homework noun

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Definition of homework noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

• acquire/get/lack experience/training/(an) education
• receive/provide somebody with training
• develop/design/plan a curriculum/course/program/syllabus
• give/go to/attend a class/lesson/lecture/seminar
• hold/run/conduct a class/seminar/workshop
• moderate/lead/facilitate a discussion
• sign up for/take a course/classes/lessons
• go to/start preschool/kindergarten/nursery school
• be in the first, second, etc. grade (at school)
• study/take/drop history/chemistry/German, etc.
• finish/drop out of/quit school
• graduate from high school/college
• be the victim/target of bullying/teasing
• skip/cut/ ( informal ) ditch class/school
• cheat on an exam/a test
• get/be given a detention (for doing something)
• be expelled from/be suspended from school
• do your homework/a project on something
• work on/write/do/submit an essay/a dissertation/a thesis/an assignment/a paper
• finish/complete your dissertation/thesis/studies
• hand in/turn in your homework/essay/assignment/paper
• study/prepare/review/ ( informal ) cram for a test/an exam
• take/ ( formal ) sit for a test/an exam
• grade homework/a test
• do well on/ ( informal ) ace a test/an exam
• pass/fail/ ( informal ) flunk a test/an exam/a class/a course/a subject
• apply to/get into/go to/start college
• leave/graduate from college (with a degree in computer science)/law school
• study for/work towards a law degree/a degree in physics
• major/minor in biology/philosophy
• earn/receive/be awarded/get/have/hold a master's degree/a bachelor's degree/a Ph.D. in economics

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[ hohm -wurk ]

• schoolwork assigned to be done outside the classroom ( distinguished from classwork ).
• a single assignment of such schoolwork: Homeworks are due at the beginning of class.
• paid work done at home , as piecework.

to do one's homework for the next committee meeting.

/ ˈhəʊmˌwɜːk /

• school work done out of lessons, esp at home
• any preparatory study
• work done at home for pay

Word History and Origins

Origin of homework 1

Idioms and Phrases

Example sentences.

Now, they log on to Zoom from their bedrooms, surrounded by unfinished homework assignments and tattered stuffed animals, waiting to be assigned calls, texts and emails by the trained therapists who oversee the program.

Yow started her homework and saw Frese had gone 35-22 with two winning seasons at Ball State, which hadn’t had a winning record in its previous nine seasons.

Do some homework before investing in a diamond, and that lifelong commitment.

Another poster included an image of their losses over what appeared to be online math homework.

As we countdown to Inauguration Day, I've been doing my homework—and looking to the past for inspiration.

“I can help my children with their homework and sometimes we text in English at my job,” Santos says.

Scheunemann, meanwhile, had no idea who Spencer was, and did some homework.

She jumped at the chance to watch RT, or jumped at the chance to skip calculus homework.

And we encourage parent-student “contracts,” for class attendance, homework submission and even extra-curriculum activities.

Adicéam did his homework, spending 50 days collecting pieces, many with unexpected stories behind them.

Much of this homework is done by a very bad light and the boy's eyes suffer much.

For homework we have prepared alphabets where the letters are printed in type-writing order.

His parents were always getting angry with him for losing his clothes, or his toys, or his homework.

Only at the time when he was going to Beauregard School, with his homework.

And once a week or twice a week she was sending her homework or something to him.

Related Words

• arrangement
• construction
• establishment
• preparedness
• qualification

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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home•work

An assignment is a task that someone is given to do, usually as part of their job.

An assignment is also a piece of academic work given to students.

In American English, an assignment is also a piece of work given to students to do at home.

Work given to schoolchildren to do at home is also called homework .

Be Careful! Homework is an uncountable noun. You do not talk about 'homeworks' or 'a homework'. Note that you do not say ' I have made my homework '. You say 'I have done my homework'.

Homework is work that school pupils are given to do at home. You say that pupils do homework. Don't say that they ' make homework '.

Housework is work such as cleaning or washing that is done in a house.

Be Careful! Both homework and housework are uncountable nouns. Don't talk about ' a homework ' or ' houseworks '.

• assignability
• best of all
• brain-teaser
• change magnitude
• concentrate
• homeshoring
• homesickness
• Home-speaking
• Homestead Act
• homestead exemption
• homestead law
• homesteader
• homesteading
• homestretch
• Homeward bound
• homeward(s)
• homeward-bound
• homework problem
• homeworking
• homewrecker
• homichlophobia
• homicide bomber
• Homicide by misadventure
• homicidomania
• homiletical
• homing adaptor
• homing device
• homing guidance
• hometraining
• Hometronic Internet Module
• HomeVestors of America, Inc.
• Homeward Bound
• Homeward Bound (disambiguation)
• Homeward Bound Animal Rescue Inc.
• Homeward Bound Greyhound Association
• Homeward Bound Theatre Company
• Homeward Trail Bible Camp
• homeward-boundly
• Homewood City Schools
• Homewood Institutional Review Board
• Homewood Maitland Safety Association
• Homewood Musical Instrument Co.
• Homewood-Flossmoor Swim Club, Inc.
• Homework Access Line
• Homework assignment
• Homework Assistance Hotline
• Homework Center
• Homework Diary
• Homework help
• Homework hotline
• Homeworkers
• Homeworkers Organized for More Employment
• Homeworkers' Union and Small Business Association
• Homeworking
• Homeworld 2
• Homewrecker
• Homewrecker (MTV series)
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Look up a word, learn it forever.

/ˌhoʊmˈwʌrk/.

Other forms: homeworks

Any assignment you're expected to complete after school and bring back to class the next day is called homework . Many students make up excuses for not having their homework done. The "My dog ate my homework " excuse doesn't work so well in the digital age.

