More on Nouns

To try with interactive exercises on NOUNS, Click Here! (Use right hand click and open in a new window)

Part of Speech : Nouns

Nouns are varied by Person, Number, Gender, and Case. Person is that relation existing between the speaker, those addressed and the subject under consideration, whether by discourse or correspondence. The Persons are First, Second and Third and they represent respectively the speaker, the person addressed and the person or thing mentioned or under consideration.

Nouns can be divided into proper nouns and common nouns. The names of particular people, animals, places and things are called proper nouns. We begin a proper noun with a capital letter. Nouns that do not refer to particular persons, animals, places and things are called common nouns. The first letter of a common noun is not capitalized unless it is the first word in a sentence.

There are other kinds of nouns. A word that stands for a group of things is called a collective noun. Nouns can be singular or plural. When you refer to one person, animal, place, or thing, you use a singular noun. When you talk about two or more people, animals, places, or things, you want to use plural nouns.

There are countable and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns are things that can be counted like book, car and house. Uncountable nouns cannot be counted such as milk, water, and flour.

Other nouns are names we use to refer to quality, idea, condition, etc. that are not concrete objects, and they are known as abstract noun.

TYPE OF NOUNS:

Common nouns - are names of people (e.g. man, aunt), things (e.g. book, car), animals (e.g. monkey, armadillo) and places (mosque, beach).

Proper nouns - are special names of people (Tun Mahathir, Nabilah), things (The Star, KLCC Twin Tower), animals (Orang Utan, Lassie) and places (London, Perak, Pahang National Park). A proper noun begins with a capital letter. Proper nouns also refer to times or dates on the calendar: Saturday, April. We can use plurals for propre nouns in exceptional cases: "There are three Johns in my class." We can also use 'the' for a proper noun in special circumstances: "It is no longer the London I had once visited."

Abstract nouns - An abstract noun is a quality or something that we can only think or rather than something that we can see or touch (e.g. beauty, friendship). We can form abstract nouns from common nouns (child - childhood); form verbs (know - knowledge); and from adjectives (happy - happiness).

Collective nouns - A collective noun is a name we use for a number of people, animals or things which we group together and speak of as a whole. For example, a bunch of bananas, a litter of puppies.

SINGULAR and PLURAL NOUNS

Most nouns are either singular or plural. Plural nouns are easily recognized by their ending with an '-s'. But many plural nouns do not follow this same ending. The lists below show what different endings or suffixes are added to the words to make them plural nouns.

A noun that shows only one person (e.g. a girl), thing (pencil), animal (tiger) or place (market) is called a singular noun.

A noun that shows more than one person (e.g. girls), thing (pencils), animal (tigers) or place (markets) is called a plural noun.

The following nouns are always plural and take a plural verb.

 

	Police are charging him with the murder of the princess.
	People in general are not very approachable.
Football team –	Liverpool are a very successful football team. (BUT: Liverpool is a great city.)
Jeans*, knickers*, panties*, pants*, pyjamas*, shorts*, tights*, trousers*, and underpants* –
	These trousers are not mine
Clogs*, sandals*, slippers*, and sneakers*.
Glasses* (= spectacles), binoculars* –
	My glasses are used only for reading.
Pincers*, pliers*, scissors*, shears*, tongs* –
	Pliers are a handy tool.
	My garden shears trim the hedge very well.
Clothes –	My clothes need to be washed but I don't have the time.
Earnings –	Earnings in the agricultural sector have increased by 5% in the fourth quarter.
Cattle –	Cattle are reared for their meat or milk.

* "a pair of" can be used with these plural nouns.
+ Peoples when used in the plural (i.e. with '–s') refers to peoples from more than one race or nation.

Example: the peoples of Asia.

How plural nouns are formed

By adding -es to nouns ending in -ch, -s, -sh and -x:

beach = beaches / peach = peaches / ditch = ditches / speech = speeches

boss = bosses / chorus = choruses / lens = lenses / pass = passes

bush = bushes / dish = dishes / lash = lashes / wish = wishes

fax = faxes / hoax = hoaxes / six = sixes / tax = taxes

By adding -es to nouns ending in -o:

buffalo = buffaloes / cargo = cargoes / echo = echoes / mosquito = mosquitoes

By adding -s to nouns ending in -o:

banjo = banjos / radio = radios / photo = photos / video = videos

By replacing 'y' with 'ies':

fly = flies / hobby = hobbies / lorry = lorries / puppy = puppies

By adding 's' to nouns ending in -y:

donkey = donkeys / key = keys / toy = toys / turkey = turkeys

By replacing 'f' or 'fe' with '-ves':

calf = calves / half = halves / life = lives / wife = wives

By adding 's' to nouns ending in -f:

chief = chiefs / dwarf = dwarfs / reef = reefs / roof = roofs

By changing vowels:

foot = feet / goose = geese / tooth = teeth / woman = women

Some nouns have same words for plural and singular:

aircraft = aircraft / deer = deer / music = music / sheep = sheep

Exceptional plural:

child = children / mouse = mice / ox = oxen / passer-by = passers-by

COUNTABLE and UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Countable nouns are nouns that can be counted (e.g. oranges). Uncountable nouns are those that cannot be counted (e.g. smoke). So how do we know whether or not a noun is countable or uncountable?

