Nouns

NOUNS

Nouns are words that describe people, places, things, ideas or abstract concepts. Some examples of nouns include Susan, Tokyo, bicycle, and philosophy. Nouns can be countable or uncountable. Examples of countable nouns include boy/boys, peach/peaches and child/children. Nouns function as subjects and objects of sentences; nouns are what we talk about in a sentence.

 

UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

 

Uncountable nouns cannot be counted. They have only a singular form.

 

Examples of uncountable nouns.

water

Drink a lot of water on a hot day.

rice

Can I have some more rice?

space

We don’t have much space in our home.

happiness

Happiness is most important in life.

History

I’m not good at History.

 

COUNTABLE NOUNS

 

Countable nouns can be counted. They have a singular form and a plural form. The plural form of most countable nouns is made by adding –s or sometimes –es. These are called regular nouns. However, some countable nouns do not take –s or –es. They are called irregular nouns.

Examples of countable nouns (regular)

dog / dogs

My family has two dogs.

girl / girls

There are fifteen girls in our class.

team / teams

The two teams came out on the field.

box / boxes

Put all the boxes over there.

watch / watches

How many watches do you own?

 

Examples of countable nouns (irregular)

person / people

How many people are in your family?

child / children

Many children were playing in the park.

foot / feet

I put both my feet into the water.

mouse / mice

I found three mice in my kitchen.

fish / fish

We saw many fish while scuba diving.

 

COMMON AND PROPER NOUNS

 

Nouns can also be grouped as common nouns or proper nouns. Common nouns are general, they don’t refer to a specific person, place, thing, or concept. Proper nouns refer to a specific person, place, thing, or concept. Proper nouns usually begin with a capital letter.

 

Examples of common and proper nouns

common nouns

proper nouns

man

John

town

Chicago

movie

Titanic

country

Japan

war

The Revolutionary War

 

COLLECTIVE NOUNS

 

Collective nouns refer to groups or collections of things. In American English, collective verbs are usually treated as singular. In British English, they are usually treated as plural.

Examples of collective nouns

American English

British English

The team is playing well.

The team are playing well.

The staff is in the office.

The staff are in the office.

The government wants to raise taxes.

The government want to raise taxes.

The audience seems to like the movie.

The audience seem to like the movie.

My family is on vacation.

My family are on holiday.

 

PLURAL-ONLY NOUNS

 

Plural-only nouns are countable, but they don’t have a singular form.

 

Examples of plural-only nouns

pants

He’s wearing blue pants today.

clothes

I went shopping for clothes.

glasses

Do you wear glasses?

scissors

Be careful using the scissors.

belongings

Put your belongings in the locker.

 

GERUNDS

 

Gerunds are nouns which are formed by adding –ing to a verb form.

Examples of gerunds

speaking

Speaking French is difficult for me.

playing

My hobby is playing the piano.

studying

She enjoys studying in the library.

cooking

Cooking in the kitchen all day made me hot.

swimming

I love swimming.