Nouns

Nouns

March 3, 2012

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Nouns A noun or a substantive is a word or phrase that represents a thing, a place, a person, or an idea.

A noun can be the name of a person (John); a job title (doctor); the name of a thing (radio); the name of a place (London); the name of a quality (courage); or the name of an action (laughter/laughing). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZcka8Zg-uc Nouns are primarily used as subjects of sentences and objects of verbs and prepositions.

They are often, but not always, preceded by articles a, an, or the.

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Types of Nouns Nouns are classified as either common or proper.

Common nouns refer to any one of a class of items (e.g. street, organization, mother).

Proper nouns refer to a particular thing, place, or person and are generally capitalized (e.g. the Rocky Mountains, Aunt Jenny).

Proper nouns include personal names, forms of address (Dad, Auntie), geographical names, place names (Baker Street), months, days of the week, festivals (Easter, Christmas).

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Types of Nouns All common nouns fall into one of two sub-classes: they may be either countable or uncountable nouns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyhWiqOlDxg If a noun is countable: we can use a/an in front of it; it has a plural and can be used in the question “How many?”; we can use numbers in front of it.

If a noun is uncountable: we do not normally use a/an in front of it; it does not normally have a plural and can be used in the question “How much?”; we cannot normally use a number in front of it.

Some uncountable nouns in English: accommodation, advice, education, furniture, garbage, hair, homework, housework, information, knowledge, money, weather, food, etc.

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Types of Nouns Nouns may also be classed as concrete or abstract.

Concrete nouns describe tangibles, such as objects and people (e.g. computer, the Mississippi River).

Abstract nouns refer to things that cannot be touched, such as ideas and qualities (e.g. honour, happiness).

Simple vs. derived vs compound nouns Many nouns in English are formed from two parts (classroom) or, less commonly, three or more (son-in-law). These nouns are called compound nouns.

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Types of Nouns Certain nouns denoting groups of human beings (family, government, choir, party, jury) can be used in two different ways: 1) either they are taken to denote the group as a whole, and in that case they are treated as singulars, and usually termed ‘collective nouns’ (e.g. My family is small); 2) or else they are taken to denote the group as consisting of a certain number of individual human beings, and in that case they are usually termed ‘nouns of multitude’ (e.g.

My family are good speakers).

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Nouns: Gender In many European languages the names of things, such as book, chair have a gender: that is, they are classified grammatically as masculine, feminine or neuter, although very often their gender does not relate to sex.

The grammatical gender barely concerns nouns in English. It mainly concerns personal pronouns, where a distinction is drawn between he, she and it.

Contrasting nouns describing people: boy/girl, brother/sister, king/queen, nephew/niece, sir/madam, bachelor/spinster, husband/wife.

Contrasting nouns describing animals: bull/cow, rooster/hen, stallion/mare, pig/sow, dog/bitch, ram/ewe.

Endings indicating gender: -ess – actress, goddess, hostess, stewardess, princess -ine – heroine and -se – masseuse

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Nouns: plurals We'll begin with a box; the plural is boxes, But the plural of ox is oxen, not oxes.

One fowl is a goose, and two are called geese, Yet the plural of moose is never called meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a house full of mice; But the plural of house is houses, not hice.

The plural of man is always men, But the plural of pan is never pen.

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth, Why shouldn't two booths be called beeth?

If the singular's this and the plural is these, Should the plural of kiss be ever called keese?

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Nouns: Plurals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6COqkRp9s9c Plural forms of nouns -s after most nouns: cat – cats -es after nouns ending in -s, -x, -ch, -sh: classes, boxes, watches, bushes Many commonly used nouns (echo, domino, hero, potato, tomato) ending in –o are spelt –oes in the plural.

The following have plurals spelt with –os: • nouns ending in vowel + -o or double o: bamboos, kangaroos, radios, videos, zoos • abbreviations: kilos, photos • Italian musical terms: pianos, solos, sopranos • proper nouns: Eskimos, Filipinos Some words allow both plurals, e.g., volcano(e)s, though modern usage is slowly moving towards the –os norm.

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Nouns: Plurals consonant + -y becomes –ies: country – countries vowel + -y adds –s: days, boys, guys Proper nouns ending in –y add –s in the plural: Kennedy – the Kennedys, the three Marys Internal vowel change (7 nouns): man – men, woman – women, foot – feet, goose – geese, louse – lice, mouse – mice, tooth – teeth.

But Mickey Mouses!

Nouns with plurals in –en: ox – oxen, child – children, brother – brethren Unusual consonant doubling: quiz – quizzes The use of apostrophes after a letter name: capitalize your I’s TLÜ Haapsalu Kolledž, Lihula mnt. 12, Haapsalu 90507; Tel: 472 0240; e­post: kolledz@hk.tlu.ee; http://www.hk.tlu.ee

Nouns: Plurals Thirteen nouns ending in -f or -fe drop the -f or -fe and add -ves. These nouns are: calf, elf, half, knife, leaf, life, loaf, self, sheaf, shelf, thief, wife, wolf. But still lifes!

The nouns dwarf, hoof, scarf and wharf take either -s or -ves in the plural.

Other words ending in -f or -fe add -s in the ordinary way: handkerchief, safe, roof, fife (a type of flute).

In compound nouns normally the last word is made plural: boyfriends, breakdowns, breakthroughs, bus drivers. But where a man and woman is prefixed both parts are made plural: men drivers, women drivers.

In case of prepositions, which come after the head word, the head takes the plural form, e.g. mothers-in-law, lookers-on, runners-up TLÜ Haapsalu Kolledž, Lihula mnt. 12, Haapsalu 90507; Tel: 472 0240; e­post: kolledz@hk.tlu.ee; http://www.hk.tlu.ee

Nouns: Plurals Some words have the same form in the singular and the plural: salmon, deer, sheep, aircraft, series, means (of transport).

