Nouns

What is a Noun?
noun (noun): a word (except a pronoun) that identifies a person, place or thing, or names one of them (proper noun)
The simple definition is: a person, place or thing. Here are some examples:
person: man, woman, teacher, John, Mary
place: home, office, town, countryside, America
thing: table, car, banana, money, music, love, dog, monkey

Another (more complicated) way of recognizing a noun is by its:
ending
position
function

Noun ending
There are certain word endings that show that a word is a noun, for example:
-ity → nationality
-ment → appointment
-ness → happiness
-ation → relation
-hood → childhood

But this is not true for the word endings of all nouns. For example, the noun "spoonful" ends in -ful, but the adjective "careful" also ends in -ful.

Position in sentence
We can often recognise a noun by its position in the sentence.
Nouns often come after a determiner (a determiner is a word like a, an, the, this, my, such):
a relief
an afternoon
the doctor
this word
my house
such stupidity

Nouns often come after one or more adjectives:
a great relief
a peaceful afternoon
the tall, Indian doctor
this difficult word
my brown and white house
such crass stupidity

Gender-specific Noun
A gender-specific noun is a noun that refers specifically to someone or something male or a female. In English, the gender of most nouns is neuter.
However, if a noun refers to something obviously male or female, then its gender will be masculine or feminine (as determined by the meaning).

Genders of Noun
Masculine Gender
Feminine Gender
Neuter Gender
Common Gender

MASCULINE GENDER
Masculine Gender is a name that denotes
a male person or animal.
Example: grandfather, father, uncle,
brother, nephew, son, man…

Nouns referring to males:
king, uncle, drake (male duck), wether (a castrated male sheep or goat)
The grammatical gender of these nouns is masculine.

FEMININE GENDER
Feminine Gender is a name that expresses
a female person or animal.
Example: grandmother, mother, aunt,
sister, niece, daughter, woman…

Nouns referring to females:
queen, vixen (female fox), bitch (female dog), sow (female pig)
The grammatical gender of these nouns is feminine.

NEUTER GENDER
Neuter Gender is a name that shows
a thing which is neither male nor female,
especially with thing without life.
Example: table, book, car, train,
pen, house, school, chair…

COMMON GENDER
Common Gender is used to stand
in stead of male or female nouns.
Example: grandparents, parents, guardian,
child, student, friend, cousin, enemy…

The following are not gender-specific nouns:
soldier, shark, lawyer, person
Without further context, these are gender-neutral nouns.

Here are Two Gender-specific Nouns.
Can you find them?
mob
headmistress
congregation
army
hive
bunch
range
school
uncle

Real-Life Examples of Gender-specific Nouns
In English, the gender of a noun determines the pronouns we use with it (e.g., he, she, it) and the possessive determiners (e.g., his, her, its). In each of the following examples, the gender-specific noun is shaded and the related pronoun or possessive determiner is in bold:
My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it. (Writer Mark Twain)
She got her looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon. (Comedian Groucho Marx)
Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes. (Actor Jim Carrey)
I haven't spoken to my wife in years. I didn't want to interrupt her. (Comedian Rodney Dangerfield)

Why Should I Care about Gender-specific Nouns?

Using the word "actress"
Using the gender-specific noun "actress" is a considered sexist by some, most probably because the noun "actor" has always been a gender-neutral term meaning a person who acts.
Some feel the word "actress," which emerged long after "actor," is not needed and only serves to engender gender inequality. (After all, there are no female versions of nouns like "doctor," "politician," "pilot," and "beggar," so it's a fair point.)
As a result of increasing public awareness on gender equality, the gender-neutral usage of "actor" is becoming more popular in modern English as people strive not to offend.

Using the word "chairman"
Not everyone treats the noun "chairman" as a gender-specific noun, and it is regularly used for men and women. However, quite understandably, many consider it as masculine noun, and when the appointed person is female, they opt for "chairwoman" (a term that has been in use since at least the 17th century). So, some will think "chairman" is just for men, and some won't. This issue is often avoided by using the gender-neutral term "chairperson" or "chair."

