For example:
- Table
- Pencil
- The dog
- A white house
Nouns also denote abstract and intangible concepts.
For example:
- birth
- happiness
- evolution
- technology, etc.
Noun Plurals
We are going to explain some rules that will help you to form the plural forms of the nouns. The general rule is to add "-s" to the noun in singular.
We are going to explain some rules that will help you to form the plural forms of the nouns. The general rule is to add "-s" to the noun in singular.
For exaample:
- Book - Books
- House - Houses
- Chair - Chairs
When the singular noun ends in: -sh, -ch, -s, -ss, -x, -o we form their plural form by adding "-es".
For exaample:
- sandwich - sandwiches
- brush - brushes
- bus - buses
- box - boxes
- potato - potatoes
When the singular noun ends in "y", we change the "y" for "i" and then add "-es" to form the plural form. But do not change the "y" for "ies" to form the plural when the singular noun ends in "y" preceded by a vowel.
For exaample:
- nappy - nappies
- day - days
- toy - toys
However, there are many Irregular Nouns which do not form the plural in this way:
For exaample:
- Woman - Women
- Child - Children
- Sheep - Sheep
Nouns may take an " 's " ("apostrophe s") or "Genitive marker" to indicatepossession. If the noun already has an -s ending to mark the plural, then the genitive marker appears only as an apostrophe after the plural form.
For example:
- my girlfriend's brother
- John's house
- The Browns' house
- The boys' pens
The genitive marker should not be confused with the " 's " form of contracted verbs, as in John's a good student = John is a good student.
Noun Gender
Many common nouns, like "engineer" or "teacher", can refer to men or women. Once, many English nouns would change form depending on their gender. For example: A man was called an "author" while a woman was called an "authoress".
Many common nouns, like "engineer" or "teacher", can refer to men or women. Once, many English nouns would change form depending on their gender. For example: A man was called an "author" while a woman was called an "authoress".
For example:
- David Garrick was a very prominent eighteenth-century actor.
- Sarah Siddons was at the height of her career as an actress in the 1780s.
- The manager was trying to write a want ad, but he couldn't decide whether he was advertising for a "waiter" or a "waitress"
Types of Nouns
- Proper nouns are the names of specific things, people, or places, such as Jhon, France. They usually begin with a capital letter.
- Common nouns are general names such as person, mansion, and book. They can be either concrete or abstract.
- Concrete nouns refer to things which you can sense such as clock and telephone.
- Abstract nouns refer to ideas or qualities such as liberty and truth.
- Countable nouns refer to things which can be counted (can be singular or plural)
- Uncountable nouns refer to some groups of countable nouns, substances, feelings and types of activity (can only be singular)
Proper Noun
Definition: Proper nouns ( also called proper names) are the words which name specific people, organisations, places, titles, cities, countries, calendar times, etc. They are always written with a capital letter.
For example:
- Janet; Simon; John Wesley; London; The President; Tuesday; Christmas;Thanksgiving; Atlantic Ocean; Spain.
Examples:
- Peter lives in Spain.
- Many people dread Monday mornings.
- Beltane is celebrated on the first of May.
- Abraham appears in the Talmud and in the Koran.
Common Noun
Definition: A common noun is a word that names people, places, things, or ideas. They are not the names of a single person, place or thing. A common noun begins with a lowercase letter unless it is at the beginning of a sentence.
Examples:
- People: man, woman, girl, baby, son, dughther, policeman, teacher
- Animals: cat, dog, fish, ant, snake
- Things: bear, book, boat, table, chair, phone
- Places: bank, school, city, building, shop
- Ideas: love, hate, idea, pride
- apple: I love a good red apple after dinner.
- dog, yard: The black dog is in my yard.
- book, table: The red book is on the table.
- call: Give me a call when you arrive.
Concrete Noun
Definition: Concrete nouns refers to objects and substances, including people and animals, physical items that we can perceive through our senses, that means concrete nouns can be touched, felt, held, something visible, smelt, taste, or be heard.
Concrete nouns can be countable nouns or uncountable nouns, and singular nouns orplural nouns. Concrete nouns can also be a common noun, proper nouns andcollective nouns.
Example:
- This is my house. * In this example the noun "house" names a building where I live. That building is an individual object and can be seen and touched by everyone.
