Compound numerals in Russian. Which question does the numeral answer?

The grammar of modern Russian has ten parts of speech. You can divide them into interjections and not interjections, into independent and official ones. Independent not interwoven parts of speech are divided into names, a verb and an adverb. The names in Russian are three: the adjective, the noun, the numeral. On the basis of some signs, to them it is possible to carry and pronouns.

Numeral as a nominal part of speech

What words refer to numerals? Which question does the numeral answer? How is the numeral declined? Not a complete list of issues related to the definition of the numerals. As with all nominal parts of speech, numeracy is inherent in declension in the case paradigm. The initial form is the nominative case. The category of the genus is absent in numerals (except for numerals two, one , ordinal numbers and collective both). Not defined in this part of speech and the category of numbers, except ordinal numerals.

Numerals can be all members of a sentence. Often they perform the syntactic role of the subject, definition or addition. Rarely they are predicates and circumstances. The word combinations of the numerals and nouns are indivisible and act as one member of the sentence.

Grammatical categories of numerals

Names numerals in semantics and grammatically divided into ordinal and quantitative. The discharge is determined depending on which question the numerals answer. If the question is asked: "how much?", "In what quantity?" , Then it refers to the category of quantitative numerals. The words that answer the question: "what kind of account?" Are ordinal numerals.

The quantitative names of the numerals are divided into three subspecies: the actual quantitative (twenty, forty-eight, nine hundred), fractional (one fifth, nine tenths), collective (two, eight).

Structural types of numerals

A numeral can consist of one or more words. Numerical, consisting of one root, is simple: one hundred, three, one million, fifteen . If the number consists of one word, in which there are two roots, then this is a complex numeral: two hundred, five hundred, fifty, nine hundred . Compound numerals are those numbers that include two words or more: the thirty-fifth, twenty thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, four eighths, one whole five-tenths .

Declination of numerals

The peculiarities of declination of numerals are one of the complex themes of Russian morphology. Questions on the declension of simple numerals are few, although each numeral tends to be unique. Simple and compound numerals tend to differ in different ways, if they relate to different digits. Complex quantitative numerals with declination change both roots. Each root is changed as a separate numeral.

The compound quantitative numeral with declination changes each word as a separate word.

Fractional numerals are always compound numerals (excluding the word " one and a half" ), with the declension of which every word changes.

The words one and a half and a half have a special paradigm of declination. They have only two forms: accusative and nominative cases: one and a half, one and a half hundred , and indirect cases: one and a half, one and a half hundred .

Ordinal numerals vary according to the paradigm of declension of adjectives.

Ordinal compound numerals tend to be different: in the oblique cases the form of only the last word changes.

Spelling of quantitative numerals

In Russian, there are rules for spelling the names of numerals, which need to be guided.

1. At the end of some numerals, a soft sign - b (from 5 to 20, 30) is necessary. In the other numerals, b is written in the middle of the word, after the first root (50, 60, 70, 80, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900).
2. Separate compound numerals are written separately: 489 - four hundred eighty nine , 21453 - twenty one thousand four hundred fifty three .
   
3. Fractional numerals have a separate spelling: six sevenths, one fourth .
4. The numerical thousand leans in the paradigm of the noun 1 declension: a thousand (cloud) - thousands (clouds) .

Spelling of ordinal numerals

The spelling of ordinal numbers differs from the spelling of quantitative ones. Separately, compound numerals are written. Examples are as follows: 2010 - two thousand tenth , 34th - thirty fourth . Consecutive numbers are written together, ending in -millionth, -thousand, -billionth : 20000th - twenty thousandth , 5000000th - five millionth .

The syntactic role of numerals

Simple and compound numerals perform the same roles in a sentence, often associating a noun with a single sentence member. For example, the phrase "numeral + noun" may be subject: "One house is built. Twenty-three houses have been built . " However, the phrase "ordinal + noun" is not one member of the sentence, and the ordinal number fulfills the role of the definition.

The boundaries of the numerals

In Russian linguistics has long been the question of determining the boundaries of the numerals as part of speech. The leading scientists emphasize the insufficient formation of this part of speech. There is a group of linguists who do not recognize the numerals as a separate part of speech. In this regard, there are different opinions on determining the composition of numerals. In the narrow sense, only numerals refer to the numerals: both compound numerals, and simple, and complex, and ordinal ones are included in the category of relative adjectives. In the broadest sense, numerals include the ranks of quantitative and ordinal, as well as words that do not denote a specific quantity: as much, many, as much, little.