THE NOUN

THE NOUN

1. DEFINITION. A noun is that part of speech used as the name of a person (boy; Mary), an animal (cat), a place (supermarket, London), a job title (teacher), a thing (pencil), an action (swimming), a quality (beauty), a state (sadness).

2. FUNCTION. Nouns can function as:

the subject of a verb: The child is playing in his room.

an attributive: He is a French master.

the direct object of a verb: Mother baked a cake.

the indirect object of a verb: I gave the teacher a pen.

the object of a preposition: They go to church every Sunday.

the complement of the verb 'to be': My parents are both doctors.

an apposition: Jane, my sister, likes chocolate very much.

direct address: Harry, come here at once!

3. CLASSIFICATION OF NOUNS.

a. According to their form, the nouns are classified into simple and compound nouns.

Simple nouns include all primary nouns. Compound nouns are formed by combining two or more words having individual meaning of their own when standing alone. The compound nouns may be either single words or they may be made up of two or more separate words.

Single-word compound nouns may be made up of:

- two nouns: butterfly, classroom, footprint, raincoat;

- adjective + noun: blackbird, greenhouse, redhead, longhand;

- verb + adverb particle or preposition: breakdown, downpour, income;

- adverb particle or preposition + noun: outlaw, outlook.

A large number of single-word compound nouns are built up with the help of suffixes and prefixes. The suffixes may be added to:

- verbs: to adopt/adoption, to defend/defence, to exist/existence, to marry/marriage, to subscribe/subscription;

adjectives: active/activity, democrat/democracy, free/freedom;

other nouns: art/artist, hand/handful, owner/ownership.

Some of the most frequent prefixes used in building up single-word nouns are: ante- (anteroom), anti- (antibody, anticlimax), dis- (disability, disadvantage), im- (impulse), in- (inability, indecision), inter- (interview), non- (nonsense), over- (overwork, overdose), super- (superman, supermarket), sur- (surface, surname), under- (undercarriage, underclothes).

The compound nouns made up of two or more separate words take the following combinations:

noun + noun: kitchen table, river bank, petrol tank;

adjective + noun: common sense, blue print;

possessive case + noun: traveller's check, artist's model;

noun + prepositional phrase: mother-in-law, editor-in-chief;

noun + gerund: lorry driving, bird-watching, weight-lifting;

gerund + noun: waiting list, dining-room, driving licence;

other parts of speech: forget-me-not, merry-go-round.

b. According to their meaning, nouns are classified into proper, common and collective.

Proper nouns denote one particular person or thing as distinct from every other. The writing of proper nouns should always be commenced with a capital letter. They may designate:

personal names: first names (Dean, Kerry), surnames (Smith, Craig);

titles: Mr. Jackson, Miss Brown, Dr. Queen, Lord Byron, Sergeant Longfield;

calendar items: Sunday, January, Christmas;

geographical names: countries (Britain, Canada), continents (Europe, Australia), lakes, rivers, oceans, seas (Lake Ontario, The Danube, the Pacific Ocean, , The Black Sea);

titles of books, newspapers, institutions: Gone with the Wind, The Guardian, The United Nations Organization;

names of nationalities and languages: English, French, Greek, Polish.

Common nouns have a descriptive element and denote no one person or thing in particular.

Note! Sometimes proper nouns are used as common nouns to denote:

some rank or office: Caesar, Czar;

some class of persons: He is the Newton of the age.

Collective nouns denote a group or collection of similar individuals considered as one complete whole. A collective noun may be either common or proper. They refer to:

people: audience, band, committee, orchestra, tribe;

animals, birds, insects: flock, nest, pack, swarm;

plants and fruit: bouquet, bunch;

things: collection, fleet, string.

c. Nouns can also be classified into concrete and abstract, countable and uncountable.

Concrete nouns designate names of persons, places or things which exist as a tangible and definite substance.

Abstract nouns name a quantity, a condition or an activity thought of separately and hence abstracted from the concrete substance to which it belongs. Because nouns have a way of suggesting complex meanings and because there are degrees of abstractness and concreteness, the same word may have a concrete meaning in addition to its abstract one. Abstract nouns may be used as concrete nouns to denote the person possessing the quality or

the thing to which the action, state or quality belongs.

Examples: beauty - the quality or state of being beautiful/a person possessing beauty; judgement - the act or quality of judging/the verdict given by a judge.

