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➢Nouns are naming words.➢They name people, places and objects.➢They can also name ideas, emotions, qualities and activities.
➢Here are some examples of nouns:➢ Peter, Elizabeth, driver, sister, friend.➢ Bristol, Severn, Brazil, pen, dog, money.
➢ Love, beauty, industry, nature, greed, pain.
nouns
proper
common
countable
uncountable
abstract
concrete
abstract
concrete
➢ Proper nouns start with capital letters.
➢They are the names of people, places, times, organisations etc.
➢They refer to unique individuals.➢Most are not found in the dictionary.➢They often occur in pairs or groups.➢Here are some examples.
Tony Blair
King Henry
Bridget Jones
Christmas
China
Thames
Keynsham
Sony
Coca Cola
Macbeth
President Bush
The Jam
Coronation Street
Saturn
Carly
John
Portugal
The Ford Motor Company
Oxfam
➢All nouns which are not proper nouns are common nouns.
➢A few examples: cup, art, paper, work, frog, bicycle, atom, family, mind.
➢Common nouns are either countable or uncountable.
➢ Use these tests for countable nouns:➢ Countable (or just “count”) nouns can be made
plural: a tree… two trees; a man… men; a pony… ponies.
➢ Use these tests for uncountable nouns:➢ Uncountable (or non-count) nouns cannot be
made plural. We cannot say: two funs, three advices or five furnitures.
➢ We never use a or an with them.➢ We ask: How much money/time/milk?
(Not How many?)➢ We say: A little help/effort. (Not A few.)
Some nouns may be countable or uncountable, depending on how we use them.
We buy a box of chocolates (countable) or a bar of chocolate (uncountable).
We ask: How much time? but How many times? (where times = occasions).
We sit in front of a television (set) to watch television (broadcasting).
•Remember that both countable and uncountable nouns can be divided into concrete and abstract nouns.
Concrete nouns are the words that exist physically.
Concrete nouns are the words which at least one of our senses can detect.
They are mostly the names of objects and animals (countable) and substances or materials (uncountable).
Cake, oxygen, iron, boy, dog, pen, glass, pomegranate, earthworm and door are all concrete nouns.
Abstract nouns name ideas, feelings and qualities.
Most, though not all, are uncountable.Many are derived from adjectives and
verbs and have characteristic endings such as –ity, -ness, -ence, and -tion.
They are harder to recognise as nouns than the concrete variety.
You won’t confuse abstract nouns with adjectives, as long as you apply a few tests.
Happy is an adjective. It behaves like one: very happy; so happy; happier; ashappy as
Happiness behaves like a noun: Thehappiness I feel; her happiness; greathappiness.
A few more examplesVerb or adjective Abstract noun
We were differentfrom each other.
The difference between us.
My work is precise. I work with precision.
The air is pure. The purity of the air.
I composed this tune.
This tune is my composition.
It is so beautiful. It has such beauty.
You support me. The support you give me.
Abstract Noun ExamplesLove, wisdom, talent, patience, success,
failure, pride, justice, honesty, courage, energy, faith, misery, sadness, truth, curiosity, parenthood, intelligence, foolishness, happiness, doubt, trust, loyalty, deceit, beauty, bravery, friendship, enmity, persistence, satisfaction, misery, patriotism, fear, liberty, pleasure, peace, reality, awe, omen, music
Collective nouns name a group or
collection of people, places, things or
ideas. They are considered one unit and
so they are singular.
Examples:
The crowd sounds like a herd of elephants.
The staff includes professionals and
nonprofessionals.
The group of students is standing in line.
Material nouns are the names of the
substances which things are made
of. These types of nouns are mostly proper
nouns than common
Material Noun Examples
gold, mercury, water, milk, juice, copper,
steel, iron, diamond, soap, rain, paint,
perfume, deodorant, planets, ponds, soil,
forests, sugar, deserts, islands, sky, moon,
rock, hair, hurricane, salt, coal, coffee, tea,
wood, oil, leather nouns.
Nouns change their form for only two grammatical reasons:
Countable nouns have a plural form. This is usually formed by adding –s, of course, but there are some irregular forms.
The possessive form of a noun is created by adding –’s (Henry’s cat) or just an apostrophe (all our students’ results).
The plural noun is generally formed by
adding -s to the singular.
Cow (singular), cows (plural)
Boy, boys
Girl, girls
Book, books
Nouns ending in -s, -sh, -ch or -x form
the plural by adding -es to the singular.
Class (singular), classes (plural)
Brush, brushes
Most nouns ending in -o also form their
plural by adding -es to the singular.
Mango (singular), mangoes (plural)
Hero, heroes
Note that a few nouns ending in -o merely
add -s.
Dynamo (singular), dynamos (plural)
Piano, pianos
Nouns ending in a consonant + y form
their plural by changing -y into -i and
adding -es.
Baby (singular), babies (plural)
Lady, ladies
The following nouns ending in -f or -fe
form their plural by changing -f or -fe
into v and adding -es.
Thief (singular), thieves (plural)
Wife, wives
Leaf, leaves
Most other nouns ending in -f or -fe add -
s.
Chief (singular), chiefs
Gulf, gulfs
Some nouns retain plural endings from Old English:
Men, geese, mice, oxen, feet, teeth, knives.