MEETING 1

TYPES AND DEFINITION OF NOUN

A. THE OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

After studying this meeting, the students will be able to:

1. Understand the definition of noun

2. Understand the numbers of noun

B. MATERIAL DESCRIPTION

1. Types and Definition of Noun

A noun is a name of person, animal, thing, place or concept. There are these

types of nouns :

1) Common Noun

Common Nouns are the general names of people, animals, things and

places. Ex : pupil, lady, hen, duck, and etc

2) Proper Noun

Proper Nouns refer to specific person, places, and things. The first letter

is in capital letters. Example : John, China, London.

3) Material Noun

Water, air, sand, sugar, flour, oil, etc, are the material things in life, and

they are called material nouns.

4) Collective Noun

When a noun stands for a number of people or things as a single Meeting,

it is collective noun. Ex : committee, crowd, jury.

 5) Abstract Noun

A large number of nouns refer to qualities such as love, hatred, honesty,

sincerity, and conditions such as poverty and sickness.

Example:Such nouns are abstract in nature and are therefore called

abstract nouns.

2. Numbers of Noun

An English noun can be singular or Plural in number. There are some ways to

form plural in English:

a. Generally speaking, a singular noun becomes plural by adding ‘s’ to it.

Let see the example below!

Singular Plural Singular Plural

Shoe Shoes Clock Clock

Ba Balls
Spoo Spoons
ll

Car Cars Cup Cups

b. But a large number of other common nouns do not form their plural number by

adding-s, but by adding ‘es; ’ies’or ‘ves’. Some examples are : hero ------

heroes; church-----churches.

Singular Plural

Box Boxes

Brush Brushes

Fish Fishes
c. For nouns ending with a consonant and y, change the y to i and add es. For

nouns ending with a vowel and y, add s.

Singular Plural

Gas Gases

Wax Waxes

Waltz Waltzes

Dish Dishes

Church churches

d. For some nouns ending with f or fe, add s. For others, change the f to v and add

s or es. (You will need to memorize the spellings for such words or look them

up in a dictionary to check)

Singular Plural

Belief Beliefs

Roof Roofs

Loaf Loaves
 Life Lives

Knife Knives

e. Some nouns have irregular plural forms

Example:

Singular Plural Singular Plural

Child Child Foot Feet

ren

Ma Me Woman Wome
n

Tooth Teet Mouse Mice

 C. EXERCISE

1. In each of the following sentences, indicate if the underlined noun is common,

material, proper, collective, or abstract noun!

a. The committee will meet next Monday.

b. Can we live without air?

c. Our class consists of 25 students.

d. How many members are there in your literary club?

e. Lions are large and strong.

f. Asians eat a lot of rice.

g. What newspapers do you read every day?

h. Bees produce honey for us.

i. Many people succeed through hard work.

j. David often drinks coffee without sugar.

2. Fill in the blank with a plural noun formed from the underlined noun. If you are

not sure about the plural form, please look up the dictionary!

a. This is a sharp knife. These ……………are sharp.

b. Mr. Hill told us an interesting story. We enjoyed all his…..

c. The boy is looking at photograph. The….are looking at the….

d. The woman beside me is talking to her baby. Those ..are talking to

their......

e. This farmer rears a big goose on his farm. These…rear….on their farms.
D. REFERENCE

Azar, Betty Scrampfer. 1992. Fundamentals English Grammar second edition. New

Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Broukal, Milada, TOEFL Test Asistant:Grammar, Heinle & Heinle Publisers : USA.

Frank, Marcella. 1972. Modern English a practical reference guide. New Jersey:

Prentice Hall.

Nettle, Mark and Hopkind, Diana, Developing Grammar in Context, Grammar

Reference and Practice. Italy: Cambridge University Press

Thomson A.J. and Martinet A.V.. A. 1986. Practical English Grammar, fourth

editition. Hongkong: Oxford University Press.