In order to make the distinction between countable and uncountable nouns, it must be shown that a noun is countable if:

- it has a plural form: girl/girls, school/schools;

- it can be preceded by the indefinite articles 'a/an': a dog, an elephant;

- it can be preceded by 'how many' or '(a) few': how many books, a few oranges;

- it can be preceded by numbers: one book, four pencils.

A noun is uncountable if:

- it has not a plural form: blood, gold, sugar;

- it cannot be preceded by the indefinite articles 'a/an': What fine weather!;

- it can be preceded by 'how much' or '(a) little': how much sugar, little luggage;

- it cannot be preceded by numbers.

Uncountable nouns (also known as non-count nouns or mass nouns) are:

- names of substances considered generally: bread, cloth, coffee, cream, dust, glass, gold, ice, jam, oil, paper, sand, soap, stone, tea, water, wine, wood;

- abstract nouns: advice, beauty, courage, experience, fear, help, hope, horror, information, knowledge, mercy, pity, relief, suspicion, work.

Note! Baggage, camping, damage, furniture, luggage, parking, shopping, weather are also considered uncountable in English.

Many of the nouns in the above groups can be used in a particular sense and are then countable. They can take 'a/an' in the singular and can be used in the plural. Hair (meaning 'all the hair on one's head') is uncountable, but if we consider each hair separately we say one hair/two hairs:

Her hair is black. Whenever she finds a grey hair she pulls it out.

In the same way, we drink beer, coffee, gin, but we ask for a (cup of) coffee, a gin, or two gins, etc. We drink wine, but we enjoy a good wine.

Experience meaning 'something which happened to someone' is countable:

He had an exciting experience/some exciting experiences (= adventure/s) last week

Work meaning 'occupation/employment/a job/jobs' is uncountable: He is looking for work/for a job.

Works (plural only) can mean 'factory' or 'moving parts of a machine'.

Works (usually plural) can be used of literary or musical compositions, as in Shakespeare's complete works.

4. THE GENDER. There are four genders in English: masculine, feminine, neuter and common. Referring to the first two ones, we have to emphasize that there is a close connection between the biological category of sex and the grammatical category of gender. Thus, masculine nouns will be all those nouns of masculine sex and feminine nouns will be those nouns of feminine sex:

- masculine: men, boys and male animals (pronoun he/they);

- feminine: women, girls and female animals (pronoun she/they).

The distinction between masculine and feminine can be made by:

- different words: brother/sister, cock/hen, father/mother, lord/lady, wizard/witch, uncle/aunt;

- adding suffixes to the masculine form:

-ess: actor/actress, god/godess, heir/heiress, Jew/Jewess, mister/mistress, murderer/murderess, lion/lioness;

-ine: hero/heroine, Joseph/Josephine;

-ix: aviator/aviatrix, executor/executrix, prosecutor/prosecutrix;

-a: don/donna, czar/czarina;

-e/-enne: comedian/comedienne, confidant/confidante, fiancé/fiancée;

-ette/-use: usher/usherette, chauffeur/chauffeuse

- adding the suffix -er to the feminine: widow/widower;

- adding the suffix -groom to the feminine: bride/bridegroom;

- the use of compounds in which the first element specifies gender: boyfriend/girlfriend, father-in-law/mother-in-law, male patient/female patient, bull-calf/cow-calf, he-bird/she-bird, dog-wolf/bitch-wolf;

- the use of compounds in which the second element specifies gender: chairman/chairwoman, milkman/milkmaid, grandson/granddaughter, turkey cock/turkey hen, Englishman/Englishwoman.

Neuter gender denotes things, ideas or beings whose sex we are not interested in: book, house, horse, baby, thought.

Common gender denotes both sexes and the same word may be used of male and female: adult, animal, child, companion, enemy, foreigner, infant, person, servant, teacher, writer.

For stylistic purposes, a few nouns that are neuter may become either masculine or feminine:

- masculine:

- nouns denoting passions, violent actions: anger, crime, fear, fury, love, murder, terror;

- names of things that suggest power, dignity: death, mountain, storm, summer, time.

- feminine:

- nouns that suggest beauty, gentleness: affection, devotion, faith, hope, modesty, virtue;

- nouns that denote negative traits of character: envy, jealousy, revenge, vanity;

- nouns denoting elements from nature: darkness, earth, evening, moon;

- names of arts and sciences: art, drama, painting, poetry;

- names of countries, localities: country, city, London, Romania;

- names of planes, boats, ships: balloon, bus, car, steamer, submarine;

- names of universities: Cambridge University, Oxford University.

