➢Nouns are naming words.➢They name people, places and objects.➢They can also name ideas, emotions, qualities and activities.

➢Here are some examples of nouns:➢ Peter, Elizabeth, driver, sister, friend.➢ Bristol, Severn, Brazil, pen, dog, money.

➢ Love, beauty, industry, nature, greed, pain.

nouns

proper

common

countable

uncountable

abstract

concrete

abstract

concrete

➢ Proper nouns start with capital letters.

➢They are the names of people, places, times, organisations etc.

➢They refer to unique individuals.➢Most are not found in the dictionary.➢They often occur in pairs or groups.➢Here are some examples.

Tony Blair

King Henry

Bridget Jones

Christmas

China

Thames

Keynsham

Sony

Coca Cola

Macbeth

President Bush

The Jam

Coronation Street

Saturn

Carly

John

Portugal

The Ford Motor Company

Oxfam

➢All nouns which are not proper nouns are common nouns.

➢A few examples: cup, art, paper, work, frog, bicycle, atom, family, mind.

➢Common nouns are either countable or uncountable.

➢ Use these tests for countable nouns:➢ Countable (or just “count”) nouns can be made

plural: a tree… two trees; a man… men; a pony… ponies.

➢ Use these tests for uncountable nouns:➢ Uncountable (or non-count) nouns cannot be

made plural. We cannot say: two funs, three advices or five furnitures.

➢ We never use a or an with them.➢ We ask: How much money/time/milk?

(Not How many?)➢ We say: A little help/effort. (Not A few.)

Some nouns may be countable or uncountable, depending on how we use them.

We buy a box of chocolates (countable) or a bar of chocolate (uncountable).

We ask: How much time? but How many times? (where times = occasions).

We sit in front of a television (set) to watch television (broadcasting).

•Remember that both countable and uncountable nouns can be divided into concrete and abstract nouns.

Concrete nouns are the words that exist physically.

Concrete nouns are the words which at least one of our senses can detect.

They are mostly the names of objects and animals (countable) and substances or materials (uncountable).

Cake, oxygen, iron, boy, dog, pen, glass, pomegranate, earthworm and door are all concrete nouns.

Abstract nouns name ideas, feelings and qualities.

Most, though not all, are uncountable.Many are derived from adjectives and

verbs and have characteristic endings such as –ity, -ness, -ence, and -tion.

They are harder to recognise as nouns than the concrete variety.

You won’t confuse abstract nouns with adjectives, as long as you apply a few tests.

Happy is an adjective. It behaves like one: very happy; so happy; happier; ashappy as

Happiness behaves like a noun: Thehappiness I feel; her happiness; greathappiness.

A few more examplesVerb or adjective Abstract noun

We were differentfrom each other.

The difference between us.

My work is precise. I work with precision.

The air is pure. The purity of the air.

I composed this tune.

This tune is my composition.

It is so beautiful. It has such beauty.

You support me. The support you give me.

Abstract Noun ExamplesLove, wisdom, talent, patience, success,

failure, pride, justice, honesty, courage, energy, faith, misery, sadness, truth, curiosity, parenthood, intelligence, foolishness, happiness, doubt, trust, loyalty, deceit, beauty, bravery, friendship, enmity, persistence, satisfaction, misery, patriotism, fear, liberty, pleasure, peace, reality, awe, omen, music

Collective nouns name a group or

collection of people, places, things or

ideas. They are considered one unit and

so they are singular.

Examples:

The crowd sounds like a herd of elephants.

The staff includes professionals and

nonprofessionals.

The group of students is standing in line.

Material nouns are the names of the

substances which things are made

of. These types of nouns are mostly proper

nouns than common

Material Noun Examples

gold, mercury, water, milk, juice, copper,

steel, iron, diamond, soap, rain, paint,

perfume, deodorant, planets, ponds, soil,

forests, sugar, deserts, islands, sky, moon,

rock, hair, hurricane, salt, coal, coffee, tea,

wood, oil, leather nouns.

Nouns change their form for only two grammatical reasons:

Countable nouns have a plural form. This is usually formed by adding –s, of course, but there are some irregular forms.

The possessive form of a noun is created by adding –’s (Henry’s cat) or just an apostrophe (all our students’ results).

The plural noun is generally formed by

adding -s to the singular.

Cow (singular), cows (plural)

Boy, boys

Girl, girls

Book, books

Nouns ending in -s, -sh, -ch or -x form

the plural by adding -es to the singular.

Class (singular), classes (plural)

Brush, brushes

Most nouns ending in -o also form their

plural by adding -es to the singular.

Mango (singular), mangoes (plural)

Hero, heroes

Note that a few nouns ending in -o merely

add -s.

Dynamo (singular), dynamos (plural)

Piano, pianos

Nouns ending in a consonant + y form

their plural by changing -y into -i and

adding -es.

Baby (singular), babies (plural)

Lady, ladies

The following nouns ending in -f or -fe

form their plural by changing -f or -fe

into v and adding -es.

Thief (singular), thieves (plural)

Wife, wives

Leaf, leaves

Most other nouns ending in -f or -fe add -

s.

Chief (singular), chiefs

Gulf, gulfs

Some nouns retain plural endings from Old English:

Men, geese, mice, oxen, feet, teeth, knives.