High school students typically have a lot of homework most days, and often that's true for younger students as well. In college, an increasing amount of school work is done outside of class, as homework (even if you do it in the library, a cafe, or a dorm). Homework originally referred to any work done at home, including cooking and cleaning. The first example of the "school work" meaning dates from the late 1880s.

• noun preparatory school work done outside school (especially at home) synonyms: prep , preparation see more see less type of: school assignment , schoolwork a school task performed by a student to satisfy the teacher

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• homework (noun)
• Please do/finish your homework .
• She started her algebra homework .
• The candidate did his homework [=studied the issues] before the debate.

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Synonyms of homework

• as in schoolwork
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Thesaurus Definition of homework

Synonyms & Similar Words

Examples of homework in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'homework.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Thesaurus Entries Near homework

home videos

Cite this Entry

“Homework.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/homework. Accessed 23 Aug. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on homework

Nglish: Translation of homework for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of homework for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about homework

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noun as in assignment

Strongest matches

• appointment

Strong matches

noun as in drill

• conditioning
• preparation
• constitutional
• instruction
• run through

Weak matches

• daily dozen
• learning by doing

noun as in lesson

noun as in practice

noun as in preparation

• arrangement
• construction
• establishment
• preparedness
• qualification
• anticipation
• expectation
• manufacture
• substructure
• getting ready
• making ready
• putting in order

noun as in revision

• improvement
• modification
• reconsideration
• reexamination
• rectification
• retrospection
• overhauling

Example Sentences

Now, they log on to Zoom from their bedrooms, surrounded by unfinished homework assignments and tattered stuffed animals, waiting to be assigned calls, texts and emails by the trained therapists who oversee the program.

Yow started her homework and saw Frese had gone 35-22 with two winning seasons at Ball State, which hadn’t had a winning record in its previous nine seasons.

Do some homework before investing in a diamond, and that lifelong commitment.

Another poster included an image of their losses over what appeared to be online math homework.

As we countdown to Inauguration Day, I've been doing my homework—and looking to the past for inspiration.

“I can help my children with their homework and sometimes we text in English at my job,” Santos says.

Scheunemann, meanwhile, had no idea who Spencer was, and did some homework.

She jumped at the chance to watch RT, or jumped at the chance to skip calculus homework.

And we encourage parent-student “contracts,” for class attendance, homework submission and even extra-curriculum activities.

Adicéam did his homework, spending 50 days collecting pieces, many with unexpected stories behind them.

Much of this homework is done by a very bad light and the boy's eyes suffer much.

For homework we have prepared alphabets where the letters are printed in type-writing order.

His parents were always getting angry with him for losing his clothes, or his toys, or his homework.

Only at the time when he was going to Beauregard School, with his homework.

And once a week or twice a week she was sending her homework or something to him.

Related Words

Words related to homework are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word homework . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

noun as in responsibility, task

noun as in practice, exercise

noun as in information taught

noun as in exercise, application

Viewing 5 / 7 related words

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

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Q&A for work

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Is "homework" countable?

I was wondering if "homework" is countable? I remember it is an uncountable noun when I learned English in middle school.

Suppose now I would like to ask my teacher to hand back my graded "homeworks" of last three times. How shall I ask him?

• uncountable-nouns
• countable-nouns

4 Answers 4

"Homework" is uncountable since it is treated as a general meaning not a particular item, like "work", "money" etc.

In your case, use "assignment" instead.

May I have my last three graded assignments back please?

• Both 'work' and 'money' are countified and have well-documented plural forms. 'Homeworks' has not got the same pedigree, though some dictionaries license it with caveats. –  Edwin Ashworth Commented Jun 22, 2019 at 18:44

While I've seen the word homeworks used, I've never seen anything legitimate to indicate that it's correct. In any case, you can use the term homework assignments to refer to multiple homework items. That's a fairly common term, at least in American English.

• Thanks! But I don't ask my teacher for assignments, but my homework that I have worked out and handed to my teacher, and the homework is from last three times. How shall I ask him? –  Tim Commented May 22, 2011 at 1:39
• 1 @Tim: In American English, assignments is used for what you describe. In British English, homeworks is at least marginally acceptable — we used it at at least one school I went to, although I do remember it feeling awkward/slangy to me at first. –  PLL Commented May 22, 2011 at 8:10
• What I’ve seen to indicate it is correct is its frequent use by native speakers –  Casey Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 22:37

Traditionally, it is not countable, and most dictionaries list it as such.

However, the Merriam-Webster thesaurus (although not the Merriam-Webster dictionary) does have an entry for homeworks . Moreover, the plural form is used by at least some groups of educated native speakers.

One's best bet is to try to find out if one's audience belongs to a group that tends to use homeworks . If yes, then go ahead and use that word yourself. If not, rephrase as homework assignments or something similar.

Merriam-Webster Thesaurus

Notice that the Merriam-Webster thesaurus has the following entry :

homeworks noun plural of homework Synonyms of homeworks as in schoolwork Synonyms & Near Synonyms for homeworks schoolwork assignments, lessons, reading lectures drills, exercises, practices (also practises ) études, studies

(Interestingly, the Merriam-Webster dictionary entry does not give a plural form for homework .)

Examples of usage by educated native speakers

Such examples are not hard to find at all. For instance, American professors of linguistics, physics, and mathematics, at least, use the word homeworks quite frequently.

All of the examples below are from native speakers, as best as I can tell.

