Lesson “Animate and inanimate nouns. Animate and inanimate objects

It seems that distinguishing between animate and inanimate objects is indecently simple: it’s like a game of animate and inanimate. But those who are guided by this principle are very mistaken. Animacy, as, accordingly, inanimateness - separate category in the characteristics has nothing to do with external signs some object. How can we explain the fact that, according to the rules, the word “corpse” is considered inanimate, and “dead” is considered animate? Acting at random? In no case! We'll figure out.

For the little ones

Let's start with the very basics. Animate and inanimate objects answer different questions - "who" and "what" respectively. We can say that asking a question is the most primitive, albeit very unreliable, way of defining this category. Usually children are introduced to it in the first or second grade. To practice this method, you can fill in the gaps in the following text with your students:

« The great (what?) flows in sleepy oblivion. Around (what?) and (what?). (Who?) slowly moved his skis, shook (what?) his hats from his ears. (Who?) quickly made a hole, and (what?) began. Soon he pulled out a huge one (who?). His mirror (what?) glittered brightly in the sun" Words to be inserted: ice, scales, fisherman, frost, river, carp, snow, fishing. One word is repeated twice.

Grammar explanation

But it's worth moving on, right? How can you determine whether an object is animate or inanimate based on rules rather than intuition? The difference between these two categories lies in the different case forms of the nouns. Inanimate nouns have the same nominative and plural form, while animate nouns have the same genitive and accusative form in the same number. Of course, figure it out specific examples it will be much easier.

Let's take the noun " cat" We put it in the plural “cats” and begin to decline: nominative - “ cats", genitive - " cats", accusative - " cats" - as you can see, the forms of the genitive and accusative cases coincide. Whereas for the noun " table", which to define this category turns into " tables" when declension " tables-tables-tables» the accusative and the accusative are the same

Thus, the rule allows dividing an animate and an inanimate object only by placing them in the plural and subsequent declension. And then, based on the coincidence of case forms, this category is determined.

Exceptions

But, as you know, there are very few rules in the Russian language that do not have any exceptions. Thus, it is sometimes possible to separate animate and inanimate objects logically. Yes, all living beings will be animate, but at the same time mythical creatures belong to the same category ( goblin-goblin-goblin-goblin) and names of toys ( matryoshka-matryoshka-matryoshka) - here you can still find a logical explanation. As well as card and chess suits ( pike-pike-pike, pawns-pawns-pawns), which even in their shapes do not fit this category.

Go ahead. Inanimate nouns, in turn, include large groups of people ( crowd-crowd-crowd) and some living organisms ( germs-germs-germs; microbes-germs-germs) - it is impossible to explain this phenomenon, you just have to accept and remember.

More difficulties

I would also like to add that animate and inanimate objects in the grammatical sense have their own characteristics. So, for example, for animate masculine nouns the forms of the genitive and accusative cases coincide in the singular: Anton-Anton-Anton, accountant-accountant-accountant However, this phenomenon is observed only in second declension nouns (compare: Dima-Dima-Dima, although this is also an animate masculine noun). So, in principle, this pattern can be used as another simple, albeit not very well-known, way of determining the category of animation in nouns.

I want to confuse

It is worth noting that in the Russian language there is an image of an inanimate object as an animate one. This is usually associated with the use of the word as an analogy to a living being: There is a mattress in the barn - Yes, it is a weak-willed mattress! or The Russian language is great and powerful! - This tongue (=captive) will tell us everything.

Exactly the same phenomenon occurs with the use of animate nouns as inanimate ones: A kite flies in the blue sky; The fighter began to descend. Here the category of animate and inanimate is determined based on the semantic content of the noun.

It is worth noting that, despite all the requirements of teachers to use the rules, most of students continue to rely on intuition. As the above examples show, inner instinct is not always a reliable assistant in matters of philology. We can definitely say that names of professions, names of people by family affiliation, nationality and other groups will always be animate, and this also includes the names of animals. By the way, among the animate nouns, as some researchers believe, there are only masculine and female, while the neuter gender is already inanimate, like all names of natural objects and other objects.

Practice for the little ones

Now that we have figured out how to distinguish one category of nouns from another, it is worth summarizing all of the above. Animate and inanimate objects for preschoolers, who still have no idea what cases are, differ in the questions of “who” and “what,” respectively. For practice, you can play “living-non-living” with your kids, where a word is called, and the child must determine what this object is.

Or another interesting task for junior schoolchildren- offer a number of animate nouns that can be turned into inanimate by replacing one letter: fox (linden), goat (braid), heron (drop).

I would like to finish the article on how to distinguish between animate and inanimate objects by saying that, no matter how simple this topic may seem, it is better not to tempt fate and not act at random, trusting your intuition. Taking a minute to check the category of a noun can sometimes change the way you think about it. So spare no effort and practice the great and mighty Russian language.

