1. PES/ENG/VIII/032
• This is Alpha Version file.
• Pl check it thoroughly and correct wherever necessary.
A Punjab Edusat Society Production
SUBJECT – English
CLASS – VIII
CHAPTER – NOUNS
Opening sequence
Show the scene of a room with a bed, table (books, pencils placed on it) and
the keys hanging or placed on the door
Anchor 1
Children! When you walk around your house can you find nouns?
Everything in your house is a noun: the bed, the table, the books, the pencil,
the keys and so on. Will you be able to describe anything that you have seen
without a name? Certainly not! There is a name given to all that is seen, felt
or heard. And the word used to name any person, place, animal, thing and
abstract idea, is called a NOUN. When you see a beautiful picture, wouldn’t
it be a pity if we were not able to express what we saw and felt about it? It
surely would have been. Words have made our lives so simple. And today
we are going to go through some of these wonderful words which form part
of every sentence. No sentence is complete without any form of Noun. Yes,
all naming words are called Nouns. There are different kinds of Nouns, there
are different forms of Nouns, Nouns can be counted and some Nouns cannot
be counted. It is all going to be very interesting because all this information
will help us to construct correct sentences when we either speak or write.
VO with text on board 2
Learning Objectives
So, by the end of this module, the learner will
• Recall the definition of a Noun.
• List the different types of Nouns.
• Identify the forms of Noun ( singular / plural )
• Explain the grammatical property of a Noun ( genders )
Anchor.2
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So, a NOUN is a word that refers to a person, place, animal, event, quality or
thing.
For example, ( the example sentences may be shown on the screen)
1. The boy went to the railway station to pick - up his grandparents.
Here, the boy is a person. So, it’s a noun. Railway station is a place. So it’s a
noun. The word – grandparents is also a name of persons, so it’s a noun.
2. The bird sat in its nest on the tree.
Here, bird is an animal, so it’s a noun. Nest and tree are things as well as
place. That is where did the bird sit? In its nest on the tree. So, nest and tree
are also nouns.
3. We celebrate our Independence Day on the 15th of August.
Here, Independence Day is an event, so it is a noun. August is the name of a
month, so it’s a noun.
But there are five different types of noun. They are Proper noun, Common
noun, Abstract noun, Collective noun and Material noun.
Proper nouns are names of particular persons, places, event or things. For
example,
( Pictures of examples may be shown on the screen)
Taj Mahal, The Himalayas, President Abdul Kalam, Guru Purab, Rajesh,etc.
Remember Proper nouns always start with a capital letter.
Common nouns are names common to every thing or person or place of the
same kind, class or group. The difference between a proper noun and a
common noun is that a common noun does not name any particular person,
place or thing. For example,
Boy, woman, doctor, teacher, park, bird, pen, horse, etc.
Note the difference between a Proper noun and a Common noun. While boy
is a common noun, Ravi is a proper noun. While woman is a common noun
Mrs. Pratibha Patel is a proper noun. While doctor is a common noun, Dr.
Rajendra Prasad is a proper noun. Common Nouns include what are called
Abstract noun, Collective noun and Material noun.
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Abstract nouns tell us about a quality we have, an event that occurred, our
state of mind or an idea that occurred to us. Abstract nouns cannot be seen
like the Proper noun or the common noun. We can only think of them, listen
to them or feel them.
For example, freedom, history, death, happiness, childhood, music.
Collective noun is the name given to the group of same type of persons or
things. They are taken together and Collective noun is considered as one.
For example,
One dozen eggs. Dozen tells us the amount of eggs.
A flock of geese. Flock again means many of the same kind. That is, birds
of the same kind. There are other terms like, army, class, crowd, etc.
Material noun is the name used for matter or substance of which things are
made of. It cannot be counted but can be measured.
For example, milk, water, gold air, gas, plastic, rice etc
Before we proceed any further, don’t you think we should find out how
much we have understood and how much we remember of what we have
learnt? Let us have a quick recap. Let us pick the nouns from the sentences
and place them under the correct columns.
(For MM) Take five sentences and the answer table to place the different
types of noun under different heads and then the remaining five and place
the answers as suggested
VO with text on board 3.