Using the word "chairman"
Don't call me "chairman" because I'm a woman. Don't call me "chairwoman" because my sex is irrelevant. Don't call me "chairperson" because that term is trying too hard not to be sexist. Call me "chair."
(This captures the issue. If you're unsure, use "chair.")

Choosing the right version of blonde/blond.

The word blond/blonde changes depending on its gender.
Blond is a noun meaning a fair-haired male.
The blond has nice shoes.
(We now know it's a boy.)
Blond is also an adjective used to describe anybody (regardless of their gender) with fair hair.
The blond girl and the blond boy make a nice blond couple.
(When it's an adjective, blond can be used for all genders.)
Blonde is a noun meaning a fair-haired female.
The blonde has nice shoes.
(We now know it's a girl.)
Blonde is also an adjective used to describe a female (or females) with fair hair.
The blonde girl and the blond boy make a nice blond couple.
(As an adjective, blonde or blond can be used to describe females.)

Finding an alternative to his/her.
Look at these sentences:
Each person must understand where he fits in the team.
Anyone who forgets his passport will be sent home.
But what if they're not all male? Using he or his for unknown people is, of course, sexist and inaccurate.
To get around this, you could write:
Each person must understand where he/she fits in the team.
Anyone who forgets his or her passport will be sent home.
But, as they're clumsy solutions, lots of people naturally opt for this:
Each person must understand where they fit in the team.
Anyone who forgets their passport will be sent home.

NB: "Singular they" was nominated as the American Dialect Society's word of the year in 2015

Using gender-neutral pronouns for people who do not identify themselves as either male or female.

Be aware that some people identify themselves as both male and female while others as neither male nor female.
These people might ask you to use they (their, them, theirs, themself) or just their name instead of a pronoun (e.g., Sarah, Sarah's, Sarah's self) when talking about them.

"They" is plural, but the person's name isn't.

Use "themself" instead of "themselves."

Person of Nouns
Person is that property of a noun or a pronoun which distinguishes the speaker, the person spoken to, and the person or object spoken of.

Function in a sentence
Nouns have certain functions (jobs) in a sentence, for example:
Subject: The mailcarrier always rings twice. Tulips are early spring flowers. (Tells who or what does or is something.)
Direct object: I finally sold my car. (Tells what is sold.)
Indirect object: Harold gave the cat another olive. (Tells to whom he gave the olive.)
Object of preposition: She gave directions over the phone. (Tells what is the object of the preposition over.)
Adverb: The train leaves today. (Tells when.)
Adjective: The office building faces the zoo. (Tells what kind, which one.)
Possession: The movie’s plot fooled no one. (Shows ownership or possession.)

What is a Noun? Quiz

1. The simple definition of a noun is: a person, place or
…
a) pronoun
b) thing

2. To decide if a word's a noun, look at its ending, position and …
a) function
b) first letter

3. A word is almost certainly a noun if it ends with …
a) -ness
b) -est

4. Which is a noun?
a) govern
b) government

5. In which sentence does a noun follow a determiner?
a) The food's delicious.
b) It's delicious food.

6. In which sentence does a noun follow an adjective?
a) Their team played well.
b) It's a good, strong team.

7. Nouns often come after one or more …
a) adjectives
b) adverbs

8. Nouns often function as the subject and/or object of …
a) an adjective
b) a verb

9. "She plays the guitar." The noun "guitar" is the
a) subject of the verb
b) object of the verb

10. In which sentence is the subject a pronoun?
a) England is cold now.
b) You'll need warm clothes.

Plural Noun Rules
There are many plural noun rules, and because we use nouns so frequently when writing, it’s important to know all of them! The correct spelling of plurals usually depends on what letter the singular noun ends in.

