Numbers play an important role in everyday life, with their help people determine the number of objects, count the time, determine the mass, value and order in the calculation. Words that can be indicated on a letter, written in letters and numbers, are called numeral names. Another definition is: numerals - words denoting the serial number of an item or quantity.
Grammatical signs of a numeral
All tokens denoting integer and fractional numbers, as well as the number of people, animals or objects, are a special group of words, the composition of which is fully formed and does not change.
Such units are one of the important, or, as they say, significant parts of speech and can have several notations:
• the concept of number as such: five, ten, fifteen, and so on;
• the number of certain items: two cars, six houses;
• The aggregate value of several items that are counted.
Accordingly, the questions to them are: what is the score? which the? how much? Depending on the meaning and the question that the numeral answers, they are divided into several types (we will talk about this a bit later).
For example: Thirty (subject) is divided by ten. Six six - thirty six (the nominal part of the predicate). Speaking about the place of the numerals in the sentence, it should be noted that they can be both primary and secondary members. Another feature is that the numeral as a part of speech is not a replenished group of words. All forms used in oral and written speech are formed exclusively from the name of the numbers. In the syntactic construction, the numeral as part of speech can be both part of the main, and part of the secondary member of the sentence.
Note! The numeral denoting quantity and the noun associated with it always act as one inseparable member of the sentence. For example: We walked until six in the morning. Classes in the pool begin at five o’clock. The girls gathered twenty-five daisies.
Types of Numerals
From the numeric question posed to the name, you can determine to which category it belongs. By value and characteristics, they are all divided into quantitative (how much?) And ordinal (which? Which?). In turn, quantitative numerals include three types: collective, fractional, and integers.
By the number of words in its composition, this part of speech, regardless of rank, can be compound or simple. For example: fourth, thirty third, five, sixty eight.
Numeral Name Features
From the point of view of morphological features, the numeral as a part of speech is almost always devoid of numbers, there is also no gender category, and many of these words have singularities in case declension. At the same time, features from the syntactic side should be noted. They consist in the fact that numerals, combined with nouns, become indecomposable and always act as one member in a sentence, regardless of whether any other part of speech is inserted between them. For example: three nights, four days, five days; three proud palms stood silently.
It should be noted that not always words indicating the quantity are actually numerals. The main distinguishing feature of this part of speech is that the quantity can be made out in words and numbers on a letter. For example: three horses - 3 horses or three horses.
How do quantitative numeric names change?
Examples of changes in the names of numerals that denote integers can be found both in colloquial speech and in writing.
These words are characterized by such grammatical features:
• Change by case:
Them. p.: six, eight.
R. p.: Six, eight.
D. p.: Six, eight.
V. p.: Six, eight.
Tv p.: six, eight.
P. p.: About six, about eight.
Cases of numerals depend on those parts of speech with which they are associated.
• Some have a genus category. For example: one film, one sun, one birch; two trees, two lakes, two hands.
• In the plural and singular, only a numeral can be used, the initial form of which is one. For example: one chair, one bed, one friends, one sleigh. It is worth noting that the same word can be used as a restrictive particle, used in the meaning only , for example: some girls, some men.
• Almost all quantitative numerals lack the category of animation and inanimate. The only exceptions here are such numbers - one, two, three, four . When using these words, corresponding endings occur. For example: four flowers, four girlfriends .
• Numerals, examples of which indicate a large number of something (one million, one thousand and one billion), have their own grammatical differences: gender, number, declension by cases. Such words in phrases most often behave like nouns. For example: a million roses, a million roses, a million roses, a million roses, about a million roses.
How do composite ordinal numbers change?
Simple and compound numerals tend to cases. At the same time, simple ones change the ending, but only the last word undergoes changes in compound changes. For instance:
Them. item: one thousand three hundred eighty-five.
R. p.: One thousand three hundred eighty-fifth.
D. p.: One thousand three hundred and eighty-fifth.
V. p.: One thousand three hundred eighty-fifth.
Tv item: one thousand three hundred eighty-fifth.
P. p .: about a thousand three hundred eighty-fifth.
And how do simple ordinal numbers change ? When indicating the date, such a word may be inclined depending on the context, but the name of the month with which the number is associated is always used in the genitive case. For example: the tenth of August, the tenth of August, the tenth of August.
In the names of events ( March 8th holiday ) after the defining words - holiday, day, date - the numeral should be used in the nominative case, and this word should be written with a capital letter.
How to incline fractional numbers
Quite often, when declensing fractional numbers, many get lost and confuse them with composite numerals, but there is nothing complicated about this. In such cases, both parts of the phrase are inclined: the first, expressed as an integer, and the second is an ordinal number in the plural. For instance:
Them. item: three fourth.
R. p.: Three-fourths.
D. p.: Three fourth.
V. p.: Three-fourths.
Tv p.: three fourths.
P. p.: About three-fourths.
Special numbers
Often difficulties are caused by the declination of cases of collective numbers, which are mostly used only in colloquial speech. Here the same rule applies as when changing adjectives in the plural, i.e., the numerals in this case acquire the same endings. For instance:
Them. item: two, five.
R. p.: Two, five.
D. p.: Two, five.
V. p.: Two, five.
Tv p.: two, five.
P. p.: About two, about five.
The numeral has both features . Changing in the cases, the collective word in the middle and masculine forms the same form, but in the feminine when declensing, it is completely transformed. For instance:
Them. p.: - both, both.
R. p.: - both, both.
D. p.: - both, both.
V. p.: - both, both, both, both.
Tv p.: - both, both.
P. p.: - about both, about both.
How to make a morphological analysis
One of the topics in studying the name of the numeral in the school curriculum is the analysis of the numeral by morphological characteristics. It is produced according to a certain plan.
First of all, the presented numeral is determined as part of speech, its morphological signs are indicated .
Next, it is necessary to highlight the initial form of the word being parsed, to which category it belongs (ordinal or quantitative numeral), structure (simple or compound) and the features of its declension in cases
The next step is to identify inconsistent symptoms. This is the case, gender and number, if any can be recognized.
In conclusion, the parsing describes the syntactic function of a word in a sentence, with what part of speech it is associated and whether it is consistent with it. And although such a analysis of the name of the numeral is unlikely to be useful to anyone in life (except for future philologists), but for the correct use of words in speech and writing, it is simply necessary to be able to make it.