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Title: Nouns
Description: Basic English Grammar

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NOUNS
Nouns are people, places, or things, They tell us what we are talking about
...


NOUNS IN ENGLISH











Gendered nouns
Singular and plural nouns including irregular plural nouns
Countable and uncountable nouns
Definite pronouns
Indefinite pronouns
Compound nouns
Capitalization rules for nouns
Nationalities in English
Forming the possessive

1

NOUN GENDER
EXAMPLES
Masculine

Feminine

Gender neutral

man

woman

person

father

mother

parent

2

Masculine

Feminine

Gender neutral

boy

girl

child

uncle

aunt

husband

wife

actor

actress

prince

princess

waiter

waitress

server

rooster

hen

chicken

stallion

mare

horse

spouse

3

SINGULAR AND PLURAL NOUNS
REGULAR NOUNS
Most singular nouns form the plural by adding -s
...


EXAMPLES

4

Singular

Plural

bus

buses

wish

wishes

pitch

pitches

box

boxes

A singular noun ending in a consonant and then y makes the plural by dropping the y and adding-ies
...
The most common ones are listed below
...


EXAMPLES
Singular

Plural

sheep

sheep

fish

fish

9

Singular

Plural

deer

deer

species

species

aircraft

aircraft

IRREGULAR VERB/NOUN AGREEMENT
Some nouns have a plural form but take a singular verb
...
30 p
...


athletics

Athletics is good for young people
...


darts

Darts is a popular game in England
...


Some nouns have a fixed plural form and take a plural verb
...

Nouns like this include: trousers, jeans, glasses, savings, thanks, steps, stairs, customs, congratulations, tropics, wages, spectacles, outskirts,
goods, wits

Plural noun with plural verb

Sentence

trousers

My trousers are too tight
...


glasses

Those glasses are his
...
They have a singular and a plural form
...
If you want to ask about the quantity of a countable noun, you ask "How many?" combined with the plural countable noun
...

I own a house
...

How many friends do you have?

UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
Uncountable nouns are for the things that we cannot count with numbers
...
Uncountable nouns are used with a singular verb
...


13

EXAMPLES















tea
sugar
water
air
rice
knowledge
beauty
anger
fear
love
money
research
safety
evidence

We cannot use a/an with these nouns
...
If you want to
ask about the quantity of an uncountable noun, you ask "How much?"

EXAMPLES







There has been a lot of research into the causes of this disease
...

Can you give me some information about uncountable nouns?
He did not have much sugar left
...

How much rice do you want?

TRICKY SPOTS
Some nouns are countable in other languages but uncountable in English
...
The most common
ones are:
accommodation, advice, baggage, behavior, bread, furniture, information, luggage, news, progress, traffic, travel, trouble, weather, work

14

EXAMPLES






I would like to give you some advice
...

This looks like a lot of trouble to me
...


Be careful with the noun hair which is normally uncountable in English, so it is not used in the plural
...


EXAMPLES






She has long blond hair
...

I washed my hair yesterday
...
(refers to individual hairs)
I found a hair in my soup! (refers to a single strand of hair)

15

PRONOUNS
Pronouns replace nouns
...
In English, pronouns only take the gender of the noun they replace in the 3rd person singular form
...


Subject
Pronoun

Object
Pronoun

Possessive Adjective
(Determiner)

Possessive
Pronoun

Reflexive or Intensive
Pronoun

1st person singular

I

me

my

mine

myself

2nd person singular

you

you

your

yours

yourself

3rd person singular,
male

he

him

his

his

himself

3rd person singular,
female

she

her

her

hers

herself

3rd person singular,
neutral

it

it

its

1st person plural

we

us

our

itself

ours

16

ourselves

Subject
Pronoun

Object
Pronoun

Possessive Adjective
(Determiner)

Possessive
Pronoun

Reflexive or Intensive
Pronoun

2nd person plural

you

you

your

yours

yourselves

3rd person plural

they

them

their

theirs

themselves

SUBJECT PRONOUNS
Subject pronouns replace nouns that are the subject of their clause
...


EXAMPLES







I am 16
...

Jim is angry, and he wants Sally to apologize
...
It needs to be repainted
...

They don't like pancakes
...


EXAMPLES




Give the book to me
...

Jake is hurt because Bill hit him
...

Mark can't find it
...

Tell them to hurry up!

POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES (DETERMINERS)
Possessive adjectives are not pronouns, but rather determiners
...
Possessive adjectives function as adjectives, so they appear before the noun they modify
...


EXAMPLES








Did mother find my shoes?
Mrs
...

Can Jake bring over his baseball cards?
Samantha will fix her bike tomorrow
...

This is our house
...
Because the noun being replaced doesn't appear in
the sentence, it must be clear from the context
...

Yours is not blue
...

These shoes are not hers
...

Theirs is parked in the garage
...

Reflexive pronouns refer back to the subject of the clause because the subject of the action is also the direct or indirect object
...
You cannot remove a reflexive pronoun from a sentence because the remaining sentence would be grammatically
incorrect
...

You cut yourself on this nail?
He hurt himself on the stairs
...

The cat threw itself under my car!
We blame ourselves for the fire
...


Intensive pronouns emphasize the subject of a clause
...
The intensive pronoun can always be removed from a
sentence without changing the meaning significantly, although the emphasis on the subject will be removed
...


EXAMPLES








I made these cookies myself
...

The Pope himself pardoned Mr
...

My teacher didn't know the answer herself
...

We would like to finish the renovation before Christmas ourselves
...


19

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS
Indefinite pronouns do not refer to a specific person, place, or thing
...


