1. GRAMMAR: NOUN
Nouns are commonly defined as words that refer to a person, place, thing, or idea.
CATEGORIES OF NOUNS
Common and Proper Noun
Common Noun is the noun that identifies general people, places, or things called
common nouns —they name or identify what is common among others.
---- Cat, goose, cow, hen, dog, horse, dolphin, mouse.
---- Airport, market, cave, mountain, church, playground, farm, restaurant.
---- Bag, kite, box, ladder, bread, lamp.
A proper noun is the nouns that refer to specific names of people, places, days,
and months and begin with a capital letter.
---- Ali Baba, Florence Nightingale, Derek Jeter, Pauline
---- America-Americans; Korea-Koreans; Egypt-Egyptians; Malaysia-Malaysians.
---- Great Wall of China, Statue of Liberty, Leaning Tower of Pisa.
---- Sunday, Monday, Tuesday
---- January, February, March, April
---- Lake Michigan, Alps the Himalayas, Dead Sea, Mount Fuji
---- Christmas, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, April Fool’s Day.
Concrete and Abstract Noun
Concrete noun - name people, places, animals, or physically tangible things—they
can be perceived by our senses, they are things that we can see, hear, smell, taste,
or touch.
---- People, child, air, water, bread
Abstract noun - as their name implies, name intangible things, such as concepts,
ideas, feelings, characteristics, attributes, etc.—can not perceive with senses,
things cannot see, smell, feel, taste, or touch.
2. ---- Love, hate, decency, excitement, lethargy
Singular and Plural Noun
Nouns in English do not have a gender. They change form depending on whether
they are singular or plural.
Singular noun talks about one person, animal, place, or thing. Use a or a before
singular noun.
---- An airplane, a letter, a bicycle, a map.
Plural Noun talks about two or more people, animals, places, or things. Most
nouns are made plural by adding -s at the end.
---- Bird-birds; broom-brooms; camel-camels; desk-desks.
1. To make most nouns plural, “-s” is added to the singular noun.
Student Students
Cake Cakes
Cat Cats
2. For nouns ending in “-s,” “-x,” “-z,” “-ch,” and “-sh,” “-es” is added.
Class Classes
Church Churches
Wish Wishes
Tax Taxes
Quiz Quizzes
3. For nouns ending in a consonant followed by a "-y," the "-y" is dropped, and
"-ies" is added.
City Cities
Lady Ladies
4. Nouns ending in y after a vowel add s.
Key Keys
Valley valleys
3. 5. If the noun ends in vowel plus “-o,” the plural is formed by adding “-s.”
Cargo Cargos
Motto Mottos
6. For nouns ending in “-o,” the plural is usually formed by adding “-es.”
Hero Heroes
Mango Mangoes
Zero Zeroes
7. Some other nouns have completely irregular plurals.
Foot Feet
Goose Geese
Louse Lice
Tooth Teeth
Woman Women
8. Some nouns do not change in the plural.
Aircraft Aircraft
Means Means
Series Series
Headquarters Headquarters
Crossroads Crossroads
Count and Non-Count Noun
Count Noun refers nouns that can be considered as individual, separable items,
which means that we can count them with numbers—we can have one, two, five,
15, 100, and so on. We can also use them with the indefinite articles a and an
(which signify a single person or thing) or in their plural forms.
---- Student-Students; Cake-Cakes; Cat-Cats
Non-Count Nouns (another name for a non-count noun is a mass noun or
uncountable noun), this kind of noun can be counted one by one, cannot be
4. considered separate units and needs to have "counters" to qualify them.
Uncountable nouns cannot take an indefinite article, nor can they be made plural
---- Furniture, dust, energy
Concrete Uncountable Noun
The concrete noun that is uncountable tends to be substances or collective
categories of things. For instance:
---- Wood, smoke, air, water
---- Furniture, homework, accommodation, luggage
Abstract uncountable noun
A large number of abstract nouns are uncountable. These are usually ideas or
attributes. For instance:
---- Love, hate, news*, access, knowledge
---- Beauty, intelligence, arrogance, permanence
Animate and Inanimate Noun
The animate noun refers to things that are alive.
The inanimate noun refers to things that are not alive.
Collective Nouns
Collective nouns refer to a collection or group of multiple people, animals, or
things. However, even though collective nouns refer to multiple individuals, they
still function as singular nouns in a sentence. This is because they still are
technically referring to one thing: the group as a whole. For example:
---- An audience, a gang, a band, a group, a choir, a team, a class
Masculine and Feminine Nouns
Masculine nouns are words for men and boys and male animals.
Feminine nouns are words for women and girls and female animals.
- Actor-actress
- Brother-sister
5. - Emperor-empress
- Father-mother
- Master-mistress
- Nephew-niece
- Prince-princess
- Steward-stewardess
- Wizard-witch
Nouns of Address
Nouns of address (technically called vocatives, but also known as nominatives of
address or nouns of direct address) identify the person or group being directly
spoken to. Like interjections, they are grammatically unrelated to the rest of the
sentence—that is, they do not modify or affect any other part of it. Instead, they
are used to let the listener or reader know whom you are addressing or get that
person's attention. For example:
---- “James, I need you to help me with the dishes.”
---- “Can I have some money, Mom?”
REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDED READING
Altenberg, E. P., & Vago, R. M. (2010). English grammar: Understanding
the Basics. Cambridge University Press.
Azar, B. S. (1996). Basic English Grammar. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall
Regents.
Azar, B. S. (2003). Fundamentals of English Grammar: Chartbook: a
Reference Grammar. White Plains, NY: Longman.
Azar, B. S., & Hagen, S. A. (2009). Understanding and using English
grammar: Workbook. White Plains, N.Y.: Pearson Longman.
Ansell, M. (2000). Free English Grammar Second Edition.
Barduhn, S., & Hall, D. (2016). English for Everyone–English Grammar
Guide. New York: DK Publishing.
6. Herring, P. (2016). Complete English Grammar Rules. California:
Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Murphy, R., Smalzer, W. R., & Nguyễn, T. T. (2000). Grammar in Use:
Intermediate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Murphy, R., & Čhakramāt, S. (2002). Essential grammar in use (Vol. 20010).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.