This independent part speech that denotes an object and answers the questions who? What?
The meaning of an object expressed nouns, combines the names of a wide variety of objects and phenomena, namely: 1) the names of specific cabbage soup and objects (house, tree, notebook, book, briefcase, bed, lamp); 2) names of living beings (man, engineer, girl, youth, deer, mosquito); 3) names of various substances (oxygen, gasoline, lead, sugar, salt); 4) names of various natural phenomena and public life(storm, frost, rain, holiday, war); 5) names of abstract properties and signs, actions and states (freshness, whiteness, blueness, illness, expectation, murder).
Initial form noun- nominative singular.
Nouns There are: proper (Moscow, Rus', Sputnik) and common nouns (country, dream, night), animate (horse, elk, brother) and inanimate (table, field, dacha).
Nouns belong to the masculine (friend, youth, deer), feminine (girlfriend, grass, land) and neuter (window, sea, field) gender. Names nouns change according to cases and numbers, that is, they decline. Nouns have three declension (aunt, uncle, Maria - I declension; horse, gorge, genius - II declension; mother, night, quiet - III declension).
In a sentence nouns usually act as a subject or object, but can also be any other part of a sentence. For example: When the soul in chains, screams in my heart yearning, and the heart longs for boundless freedom (K. Balmont). I lay in the scent of azaleas (V. Bryusov)

Proper and common nouns

Proper nouns- these are the names of individuals, individual objects. Proper nouns include: 1) first names, surnames, nicknames, nicknames (Peter, Ivanov, Sharik); 2) geographical names(Caucasus, Siberia, middle Asia); 3) astronomical names (Jupiter, Venus, Saturn); 4) names of holidays ( New Year, Teacher's Day, Defender of the Fatherland Day); 5) names of newspapers, magazines, works of art, enterprises (the newspaper “Trud”, the novel “Resurrection”, the publishing house “Prosveshchenie”), etc.
Common nouns They call homogeneous objects that have something in common, the same, some kind of similarity (person, bird, furniture).
All names own are written with a capital letter (Moscow, Arctic), some are also placed in quotation marks (the Cosmos cinema, the Evening Moscow newspaper).
In addition to differences in meaning and spelling proper nouns have a number of grammatical features: 1) are not used in the plural (except in cases of designating different objects and persons with the same name: We have two Ira and three Olya in our class); 2) cannot be combined with numerals.
Proper nouns can turn into common nouns, and common nouns- V own, for example: Narcissus (the name of a handsome young man in ancient greek mythology) - narcissus (flower); Boston (city in the USA) - boston (wool fabric), boston (slow waltz), boston ( card game); labor - newspaper "Trud".

Animate and inanimate nouns

Animate nouns serve as names of living beings (people, animals, birds); answer the question who?
Inanimate nouns serve as names for inanimate objects, as well as objects flora; answer the question what? Initially, in the Russian language, the category of animate-inanimate was formed as a semantic one. Gradually, with the development of language, this category became grammatical, therefore the division of nouns into animate And inanimate does not always coincide with the division of everything that exists in nature into living and nonliving.
An indicator of the animation or inanimateness of a noun is the coincidence of a number of grammatical forms. Animated and inanimate nouns differ from each other in the form of the accusative case plural. U animate nouns this form coincides with the genitive case form, and inanimate nouns- with the nominative case form, for example: no friends - I see friends (but: no tables - I see tables), no brothers - I see brothers (but: no lights - I see lights), no horses - I see horses (but: no shadows - I see shadows), no children - I see children (but: no seas - I see seas).
For masculine nouns (except for nouns ending in -a, -я), this difference is preserved in the singular, for example: no friend - I see a friend (but: no house - I see a house).
TO animate noun may include nouns that, according to their meaning, should be considered inanimate, for example: “our nets brought in a dead man”; discard the trump ace, sacrifice the queen, buy dolls, paint nesting dolls.
TO inanimate noun may include nouns that, according to the meaning they express, should be classified as animated eg: study pathogenic microbes; neutralize typhus bacilli; observe the embryo in its development; collect silkworm larvae, believe in your people; gather huge crowds, arm armies.

