Monday,July 31, 2017- Advanced English Grammar E-Notes #3
Ma’am Claire is not around but her St’s are present . Today is the first batch of Demo Teaching and they talked about NOUNS.
WHAT IS NOUNS?
a word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things common noun, or to name a particular one of these proper noun.
Proper nouns have two distinct features: They name specific one-of-a-kind items, and they begin with capital letters, no matter where they occur within a sentence.
Common nouns are words used to name general items rather than specific ones.
Countable nouns (or count nouns) are those that refer to something that can be counted. They have both singular and plural forms (e.g. cat/cats; woman/women; country/countries). In the singular, they can be preceded by a or an. Most nouns come into this category.
quantifiers to know if a noun is countable:
a/an
the
numbers
some/any
many
few/ a few
how many
A smaller number of nouns do not typically refer to things that can be counted and so they do not regularly have a plural form: these are known as uncountable nouns (or mass nouns). Examples include: rain, flour, earth, wine, or wood. Uncountable nouns can't be preceded by a or an. Many abstract nouns are typically uncountable, e.g. happiness, truth, darkness, humour.
Uncountable nouns always takes a singular form.
We cannot use a/an or numbers before these uncountable nouns
the quantifiers to indicate that a noun is an uncountable:
some/any
much
little/a little
how much
Uncountable nouns uses partitives. Partitives are used to refer to a part as a whole
Concrete nouns are things that you can experience through your five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.
Abstract nouns are like the opposite of concrete nouns. These are nouns that name things you cannot see, smell, taste, hear, or touch. They refer to emotions, ideas, concepts, tenets, beliefs, or your state of being.
Material noun can be defined as “Material Noun are names of materials or substances out of which things are made. Ex: gold, iron, silver etc.”
Material nouns are names given to the raw elements or objects exist in the nature and cannot be created by human being, however many new things can be created by man using raw materials. The main source of raw materials are nature, animals and plants. We have provided below the list of common nouns under various categories such as:
Material nouns from nature: water, air, silver, gold, iron, copper, sand, coal, rock, sunlight, rain, earth, salt, etc.
Material nouns from animals: egg, meat, honey, milk, silk, leather, wool, etc.
Material nouns from plants: cotton, food, oil, wood, jute, coffee, medicine, tea, rubber, perfume, etc.
Man made material nouns: acid, alcohol, asphalt, brick, cement, butter, chalk, ghee, cheese, dacron, ebony, enamel, felt, gelatin, paraffin, cloth, etc.
Masculine genders are nouns that are specific only for the male sex.. Feminine genders are nouns that are specific only for the female sex. Common Genders are nouns that can be used in either sex. Neuter Genders are nouns that are called for lifeless things and is neither a male or a female.
Plural Noun Rules
There are many plural noun rules, and because we use nouns so frequently when writing, it’s important to know all of them! The correct spelling of plurals usually depends on what letter the singular noun ends in.
1 To make regular nouns plural, add ‑s to the end.
cat – cats
house – houses
2 If the singular noun ends in ‑s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x, or -z, add ‑es to the end to make it plural.
truss – trusses
bus – buses
marsh – marshes
lunch – lunches
tax – taxes
blitz – blitzes
3 In some cases, singular nouns ending in -s or -z, require that you double the -s or -z prior to adding the -es for pluralization.
fez – fezzes
gas –gasses
4 If the noun ends with ‑f or ‑fe, the f is often changed to ‑ve before adding the -s to form the plural version.
wife – wives
wolf – wolves
Exceptions:
roof – roofs
belief – beliefs
chef – chefs
chief – chiefs
5 If a singular noun ends in ‑y and the letter before the -y is a consonant, change the ending to ‑ies to make the noun plural.
city – cities
puppy – puppies
6 If the singular noun ends in -y and the letter before the -y is a vowel, simply add an -s to make it plural.
ray – rays
boy – boys
7 If the singular noun ends in ‑o, add ‑es to make it plural.
potato – potatoes
tomato – tomatoes
Exceptions:
photo – photos
piano – pianos
halo – halos
With the unique word volcano, you can apply the standard pluralization for words that end in -o or not. It’s your choice! Both of the following are correct:
volcanoes
volcanos
8 If the singular noun ends in ‑us, the plural ending is frequently ‑i.
cactus – cacti
focus – foci
9 If the singular noun ends in ‑is, the plural ending is ‑es.
analysis – analyses
ellipsis – ellipses
10 If the singular noun ends in ‑on, the plural ending is ‑a.
phenomenon – phenomena
criterion – criteria
11 Some nouns don’t change at all when they’re pluralized.
sheep – sheep
series – series
species – species
deer –deer
You need to see these nouns in context to identify them as singular or plural. Consider the following sentence:
Mark caught one fish, but I caught three fish.
IRREGULAR NOUNS
For most nouns that end in "f" or "fe," you drop the "f" or "fe" and add "ves"
Knife = knives
Wife = wives
Half = halves
Loaf = loaves
For many words that end in "us," change the "us" to an "i" (especially if it comes from a Latin word). There are many exceptions to this rule and it is becoming more acceptable to add "es" instead of changing to "i"
Cactus = cacti
fungus = fungi
syllabus = syllabi
For nouns that end in "o" you add either "s" or "es". (Generally, most nouns ending in "o" just add "s" to make the plural, especialy if there's a vowel before the final "o")
Zoo = zoos
Studio = studios
Tomato = tomatoes
Potato = potatoes
Some words ending in "o" can be spelled either way
Banjo = banjos or banjoes
Flamingo = flmaingos or flmaingoes
For many words that end in "is," change the "is" to an "es"
hypothesis = hypotheses
oasis = oases
crisis = crises
Nouns that end in "um" often become plural by changing "um" to "a"
bacterium = bacteria
medium = media
curriculum = curicula
Words that Change Form
Certain words do not add a letter to the end, but instead change the word itself. These words simply need to be memorized. Some examples include:
Man to men
Foot to feet
Tooth to teeth
Goose to geese
“All the facts of nature are nouns of the intellect, and make the grammar of the eternal language. Every word has a double, trebleor centuple use and meaning.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson