Noun

Nouns

It's not easy to describe a noun. In simple terms, nouns are "things" (and verbs are "actions"). Like food. Food (noun) is something you eat (verb). Or happiness. Happiness (noun) is something you want (verb). Or human being. A human being (noun) is something you are (verb).

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: "pen". We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens. Here are some more countable nouns:

·         dog, cat, animal, man, person

·         bottle, box, litre

·         coin, note, dollar

·         cup, plate, fork

·         table, chair, suitcase,

Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

·         My dog is playing.

·         My dogs are hungry.

We can use the indefinite article a/an with countable nouns:

·         A dog is an animal.

When a countable noun is singular, we must use a word like a/the/my/this with it:

·         I want an orange. (not I want orange.)

·         Where is my bottle? (not Where is bottle?)

When a countable noun is plural, we can use it alone:

·         I like oranges.

·         Bottles can break.

We can use some and any with countable nouns:

·         I've got some dollars.

·         Have you got any pens?

We can use a few and many with countable nouns:

·         I've got a few dollars.

·         I haven't got many pens.

Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself. Here are some more uncountable nouns:

·         music, art, love, happiness

·         advice, information, news

·         furniture, luggage

·         rice, sugar, butter, water

·         electricity, gas, power

·         money, currency

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example:

·         This news is very important.

·         Your luggage looks heavy.

We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with uncountable nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can say a something of:

·         a piece of news

·         a bottle of water

·         a grain of rice

We can use some and any with uncountable nouns:

·         I've got some money.

·         Have you got any rice?

We can use a little and much with uncountable nouns:

·         I've got a little money.

·         I haven't got much rice.

Proper Nouns (Names)

A proper noun is the special word (or name) that we use for a person, place or organization, like John, Marie, London, France or Sony. A name is a noun, but a very special noun - a proper noun. Proper nouns have special rules.

common noun	proper noun
man, boy	John
woman, girl	Mary
country, town	England, London
company	Ford, Sony
shop, restaurant	Maceys, McDonalds
month, day of the week	January, Sunday
book, film	War & Peace, Titanic

Possessive 's

When we want to show that something belongs to somebody or something, we usually add 's to a singular noun and an apostrophe ' to a plural noun, for example:

·         the boy's ball (one boy)

·         the boys' ball (two or more boys)

Notice that the number of balls does not matter. The structure is influenced by the possessor and not the possessed.

Compound Nouns

A compound noun is a noun that is made with two or more words. A compound noun is usually [noun + noun] or [adjective + noun], but there are other combinations (see below). It is important to understand and recognize compound nouns. Each compound noun acts as a single unit and can be modified by adjectives and other nouns.

There are three forms for compound nouns:

1.    open or spaced - space between words (tennis shoe)

2.    hyphenated - hyphen between words (six-pack)

3.    closed or solid - no space or hyphen between words (bedroom)

Here are some examples of compound nouns:

noun	+	noun	bus stop	Is this the bus stop for the number 12 bus?
			fire-fly	In the tropics you can see fire-flies at night.
			football	Shall we play football today?
adjective	+	noun	full moon	I always feel crazy at full moon.
			blackboard	Clean the blackboard please.
			software	I can't install this software on my PC.
verb(-ing)	+	noun	breakfast	We always eat breakfast at 8am.
			washing machine	Put the clothes in the red washing machine.
			swimming pool	What a beautiful swimming pool!
noun	+	verb(-ing)	sunrise	I like to get up at sunrise.
			haircut	You need a haircut.
			train-spotting	His hobby is train-spotting.
verb	+	preposition	check-out	Please remember that check-out is at 12 noon.
noun	+	prepositional phrase	mother-in-law	My mother-in-law lives with us.
preposition	+	noun	underworld	Do you think the police accept money from theunderworld?
noun	+	adjective	truckful	We need 10 truckfuls of bricks.

Pronunciation

Compound nouns tend to have more stress on the first word. In the phrase "pink ball", both words are equally stressed (as you know, adjectives and nouns are always stressed). In the compound noun "golf ball", the first word is stressed more (even though both words are nouns, and nouns are always stressed). Since "golf ball" is a compound noun we consider it as a single noun and so it has a single main stress - on the first word. Stress is important in compound nouns. For example, it helps us know if somebody said "a GREEN HOUSE" (a house which is painted green) or "a GREENhouse" (a building made of glass for growing plants inside).

British/American differences

Different varieties of English, and even different writers, may use the open, hyphenated or closed form for the same compound noun. It is partly a matter of style. There are no definite rules. For example we can find:

·         container ship

·         container-ship

·         containership

If you are not sure which form to use, please check in a good dictionary.

