English Grammar Made Simple. Noun
5. Countable Nouns
A countable noun is a noun that can be counted, either singularly or in groups. Here are some examples of countable nouns:
a dog, two dogs
a house, two houses
a jump, two jumps
a person, two people
a day, two days
a foot, two feet
Countable nouns are the building blocks of everyday conversation.
6. Uncountable Nouns
Uncountable nouns are nouns that cannot be counted. They have no plural form and cannot be used with numerals or articles such as "a" or "an." However, they can be used with certain quantifiers such as "some", "any", and "much".
Examples include:
water, air, rice, information, furniture etc.
It's important to remember that uncountable nouns do not have a plural form, but they can still be modified by other words, such as "much" or "many."
So, for example,
you might say "I have much water" instead of "I have many waters."
A surprising number of people believe that the word 'information' has a plural form, 'informations'."
When we are only referring to one thing, we can use the words "a bit," "an item," or "a piece of information" to describe it:
as, “She gave me a useful item of information.”
"While referring to more than one thing,
we can use 'two pieces,' 'three items,' etc., to describe it.
For example,
This can be a good way to combine two pieces of information into one sentence."
7. Collective Nouns
A collective noun is a word that refers to a group of people, animals, or things. It is different from a plural noun because a collective noun is treated as a single unit, even though it refers to a group of things.
Here are some examples of collective nouns:
People: army, audience, band, class, crew, crowd, family, jury, mob, neighbourhood, team.
Things: array, bouquet, bunch, collection, constellation, fleet, litter, swarm.
Animals: flock, herd, pack, pride, school.
It is important to note that collective nouns can be treated as either singular or plural, depending on the context.
Singular Usage:
The team is playing well this season.
The family is going on vacation.
The committee has made a decision.
In these sentences, the collective nouns ("team," "family," "committee") are treated as singular because we are focusing on the group as a single unit or entity.
Plural Usage:
The team are all wearing their new jerseys.
The family are having a heated discussion.
The committee are divided in their opinions.
In these sentences, the collective nouns are treated as plural because we are emphasising the individual members within the group and their actions or characteristics.
8. Compound Nouns
A compound noun is a noun that is made up of two or more words. Compound nouns can be common nouns, proper nouns, or abstract nouns.
Examples include:
headmaster, firefighter, houseboat, love story, policeman, commander-in-chief, coffee table, New York City.
9. Possessive Nouns
A possessive noun is a word that shows ownership or a link to something else. Add an apostrophe and an "s" ('s) to the end of a word to make it.
Here are some examples:
Sania's racket. (the racket belongs to Sania)
The bank’s profit. (the profit belongs to the bank).
When a plural noun already ends in "s," you can simply add an apostrophe after the "s" to indicate possession:
The students' books.
The horses' hooves.
The dogs' tails wagged excitedly as they greeted their owner at the door.
For plural nouns that do not end in "s", add an apostrophe and an "s" ('s).
For example:
The children’s books.
The people's votes, etc.
When dealing with singular nouns that end in "s," it is common to add just an apostrophe (') to indicate possession.
For example:
Tejas’ first flight
James’ daughter
Williams’ house
Maldives’ beaches
10. Plural nouns
A plural noun is a noun that refers to more than one person, place, thing, or idea. Most singular nouns are made plural by adding a suffix, usually -s or -es.
Here are some examples of plural nouns:
books, cats, thoughts, churches etc.
Irregular Plural Nouns
Irregular plural nouns are words that don't make their plural forms by adding "s" or "es" to the end of the word. Instead, when they become plural, they change their form in different ways.
Here are some examples:
man becomes men
child becomes children
woman becomes women
person becomes people
tooth becomes teeth
datum becomes data
foot becomes feet