Examples:     The ship struck an iceberg, which tore a huge hole in her side.

Scotland lost many of her bravest men in two great rebellions.

5. THE NUMBER. The plural of a noun is usually made by adding s to the singular: day/days, dog/dogs, house/houses.

S is pronounced /s/ after p, t, k or f sound. Otherwise it is pronounced /z/. When s is placed after ce, ge, se or ze an extra syllable /iz/ is added to the spoken word.

Nouns ending in o, ch, sh, ss or ze form their plural by adding es: tomato/tomatoes, church/churches, brush/brushes, kiss/kisses, box/boxes. But words of foreign origin or abbreviated words ending in o add s only: dynamo/dynamos, kilo/kilos, kimono/kimonos, photo/photos, piano/pianos, soprano/sopranos.

Nouns ending in y following a consonant form their plural by dropping the y and adding ies: baby/babies, country/countries, fly/flies, lady/ladies. But nouns ending in y following a vowel form their plural by adding s: boy/boys, day/days, donkey/donkeys, guy/guys.

Note! Quotation words and proper names ending in y get s:

I'm interested in all the whys and therefores. Or

There are three Marys in our family

However, we change y to ie in such examples as: the two Sicilies, the Ptolemies.

Nouns ending in o get either s or es when turned into plural. The suffix s will be added to:

- nouns whose final o is preceded by a vowel: bamboo/bamboos, kangaroo/kangaroos, scenario/scenarios;

- some nouns of foreign origin: casino/casinos, rondo/rondos, tango/tangos;

- abbreviations: kilos, photos;

- proper names: Eskimos, Hindoos, Romeos;

When the final o is preceded by a consonant, the suffix -es will be added: echoes, dominoes, heroes, mosquitoes.

Note! There are some nouns ending in o that may have both -s and -es for the plural: bravo, buffalo, banjo, fresco, ghetto, flamingo, halo, lasso, motto, tobacco, volcano, zero.

Twelve nouns ending in f or fe drop the f or fe and add ves. These nouns are calf, half, knife, leaf, life, loaf, self, sheaf, shelf, thief, wife, wolf: loaf/loaves, wife/wives, wolf/wolves.

The nouns hoof, scarf and wharf take either s or ves in the plural: hoofs or hooves, scarfs or scarves, wharfs or wharves.

Other words ending in f or fe add s in the ordinary way: cliff/cliffs, handkerchief/handkerchiefs, safe/safes.

A few nouns form their plural by a vowel change: foot/feet, goose/geese, louse/lice, man/men, mouse/mice, tooth/teeth, woman/women.

The plurals of child and ox are children, oxen.

The noun house /haus/ has the form /hauziz/ in the plural.

A number of nouns get 'zero plural', that is they have the same form in both singular and plural:

- names of certain creatures do not change in the plural: fish. Fishes exists too but is uncommon. Some type of fish do not normally change in the plural: carp, cod, mackerel, pike, plaice, salmon, squid, trout, turbot, but if used in a plural sense they would take a plural verb. Others add s: crabs, eels, herrings, lobsters, sardines, sharks;

- sportsmen who shoot duck, partridge, pheasant use the same form for the singular and plural. But other people normally add s for the plural: ducks, partridges, pheasants;

- the word game, used by sportsmen to mean an animal or animals hunted is always in the singular and takes a singular verb;

- nationality names: Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Swiss;

- nouns expressing number or measurement: two dozen boxes, five hundred dollars, three thousand people, five score pencils, several head of cattle. These nouns may occur in the plural when they express an indefinite number: hundreds of pages, millions of dollars, dozens of boxes. Besides, when such indefinite indicators of number as a few, many, several, some precede the nouns hundred, thousand, million, these nouns can have either a zero plural or a regular form. But we must say many thousand books or many thousands of books. And, one must note the difference in meaning between some hundreds of people = several hundred and some hundred people = about a hundred.

Collective nouns (crew, family, team) can take a singular or plural verb: singular if we consider the word to mean a single group or unit (Our team is the best.) or plural if we take it to mean a number of individuals (Our team are wearing their new jerseys.).

Some words which retain their original Greek or Latin forms make their plurals according to the rules of Greek and Latin: crisis/crises, erratum/errata, phenomenon/phenomena, radius/radii, terminus/termini. But some follow the English rules: formula/formulas, gymnasium/gymnasiums. Sometimes there are two plural forms with different meanings: formulas = forms of words, formulae = mathematical term; geniuses = persons of unusually great mental powers, genii = good or evil spirits; indexes = tables of contents, indeces = algebrical signs; mediums = people claiming communication with spirits, media = means, agencies.