1. We should show respect to our elders.
2. Christmas is celebrated in the month of December.
3. The Ganga is the holy river of India
4. The tiger is the most ferocious of all animals.
5. The crowd was very big.
6. A flock of geese were swimming in the pond.
7. Without health there is no happiness.
8. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime-minister of India.
9. Wisdom is better than strength.
10. He gave me a bunch of grapes.
( Answer given below)
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Common noun Proper noun Collective noun Abstract noun
elders. Christmas crowd respect
river Ganga bunch ferocious
month December. flock strength.
Prime-minister Jawaharlal Wisdom
Nehru
tiger India. happiness
pond. health
grapes holy
Anchor 3
You know something very interesting about a noun? Only Common nouns
can be either counted or cannot be counted. Like we have learnt just now
that common nouns are names common to every person, place, animal or
thing. Some of the things may or may not be counted.
They are called Countable and Uncountable Nouns.
What we cannot count are those which cannot be divided into singular or
plural. Like, milk, water, sugar, beauty, oxygen, happiness, tea, coffee, lassi,
rice. Can you count them? We cannot. And something very important you
must remember is that what we cannot count, is always singular.
For example –
1. Please give me a tumbler of lassi.
2. I would like some milk and a teaspoonful of sugar in my cup of tea.
Just see, we have not said lassis or milks or sugars or teas. Because that
would have been wrong.
Whereas what we can count, may be either singular or plural. That is, they
are either One or Many. Like, one chair-many chairs, one pen-many pens.
So what we can count are called Countable nouns.
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But there are some more differences between a Countable noun and a
Uncountable noun. And they are –
1. We may use the articles a or an before a countable noun in the singular.
Like a book, an umbrella but we cannot say a tea or a milk.
2. We may say many pencils or a few grapes for countable nouns in plural.
But for uncountable nouns we say – May I have some tea? Please pass me a
little sugar.
Can we have a recapitulation of the Countable and the Uncountable nouns?
Can we or can we not count these underlined Nouns?
(For MM) Take five sentences and the answer table to place the examples
under countable and uncountable nouns and then the remaining five and
place the answers as suggested
VO with text on board 4
Countable Uncountable
1. If we drink milk our bones will become strong. bones milk
2. It is good to walk on the grass bare feet. feet grass
3. I like both hot and cold coffee. coffee
4. Bees make honey. bees honey
5. Chappatis are made from wheat. chappatis wheat
6. Old is gold. gold
7. Puris should be fried in hot oil. puris oil
8. Honesty is the best policy. honesty
9. We breathe in oxygen. oxygen
10. Mix sugar and lemon juice to make lemonade. Lemonade
sugar
Anchor 4.
We know that all naming words are nouns. Now we will find out the
grammatical property of a noun and that is the Gender. This will help us to
know whether the naming word is a male, female, either or neither. That is,
in Grammar we say – Masculine Gender, Feminine Gender, Common
Gender or Neuter Gender. Now let me give you examples to make this more
clear.
Masculine genders are names of male human beings or animals. Like –
man, boy, lion.
Feminine genders are names of female human beings or animals. Like –
woman, girl, lioness.
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Common genders means the noun may be either a male or a female. Like –
teacher, friend, parent, cousin, doctor.
And Neuter genders are names of things which are neither male nor female.
Like, tree, house, paper, computer.
But like always, there are few exceptions which you should note and
remember.
Objects noted for their power, strength, and violence are used as Masculine
gender nouns.
The sun, summer, time, death etc… are masculine-gender nouns.
Objects noted for their beauty, gentleness and grace are used as feminine-
gender nouns. The moon, the earth, spring, charity etc… are feminine-
gender nouns.
VO with text on board 4
When we form a gender there are three ways.
One is by an entirely different word.
Second is by adding –ess to the masculine form.
And thirdly by adding a word before or after the masculine form.
Let us find out the first form that is the totally different word.
