INSTITUTO SAN MIGUEL GRAMÁTICA INGLESA I

PROF. EN INGLÉS - 1er AÑO Prof. ÁNGELES BARROS

UNIT 3: NOUNS
What is a Noun? A noun is a way of naming things; it indicates what someone or something is called. It can be used
to name a person (Susie), an object (phone), a place like a city or a town (England), a profession (accountant), an
activity (swimming), or a feeling (hatred) or a quality. A noun can occur on its own or it can combine with other
words such as articles, quantifiers or adjectives to make up noun phrases where it is the head or main word.
Examples: People are upset about the economy. The tall woman started the conflict.
The students missed the lesson. The girl in the blue coat arrived first.
Some animals have escaped the zoo. My dad, who is a lawyer, phoned last night.

Typical Noun Endings

-er singer -ion companion -ity activity -ment arrangement
-ant consultant -sion teelvision -ar burglar -tion condition
-eer engineer -ety anxiety -ent president -ness happiness
-ian electrician -cy primacy -or actor -dom boredom
-ese Japanese -ful spoonful -age courage -hood childhood
-al arrival -ism dynamism -ence dependence -ette usherette
-ance importance -en kitten -ery discovery -let booklet

noun + noun
We can put one noun before another when we are talking about a kind of thing or person. The first noun is
generally singular. They are called compound nouns and they are sometimes spelled with a hyphen or they are
spelled as two separate words.
Examples: * milk chocolate = a kind of chocolate with milk in it.
* chocolate milk = a kind of milk with chocolate in it.
* flower shop = a shop that sells flowers.

types of nouns
Nouns fall into two classes; they may be either proper nouns or common nouns.
Proper Nouns: a proper noun is the name of a particular person, place, thing or idea which is, or is considered to
be, unique. It is generally spelt with a capital letter. Articles are not normally used in front of Proper nouns.
Proper nouns include:
a. Personal names: Peter, Mr. Peter Smith, President Washington.
b. Forms of addrees: Sister Mary, Uncle Tom, etc.
c. Geographical Names: Africa, Canada, London, etc.
d. Months, days of the week, festivals and seasons: April, Saturday, Easter, Christmas, Summer, etc.
e. Languages: French, English, etc.

Common Nouns: any noun that is not the name of a particular person, place, thing or idea is a common noun. We
can use the different articles in front of these nouns. All common nouns fall into two sub-classes. They may be
either countable nouns or uncountable nouns.
a. Countable nouns: If a noun is countable:
* We can use “a/an” in front of it: a teacher; an architect.
* It has a plural form and can be used in the question how many?
* We can use numbers before it: one car; nine cars.
 INSTITUTO SAN MIGUEL GRAMÁTICA INGLESA I
PROF. EN INGLÉS - 1er AÑO Prof. ÁNGELES BARROS

B. Uncountable nouns: If a noun is uncountable:

* We do not normally use “a/an” in front of it: Sugar is bad for your teeth.
* It does not normally have a plural form and can be used in the question how much?
* We cannot use numbers before it: *one oil; *two oils.

Nouns which can be either countable or uncountable

There are some nouns which can be either count or non-count depending on their use.
a. Nouns we can think of as “single items” or “substances”:
When we refer to these nouns as single items, they are countable. Ex. He’s bought a coke for lunch.
When we refer to them as substances, they are uncountable. Ex. Do you like coke?
Other examples of this type of nouns are an egg / egg, a ribbon / ribbon, a chicken / chicken.

b. Nouns which refer to “objects or material”:

When we use such nouns as countable, we refer to a thing which is made of the material or which we think of as
being made of the material. When we use them as uncountable, we refer only to the material. Compare:
Ex. Would you like an ice? / Ice floats.
Ex. I broke a glass this morning / Glass is made from sand.

c. Normally uncountable nouns used as countables:

Many nouns which are normally uncountable can be used as countable if we refer to particular varieties. When
this occurs, the noun is usually preceded by an adjective or there is some kind of specification:
Ex. This region produces an excellent wine - some good wines. / I like white wine.

d. Nouns which can refer to something specific or general:

Ex. A good education is expensive. / Education should be free.
Ex. Try not to make a noise. / Noise is a kind of pollution.

e. Nouns ending in “ing”:

-ing forms called gerunds are generally uncountable but a few can refer to a specific thing or event.
Ex. Are these drawings by Picasso? / I’m no good at drawing.