Concrete, abstract, collective, real, singular nouns

According to the characteristics of the expressed meaning, nouns can be divided into several groups: 1) concrete nouns(chair, suit, room, roof), 2) abstract, or abstract, nouns(struggle, joy, good, evil, morality, whiteness), 3) collective nouns(animal, fool, foliage, linen, furniture); 4) real nouns(cycle: gold, milk, sugar, honey); 5) singular nouns(pea, grain of sand, straw, pearl).
Specific are nouns that denote phenomena or objects of reality. They can be combined with cardinal, ordinal and collective numbers and form plural forms. For example: boy - boys, two boys, second boy, two boys; table - tables, two tables, second table.
Abstract, or abstract, are nouns that denote any abstract action, state, quality, property or concept. Abstract nouns have one form of number (only singular or only plural), are not combined with cardinal numerals, but can be combined with the words many, few, how many, etc. For example: grief - a lot of grief, little grief. How much grief!
Collective are called nouns that denote a collection of persons or objects as an indivisible whole. Collective nouns have only the singular form and are not combined with numerals, for example: youth, old man, foliage, birch forest, aspen forest. Wed: Old people gossiped for a long time about the lives of young people and the interests of youth. - Whose are you, old man? Peasants, in essence, have always remained owners. - In no country in the world has the peasantry ever been truly free. On the first of September all children will go to school. - The children gathered in the yard and waited for the adults to arrive. All students successfully passed state exams. - Students take an active part in the work charitable foundations. The nouns old people, peasantry, children, students are collective, the formation of plural forms from them is impossible.
Real are nouns that denote a substance that cannot be divided into its component parts. These words can be called chemical elements, their compounds, alloys, medications, various materials, types food products and agricultural crops, etc. Real nouns have one form of number (only singular or only plural), are not combined with cardinal numerals, but can be combined with words naming units of measure kilogram, liter, ton. For example: sugar - a kilogram of sugar, milk - two liters of milk, wheat - a ton of wheat.
Singular nouns are a type real nouns . These nouns name one instance of those objects that make up the set. Wed: pearl - pearl, potato - potato, sand - grain of sand, pea - pea, snow - snowflake, straw - straw.

Gender of nouns

Genus- this is the ability of nouns to be combined with forms of compatible words specific for each generic variety: my house, my hat, my window.
Based on gender nouns are divided into three groups: 1) masculine nouns(house, horse, sparrow, uncle), 2) feminine nouns(water, earth, dust, rye), 3) neuter nouns(face, sea, tribe, gorge).
In addition, there is a small group nouns general kind , which can serve as expressive names for both male and female persons (crybaby, touchy-feely, youngster, upstart, grabber).
The grammatical meaning of gender is created by the system of case endings of a given noun in the singular (thus gender of nouns distinguished only in the singular).