Here are five examples from linguistics professors:

Final grades will be calculated as follows: 30% for homeworks, 20% for the midterm, … Penny Eckert and Ivan A. Sag , Linguistics 1: Introduction to Linguistics (Syllabus), 2011, here . Late assignments are not accepted, but your two lowest-scoring homeworks will be dropped. Adam Jardine , Introduction to Linguistic Theory (Honors) (Syllabus), 2018, here . Homeworks are due at the beginning of class on the days indicated. Emily M. Bender, Linguistics 461: Introduction to Syntax (Syllabus), here . If turned in ​complete​, the homeworks will be graded 8 (well below average), 9 (average), or 10 (well above average​); but 0 if not done. Anthony C. Woodbury, Linguistics 306: Introduction to the study of language (Syllabus), here . Homeworks: 25% (lowest score dropped) Dani Byrd and Toby Mintz , Ling 275: Language & Mind (Syllabus), 2006, here .

Here are five examples from physics professors:

Some homeworks are 'secret' assessment exercises: General GRE, Praxis and Major Field Tests Richard Robinett, Penn State Physics Undergraduate Program Better Practices, 2010, p. 12 here . Homeworks are like sports practice Tom Moore , Teaching General Relativity with Tensors, 2006, here . These concepts can be introduced to students through labs, homeworks, and discussion questions. Brianna Billingsley and Cory Christenson, Incorporating Non-Western Contributions Into the Intro Physics Curriculum, 2019, here . With their flexible design, PhET sims are used in many ways—as demos, homeworks, or inexpensive, accessible lab alternatives—and getting started is easy with our database of over 500 activities. Katherine K. Perkins, Teaching Physics with PhET Simulations: Engaging Students and Increasing Learning (Abstract) 2012, p. 58 here . In this talk, we will outline the reforms—including consensus learning goals, “clicker” questions, tutorials, modified homeworks, and more—and present evidence of the effectiveness of these reforms relative to traditional courses. Katherine K. Perkins, Steven Pollock, Stephanie Chasteen, Steve Goldhaber, Rachel Pepper, Michael Dubson, and Paul Beale, Colorado's Transformed Upper-Division E&M and QM courses: Description and Results (Abstract) 2010, p. 119 here .

And here are five examples from mathematics professors:

Homeworks 1-3 David Blecher, here . There will be two midterm exams, weekly homeworks, and a final exam. Scott Sutherland, MAT 141: Honors Calculus 1 (syllabus), 2012, here . MIT 3.016 Homeworks W. Craig Carter, Mathematics for Materials Science and Engineers, MIT 3.016 (syllabus), 2011, (here) . Click on the link 'Problem Sets and Solutions'; you will reach this page , which is where the word homeworks appears (in the page heading). Homeworks (41/42 Track); Homeworks (51 Track) Andrew Schultz, SSEA 2006: Mathematics Track, 2006, here . All homeworks, except the first one, are due on Thursday at 3:30pm Mike Clancy and David Wagner, CS 70, Spring 2005: Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science, 2005, here .

In searching for examples, I also saw examples of similar usage by professors of comparative literature , philosophy, computer science, chemistry, and sociology.

• Even Wiktionary fails to concede the plural form as a possibility, but this is doubtless an ongoing countification (and 10 years is a substantial time for the evolution to progress). –  Edwin Ashworth Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 16:42
• American professors of physics and mathematics, at least, use the word homeworks... I wonder if I should take seriously pronouncements on quantum physics by English professors... –  Greybeard Commented Nov 20, 2021 at 18:18
• @EdwinAshworth I just looked at Wiktionary , and it says 'usually uncountable, plural homeworks '. The edit that added that note was on 5 October 2015‎. So indeed, things change in ten years! –  linguisticturn Commented Nov 21, 2021 at 17:18
• Whoops, I had SimpleWiktionary , which I didn't know existed. Obviously homeworks is harder. –  Edwin Ashworth Commented Nov 21, 2021 at 17:53
• @Greybeard Apologies if your comment was meant as a joke, but if it wasn't (and for the benefit of those who don't take it as a joke), the answer is, no you shouldn't. And indeed, conversely, if physics or math professors were to start making 'pronouncements' about whether a particular word is acceptable English, you shouldn't take that seriously, either. But that's not what's going on in my answer. My answer simply points out that there is a U.S.-wide, loosely connected group of educated native speakers who rather frequently and unselfconsciously use homeworks in day-to-day life. –  linguisticturn Commented Nov 21, 2021 at 18:38

Ask for "items" or "pieces" of homework.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged nouns uncountable-nouns countable-nouns or ask your own question .

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English Nouns Formation of Plural Nouns. Functions of Nouns in sentences. Types of Nouns. Examples. Quizzes.

What is a noun.

A noun is a word that names a person, animal, place, thing, idea, or concept. Everything we see or talk about is represented by a word that names it. There are more nouns in the English Language than any other kind of words.

Noun is one of the parts of speech.

Noun Examples

People: girl, boy, instructor, student, Mr. Smith, Peter, president

Animals: dog, cat, shark, hamster, fish, bear, flea

Places: gym, store, school, Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota, village, Europe

Things: computer, pen, notebook, mailbox, bush, tree, cornflakes

Ideas: liberty, panic, attention, knowledge, compassion, worship

The Types of nouns

There are several types of nouns. These include: Abstract Nouns , Concrete Nouns , Proper Nouns , Common Nouns , Countable Nouns , Uncountable Nouns , Collective Nouns , Compound Nouns . A word can be more than one type of a noun.

Gerunds are formed from verbs that ending in -ing. They are also a type of a noun.

