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Nouns
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Nouns Explained
Nouns are a word class which are used to identify objects in the real world Concrete Nouns or any state of mind e.g. love and hate Abstract Nouns. The word Noun comes from the Latin word “numen” meaning name. We can work out if a word is a noun by asking ourselves "Is it a name"? When learning a foreign language one of the first and most useful questions we can learn to ask is: What is it called? What do you call that? When doing so you are asking for the name of something e.g. a place, a person, an object or a thing even an emotion is a noun.
Examples of Common Nouns: It’s called a frog. Frog is the name we give to this kind of animal. What is it called? It’s called snow. What is it called? It’s called a city. Be careful when deciding if you think a word is a noun or not. Emotions like Love, Hate and Happiness are all nouns. Activities like play, work and leisure are also nouns. All the colours are also nouns.
Common and Proper Nouns
Countable Nouns
All nouns that can be counted can be expressed in the singular or plural. The most common expression of the plural is by the addition of an “s” at the end of the noun. Cat becomes cats. River becomes rivers.This is known as “the regular” form. For most plural forms the addition of an “s” to the original singular form will be sufficient to create the plural. However there are many exceptions. Here are some of the most common exceptions.
Can you count it? Yes you can!
How many cats are there? There are five cats! (Countable noun)
How many rivers are there? There are hundreds of rivers. (Countable noun)
Regular and Irregular Countable Nouns
| Regular Nouns | Irregular Nouns |
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
| Cat | Cats | Chid | Children |
| Pen | Pens | Man | Men |
| Television | Televisions | Woman | Women |
| Hammer | Hammers | Person | People |
| School | Schools | Mouse | Mice |
| Job | Jobs | Sheep | Sheep |
| Session | Sessions | Series | Series |
| Tradition | Traditions | Kiss | Kisses |
| Instrument | Instruments | Tooth | Teeth |
Un-countable Nouns
Many Nouns cannot be counted by the nature of what they are that is it makes no sense to use numbers when talking about them. This applies to all abstract nouns and some common nouns.
How much do you love me? I Love you a lot. Correct
Can you count it? No you can’t
How many do you love me? I love you twelve! Incorrect
Can you count it? No you can’t
You must really hate him. Yes, I hate him a lot. Correct
Can you count it? No you can’t
You must hate him twenty-seven. I hate him thirty. Incorrect
Can you count it? No you can’t
Other examples of uncountable nouns are liquids and similar things like sugar, salt and butter, which are inherently difficult to count. There are ways that we can get around this problem by the addition of something that is countable. e.g.
1) Three spoonfuls of sugar.
Instead of counting the sugar (grain by gain) we count how many spoons of sugar we want.
The same is true of liquids. Like beer, wine, water or milk.
2) Three glasses of wine.
3) Five pints of beer.
4) Four litters of milk
5) Six bags of cement.
6) Two pieces of furniture.
Possessive forms
The simplest way to explain this, is that a possessive from of noun is used to indicate ownership over something from the word “possession”, meaning to belong to, or to be owned by.
The simplest way to spot a possessive noun is to look for ’s
It is John’s book. The book belongs to John.
That is Mary’s leg. It is part of her body.
That is Louis’ picture. Louis painted it.
Beijing is China’s capital city. Beijing belongs to China.
The Mississippi is America’s most famous river. The Mississippi belongs to America.
Compound Nouns and Noun Combinations
Nouns are often put together or combined to express one thing, this is known as a noun combination. When noun combinations are a regular occurrence the two nouns are often joined by a hyphen – or can even be written as one word. When nouns are combined they act as one. The first noun in a noun combination often tells us more about the second “main” noun acting in some way like an adjective.
Examples: of Compound nouns and noun combinations; light bulb, ice-cream, weekend, computer virus, timetable, battlefield, mobile phone, schoolbag, homework
Collective Nouns
Collective nouns are used to refer to groups of people. Although a group contains more than one individual, collective nouns can be used in the singular, depending on weather you want to emphasise, the group as a unified body or the individuals within the group.
Everyone is happy
The Staff are happy
The Army is moving into position.
The Army are moving into position.
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