Nouns

Definition

A noun is a word that is used to name people, places or things. For example: man, country, city, Mary, Spain etc. 

Classification of nouns

 Nouns are classified into 3 categories:

1- CONCRETE
2- ABSTRACT
3- COLLECTIVE NOUNS

CONCRETE NOUNS

Concrete nouns are subdivided into 2 categories:

1- COMMON NOUNS: These are used to name general items: (table, man, city)

2- PROPER NOUNS: These are the names of a particular man, country, city or brand (Nike)

ABSTRACT NOUNS

Abstract nouns refer to an idea or a general quality, not to a physical object. For example:
1- pleasure

2- happiness

3- perseverance

4- arrival 

5- end 

COLLECTIVE NOUNS

Collective nouns refer to the names of a group, or collection of things, of men, of students. For example:
1- Crowd
2- Army 

3- group

4- herd

5- Array

COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Nouns like boys, books, chairs are countable.
Only countable nouns have plural forms, and can be preceded, in the singular, by the indefinite article (A, AN)
Nouns like bread, salt, sugar, water are uncountable; they are substances that cannot be counted, they can only be MEASURED.

COMPOUND NOUNS

Compound nouns are nouns made up of 2 or more WORDS. For example:
1- SCHOOL+MASTER: SCHOOLMASTER.
2- HOUSE+WIFE: HOUSEWIFE

3- WATER+PROOF: WATERPROOF

NOUNS: NUMBER- SINGULAR AND PLURAL FORMS

• FORMATION OF PLURAL

The plural forms are generally formed by adding the suffixes "s" or "es"
1- Book----> BookS
2- Box-----> Boxes

Countable nouns ending in "Y" preceded by a consonant change the "y"  to "ies"

Lady--------> Ladies

Story-------->Stories

Fly----------> Flies.

Countable nouns ending in "F" or "FE" change the "F" or "FE" to "ves"

1- Wolf---------> wolves
2- Knife--------> knives

• IRREGULAR PLURALS

There are some nouns which have irregular plural forms

1- By a change of vowel:
Man-Men.
Woman-Women
Tooth-Teeth
Foot-Feet
Mouse-mice.

2- Some words have the same form for singular and plural:
Sheep-Sheep 
Fish-Fish 
Deer-Deer

3- By adding "en":
child- children

• FOREIGN PLURAL FORM 

1- LATIN:
Axis—Axes
Medium—Media

Bacterium—Bacteria.

2- GREEK:
Crisis—Crises
Thesis—theses
Phenomenon—Phenomena
Criterion—Criteria.

NOUNS: GENDER

In order to categorize nouns with a particular gender we have:
1- MASCULINE GENDER (boy, man, king, prince)

2- FEMININE GENDER (girl, woman, queen, princess)
3- NEUTER GENDER (book, chair, house, pencil, table)

• MASCULINE AND FEMININE FORMS

Formation of feminine forms:

1- By adding –ESS:
Price—Princess
God—Goddess
Actor—Actress
Waiter—Waitress
Emperor—Empress
Lion—Lioness
Tiger—Tigress

2- With a different word:
Boy—Girl
Man—Woman
King—Queen
Brother—Sister
Uncle—Aunt

Wizard—Witch

Bull—Cow

Husband—Wife
Son—Daughter.

NOUNS: POSSESSIVE

1- For singular nouns by adding  "s":
The boy’s book
The teacher’s computer.

2- For plural nouns ending in "s" by adding apostrophe only:
The soldiers ’horses
The girls’ dolls.