The "Form Classes" lecture I delivered in my English 402--Grammar course at the State University of New York College at Cortland.

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

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

3.  the plural ending
 -(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)
slide 3: the plural ending for regular nouns
English 402:
Grammar

4.  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
slide 4: the plural ending for irregular nouns
English 402:
Grammar
regular inflections – follow a predictable pattern
irregular inflections – don’t follow a pattern; unpredictable

5.  the possessive ending
 -’s added to singular nouns
 -s’ added to plural nouns
slide 5: the possessive ending
English 402:
Grammar
-’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”

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

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

8. o past tense (a.k.a. –ed form)
 -(e)d ending for regular verbs
o past participle (a.k.a. –en form)
 -(e)d ending for regular verbs
slide 8: remaining three forms of verbs
English 402:
Grammar
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.
o present participle (a.k.a. –ing form)
 -ing ending for all verbs