Definition: A noun is a word used to refer to people, animals, objects, substances, states, events and feelings.
Nouns can be a subject or an object of a verb, can be modified by an adjective and can take an article or
determiner.
For example:
Table
Pencil
The dog
A white house
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
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
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 indicate possession. If the noun already ha
-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 genitive marker should not be confused with the " 's " form of contracted verbs, as in John's a good stude
John is a good student.
Noun Gender
Many common nouns, like "engineer" or "teacher", can refer to men or women. Once, many English nouns w
change form depending on their gender. For example: A man was called an "author" while a woman was calle
"authoress".
For example:
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.
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 activit
(can only be singular)
Proper Noun
Definition: Proper nouns ( also called proper names) are the words which name specific people, organisation
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 Oc
Spain.
Examples:
Names of people, places and organisations are called proper nouns. We spell proper nouns
with a capital letter:
Mohammed Ali; Birmingham; China; Oxford University, the United Nations
We use capital letters for festivals:
Christmas; Deepawali; Easter; Ramadan; Thanksgiving
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.
There are two kinds of nouns, common and proper, common noun names general items.
Examples:
Example sentences:
Concrete noun
Definition: Concrete nouns refers to objects and substances, including people and animals, physical items tha
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 or plural nouns. Conc
nouns can also be a common noun, proper nouns and collective 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 c
be seen and touched by everyone.
Other examples:
Proper Nouns:
Mrs. Jones, Tom Cruse, Max Ryan
Abstract Noun
Definition: An abstract noun refers to states, events, concepts, feelings, qualities, etc., that have no physical
existence.
Examples:
1. Friendship; peace; romance; humor are all abstract nouns that have no physical existence.
An abstract noun can be either a countable noun or uncountable noun. Abstract nouns that refer to events are
action
combination
imagination
production
reduction
attractiveness
bitterness
friendliness
tenderness
ugline
More examples:
Count Noun
Definition: A Count Noun is a noun which can be modified by a numeral and occur in both singular and plur
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, usua
by adding -s or -es at the end.
For example:
Examples:
Persons
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
Things
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-coun
noun.
For example:
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
You only use "many" and "few" with plural countable nouns.
For example:
You can use "a lot of" and "no" with plural countable nouns.
For example:
Uncountable Noun
Definition: An uncountable noun (or non-count noun) is a type of common noun that cannot be modified by
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 sometim
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 whol
group of things that is made up of many individual parts. Uncountable nouns are always singular. Use the
Examples:
Things
Qualities
dependability
honesty
loyalty
sincerity
integrity
Fields of Study
psychology
history
social work
economics
biology
English
anatomy
philosophy
religion
theology
water
stuff
money
advice
proof
equipment
dust
homework
fun
information
ink
luck
Some nouns, like the word time, beauty, fire, death, gossip can be used as either a count noun, or a non-coun
noun.
For example:
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
You can use "a lot of" and "no" with uncountable nouns.
For example:
traffic
items of...
time
victory
use
property
work
Games:
Diseases:
flock
gang
government
group
herd
media
public
regiment
staff
team
We can use these group nouns either as singular nouns or as plural nouns:
The names of many organisations and teams are also group nouns, but they are usually
plural in spoken English:
6: Two-part nouns
A few plural nouns, like binoculars, refer to things that have two parts.
glasses
jeans
knickers
pincers
pants
pliers
pyjamas
trainers
scissors
shorts
spectacles
tights
trousers
tweezers
These binoculars were very expensive
Those trousers are too long.
To make it clear we are talking about one of these items, we use a pair of
I need a new pair of spectacles.
Ive bought a pair of blue jeans.
If we want to talk about more than one, we use pairs of :
Weve got three pairs of scissors, but they are all blunt.
I always carry two pairs of binoculars.