The nouns which have only a singular and no plural are termed ‘singularia tantum’ (the Latin for ‘singular only’). Here also belong nouns denoting material substance, such as quicksilver, butter, and also names of abstract notions, such as peace, wisdom.

Close to this group are also some names of sciences, e.g. mathematics, physics, also politics, and some names of diseases, e.g. measles, mumps, rickets. These words look plural but take a singular verb with them (just like ‘news’).

Some words are always plural and take a plural verb (clothes and police); garments consisting of two parts: pyjamas, trousers; instruments consisting of two parts: scissors, scales, pliers. The nouns which have only a plural and no singular are usually termed ‘pluralia tantum’ (‘plural only’).

A few nouns look singular but are always plural: livestock, cattle, poultry, people.

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Nouns: Plurals Some words which retain their original Greek or Latin forms make their plurals according to the rules of Greek and Latin: crisis – crises, phenomenon – phenomena, criterion – criteria, alumnus – alumni, alga - algae.

But there also nouns with both foreign and anglicized plurals: cactus / cacti / cactuses, index / indices / indexes, appendix / appendices / appendixes, formula / formulae / formulas.

NB! Where there is a choice, the classical plural is usually more technical or formal.

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Nouns: Plurals Some controversial nouns: Data was once found only as the plural of datum, but now is often used a singular, especially in computing, e.g. much of this data needs to be questioned. The singular function is still not totally established, as we cannot yet say ‘a data, two data’.

Dice is now used (like sheep) both as a singular and a plural: the dice is / are on the table. The singular usage is now found only in the idiom ‘The die is cast.” (An irrevocable decision has been made.)

TLÜ Haapsalu Kolledž, Lihula mnt. 12, Haapsalu 90507; Tel: 472 0240; e­post: kolledz@hk.tlu.ee; http://www.hk.tlu.ee

Nouns: Genitive Case The form of a noun may change also to reflect its case (nominative or possessive / genitive).

Case is the form of the noun which shows the relation of the noun to other words in the sentence. English nouns have only two case forms – the common case and the genitive case.

The genitive case is formed by means of the suffix ‘s or the apostrophe alone. The ‘s is added to singular nouns and also to irregular plural nouns (men’s, children’s).

The apostrophe alone is added to regular plural nouns (soldiers’, parents’) and also to Greek proper names ending in -s (Archimedes’ Law, Sophocles’ plays). Some other proper names ending in –s may also take the suffix ‘s (Soames’ or Soames’s collection, Jesus’ or Jesus’s name).

With compound nouns the suffix ‘s is always added to the final component (my father-in-law’s house).

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Nouns: Genitive Case The number of nouns which may be used in the genitive case is limited.

The ‘s genitive commonly occurs with animate nouns denoting personal names (John’s bed), personal nouns (my friend’s visit), collective nouns (the team’s victory), indefinite pronouns (someone’s responsibility) and animals (the dog’s barking).

In principle, the ‘s genitive is also possible with certain kinds of inanimate nouns and abstract notions. E.g., it is regularly found with temporal nouns (a few days’ trip, a month’s salary, today’s newspaper) and with nouns denoting distance and measure (a mile’s distance), and money’s worth (twenty dollars’ worth of gasoline).

Sometimes it’s used with geographic names of continents, countries, cities (Europe’s future).

Set phrases: duty’s call, at death’s door, journey’s end Otherwise we have to use the of-construction: the cost of living, the shade of a tree.

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Nouns: Genitive Case We say a friend of mine / yours / hers / ours (not a friend of me, you, him).

In the same way we say a friend of Tom’s, a friend of my sister’s, e.g. It was a good idea of Tom’s to go swimming.

That woman over there is a friend of my sister’s.

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Nouns: Genitive Case Omission of the noun after ‘s and s’: The ‘s/s’-construction can be used on its own when we refer to: • a noun that is implied: We need a ladder. We can borrow our neighbour’s.

• where someone lives: I’m staying at my aunt’s.

• shops and businesses: the butcher’s, the hairdresser’s • medical practitioners: the dentist’s, the doctor’s When we refer to well-known stores an apostrophe before the -s is optional, but is usually omitted: You cannot go to London without visiting Harrods / Harrod’s.

TLÜ Haapsalu Kolledž, Lihula mnt. 12, Haapsalu 90507; Tel: 472 0240; e­post: kolledz@hk.tlu.ee; http://www.hk.tlu.ee

Bibliography Crystal, D. (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. CUP Dooley, J. and V. Evans. (1999). Grammarway 4. Express Publishing.

Murphy, R. (1997). English Grammar in Use: Intermediate. CUP. Possessive Nouns http://www.cit.griffith.edu.au/~mf/wrsk/pluralposs.pdf

TLÜ Haapsalu Kolledž, Lihula mnt. 12, Haapsalu 90507; Tel: 472 0240; e­post: kolledz@hk.tlu.ee; http://www.hk.tlu.ee

Practice Give the corresponding feminine nouns: widower, monk, bachelor, fox, tiger, hero, duke, nephew, king, gentleman, host, waiter, stallion Give the plurals of the following nouns: chief, species, curriculum, formula, forget-me-not, louse, passer-by, loaf, man servant, German, looker-on, library, life, cliff, offspring, scarf, brother-in-law, aircraft, medium, crisis, deer, editor-in-chief, fireman, datum, roof, monkey, stimulus, penny, phenomenon, man-of-war, analysis TLÜ Haapsalu Kolledž, Lihula mnt. 12, Haapsalu 90507; Tel: 472 0240; e­post: kolledz@hk.tlu.ee; http://www.hk.tlu.ee