Basic Grammar: Parts of Speech: Nouns

Basic Grammar: Parts of Speech: Nouns modified from: http://www.athabascau.ca/courses/engl/egh/basic_grammar.php

Nouns A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea. Most nouns may be singular (i.e., represent one person, place, thing, or idea) or plural (i.e., represent more than one person, place, thing, or idea). A plural noun usually ends with an s. There are also many irregular plural forms that must be learned and recognized.

Examples Singular Plural :

Person boy boys

woman women

Place Lake Erie Great Lakes

Vancouve

Thing house houses

tree trees

democrac Idea democracies y

freedom freedoms

love love

Types of Nouns A noun may belong to more than one of the following groups.

Proper  name a particular person, place, or thing  require a capital letter

Examples Person Place Thing :

Anne Hyde Park (the) Bible

Gandhi Mt. Everest Concorde

Mr. Lee Vancouver Ford Escort

Common  name a class of persons, places, or things  do not require a capital letter

child city chair

doctor home expression

singer restaurant snow

Collective  name of groups of persons, places, and things  may be singular or plural

club forest decade

jury mall dozen

team herd

Abstract  name of things not knowable through the five senses (touch, hear, see, smell, taste)

Examples humor, fatigue, liberty, love, refusal, truth :

Concrete  name things that are knowable through the five senses (touch, hear, see, smell, and taste)

Examples Touch Hear See Smell Taste :

snow cry cloud fumes coffee

landscap tree sigh odor hot dog e

wind whisper moon perfume salt

Count  name people, places, and things that can be counted, as in one pen, two pens  have irregular forms where the plural is quite different from the singular form, or have the same form as the singular, e.g., sheep.

Examples Regular Countables Irregular Countables :

cat cats child children

house houses goose geese

husband husbands person people

socialist socialists woman women

Non-count or mass  name things that cannot be counted

Examples advice, information, news, rice, sugar, : water