KINDS OF NOUNS

·       Common Nouns – are names of people (e.g. man), things (e.g. books), animals (e.g. monkey) and places (church).

·       Proper Nouns – are special names of people (e.g. George Bush), things (e.g. Financial Times), animals (e.g. King Kong) and places (e.g. Paris). A proper noun begins with a Capital Letter.

·       Abstract Nouns – An abstract noun is the name of something that we can only think of or feel but cannot see (e.g. friendship).

·       Collective Nouns – are names used for a number of people, things or animals together and treated as one. For example: a group of friends, a bunch of bananas, a litter of puppies.     

·       Countable and Uncountable Nouns – Countable nouns are nouns which can be counted (e.g. trees). Uncountable nouns are nouns which cannot be counted. (e.g. smoke).

 

Countable and Uncountable Nouns are used with the following:

Countable Noun	Uncountable Noun
a, an, a few, several, many,	a little, much, some, plenty of,
some, plenty of, a lot of,	a lot of, a large amount of,
a large number of	a great deal of

Nouns have four genders:

1.  Masculine Gender – The masculine gender is used for all males. Example: boy, man

2.  Feminine Gender – The feminine gender is used for all females. Example: girl, woman

3.  Common Gender – The common gender is used where the noun can be both male and female. Example: cousin, friend, person, child, student

4.  Neuter Gender – The neuter gender is used for things which have no life or sex. Example: table, chair.

 

Singular and Plural Nouns – A noun that shows only one person (e.g. a girl), thing (e.g. pencil), animal (e.g. tiger) or place (e.g. market) is called a singular noun).

A noun that shows more than one person (e.g. girls), thing (e.g. pencils), animal (e.g. tigers) or place (e.g. markets) is called a plural noun.

How plural nouns are formed.

By adding –s.

By adding ‘es’ to nouns ending in –ch, –s, –sh and –x.

beach	beaches	peach	peaches
branch	branches	speech	speeches
ditch	ditches	watch	watches

 

boss	bosses	glass	glasses
bus	buses	lens	lenses
chorus	choruses	pass	passes

 

brush	brushes	fish	fishes
bush	bushes	lash	lashes
dish	dishes	wish	wishes

 

box	boxes	hoax	hoaxes
fax	faxes	six	sixes
fox	foxes	tax	taxes

 

By adding ‘es’ to nouns ending in –o.

buffalo	buffaloes	potato	potatoes
cargo	cargoes	mosquito	mosquitoes
echo	echoes	tomato	tomatoes

 

By adding ‘s’ to nouns ending in –o.

banjo	banjos	patio	patios
bamboo	bamboos	photo	photos
radio	radios	video	videos

 

By replacing ‘y’ with –ies.

baby	babies	lorry	lorries
fly	flies	navy	navies
hobby	hobbies	puppy	puppies

 

By adding ‘s’ to nouns ending in –y.

boy	boys	key	keys
day	days	toy	toys
donkey	donkeys	turkey	turkeys

 

By replaying ‘f’ or ‘fe’ with –ves.

calf	calves	loaf	loaves
half	halves	self	selves
life	lives	wife	wives

  

By adding ‘s’ to nouns ending in –f or –fe.

chief	chiefs	hoof	hoofs
dwarf	dwarfs	reef	reef
gulf	gulfs	roof	roofs

 

By changing vowels.      

foot	feet	louse	lice
goose	geese	tooth	teeth
mouse	mice	woman	women

Some nouns have same words for plural and singular.

aircraft	aircraft	music	music
crossroads	crossroads	series	series
furniture	furniture	sheep	sheep

 

Exceptional plural.

child	children	ox	oxen
crisis	crises	passer-by	passers-by
mouse	mice	radius	radii

 

FORMING NOUNS

Nouns can be formed from nouns, verbs and adjectives. They are formed by adding certain letters to them.

Nouns	Nouns
widow	widowhood
friend	friendship
king	kingdom

 

Verbs	Nouns
add	addition
fail	failure
give	gift

 

Adjectives	Nouns
clean	cleanliness
sad	sadness
beautiful	beauty