MASCULINE FEMININE
father mother
king queen
brother sister
nephew niece
bridegroom bride
horse mare
bull cow
gander goose
widower widow
bull cow
cock hen
gentleman lady
uncle aunt
son daughter
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fox vixen
hero heroine
husband wife
The second form, that is by adding –ess. But note the different ways –ess has
been added to the masculine form.
MASCULINE FEMININE
lion lioness
poet poetess
host hostess
author authoress
priest priestess
actor actress
tiger tigress
waiter waitress
prince princess
master mistress
hunter huntress
emperor empress
murderer murderess
god goddess
governor governess
duke duchess
And now the third form and that by adding a word before or after the
masculine form.
MASCULINE FEMININE
doctor Lady-doctor
Step-son Step-daughter
Man-servant Maid-servant
peacock peahen
Baby-boy Baby-girl
grandfather grandmother
milkman milkmaid
Land-lord Land-lady
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fisherman fisherwoman
salesman Saleswoman
Beggar-man Beggar-woman
We have just learnt that nouns have four kinds of gender – Masculine,
Feminine, Common and Neuter Gender.
Now that we have become clear with the genders let us quickly have a re-
capitulation. After going through the paragraph, let’s pick out the masculine
gender.
For MM Please show this paragraph and then blink/highlight masculine and
then feminine, then common and neuter gender one by one
That was simple, let us now choose feminine gender. Great! Now comes the
turn of common gender. Read carefully….good and finally the neuter gender
A group of children had gone on a trip to the zoo. Their teachers had also
accompanied them. On the way, they crossed a river. A fisherman was
catching fish. He had a dog with him. A lady bought a packet of biscuits
from the saleswoman outside the gate and gave it to the child. They saw a
lion roaring, a peacock was picking at the grains and a tigress was sitting
with her cubs. After an exciting but a tiring day, they all went back home.
( answers given below)
MASCULINE FEMININE COMMON NEUTER
dog lady children zoo
fisherman saleswoman teachers cages
lion tigress gate
peacock river
He
Anchor 4
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We know – the definition of a noun. We learnt the different kinds of noun,
like – Proper noun, Common noun, Abstract noun, Collective noun and
Material noun. Each one has a different meaning but they are all nouns.
We just learnt the different forms of nouns, that is the different genders of
the names and they are – Masculine gender, Feminine gender, Common
gender and Neuter gender. Now we will learn to change the number of a
noun. By change the number I mean, change from one to many. When we
change a noun from one to many, the spelling of the word changes to
indicate whether the noun is in one or many. If you want one pencil, you will
say – a pencil. But if you want more than one pencil, you will say – two
pencils. We added a –s to show that it was more than one pencil. We have
some rules to follow when we change a word from singular, that is one to
plural that is many.
VO with text on board 5
1. The simplest rule is to simply add an –s. And the nouns which you can
change from singular to plural by simply adding an –s are –
1. boy – boys
2. desk – desks
3. cow – cows
4. book – books
5. field – fields
6. playground – playgrounds
7. teacher – teachers
8. farmer – farmers
9. boat – boats
10. vegetable – vegetables
11.
Did you notice the pattern here? All the plural nouns were formed by adding
just – s to the word.
2. There are some Nouns which can be changed from the singular form to
the plural form by adding –es.
1. class – classes
2. dish – dishes
3. box – boxes
4. watch – watches
5. bus – buses
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6. brush – brushes
7. box – boxes
8. branch – branches
9. match – matches
10. bench - benches
These are some of the examples of the nouns which change from the
singular form to the plural form by adding –es. Look at the pattern here. The
singular noun has either ended in –s, -ss, -x, -ch or –sh. So, next time you
have to change a singular noun to a plural noun remember the rules. Just
remember something. When a word ends with a –ch and here ch has the
sound of k, ie. Stomach. It becomes stomachs and not stomaches.
3. The nouns ending in –f or –fe change into –ves.
1. half – halves
2. thief – thieves
3. shelf – shelves
4. calf – calves
5. loaf – loaves
6. wife – wives
7. knife – knives
8. life – lives
9. leaf – leaves
But again here too there are some exceptions like,
Roof, proof, safe, belief. These words change to the plural form with the
addition of simply –s. They become – roofs, proofs, safes, beliefs.