Person

Place

Thing

All

everyone
everybody

everywhere

everything

Part (positive)

someone
somebody

somewhere

something

Part (negative)

anyone
anybody

anywhere

anything

None

no one
nobody

nowhere

nothing

Indefinite pronouns with some and any are used to describe indefinite and incomplete quantities in the same way that some and any are used
alone
...


20

Noun

Indefinite pronoun

I would like to go to Paris this summer
...


Jim gave me this book
...


I won't tell your secret to Sam
...


I bought my school supplies at the mall
...


AFFIRMATIVE
In affirmative sentences, indefinite pronouns using some are used to describe an indefinite quantity, the indefinite pronouns with every are used to
describe a complete quantity, and the pronouns with no are used to describe an absence
...


EXAMPLES









Everyone is sleeping in my bed
...

No one is sleeping in my bed
...

He saw something in the garden
...

I looked everywhere for my keys
...

There is nowhere as beautiful as Paris
...


EXAMPLES






They can choose anything from the menu
...

We can go anywhere you'd like this summer
...

Fido would follow you anywhere
...


EXAMPLES




I don't have anything to eat
...

I can't find anyone to come with me
...
However, there is a change in meaning with this transformation: the sentence that includes an indefinite pronoun
withno is stronger, and can imply emotional content such as definsiveness, hopelessness, anger, etc
...
= neutral
I know nothing about it
...
= neutral
I have nobody to talk to
...
= neutral
There was nothing we could do
...
These questions can usually be answered with a "yes" or
a "no"
Pronouns formed with anyand every are used to form true questions, while those with some generally imply a question to which we already know
or suspect the answer
...
The speaker, when posing a question of this type, is
expecting an answer of "no"
...
) The person asking these questions is expecting an answer of "Yes"
...
In this case, the speaker is absolutely certain he will receive the
answer "Yes"
...
These are very common, and new combinations are invented almost daily
...
The first part tells us what kind of object or person it is, or what its purpose is
...
Compound nouns often have a meaning that is different, or more specific, than the two separate words
...
There are no clear
rules about this
...

The elements in a compound noun are very diverse parts of speech
...
In compound nouns, the stress
usually falls on the first syllable
...
You must always use capital
letters for:
The beginning of a sentence

EXAMPLES



Dogs are noisy
...


The first person personal pronoun, I

EXAMPLES



Yesterday, I went to the park
...


Names and titles of people

EXAMPLES








Winston Churchill
Marilyn Monroe
the Queen of England
the President of the United States
the Headmaster of Eton
Doctor Mathews
Professor Samuels

28

Titles of works, books, movies

EXAMPLES





War and Peace
The Merchant of Venice
Crime and Punishment
Spider Man II

Months of the year

EXAMPLES





January
July
February
August

Days of the week

EXAMPLES





Monday
Friday
Tuesday
Saturday

Seasons

EXAMPLES





Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter

29

Holidays

EXAMPLES





Christmas
Easter
New Year's Day
Thanksgiving Day

Names of countries and continents

EXAMPLES





America
England
Scotland
China

Names of regions, states, districts

EXAMPLES





Sussex
California
Provence
Tuscany

Names of cities, towns, villages

EXAMPLES





London
Cape Town
Florence
Vancouver

30

Names of rivers, oceans, seas, lakes

EXAMPLES






the Atlantic
the Pacific
Lake Victoria
the Rhine
the Thames

Names of geographical formations

EXAMPLES




the Himalayas
the Alps
the Sahara

Adjectives relating to nationality

EXAMPLES





French music
Australian animals
German literature
Arabic writing

Collective nouns for nationalities

EXAMPLES





the French
the Germans
the Americans
the Chinese

31

Language names

EXAMPLES



I speak Chinese
...


Names of streets, buildings, parks

EXAMPLES






Park Lane
Sydney Opera House
Central Park
the Empire State Building
Wall Street

32

NATIONALITIES
Forming nationality adjectives and nouns from country names is not always simple in English
...
The adjective listed also often refers to the language spoken in the country, although
this is not always the case
...

Adjective: He likes Japanese food
...
= She is from Japan
...

Language: She speaks Japanese
...
= Spanish people often drink wine
...
= Chinese people enjoy fireworks
...
When this is the case,
many people will not use it, but will instead use a more neutral adjective + "people" formulation or "people from" + country name
...
Alternative formulations, less likely to give offense, are given in parentheses
...
Use "someone from Mexico"
instead
...
Use "someone from Pakistan"
instead
...
Some examples of transformed city names are below
...
It shows a relationship of belonging
between one thing and another
...
If the noun is plural, or already ends in s, just add an
apostrophe after the s
...
The first option is more common
...


EXAMPLES




Thomas's book (or Thomas' book)
James's shop (or James' shop)
the Smiths's house (or the Smiths' house)

FUNCTIONS OF THE POSSESSIVE
'Belonging to' or 'ownership' is the most common relationship the possessive expresses
...
= It is John's car
...
= They are America's gold reserves
...
= This is John's school
...
= This is John's room
...


EXAMPLES



John's mother is running late
...


The possessive can express intangible things as well
...

The politician's hypocrisy was deeply shocking
...


EXAMPLES WITH TIME





a day's work
a month's pay
today's newspaper
in a year's time

OTHER EXAMPLES



For God's sake! (= exclamation of exasperation)
a stone's throw away (= very near)

48




at death's door (= very ill)
in my mind's eye (= in my imagination)

The possessive is also used to refer to shops, restaurants, churches and colleges, using the name or job title of the owner
...

Is Saint Mary's an all-girls school?

49

50


Title: Nouns
Description: Basic English Grammar