Nouns and articles

Exercise 1: Answer the question using the plural form of the noun in the brackets.

1. Now two of my -------- are hurting. (tooth)

2. Actually, two -------- rented the apartment. (man)

3. Actually, two ------- rented the car. (lady)

4. She has two new -------- - twins. (baby)

5. All ----------- offer a flat rate. (agency)

6. I actually caught four -------. (fish)

7. No, I only see the ---------- in the corner. (woman)

8. No. Now both of my -------- hurt. (foot)

9. I actually bought two --------- of bread. (loaf)

10. I actually need two ----------- of water. (glass)

11. He actually has two ------------. (secretary)

12. She had both of her --------- with her. (child)

13. I actually saw three ---------. (deer)

Exercise 2: Using “a few,” “few,” “a little,” and “little” determine whether the statement is POSITIVE or NEGATIVE.

1. Paul has little money.

2. John has a few friends.

3. Sue has few ideas fir the report.

4. Fred sees a little rain outside.

5. Sharon has a few quarters for the washing machine.

6. Mary has little popcorn left.

7. Stephanie has a few tomatoes.

8. Chris has very little luggage.

Exercise 3: Replace the of-phrase by the noun in the possessive case.

1. The house of Mr. Rochester.

2. The wife of our teacher.

3. The novels of Dickens.

4. The ball of the boy.

5. The life of the bachelor.

6. A dress of a lady.

7. A meeting of students.

8. The flat of my mother-in-law.

9. The rights of women.

10. A distance of two miles.

11. The crew of the ship.

12. The theatres of Kyiv.

13. An interval of three hours.

14. The oil deposits of the world.

Exercise 4: Replace the possessive case by a prepositional group where possible.

1. The only thing that stood out clearly was his parents’ house. 2. Nobody could explain the young girls’ behavior at yesterday’s dinner. 3. The boy got his first week’s salary and looked very proud. 4. You don’t object to the speaker’s proposal, do you? 5. We found the boy looking through a children’s magazine. 6. After an hour or so’s break the committee resumed their work. 7. In those days he lived, for economy’s sake, in a little town. 8. There was a moment’s silence between them. 9. It was a typical student’s mistake. 10. The morning’s post brought me a surprise in the shape of a letter. 11. They are the same author’s books.

Exercise 6: Replace the prepositional groups by the possessive case where possible.

1. The teacher drew the attention of the students to the peculiarity of the style of the author. 2.Before I could say a word, the sound of carriage wheels was heard. 3.The girl was nicely dressed for the ceremony of the evening. 4.He did not want to hurt the feelings of the girl. 5.There was a spot of ink on the table cloth. 6.I spent a fortnight in the house of my friend. 7.The pursuit of the enemy stopped only at nightfall. 8.There was a great variety of books for children on display. 9.I could not agree with the interpretation of the piece by the conductor. 10.Never shall I forget those words of my father. 11.We could not tear our eyes off the hands of the pianist. 12.The river was at a distance of a mile and a half from the camp. 13.The wings of the plane were getting ice-crusted.

Exercise 8: Give the plural of:

toe, city, hero, piano, calf, cliff, proof, chief, stitch, bath, Negro, Hindoo, belief, life, shelf, berry, valley; foot, boot, ox, fox, man, German, woman, mouth, mouse, child, sheep, ship, goose, moose, deer, cheese, Burmese; crisis, phenomenon, datum, nucleus, basis, apparatus, corps, criterion, series, analysis, formula; room-mate, fellow-worker, court-martial, man-of-war, boy-messenger, onlooker, passer-by, sister-in-law, merry-go-round.

Exercise 9: State the number of the following nouns and give the corresponding singular or plural, if any.

Brethren, memoranda, antenna, means, scissors, school-inspector, pence, Frenchman, Roman, sanatoria, strata, vertebra, automata, fish, photo, axes, physics, mechanics, cloth, commander-in-chief, works, forget-me-not, swine, halves, staff, sleeves, grief, mice, species, governor-general, contents, sledges, business, knowledge, feet, corps, phenomena, clothes, bases, headquarters, Japanese.

Exercise 10: Choose the most likely alternative to complete the following sentences.

1. The staff is/are united on this issue.

2. The staff is/are all here and is/are waiting in the staffroom.

3. The council has/have made numerous improvements in the area.

4. The council has/have agreed to a re-vote.

5. The press is/are unreliable as its/their source remains uncertain.

6. The press is/are outside – you’d better go out the back way.

7. The government consists/consist of a number of MPs.

8. The government is/are arguing fiercely with its/their opponents.

Exercise 11: Use prefixes to form the opposite of the following nouns.

a) ………... ability k) …………. accuracy

b) ………… practice l) …………. espionage

c) ………… action m) ………… wife

d) ………… information n) ………… happiness

e) …………. responsibility o) …………. management

f) …………. co-operation p) ………… sincerity

g) …………. matter q) …………. hero

h) ………… efficiency r) ………… possibility

i) ………….. legibility s) ………... Prime Minister

j) …………. reverence t) ………… apartheid

Exercise 12: Rewrite the passage replacing the nouns denoting gender to their opposites.

My aunt went to London to buy an ewe, a sow, a mare, a drake, a gander, a bull and a cock. In London she saw a king, two countesses, one prince and a brother of a queen. But when she was in London her husband died and she became a widow. She thought she’d been the only heiress to that money her husband left. But he left it to his nephew, an old bachelor, who was now a bridegroom and was about to merry a lady, a duchess of Buckingham.

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