Partitive expressions
A partitive is a word or phrase (such as "some of" or "a slice of") that indicates a part or quantity of something
as distinct from a whole. Partitives can appear before mass (noncount) nouns as well as count nouns. Although
most partitive constructions refer to a quantity or amount, some are used to indicate quality or behavior ("the
kind of teacher who...").
Examples:
* a piece of cake * a page of a book
* an item of clothing * a sheet of paper
* a flock of sheep * a box of chocolate
* a pack of dogs * a speck of dust
* a kind of computer * three acts of a play
* a litre of milk * a piece of advice
 INSTITUTO SAN MIGUEL GRAMÁTICA INGLESA I
PROF. EN INGLÉS - 1er AÑO Prof. ÁNGELES BARROS

Abstract or Concrete? Either countable or uncountable, common nouns can be either abstract or concrete. A
concrete noun refers to a physical entity or substance. An abstract noun refers to abstractions such as events,
states, times, and qualities. Read the following extract:
“The latest development is a drug called clomipramine which has the endearing quality of reducing the desire
to pull your hair out when under stress.”
In the text sample, the following common nouns are concrete: drug, clomipramine, hair. The following common
nouns are abstract: development, quality, desire, stress.
The distinction between concrete and abstract nouns is purely semantic: it has no real grammatical role since
abstract nouns, like concrete nouns, can be countable, uncountable, common or proper. In fact, some nouns, like
thing, cross the boundary between concrete and abstract very easily. Thing commonly refers to a physical object
but it is also widely used for abstract meanings like “event” or “process”.
1a. This thing is way too small to stick between your toes.
1b. I have just got it confirmed but these things take time.

Singular and Plural nouns

Countable nouns can be either singular or plural. Singular means one while plural means more than one. In this
respect, nouns can be regular plurals or irregular plurals.
a. Regular Plural Formation:
* -s after most nouns: cat - cats.
* -es after nouns ending in “-o”, “-s”, “-x”, “-sh” and “-ch”: tomato - tomatoes; class - classes; box - boxes; church
- churches; bush - bushes.
* consonant + -y becomes -ies: baby - babies.
* vowel + -y adds -s: play - plays; boy - boys.

b. Irregular Plural Formation:

* Most nouns ending in /f/ and / / undergo a process known as voicing.
Ex. knife - knives - /naif/ - /naivz/ bath - baths - /ba / /b z/
Other examples include: calf, half, leaf, loaf, self, shelf, thief, wife, wolf, etc.
With some nouns such as handkerchief, hoof and scarf the plural may involve voicing or may be regular.
- Some exceptions:
a. The plural of belief, cliff, proof is always regular.
b. Cloth, death, faith, moth, birth, lenght, etc take the regular plural.

* Vowel change: with a small number of nouns there is a change of vowel sound and spelling without an ending.
There are others which involve vowel change and an irregular ending.
Ex. foot - feet; mouse - mice; louse - lice; woman - women; goose - geese; man - men; tooth - teeth; brother -
brethren (in religious contexts); child - children.

* Zero plural: some nouns have the same form in both singular and plural. These words can take singular or
plural verbs.
Ex. sheep, deer, grouse, salmon, trout, Chinese, fish (fishes refers to different species of fish), etc.
 INSTITUTO SAN MIGUEL GRAMÁTICA INGLESA I
PROF. EN INGLÉS - 1er AÑO Prof. ÁNGELES BARROS

* Foreign Plurals : Several nouns adopted from foreign languages such as Latin and Greek retain the foreign
inflection for plural.
Ex. alumnus - alumni; stimulus - stimuli; alumna - alumnae; larva - larvae; stratum - strata; bacterium - bacteria;
analysis - analyses; crisis - crises; criterion - criteria; phenomenon - phenomena.
There are some nouns which can take both foreign plural or regular plural forms:
Ex. cactus - cacti / cactuses; nucleus - nuclei / nucleuses; focus - foci / focuses; index - indices / indexes; matrix -
matrices / matrixes; medium - media / mediums; antenna - antennae / antennas; formula - formulae / formulas,
etc.

Case
Nouns have two cases: the common case and the genitive case. The first one is the case that is used ordinarily,
the latter is usually marked by means of an apostrophe and the inflection “s” at the end of a noun. The genitive
case is sometimes called the possessive case since one of the main meanings it expresses is that of possession.
The students (coomon case) - The students’ ideas (genitive case).

* We use the possessive ’s and s’ mostly to talk about possession, experience and relationships.
Ex. Ann’s purse (possession - Ann has a purse)
Ann’s accident (experience - Ann had an accident)
Ann’s husband (relationship - Ann has a brother)

* With some common time words, we add -s to say how long something takes.
Ex. A second’s thought (a thought that lasted a second)
A minute’s silence (a silence that lasted a minute)

* We can use noun + ’s or s’ without another noun if the meaning is clear.

Ex. Whose coat is that? “Harry’s”
My hair is dark, but my children’s is fair.

* We also use noun + ’s or s’ without other nouns for offices, churches and some shops.
Ex. I bought this at Allder’s.
I hate going to the dentist’s.
She sings at St. John’s.

* We often use noun + ’s or s’ without other noouns to talk about people’s homes.
Ex. I saw Monica at Barry’s on Friday.
Lee is going to his sister’s next weekend.