NOUNS

What are nouns? Let us learn more inside

NOUNS are:
words to identify people, places, things, animals, ideas, concepts/thoughts

5 types of nouns
a) Common Nouns: refer to people, things, places or animals e.g. sons, bird, villages, horses, country, telephone, rabbit, library

b) Proper Nouns: Names of particular people, animals, places or things (including names of countries, cities, towns, rivers, mountains, festivals, institutions etc) ***capital letters are used for the first letter of these nouns

Examples: Anita, Johannesburg, University of Malaya, Thaipusam, Malacca River, Kuala Lumpur City Centre

c) Collective Nouns: refer to groups of things that are regarded as ONE, collection of persons, places, activities & concepts
e.g. jury, team, staff, audience, committee, family, band etc

d) Abstract Nouns: refer to a quality, a feeling, an action/state of mind (things which are intangible & cannot be experienced with the 5 senses) e.g. motivation, beauty, honesty, respect, courage, gratitude, trustworthiness etc

e) Uncountable Nouns: things which cannot be counted e.g. time, hair, traffic, luggage, news, music, poverty, advice, furniture

SINGULAR & PLURAL nouns

a noun is SINGULAR if it refers to ONE person, place, animal/thing a noun is PLURAL if it refers to MORE THAN ONE person, place, animal, thing

EXAMPLES
SINGULAR nouns: scientist, giraffe, handbag, market, key, mansion
PLURAL nouns: nouns + s/es/ies e.g. hotels, buses, speeches, series, ladies, companies, books, matches, lamps etc

Rules for Spelling PLURAL Nouns

SINGULAR nouns in plural form (add s)

SINGULAR + -s book cat house PLURAL books cats houses

SINGULAR nouns ending with consonant + -y (-by, -dy, -ry, -ty) in plural form y is changed to i and add es SINGULAR baby lady ferry party PLURAL babies ladies ferries parties

SINGULAR nouns ending with ch, sh, s, x, or z, -es is added

SINGULAR
match crash bus box buzz

PLURAL
matches crashes buses boxes buzzes

SINGULAR nouns ending with o, the plural form is -es

SINGULAR echo hero potato tomato PLURAL echoes heroes potatoes tomatoes

SINGULAR nouns ending with f or fe, its plural form is -ves

SINGULAR
half knife thief wife

PLURAL
halves knives thieves wives

Some nouns have the same form for the SINGULAR & PLURAL (no changes)
SINGULAR PLURAL

sheep deer Chinese species series

sheep deer Chinese species series

Some nouns form the plural by changing their vowels

SINGULAR
man foot tooth mouse louse

PLURAL
men feet teeth mice lice

A few nouns form the plural with -en

SINGULAR
child ox PLURAL

children oxen

What about the plural of CHICK?

Is it CHICKEN?

POSSESSIVE NOUNS
Show that a person owns or possess something The apostrophe () is added to the noun e.g. Sufians car This means that the car belongs to Sufian

When the noun is SINGULAR, the apostrophe is before the s

e.g. Jasons car My brothers house The neighbours key

When the noun is PLURAL, the apostrophe is after the s

e.g. The teachers staffroom The students books My parents room

For plural nouns not ending with s, the apostrophe is before the s
Examples: The childrens toys The womens jewellery The mens office

THE END