Masculine, feminine and neuter gender of nouns

TO masculine include: 1) nouns with a base on a hard or soft consonant and a zero ending in the nominative case (table, horse, reed, knife, cry); 2) some nouns with the ending -а (я) such as grandfather, uncle; 3) some nouns with endings -о, -е such as saraishko, bread, little house; 4) noun journeyman.
TO feminine refers to: 1) most nouns with the ending -a (ya) (grass, aunt, earth) in the nominative case; 2) part of the nouns with a base on a soft consonant, as well as on zh and sh and a zero ending in the nominative case (laziness, rye, quiet).
TO neuter include: 1) nouns ending in -о, -е in the nominative case (window, field); 2) ten nouns starting with -mya (burden, time, tribe, flame, stirrup, etc.); 3) noun “child”.
The nouns doctor, professor, architect, deputy, guide, author, etc., naming a person by profession, type of activity, are classified as masculine. However, they can also refer to females. Coordination of definitions in this case is subject to the following rules: 1) a non-separate definition must be put in the masculine form, for example: A young doctor Sergeeva appeared at our site. A new version of the article of the law was proposed by the young deputy Petrova; 2) a separate definition after the proper name should be placed in the feminine form, for example: Professor Petrova, already known to the trainees, successfully operated on the patient. The predicate must be put in the feminine form if: 1) the sentence contains a proper noun standing before the predicate, for example: Director Sidorova received a prize. Tour guide Petrova took the students through the oldest streets of Moscow; 2) the form of the predicate is the only indicator that we are talking about a woman, and it is important for the writer to emphasize this, for example: The school director turned out to be a good mother. Note. Such constructions should be used with great caution, since not all of them correspond to the norms of book and written speech. Common nouns Some nouns with endings -а (я) can serve as expressive names for both male and female persons. These are nouns of a general gender, for example: crybaby, touchy, sneak, slob, quiet. Depending on the gender of the person they denote, these nouns can be classified as either feminine or masculine: a little crybaby is a little crybaby, such a mischief is such a mischief, a terrible slob is a terrible slob. In addition to similar words, common nouns may include: 1) unchangeable surnames: Makarenko, Malykh, Defieux, Michon, Hugo, etc.; 2) colloquial forms of some proper names: Sasha, Valya, Zhenya. The words doctor, professor, architect, deputy, tour guide, author, which name a person by profession or type of activity, do not belong to the general nouns. They are masculine nouns. Common nouns are emotionally charged words that have a pronounced estimated value, are used mainly in colloquial speech, therefore they are not typical for scientific and formal business styles speech. Using them in work of art , the author seeks to emphasize the conversational nature of the statement. For example: - You see how it is, on someone else’s side. Everything turns out hateful for her. No matter what you see, it’s not the same, it’s not like mom’s. Right? - Oh, I don’t know! She's a crybaby, that's all! Aunt Enya laughed a little. Such a kind laugh, light sounds and leisurely, like her gait. - Well, yes! You are our man, a knight. You won't shed tears. And she's a girl. Tender. Mom and Dad (T. Polikarpova). Gender of indeclinable nouns Foreign language common nouns are distributed by gender as follows: The masculine gender includes: 1) names of male persons (dandy, maestro, porter); 2) names of animals and birds (chimpanzees, cockatoos, hummingbirds, kangaroos, ponies, flamingos); 3) the words coffee, penalty, etc. The feminine gender includes the names of female persons (Miss, Frau, Lady). The neuter gender includes the names of inanimate objects (coat, muffler, neckline, depot, subway). Indeclinable nouns of foreign origin denoting animals and birds are usually masculine (flamingos, kangaroos, cockatoos, chimpanzees, ponies). If, according to the conditions of the context, it is necessary to indicate a female animal, the agreement is carried out using the feminine gender. The nouns kangaroo, chimpanzee, pony are combined with a past tense verb in the feminine form. For example: The kangaroo was carrying a baby kangaroo in her bag. The chimpanzee, apparently a female, fed the baby a banana. The mother pony was standing in a stall with a small foal. The noun tsetse is an exception. Its gender is determined by the gender of the word mukha (feminine). For example: Tsetse bit a tourist. If determining the gender of an indeclinable noun is difficult, it is advisable to consult a spelling dictionary. For example: haiku (Japanese tercet) - s.r., takku (Japanese quintet) - s.r., su (coin) - s.r., flamenco (dance) - s.r., taboo (prohibition) - s.r. .R. Some indeclinable nouns are recorded only in dictionaries of new words. For example: sushi (Japanese dish) - sr., tarot (cards) - plural. (genus is not determined). The gender of indeclinable foreign-language geographical names, as well as names of newspapers and magazines, is determined by the generic common noun, for example: Pau (river), Bordeaux (city), Mississippi (river), Erie (lake), Congo (river), Ontario (lake), "Humanité" (newspaper). The gender of indeclinable compound words is in most cases determined by the gender of the core word of the phrase, for example: MSU (university - m.r. ) MFA (academy - zh.r.). Genus compound nouns , written with a hyphen The gender of compound nouns written with a hyphen is usually determined: 1) by the first part, if both parts change: my chair-bed - my chair-bed (s.r.), new amphibious aircraft - new aircraft -amphibians (m.r.); 2) according to the second part, if the first does not change: sparkling firebird - sparkling firebird (g.r.), huge swordfish - huge swordfish (g.r.). In some cases, the gender is not determined, since the compound word is used only in the plural: fairy-tale boots-runners - fairy-tale boots-runners (plural). Number of nouns Nouns are used in the singular when talking about one object (horse, stream, crevice, field). Nouns are used in the plural when talking about two or more objects (horses, streams, cracks, fields). According to the characteristics of the forms and meanings of the singular and plural, the following are distinguished: 1) nouns that have both singular and plural forms; 2) nouns that have only a singular form; 3) nouns that have only a plural form. The first group includes nouns with a concrete object meaning, denoting countable objects and phenomena, for example: house - houses; street - streets; person people; city dweller - city dwellers. The nouns of the second group include: 1) names of many identical objects (children, teachers, raw materials, spruce forest, foliage); 2) names of objects with real meaning (peas, milk, raspberries, porcelain, kerosene, chalk); 3) names of quality or attribute (freshness, whiteness, dexterity, melancholy, courage); 4) names of actions or states (mowing, chopping, delivery, running, surprise, reading); 5) proper names as names of individual objects (Moscow, Tambov, St. Petersburg, Tbilisi); 6) words burden, udder, flame, crown. The nouns of the third group include: 1) names of composite and paired objects (scissors, glasses, watches, abacus, jeans, trousers); 2) names of materials or waste, residues (bran, cream, perfume, wallpaper, sawdust, ink, 3) names of periods of time (vacations, days, weekdays); 4) names of actions and states of nature (troubles, negotiations, frosts, sunrises, twilight); 5) some geographical names (Lyubertsy, Mytishchi, Sochi, Carpathians, Sokolniki); 6) the names of some games (blind man's buff, hide and seek, chess, backgammon, grandma). The formation of plural forms of nouns is mainly done with the help of endings. In some cases, some changes in the base of the word may also be observed, namely: 1) softening of the final consonant of the base (neighbor - neighbors, devil - devils, knee - knees); 2) alternation of the final consonants of the stem (ear - ears, eye - eyes); 3) adding a suffix to the plural stem (husband - husband\j\a], chair - chair\j\a], sky - heaven, miracle - miracle-es-a, son - son-ov\j\a]) ; 4) loss or replacement of formative suffixes of the singular (mister - gentlemen, chicken - hens, calf - tel-yat-a, bear cub - bear cubs). For some nouns, plural forms are formed by changing the stem, for example: person (singular) - people (plural), child (singular) - children (plural). In indeclinable nouns, number is determined syntactically: young chimpanzee (singular) - many chimpanzees (plural). Case of nouns Case is an expression of the relationship of an object called by a noun to other objects. Russian grammar distinguishes six cases of nouns, the meanings of which are generally expressed using case questions: The nominative case is considered direct, and all others are indirect. To determine the case of a noun in a sentence, you need to: 1) find the word to which the noun refers; 2) put a question from this word to the noun: see (who? what?) brother, be proud of (what?) successes. Among the case endings of nouns, homonym endings are often found. For example, in the genitive forms of the door, dative case to the door, the prepositional case about the door has not the same ending -i, but three different endings - homonyms. The same homonyms are the endings of the dative and prepositional cases in the forms by country and about country-e. Types of declension of nouns Declension is the change of a noun by case and number. This change is expressed using a system of case endings and shows the grammatical relationship of the given noun to other words in the phrase and sentence, for example: School\a\ is open. Construction of schools has been completed. Graduates send greetings to schools\e\ According to the peculiarities of case endings in the singular, a noun has three declensions. The type of declination can only be determined in the singular. Nouns of the first declension The first declension includes: 1) feminine nouns with the ending -а (-я) in the nominative singular (country, land, army); 2) masculine nouns denote people with the ending -a (ya) in the nominative singular case (uncle, young man, Petya). 3) nouns of the general gender with endings -а (я) in the nominative case (crybaby, sleepyhead, bully). Nouns of the first declension in the oblique singular cases have the following endings: It is necessary to distinguish between the forms of nouns in -ya and -iya: Marya - Maria, Natalya - Natalia, Daria - Daria, Sophia - Sofia. Nouns of the first declension in -iya (army, guard, biology, line, series, Maria) in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases have the ending -i. In writing, mistakes are often caused by mixing the endings of nouns of the first declension into -ee and -iya. Words ending in -eya (alley, battery, gallery, idea) have the same endings as feminine nouns with a base on a soft consonant such as earth, will, bathhouse, etc. Nouns of the second declension The second declension includes: 1) nouns masculine with a zero ending in the nominative singular (house, horse, museum); 2) masculine nouns with the ending -о (-е) in the nominative singular (domishko, saraishko); 3) neuter nouns with the ending -о, -е in the nominative singular case (window, sea, gorge); 4) noun journeyman. Masculine nouns of the second declension have the following endings in the oblique singular cases: In the prepositional singular case, the ending -e predominates for masculine nouns. The ending -у (у) is accepted only by inanimate masculine nouns if: a) they are used with the prepositions in and on; b) have (in most cases) the nature of stable combinations denoting a place, state, time of action. For example: eyesore; remain in debt; on the verge of death; grazing; to follow the lead; stew in own juice; be in good standing. But: work hard, in sunlight; grammatical structure; at a right angle; in some cases, etc. It is necessary to distinguish between the forms of nouns: -ie and -ie: teaching - teaching, treatment - treatment, silence - silence, torment - torment, radiance - radiance. Nouns of the second declension ending in -i, -i in the prepositional case -i. Words ending in -ey (sparrow, museum, mausoleum, frost, lyceum) have the same endings as masculine nouns with a base on a soft consonant such as horse, elk, deer, fight, etc. Nouns of the third declension The third declension includes names feminine nouns with a zero ending in the nominative singular (door, night, mother, daughter). Nouns of the third declension in the oblique singular cases have the following endings: The words mother and daughter belonging to the third declension, when changed in all cases except the nominative and accusative, have the suffix -er- at the base: Declension of nouns in the plural B case endings plural differences between individual types of noun declension are insignificant. In the dative, instrumental and prepositional cases, nouns of all three declensions have the same endings. In the nominative case, the endings -и, -ы и|-а(-я) predominate. The ending -e is less common. You should remember the formation of the genitive plural forms of some nouns, where the ending can be zero or -ov. This includes words naming: 1) paired and composite objects: (not) felt boots, boots, stockings, collars, days (but: socks, rails, glasses); 2) some nationalities (in most cases, the stem of the words ends in n and r): (no) English, Bashkirs, Buryats, Georgians, Turkmens, Mordvins, Ossetians, Romanians (but: Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Yakuts); 3) some units of measurement: (five) amperes, watts, volts, arshins, hertz; 4) some vegetables and fruits: (kilogram) apples, raspberries, olives (but: apricots, oranges, bananas, tangerines, tomatoes, tomatoes). In some cases, plural endings perform a semantic distinguishing function in words. For example: dragon teeth - saw teeth, tree roots - fragrant roots, sheets of paper - tree leaves, scratched knees (knee - “joint”) - complex knees (knee - “dance move”) - trumpet knees (knee - “ joint at the pipe"). Indeclinable nouns Indeclinable nouns include: 1) ten nouns ending in -mya (burden, time, udder, banner, name, flame, tribe, seed, stirrup, crown); 2) noun path; 3) noun child. Diversified nouns have the following features: 1) ending - both in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases of the singular - as in the III declension; 2) the ending -еm in the instrumental case of the singular as in the 2nd declension; 3) the suffix -en- in all forms, except for the nominative and accusative cases of the singular (only for nouns ending in -mya). The word path has case forms of the third declension, with the exception of the instrumental case of the singular, which is characterized by the form of the second declension. Wed: night - nights, path - paths (in the genitive, dative and prepositional cases); steering wheel - steering wheel, path - path (in the instrumental case). The noun child in the singular retains the archaic declension, which is currently not actually used, but in the plural it has the usual forms, except for the instrumental case, which is characterized by the ending -mi (the same ending is characteristic of the form by people). Indeclinable nouns Indeclinable nouns do not have case forms, these words do not have endings. The grammatical meanings of individual cases in relation to such nouns are expressed syntactically, for example: drink coffee, buy cashews, novels by Dumas. Indeclinable nouns include: 1) many nouns of foreign origin with final vowels -о, -е, -и, -у, -у, -а (solo, coffee, hobby, zebu, cashew, bra, Dumas, Zola); 2) foreign-language surnames denoting female persons ending in a consonant (Michon, Sagan); 3) Russian and Ukrainian surnames with -o, -ih, -yh (Durnovo, Krutykh, Sedykh); 4) complex abbreviated words of alphabetic and mixed nature (Moscow State University, Ministry of Internal Affairs, head of department). The syntactic function of indeclinable nouns is determined only in context. For example: The Walrus asked the Kangaroo (RP): How can you stand the heat? I'm shaking from the cold! - Kangaroo (I.p.) said to Walrus. (B. Zakhoder) Kangaroo is an indeclinable noun, denotes an animal, masculine gender, and is the object and subject of a sentence. Morphological analysis of a noun Morphological analysis of a noun includes identifying four permanent signs(proper noun, animate-inanimate, gender, declension) and two non-constant ones (case and number). The number of constant features of a noun can be increased by including features such as concrete and abstract, as well as real and collective nouns. Scheme morphological analysis noun.