4. Singular nouns ending with a –y, form their plural by changing –y into –i
and then adding –es. But here you will have to remember that if before the –
y the noun has a vowel ( a, e, i, o, u ), we will not change the –y into –i. let
us see some examples to understand better.
Family becomes families but boy becomes boys. In the word family, before
–y we have –l, which is a consonant. So, -y changes into i and we add es.
But in boy, we have the vowel ‘o’ before –y. so, -y does not change to i and
only –es is added. Let us see some more examples.
1. lady – ladies
2. story – stories
3. baby – babies
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4. city – cities
5. body – bodies
6. toy – toys
7. monkey – monkeys
8. key – keys
9. day – days
10. essay – essays
11.
I hope you have understood the rules of changing the form of a singular
noun ending in –y to the plural form.
5. For most nouns ending in –o merely add –es. If a vowel comes before the
o, then add –s. for example
1. potato – potatoes
2. tomato – tomatoes
3. mango – mangoes
4. volcano - volcanoes
5. bamboo – bamboos
6. radio – radios
7. studio – studios
8.
Exceptions are there when even without the vowel before the –o, just –s is
added. For example – piano – pianos, photo – photos, logo – logos, stereo –
stereos.
6. There are some irregular plurals, like –
1. child – children
2. woman – women
3. man – men
4. mouse – mice
5. tooth – teeth
6. ox – oxen
7. foot – feet
8. goose – geese
9. louse – lice
7. Some nouns have singular and plural alike, like –
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sheep, hair, deer, pair. Fish does not change in the plural form when we are
talking about many fish of the same kind but if we want to mention many of
different kinds, then we say – fishes.
8. Some nouns are used only in the plural, like -
scissors, spectacles, trousers, socks, jeans, pajamas, shorts, tights.
9. Some nouns look plural but are in fact singular. Like -
physics, mathematics, measles, electronics, billiards, news.
10. Compound nouns change into the plural form by adding –s to the
principal word. Sometimes the second word of the compound noun is the
principal word. Like -
1. daughter-in-law – daughters-in-law
2. son-in-law – sons-in-law
3. Commander-in-chief – Commanders-in-chief
4. maid-servant – maid-servants
5. door-man – doormen
6. step-sister – step-sisters
We have learnt lots of ways of changing a singular noun into a plural noun.
Now let us find out how much of what we have learnt, do we remember.
For MM: (Show each sentence. Fill the blank with the answers given below
the after 2 seconds)
Change the nouns in the bracket into the Plural form and fill up the blanks.
1. All the _____________( mango) were very sweet.
( mangoes)
2. She was waiting for her _____________ ( daughter-in-law ) to arrive.
( daughter-in-law)
3. The ________( monkey) were swinging from the ____________ (branch)
( monkeys) ( branches)
4. The ____________(fisherman) went out in their ___________ (boat).
(fishermen) (boats)
5. The_______ (farmer) used their ______(ox) to plough the
(farmers) (oxen)
____________(field)
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(fields)
6. I had to go to the dentist because my __________(tooth) were paining.
(teeth)
7. In big _______(city) the ________(thief) make duplicate ________(key)
(cities) (thieves) (keys)
very easily.
8. The _________(house) made of __________ (bamboo) collapsed in the
(houses) (bamboos)
heavy rains.
9. The________(child) were told to go to school with their
(children)
______(hair) combed neatly.
(hair)
10. The________(woman) were waiting for their_______(baby) to come
(women) (babies)
back from the school.
Anchor 5
It has been an interesting learning process today. The only way you are
going to remember all that we have learnt today, is by doing lot of practice
work and using it while conversing. Shall we glimpse through our work?
Today we learnt
• What Nouns are.
• The different kinds of Nouns – Proper noun, Common noun, Abstract
noun, Collective noun and Material noun.
• We learnt about Countable and Uncountable nouns.
• We learnt about the genders of the nouns-Masculine, Feminine,
Common and Neuter genders.
• And all about Singular and Plural forms of nouns.
•
After such engrossing session I leave you all to recall and recapitulate
today’s work. Thank you everybody.
Name of the teacher
Signature
Date
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