Learn English - Usage of Nouns

We know that every language has a set of letters or symbols in the alphabet. If you just started learning English, you first need to know some basic rules of the language. No-native English speakers can make grammatical mistakes while speaking in English. Improving grammar takes time and effort but it is well worth it. Here are some tips which will help you improve English grammar. As a first step, it is important to know the different building blocks of grammar like The Parts of Speech. Basic Grammatical Structures and Mechanics.

Developing a solid foundation in English grammar will not only help you understand and create sentences correctly but will also make it easier to improve your communication skills in both spoke and written English.

When we start learning about the parts of speech, we know that they are eight in number and are named as: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjection s. In this session let us learn in detail about nouns.

Usually, the first page of a grammar book tells you about nouns. Nouns are used to refer to animals, people, places and things. Nouns should be the first topic when you study a foreign language.

Eg: Cat, Amazon, Son, Gandhi, School, Key, Bottle

Let us learn in detail about the kinds and uses of nouns:

Proper nouns: These are the specific names by which we know an individual animal, a person, a place, such as an institution, a building or a town, or something such as a month, a day of the week, a season or a festival.
Goldie, Rama, Delhi, Osmania University, Sky view towers, Nagpur, June, Saturday, Christmas.

Note: All Proper nouns begin with a capital letter.

Common Nouns: These are the words that name people, animals, places and things of the same kind tulip, city, face, movie, girl, clue, lake and cookie.

Note: All common nouns begin with a lower-case letter.

Common nouns are countable when we:

• We use a / an in front of them.

A chair, an apple, a skirt, an engineer

• We can talk about many of them using the plural forms, with or without numbers in front of them.

Ships, two bags, seven men, many sheep, a few oranges

• We can use them in questions that begin with "how many".

How many pencils do you need?
How many students are present today?

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" the. For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of mil" or "liters of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself. Here are some more uncountable nouns:

music, art, love, happiness, advice, information, news, furniture, luggage, rice, sugar, butter, water, electricity, gas, power, money, currency

• We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example:

This news is very important.
Your Luggage looks heavy.
Th furniture is elegant.

• We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with uncountable nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can say a something of::

a piece of news
a bottle of water
a grain of rice

• We can use some and any with uncountable nouns:

I've got some money.
Have you got any rice?

• We can use a little and much with uncountable nouns:

I've got a little money
I haven't got much rice.

• Uncountable nouns are also called "mass nouns". We do not use them in questions that begin with 'how many', but only in those that begin with 'how much'.

Not 'How much money do you owe him?' but 'How much money do you owe him?'
Not 'How many plastic is manufactured in a day?' but 'How much plastic is manufactured in a day?'

Note that some nouns can be used both as countable when they refer to the substance o material it is made up of. 

There are three glasses on the tray. ('Glasses', uncountable noun) 

The tray is made of glass. ('Glass', uncountable noun)

Some countable nouns are concrete and represent people, things or activities that can be seen, touched or heard for example lotus, table, basket. Other countable nouns are abstract and represent states, feelings or qualities, which can only be felt or imagined, for example joy, ambition. Similarity, Some uncountable nouns
are concrete, for example cotton, clothing, bread, while others are abstract, for example peace, pain, anger.

• Collective nouns are common nouns followed by 'of' and referring to groups of people or things.

A team of players, an army of soldiers, a bouquet of flowers

Plural forms of nouns:

We use plural forms of nouns to talk about people, places and things that are more than one in number, for example "three wagons", "a box of chocolates'. ' a few monkeys'.

Given below are some patterns to form the plural forms of most nouns:

Add-s in the case of most nouns: beds, mugs, pets, doors, snakes, cups, tubs, chiefs, cots, sums, teachers, dolls, months, smiles, tongues, days, doors, plates, forks.

Add-es after nouns ending in:

• s: glasses, classes, passes, masses, gases, buses
• x: boxes, taxes, faxes
• ch: matches, clutches, stitches, churches, witches
• sh: wishes, bushes, dishes

Add-s after nouns ending in:

• ay: rays
• ey: keys
• oy: toys
• uy: guys

In nouns ending in a consonant letter -y, replace the final -y with -ies:

• Country: countries
• City: cities
• Lady: ladies
• Baby: babies

In nouns ending in -fe, replace the leters with -ies

• Knife: Knives
• Life: lives
• Wife: Wives

Nouns ending in -f forms plurals:

• With a final -f : roof/ roofs, chief/ chiefs. proof/ proofs
• With a final -ves in place of the -f : calf/calves, loaf/ loaves, leaf/ leaves
• With either a final -s or a final -ves: dwarf/dwarfs or dwarves, hoof/hoofs or hooves, scarf/scarfs or scarves

Nouns ending in -o form plurals:

• Always with a final -oes:
• Potato: potatoes
• Tomato: tomatoes
• Echo: echoes

With either a final -oes or -os:

• Buffalo: buffaloes/buffalo's
• Mosquito: mosquitoes/mosquito's
• Volcano: volcanoes/ volcano's

Always with a final -os :

• Kilo: kilos
• Radio: radios
• Video: videos
• Photo: photos.

There are several nouns that have irregular plural forms. Plural formed in this way are sometimes called mutated (or mutating) plurals.

more than one child = children
more than one woman = women
more than one man = men
more than one person = people
more than one goose = geese
more than one mouse = mice
more than one barracks = barracks
more than one deer = deer

And, finally, there are nouns that maintain their Latin or Greek form in the plural.

more than one nucleus = nuclei
more than one syllabus = syllabi
more than one focus = foci
more than one fungus = fungi
more than one cactus = cacti ( cactuses is acceptable )
more than one thesis = theses
more than one phenomenon = phenomena
more than one index = index = indices ( indexes is acceptable )
more than one appendix = appendices ( appendixes is acceptable )
more than one criterion = criteria

Nouns whose plural forms are the same as their singular forms: sheep, deer, aircraft, fish.

Practice Excercise:

Choose the correct form of the noun in each sentence.

1)I have five ( child, children ).
2)The teacher told the children to open their ( book, books).
3)There are fifty ( man, men ) and one ( woman, women ).
4)(Baby, babies ) play with bottles as toys.
5)I put two big ( tomato, tomatoes ) in the lunch box.
6)A few women wear ( watch, watches ).
7)I put a ( memo, memos ) on the desk.
8)They advised we not get a ( cat, cats ).
9)I saw a ( mouse, mice ) running by.
10)There are few ( bus, buses ) on the road today.

Answers:
1) children; 2) books; 3) men, woman; 4) babies; 5) tomatoes; 6) watches; 7) memo; 8) cat; 9) mouse; 10) buses