Common nouns and proper nouns are important when constructing a sentence. Also, forming the plural (meaning more than one) can be a challenging task as well. In this section, we are going to discuss nouns. Nouns have two basic categories. These are Common Nouns and Proper Nouns. The definition of noun is a “Person, Place or Thing”. I want you to remember those three words “Person Place or Thing”. When you are wondering if the word you are reading is a noun, just ask yourself, “Is this word a Person Place or Thing?”. If so, then it is a noun. Let’s look at some examples.
1. A Noun is a Person, Place or Thing
a. A COMMON NOUN is the GENERAL term for a person place or thing.
Example
A person – Man, Woman, Lady, Boy
“The man came downstairs.”
A place – Town, Earth, Capital
“The town is just a few miles ahead.”
A thing – Shirt, Horse, Car, Clothes
“The clothes are very dirty”
b. A PROPER NOUN is a SPECIFIC name of a Person Place or Thing
Examples
Nouns that name a person – Father, Brother, Mother, Teacher, Mr. Temple, Priest, Ryan
“Ryan is downstairs now.”
Nouns that name a place – London, Delhi, Beijing, School, Hospital, Zoo, Garden, New York
“We have arrived in New York.”
Nouns that name a thing – Basket, Medicine, Bread, Spoon, Bag, Book, Shirt
“The shirt is clean now.”
Sometimes you may be speaking about more than one person, place or thing. That would make the noun plural. Plural means more than one. Let’s look at some ways to make nouns plural.
Usually you can simply add an S to the end of the noun to make it plural. However, there are some words that need more than just an S. I will show you why and give you some examples.
To make a word plural, we add S, ES, or IES
Example for S
Flower – Flowers
Girl – Girls
Student – Students
Examples for ES
Dress – Dresses
Box – Boxes
Match – Matches
Pass – Passes
Glass – Glasses
Examples for IES (If the word ends in I or Y, we will change it to IES)
Property – Properties
Candy – Candies
City – Cities
Hobby – Hobbies
Lady – Ladies
Dictionary – Dictionaries
Some words have a completely different spelling when it comes to changing them to their plural form. For instance, when changing the word Woman to more than one, it becomes WOMEN. We do not add an S at all. Some have a different spelling and we add an S. Here are some other examples.
Examples
Fungi – Fungus
Tooth – Teeth
Scarf – Scarves
Knife – Knives
Leaf – Leaves
Goose – Geese
Some singular and plural forms of words are exactly the same. The words in the last example and the words in the following list do not have any one reason why they are the way they are. You will have to remember the vocabulary for these words. For instance, the plural form of goose is geese. But the plural form of moose is not meese. It is only moose. Here are some examples
For example: DEER, MOOSE, WORK
These words are called irregular plurals. They usually are the names of animals. But there are a few that are not. Let’s move on.
POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
1. My & Mine, 2. Your & Yours, 3. Our & Ours, 4. Hers & Her, 5. His & His, 6. Their & Theirs
Here are some examples.
Examples
1.My barn is newly built.
The barn is mine
2. Your cat is old.
The cat is yours.
3. Our food is ready.
The food is ours.
4. Her garden is in bloom.
The garden is hers.
5. His hat fell down.
The hat is his.
6. Their horse ran away
The horse is theirs.
Sometimes when we want to show that an object is a possession, we also add an S. We add the S to the owner’s name. However, it does not make that person place or thing plural. So how do we know the difference when we are writing or reading?
Like “David’s car”. When we add the S, we need to put an apostrophe before it. Like this ‘S . This will let the reader know that the object following the person place or thing is owned by them. Here are some examples
Ryan’s chair
Maria’s house
Sarah’s bicycle
New York’s transit system
London’s Eiffel Tower
India’s population
The Chair’s leg.
The Car’s tire.
The House’s window.
If you are not sure when to add the ’s, you can change the words “The chair’s leg” around to read like this “the leg of the chair”. If it still makes sense, then you are using the correct grammar.