The Functions of nouns in sentences

Nouns perform following grammatical functions within sentences in the English language: Subject , Subject Complement , Direct Object , Object Complement , Indirect Object , Appositive , Object of the Preposition

Singular and Plural Nouns

Formation of Plural Nouns , Irregular Nouns

Proper vs Common Nouns

A Common Noun names any regular, ordinary person, animal, place, thing, or idea. Nothing specific.

Common Noun Examples: superhero, river, holiday, religion, month, day, city, composer, boy, car, language, phone

A Proper Noun names a very specific, very particular person, animal, place, thing, or idea. It always begins with capital letter (unless it is a brand name like eBay or iPad).

Proper Noun Examples: Batman, Mississippi River, Fourth of July, Buddhism, December, Monday, London, Ludwig van Beethoven, Peter, Volvo, Spanish, iPhone

Practice. Proper vs Common Nouns - Definition, Examples, Quiz. Identify if noun is Proper or Common.

Abstract vs Concrete Nouns

A Concrete Noun names a person, animal, place, or thing that you can actually see, touch, taste, hear, or smell.

Concrete Noun Examples: muffins, perfume, book, room, pen, composer, boy, car

An Abstract Noun names an idea, feeling, emotion, or quality that cannot be detected by your five senses.

Abstract Noun Examples: prettiness, pleasure, annoyance, skill, nature, communication, love, velocity, education

Practice. Abstract vs Concrete Nouns - Definition, Examples, Quiz. Identify if noun is Abstract or Concrete.

Countable vs Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable Nouns (or mass nouns) are nouns which cannot be counted. Generally, uncountable nouns do not have a plural form.

Uncountable Noun Examples: music, time, space, travel, fun, happiness, art, sleep, currency, food, love

Countable Nouns are those that refer to something that we can count. Countable nouns can be singular or plural.

Countable Noun Examples: song, hour, bottles, book, journey, countries, car, student, pen, meal, dollar

Practice. Countable vs Uncountable Nouns - Definition, Examples, Quiz. Identify if noun is Uncountable or Countable.

Collective Nouns

A Collective Noun names a group of specific things, animals or people with a singular form. It denotes such group as a single entity.

Collective nouns can be either singular or plural, depending on context.

Collective Noun Examples

People: audience, crowd, jury, family, group, nation, staff, cast, gang, team

Animals: flock, colony, swarm, gaggle, herd

Things: bunch, bundle, set, stack, cache, batch, bouquet

Practice. Collective Nouns - Definition, Examples, Quiz. Identify whether noun is Collective or not.

Compound nouns

A Compound Noun is made up of two or more words used together.

Compound noun can be written either as a single word, as two words or as a word with a hyphen

Compound Noun Examples

Single word: shoelace, keyboard, flashlight, applesauce, notebook, bedroom

Two words: police officer, seat belt, high school, word processor, post office

Hyphenated: sky-scraper, boy-friend, baby-sitter, editor-in-chief, great-grandfather

Gerund is a verb form ending in -ing (present participle) but that functions as a noun. Thus it can be in the position of subject, direct object, indirect objects and in any other place where noun could be used.

Gerund Examples

I enjoy running . - running acts as a noun so it is a Gerund.

Running is good for you. - running acts as a noun so it is a Gerund.

I look forward to running with you. - running acts as a noun so it is a Gerund.

I am running . - running acts as a verb so it is not a Gerund.

I see running girl. - running acts as an adjective so it is not a Gerund.

Practice. Gerunds and Present Participles - Definition, Examples, Quiz. Identify if Present Participle acts as an adjective, a noun(Gerund) or a verb.

Noun as the Subject of a sentence

The Subject tells who or what a sentence is about. It is a word (phrase or clause) that is doing or being something.

Usually, a subject is followed by a verb. To find subject, ask the questions "Who?" or "What?" followed by that verb.

Subject Examples

The lonely wolf howled at the moon. - Who howled?

Math is a difficult subject. - What is a difficult subject?

Pencils always break before a test. - What breaks?

Practice. Noun as Subject - Definition, Examples, Quiz. Identify the subject of a sentence.

Noun as Subject Complement

Subject Complement (also Predicate Nominative or Predicate Noun) comes after a linking verb (to be, to become, to remain) and is equivalent to the subject but renames it in different terms (gives more information about the subject, such as a condition or relationship).

For linking verbs explanation and samples see English Verbs

Subject Complement Examples

My friend is a doctor .

The tall boy has been our best player .

George Washington was the first president .

Practice. Subject Complement - Definition, Examples, Quiz. Identify Subject Complement in a sentence.

Noun as Direct Object

A Direct Object is a noun that receives the action of a verb.

To verify whether a sentence contains a direct object, place question "Whom?" or "What?" after the verb. If nothing answers these questions, you know that there is no direct object.

Only action verbs can have direct objects. A direct object will never follow a linking verb. For action vs linking verbs explanation and samples see English Verbs

Direct Object Examples

I can hardly see the street . - See what? - the street

I placed all students on a waiting list. - placed whom? - all students

Vanessa called the salesperson charlatan and a fraud. - called whom? - the salesperson

Practice. Direct Object - Definition, Examples, Quiz. Identify Direct Object in a sentence.

Noun as Object Complement

An Object Complement (Objective complements) is a noun that completes or adds to the meaning of the direct object.

Object Complements usually follow the noun (or nouns) they modify and used when the direct object would not make complete sense by itself.

An Object Complement answers the question "What?" after Direct Object.

Object Complement Examples

The country elected Mr. Smith president . - The country elected Mr. Smith what?

Mr. Smith appointed Mr. Brook Governor . - Mr. Smith appointed Mr. Brook what?

My sister called the salesperson charlatan and a fraud . - My sister called salesperson what?

Practice. Object Complement - Definition, Examples, Quiz. Identify Object Complement in a sentence.

