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Nouns are the basic building blocks of the English language. The noun is a 'naming word', so in simple terms nouns are 'things': person: man, woman, teacher, student, John, Mary place: home, office, town, countryside, England thing: table, car, apple, money, music, dog As a 'naming word' nouns fall into two main categories: common noun and proper noun. A common noun is one that applies to a group or type: it is common to all. For example: singer, town, sword, tea, politician, regiment, actor. A proper noun is one that applies to the individual. For example: Justin Timberlake, Weymouth, Excalibur, Tetley, Blair, Grenadier Guards, Cruise. It is important to remember that all proper nouns begin with a capital letter. The only slight exception to this occurs when names (proper nouns) consist of more than one word. The tendency in such cases is not to use a capital letter at the start of any 'unimportant' word. For example The News of the World, or the titles of two Graham Greene novels: Brighton Rock and The Power and the Glory.
Pronouns A pronoun is a word that can be used in place of a noun. [see pronouns for more information]
Collective Nouns
A collective noun is the name of a group comprising several individual parts. For example: class, team, flock, group. The class of students was busy.
The football team won 3-0.
The flock of birds landed in a field.
The group of youths wore hooded tops. It is possible to refer to all collections of people or animals as ‘groups’, however, it is normally appropriate to apply the specific collective noun to a specific group. For example, you should not refer to a group of lions, you should refer to a pride of lions.
Abstract and concrete nouns A concrete noun is a noun which names anything (or anyone) that you can perceive through your physical senses: touch, sight, taste, hearing, or smell. A concrete noun is the opposite of a abstract noun. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all concrete nouns: The student handed the book back to the teacher. The teacher placed the book on a shelf, before sitting back down in his chair. An abstract noun is a noun which names anything which you cannot perceive through your five physical senses, and is the opposite of a concrete noun. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all abstract nouns: The book was a record of childhood memories. As an afterthought the teacher picked up the book again and placed a bookmark inside it, in hope that he could read it again in the future.
Number: singular and plural
To indicate whether the noun is singular or plural you often have to change the ending of the noun. Most nouns add s: book, books; cup, cups; sprout, sprouts
(Note: no apostrophe) Most nouns that end in ch, sh, s, x, or z add es: box, boxes; bus, buses; prize, prizes Most nouns that end in a vowel and y add s: boy, boys; day, days; key, keys Most nouns that end in a consonant and y, y becomes ies: baby, babies; country, countries; spy, spies Most nouns that end in f or fe, f or fe becomes ve: self, selves; loaf, loaves; thief, thieves Most nouns that end in o add s: kangaroo, kangaroos; piano, pianos; video, videos Certain nouns that end in a consonant and o add es: hero, heroes; potato, potatoes; volcano, volcanoes There are some exceptions to the above, one of them requires you to change the central vowel of the noun, rather than changing the ending. For example this can apply to several animals: goose/geese, mouse/mice; and parts of the body: tooth/teeth, foot/feet. The most obvious examples are: man/men and woman/women.
The possessive form of nouns The possessive form is used when referring to people, groups of people, countries, and animals. 'Belonging to' or 'ownership' is one of the relationships it expresses: Kate owns a car. ('Kate' is the possessor or owner)
It is Kate's car. Britain has some gold reserves. ('Britain' is the owner)
They are Britain's gold reserves. It can also express other relationships, for example: 1. where someone works or studies or spends time: Kate goes to this school. This is Kate's school.
Kate sleeps in this room. This is Kate's room. 2. a family relationship: Kate's mother
The Queen's daughter 3. qualities: Kate's patience.
The politician's hypocrisy. Form To form the possessive, add 's ('apostrophe -s') to the noun. If the noun is plural, or already ends in -s, just add ' (an apostrophe). For names ending in -s: When writing it is possible to use either 's or just '. The 's form is more common. e.g. Thomas's book, James's shop, rather than Thomas’ book, James’ shop - although both are correct.
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