Parts of Speech I - NOUN

I NOUN

Usage:
A noun names people, animals, places, things, qualities, states.

Main types:

A. Common
>person, teacher, log chair, sparrow, school, home ( no capital letter)

B. Proper
>Stephen, Italy, America, Mickey Mouse, Saturn (always with a capital letter)

C. Compound
>post office, bus driver, car park, textbook, bookcase, classroom, suitcase, sunshine (two nouns joined to make new noun)

D. Abstract
>beauty, intelligence, democracy, happiness (something we experience as an idea, and cannot touch)

E. Collective
>family, flock, herd, shoal, posse (name a group of individuals as if they were one

Plurals

Plurals indicate more than one. Noun plurals are usually created by adding an s. If the noun ends in ch, sh, x, s we usually add es.

For example: cats, beds,watches, wishes, boxes, buses.

A noun that ends in a consonant plus y, the y will usually change to an i then add es.

For example: family-families

A noun ending in an f will usually replace the f with a v and then add es. For example thief-thieves. Note that there are exceptions, such as brief-briefs. There are many more exceptions for plurals, for example:

tooth-teeth man-men
child-children foot-feet

These are just some of the common examples. There are other exceptions such as sheep where the noun doesn't change between singular and plural. Unfortunately, there are no rules for these irregular noun plurals, and must simply be memorized by students of English.

Countable Nouns
People creatures and things that can be counted.
They can be preceded by articles a/an/the and can be used in the plural.
>a car, an egg, the table, the pig
>car, egg, table, pig
>cars, eggs, tables, pigs

Uncountable Nouns
Things that cannot be counted.
They cannot have a, or an in front of them, and cannot be used in the plural.
> music, advice, rice, bread, water, information

Note that some nouns can be countable and uncountable depending on the sense in which they are used.

We have a chicken in the fridge. (one whole bird)
There is a chicken on the menu tonight. (we cannot state exactly how much chicken)

Whether a noun is countable or uncountable can have an effect on other parts of the sentence. For example, you can say "I don''t have much money." but you cannot say "I dont have many money." That is because much is used with uncountable nouns, while many is used with countable. Other similar expression include a little and a few.