The purpose of the lesson:

to develop knowledge and skills to distinguish animate nouns from inanimate ones,
study the peculiarities of declension of animate and inanimate nouns,
remember words that are inanimate in Russian.

Lesson type:

Educational and upbringing.

Nouns are divided into two categories according to the type of objects they denote: animate nouns and inanimate nouns.

Animate nouns necessary to designate all living beings - people, birds, animals, insects And fish. Animate nouns answer the question “ Who?" - mother, father, dog, cuckoo, crucian carp, caterpillar, mosquito.

Mostly animate nouns are male And female(child, girl, soldier, fish, frog, etc.).

Animate nouns are rare neuter(animal, child, insect, monster, monster, etc.)

Exercise: Listen to “The Vodyanoy’s Song.” Name the animate nouns that you heard in the song.

Since in grammar and in scientific representation living and dead nature The criteria for animate or inanimate differ; animate nouns also include:

names or nicknames fairy tale characters, myths and legends (Baba Yaga, Koschei, ghost, pegasus, centaur, cyclops, etc.)

names of children's toys (bear, car, doll, tumbler)

names of card suits of figures (king, jack, queen)
names of chess pieces (queen, bishop, tour, knight, etc.)

Exercise: watch the sound film strip “Fly-Tsokotukha”, pay attention to which letter the names of the characters are written: Fly-Tsokotukha, Grandmother-Bee, etc. Name all the participants in the fairy tale whose name is written with a capital letter, explain why.

Inanimate nouns necessary to designate all objects and phenomena occurring in reality that do not belong to living nature. Inanimate nouns answer the question “ What?" - snow, rain, door, darkness, laughter.

Inanimate also include collective names for sets of living beings: army, people, herd, flock, swarm and names plants: chamomile, cornflower, oak, coltsfoot, aspen, boletus.

You should know that when writing the names of plants, words are used that are quite familiar to living beings - plants “breathe,” “bloom,” “reproduce,” “are born,” and “die,” but do not move.

However, attention should be paid to cases in which it is necessary to clearly understand the differences between animate and inanimate nouns. For example, the nouns squad, group, class (denote a collection of people), but nevertheless are inanimate nouns. Or the noun microbe - in biology, a microbe is a living creature, but in grammar, a microbe is an inanimate noun.

Exercise: Listen to “The Pirate Song.” What type of nouns do the words “pirates”, “darlings”, “robbers”, “murderers” belong to? Name similar words belonging to this category.

Features of the declension of animate and inanimate nouns

To grammatically divide nouns into animate and inanimate, it is necessary to take into account the features declination :

The form of the accusative case coincides with the form of the genitive case:

animate nouns have plural forms.

Example: Genitive(plural) – no (who?) – guys, queens, crucians, girls, forty, dolls = Accusative case (plural) – I see (who?) - guys, queens, crucians, girls, forty, dolls).

Example: Accusative case (singular) - saw (who?) a dead man = Genitive case (singular) - there was no (who?) dead man.

Accusative case (singular) – I see (who?) father = Genitive case (singular) – there was no (who?) father..

The form of the accusative case coincides with the form of the nominative case:

inanimate nouns have plural forms.

Example: Accusative (plural) – I see (what?) – curls, jars, canned food = Nominative (plural) – there is (what?) - curls, jars, canned food

animate nouns (masculine 2nd declension) have a singular number.