The noun is countable:

• if we can use a/an before it. Example: I own a pony. / I play with an ostrich.
• if we can use the word 'many' (and not 'much') to describe it. Example: She has many boyfriends. (It's wrong to say: 'She has much friends.')
• if we can express its quantity by using a number before it. Example: I have seven sisters.
• if it takes on singular as well as plural.

The noun is uncountable:

• if a/an is not normally used in front of it. Example: He is eating some rice. (NOT: He is eating a rice.) Rice is treated as not countable, so some (which can be used for both countable and uncountable nouns) is used with it.
• if the word much can be correctly used with it. Example: How much rice have you eaten? (NOT: How many rice have you eaten?)
• if it is not possible to be counted (e.g. milk, oil, sand, sugar). However, we can make it countable by having a quantity for it. Example: I have just bought two cartons or litres/liters of milk. (NOT: I have just bought two milk.)
  
  
• if it takes only a singular form

Some nouns can be used as countable or uncountable nouns. It depends on how we use them. Example: I boil an egg. (Countable noun = one egg) / I like egg. (Uncountable noun, as it refers to egg in general.)

Countable and Uncountable Nouns are used with the following:

Countable Nouns	Uncountable Nouns
a, an, a few, several, many	a little, much, some, plenty of
some, plenty of, a lot of	a lot of, a large amount of
a large number of	a great deal of

  

More details about Nouns (Click here)

Internet materials for teaching English Grammar in a classroom

In this current post, I would like to share with you some materials that I found interesting and good to be used in a classroom for teaching English Grammar. For  English teacher, you can use songs and its' lyric, videos, games and many other activities to teach and for students to learn grammar in a fun environment.

• Videos - You Tube, Educational CDs/DVDs etc

• English Grammar Games - Board or Online Grammar Games/practice/exercise etc

     Notes : You can click on this links to go to the websites for online games
                 ( Right hand click then choose and click open in a new window)

1. http://www.english-online.org.uk/games/gamezone2.htm
2. http://www.yourdictionary.com/dictionary-articles/interactive-grammar-games.html
3. http://www.eslflow.com/games1.html 
4. http://www.theteacherscafe.com/Grammar/Grammar_Games.php
5. http://www.ego4u.com/ 
6. http://englishgrammar101.com/Lessons/Default.aspx 

• Printable worksheets and other materials

1. http://www.superteacherworksheets.com/nouns/nouns.pdf 
2. http://www.softwarepublications.com.au/Softpubeditor/Samplesfolder/Sample1869461142.pdf 
3. http://www.gmc.edu/students/arc/documents/PartsofSpeechPracticeSheet.pdf 
4. http://www.eslflow.com/Elementarycrosswordpuzzles.html 
5. http://www.harcourtschool.com/glossary/grammar/index_word.html?grade=3&word=common_noun4.html&grade_defined=4 
6. http://www.esl-galaxy.com/grammarsheets.html 
7. http://www.eslpartyland.com/teachers/nov/grammar.htm 

• Songs & Lyrics on Grammar

1. http://gardenofpraise.com/mugram.htm 
2. http://www.isabelperez.com/songs.htm 
3. http://www.musicalenglishlessons.org/index-ex.htm 
4. http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/grammar/menu.html#Parts%20of%20Speech 
5. http://www.speakenglish.biz/songs.html 

What is English Grammar?

The grammar of a language is an analysis of the various functions performed by the words of the language, as they are used by native speakers and writers.There are many different ways of analyzing a language. In such an analysis, words can be given various names, depending on the function which they perform. For instance, words which perform the function of naming things are commonly referred to as nouns, and words which perform the function of expressing states or actions are commonly referred to as verbs.

English Grammar consists of different classes of words which are called Parts of Speech (Click here) The same word may be have several different Parts of Speech, according to how it is used in a Sentence. Words are divided into eight classes or Parts of Speech. These are nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.

In order to give you a further understanding about English Grammar, let's take a look on these videos which I found in You Tube.

Introduction of myself and my blog

Assalammualaikum wbt and good day everyone;

My name is Rusilawani binti Abd Razak and you all can call me by my very short name,Wanie. I am currently located in Seri Manjung, Perak Darul Ridzuan which is my hometown. I grew up here and lived with my parent. You all may wonder why i established this blog, it was part of my assignments in CALL subject. I chose learning grammar as my main focus or objective in setting up my blog. I hope with this blog, many people especially my Form 1 ex-students from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Seri Manjung can learn and enhance their knowledge in learning English. (I did my teaching practicum for TESL program at the school) To start with the learning of English, we must have a basic knowledge in grammar. So have fun with my blog and do learn from it!!!

Requirement for TSL 641

This blog is created to fulfill a requirement for TESL Subject Code TSL 641 - CALL (Computer assisted Language Learning).

Thank you to Prof. Madya Radzi who had taught me and my friends the subject.