Elementary School

1. Unit B:
Nouns
Person: Girls
Thing: Ribbon
Place: Bus Idea: Happiness

2. Grammar 1: What Is a Noun?
A noun names a person, a place, or a thing.
Example: Pablo lives in a house on my street. His
grandparents came from Puerto Rico.
• Notice that Puerto Rico is two words that name one
place. Nouns can be two or more words.
• Nouns can also name feeling, thoughts, and ideas.
• Examples: excitement, fear, anger, happiness

3. Nouns
Persons boy, student, Bob writer, Bob Jones
Places lake, country, state field, USA, West
Virginia
Things boat, calendar shirt, basketball

4. Grammar 2: Common and Proper Nouns
When you talk or write about persons, places, or things in general,
you use common nouns. When you talk or write about a particular
person, place, or thing, you use a proper noun.
Common: The teachers came from different countries.
Proper: Mrs. Diaz is from Mexico.

5. Common and Proper Nouns
Common
Nouns
Proper Nouns Common
Nouns
Proper Nouns
street North Drive river Ohio River
city Charleston building White House
state West Virginia poet Edgar Allen
Poe
continent Asia holiday Labor Day
ocean Atlantic Ocean month November
mountain Mt.
Washington
day Friday

6. Common and Proper Nouns
When you use the words for family relationships as names,
capitalize them. Otherwise, do not capitalize those words.
Example: A magazine interviewed Mom.
Example: My dad teaches math.

7. Grammar 3: Singular and Plural Nouns
A singular noun names one person, place, thing, or idea.
A plural noun names more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
Example Singular: The student passed the test.
Example Plural: The students passed the test.

8. Rules for Forming Plural Nouns
1. Most singular nouns:
Add –s
dog—dogs
can--cans
2. Nouns ending in s, x, ch, or
sh
Add –es
box—boxes
church—churches
bush--bushes
3. Nouns ending with a vowel
and y
Add –s
boy-boys
toy-toys
4. Nouns ending with a
consonant and y
Change the y to i
and add -es
baby-babies
city-cities

9. Grammar 4: More Plural Nouns
Many nouns do not become plural according to regular rules. The
following chart shows you the different patterns for forming the plurals
of these nouns. TIP: Use your dictionary to check for correct plurals.

10. More Plural Nouns Chart
1. Nouns ending if f or fe:
Change the f to v and add –es to
some nouns. Add –s to other
nouns.
life—lives
calf—calves
leaf—leaves
cliff--cliffs
2. Nouns ending with a vowel and o:
Add -s
rodeo—rodeos
radio—radios
studio--studios
3. Nouns ending with a consonant
and o:
Add –s to some nouns.
Add –es to other nouns
solo-solos
piano-pianos
hero—heroes
echo-echoes
tomato-tomatoes
4. Nouns that have special plural
spellings
foot-feet
woman--women
5. Nouns that remain the same in
both
singular and plural
deer—deer
trout-trout
sheep--sheep

11. Grammar 5: Singular Possessive Nouns
A singular possessive noun shows that one person, place, or thing
has or owns something. To make a singular nouns show possession,
add an apostrophe and –s (‘s).
Example: the fur of the dog the dog’s fur
Example: the collar of the pet the pet’s collar
Using possessive nouns is shorter and better than other ways of
showing possession.
Example: The dog belonging to Joe is barking.
Example: Joe’s dog is barking.

12. Singular Possessive Nouns
Singular Noun Singular Possessive Noun
child child’s toy
Tess Tess’s bike
pony pony’s mane
fish fish’s fins

13. Grammar 6: Plural Possessive Nouns
A plural noun that shows ownership, or possession, is called a plural possessive
noun.
Example: The cars that belong to the teachers are parked here.
Example: The teachers’ cars are parked here.
When a plural noun ends in –s, add only an apostrophe after the –s (s’) to make
the noun show possession.
Examples: boys’ books wolves’ pups babies’ mothers
Not all plural nouns end –s. When a plural noun does not end in –s, add (-s) to
form the plural possessive noun.
Example: shoes of the men men’s shoes food of the mice mice’s food

14. Plural Possessive Nouns
Singular Singular
Possessive
Plural Plural
Possessive
girl girl’s girls girls’
calf calf’s calves calves’
pony pony’s ponies ponies’
child child’s children children’s
mouse mouse’s mice mice’s

15. TIP: 1. If a noun is singular, add
an apostrophe and a -s to
make it possessive
A cat’s bowl
A bird’s beak
James’ coat
2. If a noun is plural and
ends with an s, add and
apostrophe after the s.
Three cars’ engines
Two girls’ homework
Two boats’ trailers
3. If a nous is plural, but
does not end in an –s, add
an apostrophe and an –s.
Three deer’s bed
Two children’s game
Exceptions: People who lived a long time ago and their name ends in an –s, just add an
apostrophe after the s. Example: Zeus ---Zeus’ tricks. Notice the difference with Zeus
and James.
If a word is two syllables or more, ends with an –s , and would be hard to pronounce
with the addition of the –s, just add the apostrophe.

16. The End
The horse’s jump cleared the bar.