Musicians usually prefer Italian plural forms for Italian musical terms: libretto/libretti, tempo/tempi. But s is also possible: librettos, tempos.

There are some nouns whose plural form has different meanings: customs: habits and import duties; draughts = 'currents of air' and 'a game played on a board with twenty four pieces'; effects = 'results' and 'goods' or 'personal property'; manners = 'ways', 'customs and behaviour'; pains = 'sufferings and trouble or effort'; spirits = 'souls', 'alcoholic drinks' and 'state of mind' or 'temper'; letters = 'signs of alphabet', 'epistles' and 'learning and literature'; minutes = 'spaces of time' and 'secretary's record of proceedings at a meeting'; premises = 'things assumed as basis for an agreement' and 'buildings'; quarters = 'fourths' and 'allotted place or station, especially for troupes'; grounds = 'enclosed land attached to a house' and 'dregs, especially of coffee'.

In compound nouns, normally the last word is made plural: boy-friends, break-ins, travel agents. But where 'man' and 'woman' is prefixed both parts are made plural: men drivers, women drivers. The first word is made plural with compounds formed of verb + -er, nouns + adverbs: hangers-on, lookers-on, runners-up, and with compounds composed of noun + preposition + noun: ladies-in-waiting, sisters-in-law.

Letters, figures and abbreviations as well as other substantivized parts of speech can be made plural by adding the suffix -s: MPs (Members of Parliament), VIPs (very important persons), OAPs (old age pensioners), UFOs (unidentified flying objects). Or You must cross all your t's; Such hats were in fashion in the 1950's; We'll listen to all your pros and cons. But the abbreviations made up of isolated letters make the plurals by doubling that letter: c. (= chapter) cc.; p. (= page) - pp.

Nouns that are part of compound adjectives denoting measure, quantity also get zero plural when they precede another noun: a two-hour exam, a ten-month calendar, a three-day trip.

A few nouns are used only in the singular being called Singularia Tantum nouns. Such examples of nouns are: advice, bread, business, copper, flour, happiness, income, information, knowledge, maize, meat, milk, money, peace, rice, sand, wheat. None of such nouns can be preceded by the indefinite article a/an (I don't want advice or help. I want information) and, as some of them have a collective meaning, when we want to refer to the singular, we must use such words as bit, piece, slice + of: a bit of news, a cake of soap, a drop of oil, a grain of sand, a pane of glass, a piece of advice, a pot of jam, a sheet of paper.

A number of nouns (Pluralia Tantum) have only a plural form:

- articles of dress: braces, jeans, pants, pyjamas, tights, trousers, shorts;

- parts of the body: entrails, genitals, vitals;

- names of diseases or illnesses: measles, mumps;

- tools and instruments consisting of two parts: binoculars, glasses, pliers, scales, scissors, spectacles, tongs;

- names of some games: billiards, cards, dominoes, draughts, marbles;

- names of sciences and subjects: economics, ethics, gymnastics, linguistics, optics, phonetics, physics, statistics;

- geographical names: the Alps, the Carpathians, the Netherlands;

- some nouns ending in -ing + s: diggings, doings, savings, surroundings, sweepings, takings, winnings;

- some adjectives turned into nouns by adding the suffix -(e)s: chemicals, commons, necessaries, news, odds, Olympics, riches, theatricals, valuables;

- miscellaneous: annals, barracks, clothes, colours (flag), contents, corps, customs, fireworks, funds, gallows, headquarters, manners, means, remains, sands, spirits, thanks, works.

6. Concord between Subject and Predicate.

The general rule is that a singular subject takes a singular verb and a plural subject takes a plural verb:

This girl speaks English. These girls speak English.

Compound nouns may be followed either by a singular verb or a plural one. When such a noun is regarded as a whole it takes a singular verb:

My family is called Smith.

but when it is thought of as a group of individuals, it takes a plural verb:

My family are at home.

However, such collective nouns as cattle, clergy, people, police, public are always followed by a plural verb:

The cattle were grazing in the field.

The police are investigating this case.

Two singular subjects connected by either . or; neither . nor; not only . but also; no less than . ; and not are followed by singular verb:

Either the boy or the girl knows the answer.

But when one subject is singular and the other one plural, the 'rule of proximity' must be observed:

Neither the teacher nor the pupils are in the classroom.