Noun as Indirect Object

Indirect object receives the action of the verb indirectly and it comes before the direct object. Indirect Object shows for whom or for what the action was undertaken and is identified by imagining a [to] or [for] in front of it.

Indirect Object Examples

She baked Mr. Smith a pie . - She baked [for] Mr. Smith a pie .

Save Mike a seat at the concert . - Save [for] Mike at the concert .

My brother paid the mechanic 100 dollars . - My brother paid [to] the mechanic 100 dollars .

Practice. Indirect Object - Definition, Examples, Quiz. Identify Indirect Object in a sentence.

An Appositive is a noun or phrase that comes after another noun (or pronoun), and identifies, explains or gives more information about that word.

If the Appositive is needed to identify the noun (called Restrictive Appositive ) then no comma is used.

If the Appositive provides only additional, accompanying information about the noun – it is called Nonrestrictive Appositive and it should be set off from the rest of the sentence with commas (dashes, colons and parentheses can also be used).

Appositive Examples

Moscow , the capital of Russia , is a crowded city.

Mike’s father , Mr. Smith , helped me with my homework.

Peter’s sister Sandy left the room.

Appositives in the first two sentences are nonrestrictive. They are not essential to the meaning of the sentence. Moscow is the only capital of Russia and Mike has only one father. But, in the last sentence, since Peter has more than one sister, the name Sandy is necessary to identify which sister is being discussed. That is why punctuation is not used in last sentence. Looking from different perspective, since no punctuation surrounds the appositive Sandy, we know that Peter has more than one sister.

Practice. Appositive - Definition, Examples, Quiz. Identify Appositive in a sentence.

Object of the Preposition

A Preposition is a word that shows location, movement, or direction. Common prepositions are of, on, to, in, near, below, beneath, beside, over, across, with, by, for , and under .

A preposition is always followed by a noun (or pronoun) called the Object of the preposition .

Object of the Preposition Examples

This is one small step for a man , one giant leap for mankind .

Authorities have warned planes to avoid the airspace near the raging volcano .

I watch cars passing over the bridge , moving above the trees and houses .

Practice. Object of the Preposition - Definition, Examples, Quiz. Identify Object of the Preposition.

Most of English nouns are very predictable ( regular ) in the spelling of the plural form - they have plurals formed according to regular rules.

Formation of Plural Nouns

You can make most nouns plural by just adding -s Examples: one tree - four tree s , one boat – a river full of boat s

If the noun ends with -s, -ch, -sh, -x , or -z , add -es to make it plural. Examples: witness–witness es , church – church es , dish– dish es , fox - fox es , buzz – buzz es

If the noun ends with -y and the letter before the -y is a vowel, add -s to make the noun plural. Examples: boy–boy s , bay – bay s , key – key s , toy - toy s

If the noun ends with -y and the letter before the -y is a consonant, change the -y to -i and add -es to make the noun plural. Examples: arm y – arm ies , suppl y - suppl ies , sk y - sk ies

Nouns ending in -ff become plural by adding -s Examples: tariff - tariff s , sheriff - sheriff s , plaintiff - plaintiff s

The inconsistency of rules is shown in the plurals of nouns which ends in –f or -fe Some become plural by replacing the -f to -v and adding -s or -es Examples: kni fe - kni ves , wi fe - wi ves , hal f - hal ves , lea f - lea ves

Other nouns ending in -f or -fe become plural by only adding -s Examples: belief - belief s , proof - proof s , chief - chief s

Irregular Nouns

There are several nouns, which are irregular in their spelling. These nouns are exceptions when it comes to making them plural. When irregular nouns become plural, their spelling changes in a different way or it may not change at all from singular form.

Here is the List of English Irregular Nouns - 106 nouns.

Irregular Nouns Spelling Test - Type both singular and plural forms for the given irregular noun.

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Plans for May 31 lecture here .

APRIL 23, 2005: First Annual Workshop: Formal Semantics in Moscow.  Look for information about the workshop and other informally organized semantics activity in Moscow at the site http://www.livejournal.com/community/msk_semantics/ . My report on the workshop is here . Workshop photos by Philip Dudchuk are here .

IV. Outline of the course . (Subject to change)   "Linked" handouts available for download in PDF format.

Lecture 1. Feb.15 Basic ideas of formal semantics. Compositionality. The relation between semantics and syntax. Example: Syntax and model-theoretic semantics of predicate logic. Homework #0: Anketa. Practice homework: to do together in Seminar. Reading : (1 )  R . Larson (1995) Semantics. Chapter 12 in L. Gleitman and M.Liberman , eds . An Invitation to Cognitive Science, Vol I: Language , pp 361-380. (2) Partee, Barbara H. 1999. "Semantics" in R.A. Wilson and F.C. Keil, eds., The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences . Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. 739-742.

Seminar [same day, after lecture; not listed below.]

Lecture 2. Feb. 22. Lambda abstraction, Noun Phrase semantics, and a Fragment of English . Ambiguity and logical form. Quantifier scope. Generalized quantifiers (beginning), lexicon and grammar (beginning). Fragment 1. Basic principles of compositional interpretation. Type-driven interpretation. Rules of relative clause formation, Quantifying In, conjunction, and phrasal negation.   Homework #1, Lambda exercises. Due March 15.

Lecture 3. March 1. Noun phrases and generalized quantifiers .   Function-argument structure, syntactic categories, and semantic types. NPs as Generalized Quantifiers, continued.   Weak and strong determiners and existential sentences. Tests for weak determiners in Russian.   Reading : (1) R. Larson (1995) Semantics. ( from Lecture 1. Read it again!) (2): Partee, Barbara H., Alice ter Meulen, and Robert E. Wall. 1990. Mathematical Methods in Linguistics . Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Chapter 14: Generalized Quantifiers .

