Different forms of nouns?

[srkfan]

Can someone please explain if I am on the right track. I was asked to find 2 different forms of a particular noun. Would I be correct in saying that for the noun 'repentance' the two different forms of this noun are 'repent' and 'repenting?' My notes are not clear on what is meant by different forms of a noun, nor does it provide any examples. Please will someone assist?

[Soup]

repent is a verb, and repenting and repented are participles, nominals.

[srkfan]

Thank you for responding, but I'm still very confused. What is meant by different forms of a noun. If you could explain using your own example I will be most grateful

[Soup]

Singular, plural, and possessive are different forms of a noun. For example,

Singular: person, Possessive: person's
Plural: people, Possessive: people's

[Clark]

I'm just curious, whether you'll consider 'waiter - waitress' as two different forms of the same word or two different words.

[Soup]

Gender, too.

[Clark]

Do you really think that English has gender as a grammatical category?

[Soup]

Originally Posted by Clark

Do you really think that English has gender as a grammatical category?

Who said anything about grammatical category?

[Clark]

Originally Posted by Soup

Gender, too.

You did in addition to number and case.

[Kraken]

Originally Posted by srkfan

My notes are not clear on what is meant by different forms of a noun, nor does it provide any examples. Please will someone assist?

Forms of Nouns

Nouns can be in the subjective, possessive, and objective case. The word case defines the role of the noun in the sentence. Is it a subject, an object, or does it show possession?

• The English professor [subject] is tall.
• He chose the English professor [object].
• The English professor's [possessive] car is green.

Nouns in the subject and object role are identical in form; nouns that show the possessive, however, take a different form. Usually an apostrophe is added followed by the letter s (except for plurals, which take the plural "-s" ending first, and then add the apostrophe).

Taken from grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/nouns.htm