3. Nouns!
• What is a noun?
• A noun is a word that refers to a thing
(book), a person (Betty Crocker), an
animal (cat), a place (Omaha), a quality
(softness), an idea (justice), or an
action (yodeling). It's usually a single
word, but not always: cake, shoes,
school bus, and time and a half are all
nouns
4. Common Nouns and Proper Nouns
Common nouns: Most nouns are common nouns. Common nouns refer to people, places
and things in general like chair or dog. But also concepts, ideas and feelings. Any noun that
is not a name is a common noun.
Have you seen my dog? The books are on your desk. Sometimes it takes courage to tell the truth.
Their lives were full of sadness.
Proper Nouns: Names of people, places or organizations are proper nouns. Your name is a
proper noun. London is a proper noun. United Nations is a proper noun.
Let me introduce you to Mary. The capital of Italy is Rome. He is the chairman of the British
Broadcasting Corporation.
5. Countable and Uncoutable Nouns
• Countable nouns: You can count countable nouns. Countable nouns
have singular and plural forms.
• One dollar Five dollars
• One boy Two boys
• Uncountable nouns: You cannot count uncountable nouns. You need
to use "measure words“ or determinants to quantify them.
• One money Some money
• One electricity Two electricities A little electricity A lot of electricity
• One work two works Some work
6. Collective Nouns and Compound Nouns
• Collective nouns: denotes a group of individuals. They can be treated as
singular or plural, depending on if the group is considered a single unit or
several units.
• His family live in different countries. An average family consists of four people. The
new company is the result of a merger. The board of directors are dead.
• Compound nouns: A compound noun is a noun that is made with two or
more words. Most compound nouns are [noun + noun] or [adjective +
noun]. Each compound noun acts as a single unit. Three different forms:
• open or spaced - space between words (bus stop)
• hyphenated - hyphen between words (mother-in-law)
• closed or solid - no space or hyphen between words (football)
7. Nouns, articles & determiners
a ….. = one thing or a person
• Rachel works in a bank.
• Can I ask a question?
• There’s a woman at the bus stop.
• I haven’t got a computer.
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Englisch Grundlagen, Nouns, articles and determiners
8. Nouns, articles & determiners
• an before a/e/i/o/u (if pronounced as vowel!)
• Do you want an apple or an orange?
• Where’s there an umbrella?
• That’s an interesting question.
• This is an unusual animal.
• But: a university /juːnɪˈvɜːsəti/
a European /jʊərəˈpiːən/
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Englisch Grundlagen, Nouns, articles and determiners
9. Singular and
Plural
• Cat – Cats
• Dog - Dogs
• Woman - women
• Man – men
• Car – cars
• School – schools
• Book – books
10. Plural Noun
Rules
• Many rules for plural nouns
• Important to know
• We use nouns all the time
• Depends on the letter the
singular noun ends in
12. Nouns, articles & determiners
Singular Plural
• a flower some flowers
• a train two trains
• one week a few weeks
• this student these students
• a nice place some nice places
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Englisch Grundlagen, Nouns, articles and determiners
13. Nouns, articles & determiners
Some things are collective plural in English:
• Do you wear glasses?
• Can I borrow your scissors?
• You’ve got nice jeans/trousers.
• Where did you buy these shorts.
• She doesn’t like wearing tights.
• Have you seen my pyjamas?
also: a pair of
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Englisch Grundlagen, Nouns, articles and determiners
A collective noun
signifies that the
individuals are thought
of as a group or
collection.
14. Nouns, articles & determiners
Irregular plural forms:
• one man/woman two men/women
• a child many children
• one foot two feet
• this sheep these sheep
• a fish some fish
• a mouse two mice
• a person two people
• one criterion two criteria
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Englisch Grundlagen, Nouns, articles and determiners
15. Singular nouns ending with -S etc.
• If the singular noun ends in
• -S
• -SS
• -Sh
• -Ch
• -X
• -Z
• Add –es at the end of the noun
• Examples
• Bus – Buses
• Glass - Glasses
• Lunch – Lunches
• Tax – Taxes
16. Noun ending with –f or -ef
• If the noun ends with –f or –fe
• The f is often changed to –ve before adding the –s for plural
• Examples:
• Wife – wives
• Wolf – wolves
• Werewolf – werewolves
• Exceptions:
• Roof – roofs
• Belief – beliefs
• Chef – chefs
• Chief – chiefs
17. Noun ending in Y
• If the singular noun ends in –y
and the letter before the –y is a
consonant, change the ending to
–ies
• Examples:
• City – cities
• Puppy – puppies
18. If the singular noun ends in –y
part 2
• If the singular noun ends in –y and the letter before the –
y is a vowel, simply add an –s to make it plural
• Examples
• Boy – Boys
• Ray – Rays
19. If the noun ends in -O
• If the singular noun ends in –o , add –es to make it plural
• Examples:
• Potato – potatoes
• Tomato – tomatoes
• Exceptions
• Photo – photos
• Piano – pianos
20. If the singluar noun ends in –
us
• If the singluar noun ends in –us, the plural ending is often
–i
• Examples
• Cactus – cacti
• Focus – foci
• This is derived from Latin! English is a germanic language,
but French, which is a latin language, dominated the
political sfere in England in the 12th century!
21. If the singular noun ends in -is
• If the singular noun ends in –is, the plural ending is –es
• Examples
• Analysis – analyses
• Ellipsis – ellipses
22. If the singular noun ends in -on
• If the singular noun ends in –on, the plural ending is –a.
• Examples
• Phenomenon – phenomena
• Criterion – citeria
23. Some nouns do not change
•Some nouns do not change at
all when they are pluralized
•Examples:
• Sheep – sheep
• Series – series
• Species – species
• Deer – deer
24. Irregular nouns – they do not
follow the rules
• Irregular nouns do not follow any specific rules
• Memorize these or look them up in the dictionary or online
• Examples
• Child – Children
• Goose – geese
• Man – men
• Woman – women
• Tooth – teeth
• Foot – feet
• Mouse – mice
• Person – people
25. Done with the task?
• Write a short story where you use nouns in your environment. Use
the classroom for inspiration. Look up the word for any object that
you don’t know in English!
