Numeral is a nominal independent part of speech. It was formed much later than a noun or adjective, so linguists do not always clearly qualify individual words as referring specifically to it. The reason for the confusion is some similarity of formal and grammatical features between the name of the numeral and other parts of speech.
Definition
The numeral name is a significant part of speech, the categorical meaning of which is an integer, the designation of the number of objects, fraction, order when counting. So, whole quantitative numerals - three (at home), five (kopecks), one hundred (friends); fractional - five sixths (paths), one second (glasses), three point eight percent (percent); ordinal - first (lane), second (turn), sixth (cup).
Morphological signs of numerals reflect their grammatical features. Most of the words in this part of the speech do not change by gender and number (we will talk about exceptions later), and the declension of numerals has a number of features. Many of their case endings go back to the case endings of nouns.
As for the syntactic role in the sentence, the numerals can act as a subject, predicate, definition, etc. The distinction of numerals by categories determines their lexical and grammatical compatibility with the words of other parts of speech.
Decline Features
The declension of numerals denoting integers determined by several factors.
- the numeral "one" is inclined as adjectives: one - daddy, one - daddy, one - daddy, one - blue;
- the numerals "two", "three", "four" are inclined according to the type of adjectives in the form of the plural: three - green, three - green, three - green, etc .;
- the declension of numbers from five to twenty is the same as the nouns of the 3rd declension: five, thirty - night; five, thirty - nights; five, thirty - at night, etc.
- for numerals forty, ninety, one hundred correct, two forms of declension are considered: in the nominative and accusative cases with zero endings - forty ravens and forty nights, in other case forms - with the ending -a: forty liters, about a hundred days, etc .;
- the numeral "thousand" changes according to the pattern of nouns of the 1st declension: thousands - aunts, thousands - aunts, about a thousand - about aunts;
- the type of nouns in the second declension also produces the declension of the numerals “million”, “billion”: a million - a leopard, a million - a leopard, about a million - about a leopard;
- if the numeral is complex, then when declining, all parts of it change. For example, the declension of quantitative numerals from fifty to eighty is made according to the 3rd declension of nouns: fifty-six by the mother, about fifty-six by the mother;
- in complex numerals from two hundred to four hundred, when declensing, both parts change: two hundred, two hundred, about two hundred, two hundred twenty, two hundred and twenty, etc .;
- for the correct declension of quantitative numerals from five hundred to nine hundred it is always necessary to change the first part according to the nouns of the 3rd declension, and the second forms its own ending. The declination of the numerals of this type is as follows: there are no five hundred rubles, to five hundred rubles, five hundred rubles, about five hundred rubles;
- if the quantitative numeric constituents, then all the words of which they are composed are inclined: no one hundred forty-five people, say one hundred forty-five people, one hundred forty-five people are executed, talk about one hundred forty-five people;
- collective numerals are inclined according to their rules: both girls, there are no both girls, go up to both girls, talk about both girls; or: five comrades, to five comrades, with five comrades, about five comrades;
- ordinal numbers, indicating the order of the items in the count, are modeled on adjectives with a hard and soft basis: the first is blue, the first is blue, the first is blue, and the first is blue; the third is blue, the third is blue, the third is blue, and the third is blue. With this algorithm, the declension of ordinal numbers is easy to remember;
- fractional numerals in their declension combine the declension of integer quantitative and ordinal numbers.