Neither the pupils nor the teacher is in the classroom.

Two or more subjects connected by 'and' take a plural verb:

The cat and the dog are under the table.

However, when the two subjects are regarded as a whole, a 'single idea', they are followed by a singular verb:

Fish and chips is a traditional English food.

Whisky and soda is Tim's favourite drink.

My neighbour and friend comes here every day (one person). My neighbour and friend come here every day (two different persons).

The same thing happens to nouns denoting units of measurement which take a singular verb when they are preceded by a numeral:

Fifty pounds is not a lot of money (= sum);

Five years is a long time (= period);

Twenty miles is a long distance

A singular noun preceded by 'each', 'either' or 'neither' takes a singular verb:

Each boy tells us a joke.

Either book is interesting.

Every student knows this answer.

Neither solution was good.

When a plural noun is preceded by 'neither of', it can be followed either by a singular or a plural verb:

Neither of the girls lives/live in this house.

The nouns 'body', 'heart', 'life', 'mind', 'soul' are used in the plural whenever they refer to more than one person:

Many people lost their lives in World War II.

The plural must be used with anything greater than one unit: one and a half years.

The words 'with', 'together with', 'as well as', 'in addition to', 'including' following a subject do not affect the number of the subject:

The woman with a large hat is very pretty

Tom, together with his sister, goes to the concert every Friday. Jane, as well as her brother, drinks a lot of milk.

When the 'formal subject' of a sentence is 'there', the predicate must agree with the 'real subject':

There is a book on the table.

There are many trees in the garden.

The noun 'number' takes a singular verb when it is preceded by the definite article the and a plural verb when it is preceded by a:

The number of mistakes is very large.

A number of people were waiting for me.

When the pronoun 'it' is used in identifying or emphatic constructions, it is followed by a singular verb:

It is these boys who broke my window.

The relative pronoun takes the same number and person as the word it modifies:

This is one of the most interesting books that have ever been written.

Singularia Tantum nouns (advice, information, furniture, damage, luggage, knowledge, machinery) are followed by a singular verb:

Your information is very interesting.

Kerry's luggage was very heavy.

Pluralia Tantum nouns will be followed either by plural verbs when they name things made of two parts (glasses, scissors, trousers), or when they are one of these: chemicals, contents, ashes, surroundings, or by singular verbs when they name diseases (measles, mumps), games (billiards, draughts, cards) or when they are one of these: news, works; either by singular or by plural verbs after names of sciences, subjects (acoustics - the singular verb refers to the science, the plural verb refers to the acoustic features; phonetics - the singular verb refers to the science, the plural verb refers to the phonetic features), or after such nouns as 'means', 'series', 'species'.

Examples:     His trousers are very smart.

Mumps is a very common illness with children.

Her news is extremely interesting.

Acoustics is the scientific study of sound.

The acoustics of this room are very good.

7. THE CASE.

The relation in which a noun stands to some other word, or the change of form (if any) by which this relation is indicated, is called the case. Most grammarians recognize four cases of nouns: nominative, possessive (or genitive), dative and objective (or accusative). The nominative and objective cases in Modern English nouns are always identical, the difference in forms between these cases appearing only in pronouns. The possessive case of nouns is marked by the addition of the apostrophe and 's' or by the 's' and the apostrophe to the nominative.

a. The nominative case is sometimes called the subjective case because its primary function is to name the subject of a finite verb, the subjective complement of a finite verb, the subjective complement of an infinitive that has no grammatical subject of its own or is used absolutely.

The uses of the nominative case are:

subject of a sentence or clause: Maria has already had breakfast;

predicative (the complement) of the verbs 'to appear', 'to be', 'to look', 'to seem': He was elected president;

direct address, designating a being or a thing to which we are addressing ourselves: John, may I borrow your book?;

explanatory modifier: This is mount Vernon, the home of George and Martha Washington;

subject of a non-finite verb, as part of the absolute nominative: Mother being very tired, I gave up asking her to help me.

b. The possessive/genitive case expresses both possession and origin, material, composition, measure. There are four genitive forms in English.

The synthetical/saxon/'s genitive is formed as follows:

- singular noun + 's: my mother's blouse;

- plural noun + ': The boys' ball was new;

- irregular plural noun + 's: the children's toys.

Proper names ending in s usually get only the apostrophe, although 's may also be used, in either case the ending of the noun being normally pronounced /iz/: Dickens' novels /dikinziz/; Dickens's novels /dikinziz/.