No class March 8 (holiday).

Lecture 4. March 15. Semantic Typology of Indefinites I. What can be found in other languages analogous to the Russian ni- , - libo , and -nibud' words and English any ? Approaches to the semantic descriptions of such items. Basics of the Kamp-Heim theory of indefinites. Introduction to Haspelmath's "semantic map" approach to the typology of indefinites, and Tatevosov's extensions to include universal quantifier words. The role of words like English even and Russian i, ni in 'strengthening' negative indefinites. Readings : (i) Selections from Martin Haspelmath's book Indefinite Pronouns, (ii) Selections from Tatevosov 2002   Semantika sostavljajushchix imennoj gruppy : kvantornye slova , (iii) As much as possible of Chapter 2 of Heim, Irene R. 1982, The Semantics of Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases , UMass. Ph.D. dissertation. [ PDF file   (9.5 MB!)] [ djvu file (755k) ] (iv) alternative shorter Heim: Heim, Irene.1983. File change semantics and the familiarity theory of definiteness (v) Optional: Farkas, Donka. 2002. Varieties of Indefinites. In Proceedings of SALT 12 . Ithaca, NY: CLC Publications; (vi) optional: Kamp, Hans. 1981. A theory of truth and semantic representation.

**Seminar March 15 : Guest presentation by Igor Yanovich, a practice presentation of his talk for SALT 15 (Semantics and Linguistic Theory) at UCLA, March 25: " Choice-functional series of indefinite pronouns and Hamblin semantics ", about Russian -to, -nibud', and 'bare'-series indefinite pronouns.

Lecture 5. March 22. Formal semantics and the lexicon. Meaning postulates and the lexicon. Meaning postulates as a formalization of the content of semantic components of lexical meaning. Meaning postulates and the integration of formal semantics and Moscow school lexical semantics. Mel’chuk, Apresjan, and Moscow school lexical semantics. Borschev and Partee on the potential use of meaning postulates to combine the advantages of the explicitness of formal semantics with the "natural" metalanguage of Moscow school lexical semantics. Natural language metaphysics (Bach) and naivnaja kartina mira (Apresjan). Complete vs. partial reducibility of lexical meaning. Some properties of adjective meanings. Reading : (i) Partee (1995) Lexical semantics and compositionality. Chapter 11 in L. Gleitman and M.Liberman , eds . An Invitation to Cognitive Science, Vol I: Language . (D. Osherson, general editor), pp. 311-360; (ii) Partee, Barbara H. in press. Privative adjectives: subsective plus coercion: http://people.umass.edu/partee/docs/NoPrivatives2.PDF . Homework #2: Russian adjectives. Due April 19.    

[Link to Adjective Homework Results 1996- 2004  ( future) ]

Lecture 6. March 29.  Semantic Typology of Indefinites II. We will continue discussion of the topics in Lecture 4, considering some of the semantic properties and principles that may help to explain the typological generalizations described by Haspelmath. We'll mainly discuss specific and non-specific indefinites, with a little bit about free choice indefinites. Readings: (i) Haspelmath, Chapter 5, [go to http://newstar.rinet.ru/~goga/biblio/haspelmath/ and choose between a very large pdf file (25+ Mb) and a less high-resolution djvu file]; (ii) Kratzer, Angelika, and Shimoyama, Junko. 2002 . Indeterminate pronouns: the view from Japanese. In The Proceedings of the Third Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics , ed. Yukio Otsu , 1-25. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo . (iii) Yanovich, Igor, Handout for " Choice-functional series of indefinite pronouns and Hamblin semantics ", to be presented at SALT 15 March 25.   Homework #3: due April 26.

**Seminar March 29 : Guest presentation by Yura Bronnikov, a practice presentation of his talk for FASL 14 (Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics) at Princeton, May 6-8, “The Russian vsyakiy ”. In our usual seminar room, 957, at 18:30.

No class April 5, April 12

Lecture 7. April 19. Semantic Typology of Indefinites III. -- A continuation of Lecture 6, with the same handout (and possible addenda).

APRIL 23: Workshop: (Formal) Semantics in Moscow.   Preliminary information (First call for papers) here. My report on the workshop is here . Workshop photos by Philip Dudchuk are here . Workshop Site:  http://www.livejournal.com/community/msk_semantics/ .

