The document discusses different types of nouns including singular and plural nouns, abstract and mass nouns, collective nouns, and proper nouns. It provides examples for each category and explains the key differences between common and proper nouns, countable and uncountable nouns, concrete and abstract nouns, and irregular plural nouns. The document also covers collective nouns, dual category nouns, and field-specific nouns.
6. PROPER NOUN
Icarus is the name (proper noun) of the
poor fellow falling out of the sky into the
water (in the lower right-hand corner of
the painting we see just his legs), as we
should know from the title of the
painting, "Landscape with the Fall of
Icarus."
7. WHAT ARE NOUNS?
Nouns are naming words.
They name people, places and objects.
They can also name ideas, emotions,
qualities and activities.
Here are some examples of nouns:
Peter, Elizabeth, driver, sister, friend.
Bristol, Severn, Brazil, pen, dog, money.
love, beauty, industry, nature, greed,
pain.
8. TYPES OF NOUN
All nouns can be divided into common and
proper nouns.
Common nouns can then be divided into
countable and uncountable nouns.
Both countable and uncountable nouns can
then be further divided into concrete and
abstract nouns.
We’ll look at each type in turn.
9. FIRST, LOOK AGAIN AT THOSE
TYPES AND HOW THEY RELATE.
proper
abstract
nouns
countable
concrete
common
abstract
uncountable
concrete
10. PROPER NOUNS
Proper nouns start with capital
letters.
They are the names of
people, places, times, organisations
etc.
They refer to unique individuals.
Most are not found in the dictionary.
They often occur in pairs or groups.
Here are some examples.
11. Tony Blair The Jam
Oxfam
Coronation Street
Carly
Christmas
Keynsham John
President Bush
Sony Thames
China Coca Cola
Bridget Jones
Portugal
The Ford Motor Company
King Henry
Macbeth
Saturn
12. COMMON NOUNS
All nouns which are not proper nouns
are common nouns.
A few examples: cup, art, paper, work,
frog, bicycle, atom, family, mind.
Common nouns are either countable or
uncountable.
13. COUNTABLE NOUNS
Use these tests for countable nouns:
Countable (or just “count”) nouns can be made
plural: a tree… two trees; a man… men; a pony…
ponies.
In the singular, they may have the article a or
an: a sausage; an asterisk.
We ask: How many words/pages/chairs?
We say: A few minutes/friends/chips?
14. UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
Use these tests for uncountable nouns:
Uncountable (or non-count) nouns cannot be
made plural. We cannot say: two funs, three
advices or five furnitures.
We never use a or an with them.
We ask: How much money/time/milk? (Not
How many?)
We say: A little help/effort. (Not A few.)
15. Like articles, quantifiers are words that
precede and modify nouns. They tell us
how many or how much.
The following quantifiers will work with count
nouns:
many trees
a few trees
few trees
several trees
a couple of trees
none of the trees
16. The following quantifiers will work
with non-count nouns:
not much dancing
a little dancing
little dancing
a bit of dancing
a good deal of dancing
a great deal of dancing
no dancing
17. The following quantifiers will work with
both count and non-count nouns:
all of the trees/dancing
some trees/dancing
most of the trees/dancing
enough trees/dancing
a lot of trees/dancing
lots of trees/dancing
plenty of trees/dancing
a lack of trees/dancing
18. There are, further, so called collective
nouns, which are singular when we think of
them as groups and plural when we think of
the individuals acting within the whole
(which happens sometimes, but not often).
audience family kind
band flock lot
class group [the]
committee heap number
crowd herd public
dozen jury staff
team
19. "A dozen is probably not enough."
But if we're talking partying with our
friends, we could say, "A dozen are
coming over this afternoon."
20. Note that "the number" is a singular
collective noun. "The number of
applicants is steadily increasing."
"A number," on the other hand, is a plural
form: "There are several students in the
lobby. A number are here to see the
president."
21. Collective nouns are count nouns
which means they, themselves, can
be pluralized:
a university has several athletic
teams and classes.
the immigrant families kept watch
over their herds and flocks.
22. a colony of ants
a brood of chickens
a host of angels
a business of ferrets
a murder of crows
a parliament of owls
a school/shoal of fish
a flock of birds
a gaggle/flock of geese
a mob of kangaroos
a fleet of ships
a shiver of sharks
23. a herd of cows
a flock of sheep
a swarm of bees
a pod of dolphins
a crowd of people
a cloud of gnats
an army of ants
a troop of baboons/monkeys
a bench of magistrates
a flight of stairs
a bunch of bananas
a string of pearls
24. DUAL CATEGORY NOUNS
Some nouns may be countable or
uncountable, depending on how we use
them.
We buy a box of chocolates (countable) or
a bar of chocolate (uncountable).
We ask: How much time? but How many
times? (where times = occasions).
We sit in front of a television (set) to
watch television (broadcasting).
25. FIELD-SPECIFIC NOUNS
Uncountable nouns are often turned into
countable nouns by specialists in a particular
field.They become part of the jargon of that
specialism.
Grass is usually uncountable but botanists and
gardeners talk about grasses.
Linguists sometimes talk about Englishes.
Financiers refer to moneys or even monies.
Teas may be used to mean types of tea.
26. CONCRETE NOUNS
Concrete nouns are the words that most people
think of as nouns.
They are mostly the names of objects and
animals (countable) and substances or materials
(uncountable).
Cake, oxygen, iron, boy, dog, pen, glass,
pomegranate, earthworm and door are all
concrete nouns.
27. ABSTRACT NOUNS
Abstract nouns name ideas, feelings and
qualities.
Most, though not all, are uncountable.
Many are derived from adjectives and
verbs and have characteristic endings
such as –ity, -ness, -ence, and -tion.
They are harder to recognise as nouns
than the concrete variety.
28. ABSTRACT NOUN OR ADJECTIVE
You won’t confuse abstract nouns with
adjectives, as long as you apply a few
tests.
Happy is an adjective. It behaves like one:
very happy; so happy; happier; as happy as
Happiness behaves like a noun: The
happiness I feel; her happiness; great
happiness.
29. A few more examples
Verb or adjective Abstract noun
We were different The difference
from each other. between us.
My work is precise. I work with precision.
The air is pure. The purity of the air.
I composed this This tune is my
tune. composition.
It is so beautiful. It has such beauty.
You support me. The support you give me.
30. IRREGULAR PLURALS
Some nouns retain plural endings from Old
English:
Men, geese, mice, oxen, feet, teeth, knives.
Loan words from Latin, Greek, French and
Italian sometimes keep their native ending:
Media, bacteria, formulae, larvae, criteria,
phenomena, gateaux.
Graffiti, an Italian plural, is now an uncountable
noun in English.