1. To make regular nouns plural, add ‑s to the end.
cat – cats
house – houses

2. If the singular noun ends in ‑s, -ss, -sh,
-ch, -x, or -z, add ‑es to the end.
truss – trusses
bus – buses
marsh – marshes
lunch – lunches
tax – taxes
blitz – blitzes

3. In some cases, singular nouns ending in
-s or -z, require that you double the -s or -z prior to adding the -es for pluralization.
fez – fezzes
gas – gasses

If the noun ends with ‑f or ‑fe, the f is often changed to ‑ve before adding the -s to form the plural version.
wife – wives
wolf – wolves
Exceptions:
roof – roofs
belief – beliefs
chef – chefs
chief – chiefs

5. If a singular noun ends in ‑y and the letter before the -y is a consonant, change the ending to ‑ies to make the noun plural.
city – cities
puppy – puppies

6. If the singular noun ends in -y and the letter before the -y is a vowel, simply add an -s to make it plural.
ray – rays
boy – boys

7. If the singular noun ends in ‑o, add ‑es to make it plural.
potato – potatoes
tomato – tomatoes
Exceptions:
photo – photos
piano – pianos
halo – halos
With the unique word volcano, you can apply the standard pluralization for words that end in -o or not. It’s your choice! Both of the following are correct:
volcanoes
volcanos

8. If the singular noun ends in ‑us, the plural ending is frequently ‑i.
cactus – cacti
focus – foci

9. If the singular noun ends in ‑is, the plural ending is ‑es.
analysis – analyses
ellipsis – ellipses

10. If the singular noun ends in ‑on, the plural ending is ‑a.
phenomenon – phenomena
criterion – criteria

11. Some nouns don’t change at all when they’re pluralized.
sheep – sheep
series – series
species – species
deer –deer
You need to see these nouns in context to identify them as singular or plural. Consider the following sentence:
Mark caught one fish, but I caught three fish.

Irregular Nouns
child – children
goose – geese
man – men
woman – women
tooth – teeth
foot – feet
mouse – mice
person – people

Types of Nouns
Common Nouns and Proper Nouns
Concrete Nouns and Abstract Nouns
Countable Nouns and Uncountable Nouns
Collective Nouns
Compound Nouns

Common Nouns
Most nouns are common nouns. Common nouns refer to people, places and things in general like chair or dog. Any noun that is not a name is a common noun.
Examples: teacher, car, music, danger, receipt
Have you seen my dog?
The books are on your desk.
...the pursuit of happiness.

Proper Nouns
Names of people, places or organizations are proper nouns. Your name is a proper noun. London is a proper noun. United Nations is a proper noun.
Rule: Proper nouns always start with a capital letter.
Examples: Jane, Thailand, Sunday, James Bond, Einstein, Superman, Game of Thrones, Shakespeare
Let me introduce you to Mary.
The capital of Italy is Rome.
He is the chairman of the British Broadcasting Corporation.
I was born in November.
Note: Adjectives that we make from proper nouns also usually start with a capital letter, for example Shakespearian, Orwellian.

Capital Letters with Proper Nouns
RULE: We always use a Capital Letter for the first letter of a name or proper noun. This includes names of people, places, companies, days of the week and months.
For example:
They like Anthony. (not They like anthony.)
I live in England.
She works for Sony.
The last day in January is a Monday.
We saw Titanic in the Odeon Cinema.

Proper Nouns without THE
with names of people;
names of companies;
for shops, banks, hotels etc named after a founder or other person (with -'s or -s);
with names of places;
with "President/Doctor/Mr etc + Name;
with "Lake/Mount + Namе;
for roads, streets, squares, parks etc;
Many big, important buildings have names made of two words (for example, Kennedy Airport). If the first word is the name of a person or place, we do not normally use "the".

