Common + Proper Nouns

• Common– general item– not capitalized unless they begin a sentence or

are part of a title– can be countable or uncountable nouns

• Proper– name of particular people, things or places –

specific – requires capitalization– most are singular– not usually preceded by articles

Countable + Uncountable Nouns

• Countable nouns - something that can be counted• Uncountable nouns

– cannot be counted– E.g.: water , salt , flour (can be counted if we

put into something)– Takes a singular verb – This milk has expired. – Many uncountable nouns are abstract –

violence, happiness– But some are concrete – sand , glue

Singular + Plural Nouns

• Singular – refer to one• Plural

– refer to more than one– Most countable nouns add –s– Nouns ending whit ch, sh, s,ss or x add –es– Some words can take both –s or –es– Eg: mangos / mangoes volcanos / volcanoes– For a –ve or unknown quantity , we normally use

the plural– Eg: There were no passengers on the bus. / Have

you ever read good books lately?

Collective Nouns• Refer to groups of things that are regarded as one• Collective nouns can be replaced by both singular

and plural pronouns, depending on their meaning. – When the members are doing the same thing

together, the collective noun is singular and requires singular verbs and pronouns. 

– When the members are acting as individuals, the collective noun is plural and requires plural verbs and pronouns. 

• Examples:– Every afternoon the baseball team follows its coach

out to the hot field for practice.– After the three-hour practice under the brutal sun,

the team shower, change into their street clothes, and head to their air-conditioned homes.

Examples

Abstract Nouns

• Idea, event, quality, experience, trait, quality, state of being, feeling or concept (things which are intangible and cannot be counted)

• Your five senses cannot detect this group of nouns.

Nouns with the following suffixes are often abstract:

Examples

In contrast…

• Concrete words refer to things we can touch, see, hear, smell, and taste,

• Example: sandpaper, soda, trees, mobile phone, cow, car, rocking chair, and pancake.

Common Abstract Nouns

Don't confuse an abstract noun with a concrete noun.

• In many cases abstract nouns are derived from an addition of a suffix or alteration in the root word.

• Example: Child vs. ChildhoodChild is a concrete noun, for example, but childhood is an intangible state, so it is abstract.

Possessive Forms of Nouns

The rules for forming possessive nouns

Your turn. Exercise 1

Categorise the following nouns according to their classes

AnswersCommon

NounsProper Nouns

Collective Nouns

Abstract Nouns

Nouns as subjects

• The noun as the subject: the person, animal, place or thing we are talking about in the sentence

• Who or what did something (verb) / performs the action in the sentence

Examples

1. The boy fell in the drain. 2. The bell rang at 12 o’clock.

3. Farid and Ismail decorated the room.4. The Titanic struck an iceberg.5. Bravery makes a man.6. The distinguished guests left the room.

21

Who fell in the drain? The boy.

What makes a man? Bravery.

Nouns as objects

• Comes after a verb• Receives the action of the verb• Answers the question ‘what’ or ‘whom’

after the verb. • Examples:• 1. Tom visited the dentist. (visited whom?)• 2. The student lost a book. (lost what?)