Nouns

ESL 2

What are they?

• Nouns are :– People: doctor, nurse, boy, sister

– Places: Miami, Peru

– Things: pencil, car, house, cloud

– Ideas: friendship, love, anger

Kinds of nouns

• Count nouns: anything that can be counted– Desks, dogs, houses

• Noncount nouns: anything that cannot be counted– Milk, water, love, air, blood

• Collective nouns: a single group made of many members– Team, class, jury, audience

Count NounsMost English nouns are count nouns.  They refer to objects which are thought of as separate things, and they have both singular and plural forms. Most of the time, their plurals are formed in a regular way that follows standard plural rules.  Usually, plurals are formed by adding -s to the singular form of the noun.  Nouns that end in -s, -z, -ch, -sh, and -x are made plural by adding an -es.

Noncount Nouns

Noncount nouns do not have a singular or a plural form.  In a sentence, a noncount noun is treated like a singular noun and uses the verb form for singular nouns.

Types of Noncount Nouns

1. Things Made Up of Small Pieces (ex. grass, rice, salt, sand)

2.Fields of Study/Jobs (ex. advertising, mathematics, English, music)

Some More Types of Noncount Nouns

4. Liquids (ex. blood, coffee, soup)

3. Abstract Ideas (ex. hatred, anger, wisdom)

5. Gases (ex. oxygen, carbon dioxide)

A Few More Types of Noncount Nouns

6. Solids, Minerals, and Elements (ex. cotton, chocolate, iron, soap)

7. Sports & Games (ex. baseball, bowling)

8. Things That Happen In Nature (ex. gravity, ice, rain)

One More Type of Noncount Noun

9. Medical Conditions/Diseases (ex. cancer, hiccups, flu)