Plural forms of compound nouns

In general we make the plural of a compound noun by adding -s to the "base word" (the most "significant" word). Look at these examples:

singular	plural
a tennis shoe	three tennis shoes
one assistant headmaster	five assistant headmasters
the sergeant major	some sergeants major
a mother-in-law	two mothers-in-law
an assistant secretary of state	three assistant secretaries of state
my toothbrush	our toothbrushes
a woman-doctor	four women-doctors
a doctor of philosophy	two doctors of philosophy
a passerby, a passer-by	two passersby, two passers-by

Note that there is some variation with words like spoonful or truckful. The old style was to say spoonsful or trucksful for the plural. Today it is more usual to say spoonfuls or truckfuls. Both the old style (spoonsful) and the new style (spoonfuls) are normally acceptable, but you should be consistent in your choice.

Some compound nouns have no obvious base word and you may need to consult a dictionary to find the plural:

·         higher-ups

·         also-rans

·         go-betweens

·         has-beens

·         good-for-nothings

·         grown-ups

Note that with compound nouns made of [noun + noun] the first noun is like an adjective and therefore does not usually take an -s. A tree that has apples has many apples, but we say an apple tree, not apples tree; matchbox not matchesbox; toothbrush not teethbrush.

With compound nouns made of [noun + noun] the second noun takes an -s for plural. The first noun acts like an adjective and as you know, adjectives in English are invariable. Look at these examples:

long plural form becomes ›	plural compound noun [noun + noun]
100 trees with apples	100 apple trees
1,000 cables for telephones	1,000 telephone cables
20 boxes for tools	20 tool boxes
10 stops for buses	10 bus stops
4,000 wheels for cars	4,000 car wheels

Exercise( p.101 )

A.  Underline the common nouns and circle the proper nouns in each sentence.

1.    Tom, would you like to come to the picnic tomorrow?

2.    Paris is the capital city of France.

3.    Gold and silver are used to make jewels.

4.    My parents are from Chicago.

5.    The Nile is the longest river in the world.

6.    The road is covered with snow.

7.    Harry Potter is the name of a famous wizard.

8.    Central Park has many beautiful trees and statues.

9.    My friendslove to play football in the summer.

10. Tim and Judy won the dance contest the year.

B.   Write a common noun to match each proper noun.

1.    New York  City

2.    Christmas   Festival

3.    Australia   Country

4.    Nile            River

5.    Cinderella  Cartoon

6.    Atlantic      Ocean  

(p.102-103)

A.  Complete these sentences by using the plural form of the word given in the brackets.

1.    The dogs fought over a bone.

2.    This book is full of amazing stories.

3.    Get me a couple of book from those shelves.

4.    The farmer bought a pair of oxen from the neighbouring town.

5.    None of the switches in this room is working.

6.    How many countries participated in the world Cup Tournament?

7.    Please clear the dishes from table.

8.    What are your hobbies?

9.    The group is cover is covered with dry leave.

10. The shepherd was worried that he had lost ten sheep.

( p.103 – 104 )

Complete these sentences using the possessive form of the world given in brackets.

1.    My father got a phone call from my aunt’s house.

2.    Anna’s parents are away on vacation.

3.    Tom’s pets are very cute.

4.    Please buy some vegetables from the greengrocer’s store.

5.    It is dangerous to enter a lion’s den.

6.    Enid Blyton’sstoies are delightful to read.

7.    A nightinagle’scall is very melodious.

8.    The soldiers’ guns were neatly arranded in a row.

9.    Excuse me, could you help mw fin a store that sells men’s shoes?

10. My sister’s names are Amy and Bella.

Write the plural form of these compound nouns.

1.    Passer-by   Passers by

2.    Blackboard  Blackboards

3.    Watering can  Watering cans

4.    Great-uncle   Great-uncles

5.    Lighthouse     Lighthouses  

6.    Household     Households

7.     Shopkeeper   Shopkeepers

8.    Handout        Handouts

9.    Knockout     Knockouts

10.  Son-in-low    Sons-in-low

(p.105)

A.  Complete these sentence with apprositives.

1.    My cousin , Jane , bought me chocolate.

2.    Myfriend , Jam , has two dogs and a cat.

3.    KruNarry, our English teacher,has asked us to write an essay.

4.    My cat ,Co-co , love to sleep in the armchair.

5.    Greece , the country in Europe , attracts many tourists.

B.   Underline the appositive phrases in these sentences.

1.    Mr.Jones , , bought a new car.

2.    Beethoven ,a famous musician , was completely deaf.

3.    Venus ,the closest planet to Earth , is also the hottest planet in the Solar system.

4.    Coffee ,a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans , is very popular all over the world.

5.    Tibet ,a country in the Himalayas,is the world.

Papaya ,a fruit that grows only in tropical countries , is very rich in iron.