Lecture 8. April 26. Quantification and interactions with Negation. Negative polarity items. Quantificational approaches to Genitive of Negation. "Downward monotone" functions and the distribution of "negative polarity" items ( any, ever, at all; Russian vovse ). Discussion of Asya Pereltsvaig's and other proposals about the distribution of Russian ni- , - libo , and -nibud' words. Readings : (1) (review from Lecture 1): R. Larson (1995) Semantics. (2) Pereltsvaig, Asya. 2000. Monotonicity-based vs. veridicality-based approaches to negative polarity: evidence from Russian. In FASL 8: The Philadelphia Meeting 1999 , 328-346. (3) Partee and Borschev 2002.   Genitive of negation and scope of negation in Russian existential sentences. In FASL 10 , ed. Jindrich Toman, 181-200. (4) Adam Werle (2002) A typology of negative indefinites. CLS 38 Parasession on Negation and Polarity . (5) Optional, a classic: Ladusaw, William. 1980. On the notion "affective" in the analysis of negative polarity items. Journal of Linguistic Research 1:1-16. Reprinted in Portner and Partee (2002), pp. 457-470.  Further suggested readings: Padučeva, E.V. 1974. O semantike sintaksisa: materialy k transformacionnoj grammatike russkogo jazyka [On the Semantics of Syntax: Materials toward the Transformational Grammar of Russian] . Moscow: Nauka. (: pp 108-111) ; Padučeva, E.V. 1985. Vyskazyvanie i ego sootnesennost' s dejstvitel'nost'ju (The Utterance and its Correspondence with Reality) . Moscow: Nauka. (216-219); Larson, Richard. 1995. Semantics. In An Invitation to Cognitive Science. Vol 1: Language , eds. Lila Gleitman and Mark Liberman, 361-380. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. (handed out in Week 1); Pereltsvaig, Asya. 2000. Monotonicity-based vs. veridicality-based approaches to negative polarity: evidence from Russian. In Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics: The Philadelphia Meeting 1999 , eds. Tracy Holloway King and Irina A. Sekerina, 328-346. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications. (handed out today and on your CD) ; Pereltsvaig, Asya. 2004. Negative Polarity Items in Russian and the 'Bagel Problem'. In Negation in Slavic , eds. Adam Przepiorkowski and Sue Brown. Bloomington: Slavica Publishers. (newer, and not discussed here; on your CD, also online on her website: http://www.pereltsvaig.com/professional/publications/publications.html ) ; Tatevosov, Sergej G. 2002. Semantika sostavljajushchix imennoj gruppy: kvantornye slova (The Semantics of the Constituents of the NP: Quantifier Words) . Moscow: IMLI RAN. (on your CD; most relevant for NPIs – 131-143 and 156-163) ; Partee, Barbara H., and Borschev, Vladimir. 2002. Genitive of negation and scope of negation in Russian existential sentences. In Annual Workshop on Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics: the Second Ann Arbor Meeting 2001 (FASL 10) , ed. Jindrich Toman, 181-200. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications. (available online: http://people.umass.edu/partee/docs/ParteeBorschevFASL10.pdf ) ; Werle, Adam. 2001. A typology of negative indefinites. Ms. UMass, Amherst. ; Werle, Adam. to appear. A typology of negative indefinites. In CLS 38, Parasession on Negation and Polarity . Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society. (both Werle papers are on the class CD, also online: http://people.umass.edu/partee/RGGU_2004/werle_01_A42up.pdf ;       http://people.umass.edu/partee/RGGU_2004/werle_02_A42up.pdf    ) ; Giannakidou, Anastasia. 1999. Affective dependencies. Linguistics and Philosophy 22:367-421. (on your CD) ; Ladusaw, William. 1980. On the notion "affective" in the analysis of negative polarity items. Journal of Linguistic Research 1:1-16. Reprinted in Portner and Partee (2002), pp. 457-470. (classic; on your CD).  Homework #4. Due May 10.

**Seminar April 26 : "Guest" presentation (tentative) by Yakov Testelets, Igor Yanovich, Elena Paducheva, Vladimir Borschev, and Barbara Partee, a preview presentation of their talk for FASL 14 (Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics) at Princeton, May 6-8, " Sentential and constituent negation in Russian BE-sentences revisited ". At 18:30 in our usual seminar room, 957.

No class May 3

Note: Topics in May still open. Choices include those listed below plus (i) Semantics and pragmatics of diathesis shift, (ii) Russian genitive of negation, (iii) any other topics that you see on the course schedules from formal semantics at RGGU in 2005 , 2004 , or 2003 .

May 10 Class is ***MOVED TO SATURDAY, MAY 14 AT 15:20 *** (no "seminar".)

  Lecture 9. May 14 .   Intensionality, Referential Opacity, Property-Type NPs . Possible-worlds semantics for modality and intensionality. Classic approaches, recent revisions. Readings : (i) Zimmermann, Ede. 1993. On the proper treatment of opacity in certain verbs. Natural Language Semantics 1:149-179. (ii) Kratzer , Angelika. 1981. The notional category of modality. In Words, Worlds, and Contexts. New Approaches to Word Semantics , eds. H.-J. Eikmeyer and H. Rieser , 38-74. Berlin: de Gruyter. Reprinted in Portner and Partee, eds., 2002, 289-323. (available on your CD) (iii) Portner, Paul. 1997. The Semantics of Mood, Complementation, and Conversational Force. Natural Language Semantics 5:167-212. http://people.umass.edu/partee/docs/portnerNLS1997.pdf   (iv) Partee, Barbara H. (in press) Weak noun phrases: semantics and syntax. To appear in the proceedings of Dialog 2005, Moscow.  http://people.umass.edu/partee/docs/Partee_Dialog2005.pdf    Additional suggested readings: (i) Kiparsky, Paul, and Kiparsky, Carol. 1970. Fact. In Progress in Linguistics , eds. Manfred Bierwisch and K. Heidolph, 143-173. The Hague: Mouton.; (ii) Partee, Barbara H. 1974. Opacity and scope. In Semantics and Philosophy , eds. M. Munitz and P. Unger, 81-101. New York: New York University Press. Reprinted in Peter Ludlow, ed., Readings in the Philosophy of Language, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1997, pp. 833-853. ( on your CD ) (iii) von Fintel, Kai. 2001. Counterfactuals in a Dynamic Context. In Ken Hale: A Life in Language , ed. Michael Kenstowicz , 123–152. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (iv) von Fintel, Kai and Irene Heim (in progress). Draft chapters of a new textbook on Intensionality. Chapters 1-3. (on your CD); (v) Lewis, David. 1978. Truth in Fiction. American Philosophical Quarterly 15:37-46. Reprinted in David Lewis, Philosophical Papers. Translated into Russian by A.D. Šmelev. (on your CD); (vi) Dayal, Veneeta. 2004. Number marking and (in)definiteness in kind terms. Linguistics and Philosophy 27:393–450. (on your CD) Homework # 5 – topic ‘open ’ (your choice). Due May 24.

