities of the nouns, such as gender and number categories in the French language. Nouns in French can be divided into the following types: 1. Names of animate and inanimate objects: fille, chien, livre, table; 2. Proper nouns: Jacques, Paul, Paris, Seine, Tashkent and common nouns: garçon, ville, rivière, fenêtre; 3. Definite nouns: crayon, porte, clé, table and abstract nouns: patience, amour, sourire, peur, amitié; 4. Nouns denoting a person and an object: enfant, feuille, papier and collective nouns: foule, groupe, feuillage; 5. Countable nouns: cahier, pomme, allumettes and uncountable nouns. Uncountable nouns are, in turn, divided into nouns denoting objects: eau, sucre, farine, viande and abstract nouns: force, patience, musique. 6. Simple nouns: plume, garde, stylo, porte and complex nouns: porte- plume, avant-garde. Gender. Every French noun has a gender, either masculine (m) or feminine (f). All people, places or things are either masculine or feminine and it is easier to learn the French noun with its gender. It is important to know a noun’s gender because every time we use an adjective with a noun, we might need to change its spelling if the noun is feminine or plural. If we don’t know the gender of a word, we can look it up in a dictionary or online. There are some clues which will help to remember the gender of a noun. Masculine gender. There are few general patterns and rules that help to identify the gender and number of French nouns. Common endings: A) Nouns ending in -é, -er, -ier → Le café (the coffee), l’atelier (the studio), le dîner (the lunch)… B) Nouns ending in -ent → document (the document), le moment (the moment), L’appartement (the appartment) C) Nouns ending in -isme → Le socialisme (the socialism), le capitalisme (the capitalism), le nihilisme ( the nihilism)… 176 ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN MODERN SCIENCE International scientific-online conference D) Nouns ending in -eau, -o, -eu → Le cerveau (the brain), le vélo (the bicycle), le jeu (the game) … E) Most compond nouns → Le tire-bouchon (the corkscrew), le pique-nique (the picnic), le passe-temps (the pastime) … In French language all weekdays, seasons and languages are masculine. Masculine number. The plural form of nouns. To form the regular plural, add -s to the end of the noun: L’étudiant/Les étudiants the student(s) Irregular nouns and compound nouns have different rules. When a noun ends in -s, -x or -z, there is no difference between the singular and plural forms: Le bras/Les bras the arm(s) Le gaz/Les gaz the gaz/gases Le prix/Les prix the price(s) Irregular patterns: Ending Singular Plural Translation -ail Le travail Les travaux Work, job(s) -al Le journal Les journaux Newspaper(s) -eau Le cadeau Les cadeaux Present(s) -eu Le jeu Les jeux Le jeu Les jeux Le jeu Les jeux game(s) game(s) game(s) -ou Le bijou Les bijoux Jewel(s) Feminine gender. Common endings: A) Nouns ending in -ure or -ue → La culture (the culture), la voiture (the car), la rue (the street), l’aventure (the adventure)… B) Nouns ending in