The synthetic genitive is used with:

a. proper names: Maria's native town;

b. names of persons: my sister's doll. When the possessor is represented by several words, the possessive ending is added after the last one only: the girl and the boy's toys (they have the same toys). If each possessor is followed by 's, this means that the possessed objects differ: The boy's and the girl's toys (the boy has the same toys and the girl has others). Similarly 's can also be added to a whole phrase: my mother-in-law's job

c. collective nouns: our committee's decisions;

d. names denoting other beings than persons: a spider's web;

e. personifications:

- abstract nouns: liberty's defence;

- names of countries/towns: Romania's population, Tg. Jiu's parks;

- names of celestial bodies: the Sun's rays.

f. names of vessels, boats, ships: our ship's crew;

g. names of chronological divisions or nouns denoting measurements, distance, weight, worth, etc.: tomorrow's meeting, today's newspaper, a ten minutes' conversation, two dollars' worth, a foot's distance;

h. idiomatic expressions: for god's sake, for goodness' sake, for heaven's sake, to be at death's door, to our heart's content, in my mind's eye, at one's finger's end, one's heart's desire, on a razor's edge.

Note! Sometimes the genitive is used elliptically, without the possessed object:

- when the possessed object has already been mentioned and we want to avoid repetition: Mary's dress is more beautiful than her sister's;

- when one of the following words (church, department store, hotel, shop, theatre, a person's house, etc.) is understood:

We visited St. Paul's.

Mother is going to the grocer's/butcher's/baker's.

I will stay at my uncle's.

The analytical/prepositional/periphrastic genitive is made up with the help of the preposition 'of'. It is used:

- when the possessor is a thing: the window of the room, the garden of the house;

- in some geographical names: the city of London;

- before substantivized adjectives: the needs of the poor;

- when we want to underline the importance of a proper name: the wars of Napoleon;

- before proper names followed by apposition: the house of Mr. Brown;

- when the possessor is a small animal or insect: the wings of the fly, the elephant's trunk;

- when the possessed object is preceded by demonstrative adjectives or by the indefinite article: those toys of the children, a cousin of mine;

- in some idiomatic expressions: all of the sudden, as a matter of fact , in front of, in place of , beyond , by means of (example: a devil of a child).

The double possessive consists of the combined analytical and synthetical genitives, usually having a partitive meaning: a portrait of Turner (one portraying him), a portrait of Turner's (one painted by him or belonging to him).

The implicit genitive. The genitive relation in this case is indicated only by word order having no other genitive markers: student hostel (= the hostel of the students), The United Nations Organization (= The Organization of the United Nations), The Union Square (= The Square of the Union).

c. The dative case indicates to whom the action of a verb is directed. It is the case of the indirect object marked either by the prepositions 'to' or 'for' or by word order:

I gave Maria a good book or I gave a good book to Maria.

Get it ready for me.

Although the preposition 'to' does not occur when the indirect object follows immediately after the verb , there are some verbs that always require the use of 'to': to address, to announce, to communicate, to declare, to describe, to explain, to mention , to read , to relate, to repeat, to suggest.

The prepositions 'of' and 'from' may also precede a noun in the dative case sometimes:

I inquired Alice what our programme was.

He took that toy from the baby.

'For' is required by such verbs as to bring, to buy, to do, to get, to live, to make, to order, to procure, 'of' by to ask something or to beg something, and 'from' by to require, to snatch, to take, to tear.

The dative case is generally used:

after such intransitive verbs as: to happen , to occur, to propose, to submit, to surrender followed by the preposition 'to':

It happened to my friend to be here.

after such transitive verbs as: to deny, to give, to hand, to lend, to offer, to pay, to read, to tell, to show, to write followed by a direct object and the preposition 'to':

I offered a bunch of flowers to that pretty girl.

after such transitive verbs as: to buy, to choose, to do, to leave, to make, to order, to save, followed by a direct object and an indirect object preceded by the preposition 'for':

I chose a hat for my father.

after such adjectives as: corresponding, cruel, kind, superior, followed by the preposition 'to':

She was very kind to her children.

after some nouns and pronouns followed by the preposition 'to':

He was like a father to the children.

His cruelty to the dog was unexpected .

d. The accusative case denotes the object affected by the verb. A noun in the accusative may be:

- a direct object: I saw the film again;

- a prepositional object: They listened to the teacher;

- an adverbial modifier (of time, place or manner):

I meet her every day.

She came to school by car.

The dogs were running full speed.