  Lecture 10. May 17.   Relative clauses and other modifiers, restrictive and non-restrictive. Truth-conditional meaning and conventional implicature. Correlative relative clauses (Hindi and other languages). Free relatives. Internally-headed relative clauses. Issues in the semantics of relative clauses: (a) the semantics of the "gap" -- bound variable or a copy of the head NP? (or ...?); (b) indicative vs. subjunctive relative clauses - their interpretation and their "licensing"; (c) issues raised by Lander and Rudnitskaya in their FSIM presentation. Other issues -- suggestions welcome. Readings : (Not sure yet which will be primary, besides the first one, which you have.) (i) Partee (1995) Lexical semantics and compositionality (from Lecture 5); (ii) Rodman, R. 1976. Scope phenomena, "movement transformations", and relative clauses. In Montague Grammar , ed. B.H. Partee, 165-176. New York: Academic Press.; (iii) Potts, Christopher. 2002. The syntax and semantics of As-parentheticals. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 20:623-689. (iv) selections from Potts, Christopher. 2005. The Logic of Conventional Implicatures : Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (v) Dayal, Veneeta. 1995. Quantification in correlatives. In Quantification in Natural Languages , eds. Emmon Bach, Eloise Jelinek, Angelika Kratzer and Barbara H. Partee, 179-206. Dordrecht: Kluwer. (vi) Yury Lander and Elena Rudnitskaya, Institute of Oriental Studies,  “Referelativization”.- abstract and handout from FSIM.  Homework # 5 – topic ‘open ’ (your choice). Due May 24.

**NOTE: Since I am late in correcting the homework you have given me, you may also be late in giving me homework -- all homework received by May 24 will count as "on time" and will be returned on or before May 31. Late homework received by May 31 will be accepted as "late homework", but I do not promise to read it or return it. (No homework accepted for credit after May 31.)

  Lecture 11. May 24  Formal semantics and formal pragmatics. Presuppositions, conversational implicatures, conventional implicatures. Illustrations involving negation and definite descriptions, inclusive and exclusive or , restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses, “expressive” modifiers. Readings: (1) extract from: Kadmon, Nirit. 2001. Formal Pragmatics: Semantics, Pragmatics, Presupposition, and Focus . Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. (2) Potts, Christopher. 2002. The syntax and semantics of As-parentheticals. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 20:623-689. (3) Potts, Christopher, and Kawahara, Shigeto. 2004. Japanese honorifics as emotive definite descriptions. In Proceedings of SALT 14 , eds. Kazuha Watanabe and Robert B. Young. Ithaca, NY: CLC Publications. http://people.umass.edu/potts/papers/potts-kawahara-salt14-paper.pdf   (4) Potts, Christopher. (Potts to appear). Conventional implicatures, a distinguished class of meanings. In The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Interfaces , eds. G. Ramchand and C. Reiss. Oxford: Oxford University Press.  http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~potts/potts-cis-interfaces.pdf.  

  Lecture 12. May 31.  The Event Argument, Algebra of events (Bach, Link, Krifka), aspect and quantification (Filip, Krifka).   Evidence for the existence of an event argument in at least non-stative sentences. The role of the event argument in linguistic structures. The role of the event argument in lexical semantics and in semantic composition. Events and situations. Stage-level and individual-level predicates. Impersonal sentences as properties of situations. Thetic and categorial sentences: predicating of a situation vs. predicating of the subject. Readings: (1) Selection from Landman, Fred. 2000. Events and Plurality: The Jerusalem Lectures : Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy v.76. Dordrecht: Kluwer. (2) Selections from Filip, Hana. 1999. Aspect, Eventuality Types and Nominal Reference . New York: Garland. (3) Partee, Barbara H. 1997. Vid i interpretacija imennyx grupp ("Aspect and the interpretation of Noun Phrases"). In Trudy Aspektologicheskogo Seminara Filologicheskogo Fakul'teta MGU im. Lomonosova, Vol. 3 , ed. Marina Chertkova, 121-140. Moscow: Moscow University Press. (4) Partee, Barbara H. 1999. Nominal and temporal semantic structure: aspect and quantification. In Prague Linguistics Circle Papers, v.3 , eds. E. Hajicová, T. Hoskovec, O. Les"ka, P. Sgall and Z. Skoumalová, 91-108. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co..  

SEMINAR May 31: Guest presentation by Yura Bronnikov: "Continuations, a compositional semantics on top of surface syntax".

Yura will speak about the following articles: (1)  C. Barker, Continuations and the nature of quantification (2002?)      http://www.semanticsarchive.net/Archive/902ad5f7/barker.continuations.pdf ; (2)  C. Shan, Delimited continuations in natural language (2004)      http://arxiv.org/pdf/cs.CL/0404006 and (3) maybe a little about C. Shan, A continuation semantics for interrogatives that accounts for Baker's ambiguity (2001?) =  "06 Questions"/Shan01.pdf on the CD, or  http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.CL/0207070 Yura adds:  The reasons I like this approach over typical type-shifting are that a) the analysis of quantifiers does not depend on their position and b) I have a rather vague idea (I am not even sure I will be ready to talk about it) that continuations can be used to describe sensitivity to context (such as in NPIs or -nibud' series) -- a continuation is exactly a representation for context. (Shan talks about NPIs in his article, but he does it differently.).  

All late homeworks due May 31 (last class). All grades, zachety , ad hoc certificates to be done on May 31 before or during "seminar."