Example: Accusative case (singular) – saw (what?) a stone = Nominative case (singular) – there is (what?) a stone here.

Accusative case (singular) - saw (what?) a corpse = Nominative case (singular) - there is (what?) a corpse here.

Bewitched by the invisible

The forest slumbers under the fairy tale of sleep.

Like a white scarf

The pine tree has tied up.

Bent over like an old lady

Leaned on a stick

And right under the top of my head,

A woodpecker is hitting a branch.

S. Yesenin.

Exercise. Listen to the tongue twister. Which nouns are animate and which are not?

Patter:

The mouse dried the dryers,

The mouse invited the mice.

The mice began to eat dry food,

The teeth were immediately broken.

Exercise. Answer the questions:

"Living and non-living questions"

Who's flying? What flies?

Who's drumming on the roof? What's banging on the roof?

Who's swimming? What floats?

Who is silent? What is silent?

Who goes underwater? What goes underwater?

Who's hissing? What's hissing?

Questions to consolidate a new topic:

Question answered by animate nouns?

Question answered by inanimate nouns?

Does the animate-inanimate nature of nouns always coincide with the object’s belonging to living (inanimate) nature?

- Is “Pinocchio” an animate or inanimate noun?

Which noun refers to: “dead man”, “people”, “squad”?

Homework:

Exercise: write down the words in 2 columns - animate nouns and inanimate nouns:

larva, aluminum, snake, red tape, crow, fox, humanity, relatives, boyar, Karakum, horse, young, genius, youth, bell, milk, chick, silk, stuffed animal, pea, tentacle, pea, comrade, cooking, oil, dishes, cement, poor, relative, sugar, tea, honey, kettle, yeast, tea leaves, herd, whiteness, pity, stubborn, hero, furniture, radiance, delight, heroism, running, journalist, walking, pearls, generals, pearl, freshness, crow.

List of used literature:

Malykhina E.V., Russian language, Geneza, 2008.

L.A. Akhremenkova “Towards the top five step by step”, M., Prosveshchenie, 2008.

Baranova M.T. "Russian language. 6th grade", M. Prosveshchenie, 2008.

Lesson on the topic: “Noun”, Bogdanova G.A., Moscow

Lesson on the topic: “Animate and inanimate nouns”, Kunina L.V., Rozhdestvenskaya Secondary School

Lesson on the topic: “Animate and inanimate nouns”, Ayvazyan N.V., Secondary School No. 4, Meleuz, Republic of Bashkortostan

Lesson on the topic: “Animate and inanimate nouns”, Babchenko T.V. Municipal educational institution secondary school No. 4, Tatarsk, Novosibirsk region.

Edited and sent by A.A. Litvin

We worked on the lesson

Bogdanova G.A.

Ayvazyan N. V.

Kunina L.V.

Babchenko T.V.

Litvin A.A.

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Subjects > Russian language > Russian language 6th grade

More from primary school you have an idea of living and inanimate nature. Nouns also name objects of living and inanimate nature. And nouns are divided into animate and inanimate. But it's not that simple. Many interesting linguistic discoveries await you as you learn to distinguish animate nouns from inanimate ones.

All common nouns in the Russian language are divided into two categories: animate and inanimate. Animate nouns answer the question “who?”, and inanimate nouns answer the question “what?”

For example, "who?" - boy, dog, bird; "What?" - book, stone, earth.

1. Category of animation - inanimateness - grammatical category

It seems that everything is simple: the category of animateness - inanimateness is based on the distinction between living and inanimate. However, in Russian there are often cases when the grammar contradicts common sense. Suffice it to remember the synonyms dead body And dead man.

The noun "corpse" is inanimate, and the noun "dead" is animate. The difference is found only in the form of V.p. units: I see a dead man - I see a corpse, cf.: I see an elephant - I see a chair.

Animate nouns have the same plural forms V.p. and R.p. (and for nouns m.p. of the 2nd declension and forms V.p. and R.p. singular), but for inanimate ones - not. Inanimate nouns have the same I.p. forms. and V.p. plural.

I see (who?) elephants, but there are no (who?) elephants; I see (who?) mice, but there are no (who?) mice.

I see (what?) books, no (what?) books; I see (what?) at homé, there are no (what?) houses.

Animate nouns include the names of people, animals, insects, etc., that is, living beings. Inanimate nouns are the names of objects, phenomena of reality that are not classified as living beings.

2. Please pay attention

Note:

names of chess and card pieces and nouns “dead”, “dead”, as well as names of dolls ( parsley, puppet) and the word “doll” itself are animate nouns;
and words that name a collection of living beings: army, people, crowd, flock, students, humanity etc. are inanimate nouns.

Basically, animate nouns include masculine and feminine nouns. There are few animate neuter nouns in the Russian language. This includes several nouns with the suffix -ishe ( monster, bogeyman), individual nouns (formed from adjectives or participles): mammal, insect, animal And

nouns child, face(meaning “person”).

