The Noun
A noun is a part of speech that denotes an object or phenomenon and answers the question who? what? .
For example, we can refer to a noun:
- living beings: human; animal;
- objects and materials: phone; skin;
- intangible concepts: wittiness;
- places: England, square, etc.
| Proper Nouns and Common Nouns | |
| Proper Nouns | Common Nouns |
| Names and surnames: Dan, Lora Brown | Names of beings and non-beings (countable): a girl a fox, a map, a road |
| Geographical names: Paris, the USA | Collective concepts that mean one whole (countable): a family, a crowd |
| Names of companies, newspapers, universities, etc: Apple, the Times, Oxford | Materials and substances (uncountable): snow, oil, sand |
| Names of months, days of the week, nationalities: January, Friday, Ukrainian | Abstract, denoting natural phenomena, feelings, events, state: winter, love, peace |
| Number of nouns | |
| Nouns that end in -s, -ch, -х, -sh, -ss, acquire the ending -es in the plural | a dress — dresses, a box — boxes |
| Nouns that end in -у with a preceding consonant, when adding the ending -es the letter -у is changed to -і | a story — stories, a cherry — cherries, a city — cities |
| Nouns that end in -о with a preceding consonant acquire the ending -es when forming a plural | a potato — potatoes but: a photo — photos, a piano — pianos, a kilo — kilos |
| Nouns that end in -f/-fe, in the plural, when adding the ending -s the letter -f/-fe is changed to -v. | a wife — wives, a leaf — leaves; but: a roof — roofs, a chief — chiefs, a handkerchief — handkerchiefs, a safe — safes |
| The plural of some nouns is formed by changing the root vowel or changing the form of the word, they should be remembered | a man — men, a woman — women, a foot — feet, a tooth — teeth, a goose — geese, a mouse — mice, a child — children, an ox — oxen |
| If the word is complex and written together, then it changes according to general rules | a postman — postmen, a schoolboy — schoolboys |
| If a compound word is written with a hyphen, the plural form is acquired by the word that is basic in meaning | a passer-by — passers-by |
| If the first word in a compound noun is the word man– or woman-, then both parts of the compound word change | a woman-teacher — women-teachers, але a policeman — policemen, a fireman — firemen |
| Some nouns are used only in the singular | money, information, news, love, peace, luggage, advice, knowledge |
| Some nouns are used only in the plural | clothes, goods, glasses, scissors, scales, trousers, shorts, police, stairs |
| Some nouns have the same singular and plural form | swine, fish, deer, sheep |
| The Possessive Case | |
| The noun in the possessive case answers the question whose? | |
| The possessive singular is formed by adding an apostrophe and ending -s to the noun | This is ту brother’s book. We are in my mother’s office. |
| If a noun in the singular has the ending -ss, -х, -s, then in the possessive case only an apostrophe is added to it | James’ wife |
| If a plural noun ends in -s, only an apostrophe is added to it in the possessive case | teenagers’ rucksacks |
| If the plural noun does not end in -s, then the possessive case is formed by adding an apostrophe and ending in -s | children’s skateboards |
In addition to beings, nouns can have the possessive case form:
| the sun’s surface New year’s eve the government’s report the river’s banks |
| Sometimes you can use the possessive case in phrases. In such cases, the ending -s is added only to the last word | Bob and Nick’s motorbike |
Countable and uncountable nouns
| Countable nouns are nouns that can be counted. They include most objects and phenomenon names (cupboards, vegetables, decisions) | Used:
(a) few – if quantity is specified |
Uncountable nouns are nouns that cannot be counted. This category includes nouns that mean:
| Used:
a grain of; a piece of; a slice of; a flash of; a loaf of; a pair of; a carton of; a jar of; a can of; a kilo of; a bottle of; a bit of; a game of |
| Some nouns can be both countable and uncountable, but slightly changing their meaning. |
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The noun is one of the main constituent parts of the language.
References