This document discusses different types of nouns including proper nouns, common nouns, count nouns, and non-count nouns. It provides examples and explanations of each type of noun and how they are used. It also discusses quantifiers that can be used with count and non-count nouns to indicate quantities.

2. PROPER NOUNS
Proper nouns are the names of particular people, places, or things.
They are usually unique (there is only one).
Albert Einstein Italy

3. COMMON NOUNS
Common nouns refer to people, places, and things, but not by their
names. For example, scientist is a common noun, but Enstein is
a proper noun.
Do not capitalize the first letter of a common noun unless it is the
first word in a sentence or it is in a title.

4. COUNT NOUNS
Common nouns can be count or non-count.
Count nouns are people, places or things that you can count
separately. They have both a singular and plural form, and you
can use an article (a, an, or the) in front of them.
two dogs
a dog
For a list of irregular count nouns, see appendix page A-4

5. NON-COUNT NOUNS
Non-count nouns are things that you cannot count separately. For
example, we can say rice, but we cannot say one rice or two
rices. (We can say one piece of rice or two pieces of rice.)
Some categories of non-count nouns:
Abstract Words: education, love, time
Activities: exploring, farming, sailing
Courses of Study: archeology, history, math
Foods: corn, milk, rice
Fabrics: cotton, silk, wool

6. NON-COUNT NOUNS
Some common non-count nouns do not fit into categories:
equipment homework news
furniture information work
*Also, surprisingly, money is a non-count noun.
We count individual coins and bills, but the word
money is non-count.

7. NON-COUNT NOUNS
Non-count nouns have NO plural forms.
She bought a lot of wool. Not: wools
Non-count nouns take singular verbs and pronouns.
Archeology is an interesting subject. It was his favorite subject.
We usually do not use a or an with non-count nouns. However we can
use the.
I bought a sugar at the store.
Please put the sugar on the shelf.

8. PRACTICE
1. teeth are
Billy’s two front _______________ (tooth) _________ (be) very
loose.
2. was
The room was so warm that all of the chocolate _______ (be)
melting.
3. shelves
We have several book __________________ (shelf) in the
need
classroom that _______________ (need) to be replaced.

9. QUANTIFIERS
Use quantifiers with nouns to talk about how many or how much.
Some quantifiers go only with count nouns, and some go only
with non-count nouns. Others can go with both.

10. QUANTIFIERS
With Count Nouns With Non-Count Nouns With Both
Affirmative many, a great many, a great deal of, little, a lot of, lots of,
Statements a little
several, a couple of, some, enough,
few, a few, most, all,
plenty of,
many much a lot of, lots of,
Negative
Statements any, enough
and Questions

11. PRACTICE
1. Several / A great deal of rain has fallen lately.
2. Most/Many soda contains a lot of / a great many sugar.
3. If the milk container is empty, that means we don’t have
any / much milk.

12. QUANTIFIERS
Be Careful!
The meaning of few and little is very different from the meaning of
a few and a little.
Use few and little to mean not enough or not many/much.
We have few students in class today. (Not many are there.)
There is little money in my checking account. (I don’t have much.)

13. QUANTIFIERS
Use a few and a little to mean there is some. It may not be a lot, but
it might be just enough.
Since we have a few students in class already, we will begin class.
(There may not be a lot of students, but there are enough to start
class.)
I have a little money in my checking account, so I can pay my bills.
(I don’t have a lot of money, but it is enough to pay my bills.)

14. PRACTICE
Would you rather . . .
have a little money or little money? a little
have a few problems or few problems? few
have a few friends or few friends? a few
have a little food or little food? a little
have a few wrong answers on a test or few wrong answers on a test?
few
have a little fun or little fun? a little
have a little trouble or little trouble? little