- Common Concrete Nouns:
snake, cat, table, girl, water - Countable Concrete Nouns (Singular):
table, computer, book, door - Countable Concrete Nouns (Plural):
tables, computers, books, doors - Uncountable Concrete Nouns:
sugar, rice, water, air, oil, salt, cheese - Proper Nouns:
Mrs. Jones, Tom Cruse, Max Ryan
* "Time" is a concept that has no physical existence; it is not a Concrete Noun
Definition: An abstract noun refers to states, events, concepts, feelings, qualities, etc., that have no physical existence.
Examples:
- Friendship; peace; romance; humor are all abstract nouns that have no physical existence.
Count Noun
Definition: A Count Noun is a noun which can be modified by a numeral and occur in both singular and plural form, as well as co-occurring with quantificational determiners like every, each, several, most, etc. Countable nouns are individual objects, people, places, etc. which can be counted. Count nouns can be made plural, usually by adding -s or -es at the end.
For example:
- She saw seven cows in the garden
- There is a cow in the garden.
- Every cow is an animal.
Examples:
| Usually count nouns | ||
|---|---|---|
| Persons | Places | Things |
| child/ren teacher/s student/s plumber/s lawyer/s psychologist/s historian/s economist/s biologist/s reporter/s dean/s coordinator/s researcher/s | store/s mall/s park/s bar/s office/s school/s home/s station/s church/es deli/s cafeteria/s shop/s airport/s | shoe/s car/s door/s house/s key/s letter/s chair/s box/es cow/s poster/s glass/es ball/s |
Some nouns, like the word time, beauty, fire, death, gossip can be used as either a count noun, or a non-count noun.
For example:
- How much time did it take for you to drive to school?.
Here, time is a non-count noun, because it refers to a category that contains smaller items (think of it as a "group" of minutes). - How many times did you take the test before you passed?.
Here, time is a count noun, because you can count exactly how many separate times you took the test. - They had a death in the family.
- Death is a tragic thing.
- Supermarkets have aisles for different foods.
- The animals at the zoo wanted food.
The "much" and "many" Rule
Many is used with count nouns.
Many is used with count nouns.
For example:
- How many papers do you have to write?
- There were too many books required for that class.
For example:
- How much homework did you have last night?
- I had to read so much literature for my English class.
You can use "some" and "any" with countable nouns.
For example:
For example:
- Some dogs can be dangerous.
- I don't use any computers at work.
For example:
- Many elephants have been hunted.
- There are few elephants in England.
For example:
- No computers were bought last week.
- A lot of computers were reported broken the week before.
Uncountable Noun
Definition: An uncountable noun (or non-count noun) is a type of common noun that cannot be modified by a number without specifying a unit of measurement. In general, non-count nouns are considered to refer to indivisible wholes (which are not individual objects and can not be counted). For this reason, they are sometimes called MASS nouns. Uncountable nouns are used to describe a quality, action, thing or substance that can be poured or measured. Non-Count nouns also refer to a whole category made up of different varieties or a whole group of things that is made up of many individual parts. Uncountable nouns are always singular. Use the singular form of the verb with uncountable nouns.
For example:
- There is some water in that pitcher.
- That is the equipment we use for the project.
Examples:
| Usually non-count nouns | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Things | Qualities | Actions | Fields of Study |
| water stuff money advice proof equipment dust homework fun information ink luck | dependability honesty loyalty sincerity integrity | walking/to walk typing/to type jumping/to jump thinking/to think swimming/to swim | psychology history social work economics biology English anatomy philosophy religion theology |
Some nouns, like the word time, beauty, fire, death, gossip can be used as either a count noun, or a non-count noun.
For example:
- How much time did it take for you to drive to school?.
Here, time is a non-count noun, because it refers to a category that contains smaller items (think of it as a "group" of minutes). - How many times did you take the test before you passed?.
Here, time is a count noun, because you can count exactly how many separate times you took the test. - They had a death in the family.
- Death is a tragic thing.
- Supermarkets have aisles for different foods.
- The animals at the zoo wanted food.
The "much" and "many" Rule
Many is used with count nouns.
Many is used with count nouns.
For example:
- How many papers do you have to write?
- There were too many books required for that class.
For example:
- How much homework did you have last night?
- I had to read so much literature for my English class.
You can use "some" and "any" with uncountable nouns.
For example:
For example:
- I usually drink some wine with my meal.
- I don't usually drink any water with my wine.
For example:
- I don't usually drink much coffee.
- Little wine is undrinkable though.
For example:
- A lot of wine is drunk in France.
- No wine is drunk in Iran.
This source is from http://www.englishlanguageguide.com