3. Common mistakes

Errors in the use of the category of animation - inanimate nouns can be divided into two groups:

First- using inanimate nouns as animate ones, for example: Everyone looked at him like he was ghost. Let's check using the formula “V.p. plural = R.p. plural": (I see) ghosts- (No) ghosts. The endings don't match, so it's a noun ghost - inanimate, therefore the sentence, according to the grammatical norms of the Russian language, should look like this: Everyone looked at him like he was ghost.

Second- using animate nouns as inanimate ones. For example: When he carried securities, he was given two people to accompany him. Right: When he was carrying securities, they gave him a guidetwo people.

Remember: in constructions with compound numerals ending in two three four, V.p. the numeral retains the form Imp.p., regardless of the category of animation. For example: The driver needed to deliver twenty three athlete.

Bibliography

Russian language. 6th grade / Baranov M.T. and others - M.: Education, 2008.
Babaytseva V.V., Chesnokova L.D. Russian language. Theory. 5-9 grades - M.: Bustard, 2008.
Russian language. 6th grade / Ed. MM. Razumovskaya, P.A. Lekanta. - M.: Bustard, 2010.

Terver.ru ().
Hi-edu.ru ().

Homework

Exercise 1.

Write the words in 2 columns - animate nouns and inanimate nouns:

Creature, janitor, monster, tin, journalism, youth, insect, engine, coal, corpse, warmth, stubbornness, student, hazel grouse, mushroom, doll, peddler, midges, foot soldier, spirit, Sakhalin, kids, squad, steel, coal, poverty, cap, infantry, small fry, general, herd, canned food, table, larva, aluminum, snake, red tape, crow, fox, humanity, relatives, boyar, Karakum, horse, young animals, genius, youth, bell, milk, chick, silk, stuffed animal, pea, tentacle, peas, comrade, cooking, oil, dishes, cement, poor, relative, sugar, tea, honey, teapot, yeast, tea leaves, herd, whiteness, pity, stubborn, hero, furniture, radiance, delight, heroism, running, journalist, walking, pearls, generality, pearl, freshness, crow.

Exercise No. 2

Read the fairy tale by L. Uspensky:

A raft is floating along the river. A fat lazy cat sits motionless on the shore. The raft asks the cat:

Are you alive?

How can you prove it?

I'm moving.

I'm swimming and you're sitting.

If I want, I will move.

I am a great raft, alive, and cats are inanimate. You are a thing, and I exist.

The cat thought and said:

I will prove to you grammatically exactly who is who and what is what. I will kill you in the accusative case. Your nominative cannot resist my accusative.

Help the cat, prove that he is right. Using the elements of an argumentative essay, complete the fairy tale.

Nouns are divided into two large groups: animate and inanimate. The main difference between the words included in them lies in the names of these communities of nouns. Let's get to know highlights related to this topic (categories, rules, examples).

In contact with

Animate and inanimate objects

Animate objects are part of living nature, something that lives, breathes, moves, grows, reproduces and develops, etc. And inanimate are objects of inanimate nature, that is, the antonym to the previous concept.

What are animate and inanimate nouns? In order to designate objects endowed with life, nouns of the first type are used.

They answer the question “who?” and designate those objects that possess its characteristics (breathe, feed, reproduce, move, etc.). For example: student, Petya, mother, kitten, etc.

To designate objects that belong to the second category, that is, those that do not have signs of life, inanimate nouns are used. For example: table, sofa, road, stone, jacket, etc.

Note! Animate nouns answer the question “who?”, and those belonging to the category of inanimate nouns answer the question “what?”.

Category of animate and inanimate nouns

But, for example, during the game the doll is assigned the properties and qualities of a child or an adult. In this case, you can consider the doll as an animated creature (Nutcracker, Steadfast Tin Soldier, etc.). Therefore, in order to determine the category of animation, should be based on context.

What about “tree”? From a biological point of view, a tree is part of living nature. But wood can also mean a material for construction (wood), and this is inanimate nature. Sometimes in fairy tales a tree is a character; it can think, speak, even move, that is, it becomes animated. To correctly determine the category, you need to carefully read the text.

What category does the word “herd” belong to? Based on the data indicated above, we will analyze this problem.

A herd is a community, a collection of living organisms, is part of living nature. Therefore, this word belongs to the animate. noun names

One more word troublesome when determining the category, youth. Based on the previous paragraph, we can conclude that this word also refers to animate.

After all, the word “youth” means a group of young people, the younger generation, etc.

Let's summarize. Animating nouns - part of living nature, and inanimate. - vice versa. Words belonging to the first group answer the question “who?”, and those belonging to the second answer the auxiliary question “what?”.

animate (groups of living and inanimate beings that attributed to the qualities of living organisms);
inanimate.

In order to correctly identify a group, it is necessary to rely on context. It is worth remembering a rule that will help you avoid mistakes in declension of words by case.

Types of nouns, learning Russian

Animate and inanimate nouns in Russian