Proper Nouns without THE
We do not normally use "the" with names of companies. For example:
Renault, Ford, Sony, EnglishClub (not the EnglishClub)
General Motors, Air France, British Airways
Warner Brothers, Brown & Son Ltd
BUT If the full (registered) name of a company starts with "The", then we use "The" if we use the full name, for example:
The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd
In this case, "The" is part of the company's name and must be capitalised, like all names.

Exception! If a country name includes "States","Kingdom", "Republic" etc, we use "the":

Look at these example sentences:
I wanted to speak to the doctor.
I wanted to speak to Doctor Brown.
Who was the president before President Kennedy?

Proper Nouns with THE
for country names that include "States","Kingdom", "Republic" etc
(the United States of America/the USA, the United Kingdom/the UK, the French Republic);
for names of canals, rivers, seas and oceans (the Suez Canal, the River Nile, the Nile, the Mediterranean Sea, the Mediterranean, the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific);
for plural names of people and places (the Clintons, the Philippines, the United States, the Virgin Islands, the British Isles, the Himalayas, the Alps);
for names made with "of " (the Tower of London, the Gulf of Siam, the London School of Economics, the Statue of Liberty);
with the following sorts of names:

Concrete Nouns
Concrete nouns are physical things that you can touch.
Examples: man, rice, head, car, furniture, mobile phone
How many stars are there in the universe?
Have you met James Bond?
Pour the water down the drain.

Abstract Nouns
Abstract nouns are the opposite of concrete nouns. They are things that you cannot touch. Abstract nouns are ideas, concepts and feelings.
Examples: happiness, courage, danger, truth
He has great strength.
Who killed President Kennedy is a real mystery.
Sometimes it takes courage to tell the truth.
Their lives were full of sadness.

Countable Nouns
(also called count nouns)
You can count countable nouns. Countable nouns have singular and plural forms.
Examples: ball, boy, cat, person
I have only five dollars.
The Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago.
There are lots of people but we don't have a car.

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
(also called mass nouns)
You cannot count uncountable nouns. You need to use "measure words" to quantify them.
Rule: We never use uncountable nouns with the indefinite article (a/an). Uncountable nouns are always singular.
Examples: water, happiness, cheese
Have you got some money?
Air-conditioners use a lot of electricity.
Do you have any work for me to do?
Many Asians eat rice.

Collective Nouns
A collective noun denotes a group of individuals.
Examples: class (group of students), pride (group of lions), crew (group of sailors)
Rule: Collective nouns can be treated as singular or plural.
His family live in different countries.
An average family consists of four people.
The new company is the result of a merger.
The board of directors will meet tomorrow.

Compound Nouns
A compound noun is a noun that is made with two or more words.
Most compound nouns are [noun + noun] or [adjective + noun]. Each compound noun acts as a single unit and can be modified by adjectives and other nouns.
Compound nouns have three different forms:
open or spaced - space between words (bus stop)
hyphenated - hyphen between words (mother-in-law)
closed or solid - no space or hyphen between words (football)

Compound Nouns
Examples: cat food, blackboard, breakfast, full moon, washing machine
Can we use the swimming pool?
They stop work at sunset.
Don't forget that check-out is at 12 noon.

Gerund
A gerund is a noun formed from a verb. All gerunds end -ing.
For example: swimming, running, drinking
Unlike a normal noun, a gerund maintains some verb-like properties. Like a verb, a gerund can take a direct object and be modified with an adverb.

Types of nouns
Quiz

There are many different types of nouns: proper, common, concrete, abstract, countable, non-countable, collective, verbal and compound.
See if you can identify the types of nouns shown in square brackets in the sentences below.

1. The [Rideau Canal] is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
common noun
proper noun
abstract noun

2. The Canal connects two [cities]: Ottawa and Kingston.
common noun
non-countable noun
compound noun

3. The Rideau Canal was built for military and commercial [purposes].
concrete noun
non-countable noun
abstract noun

4. To commemorate the workers who died during the [building] of the Canal, the Rideau Canal Celtic Cross memorial was erected along the canal route in Ottawa.
collective noun
verbal noun
compound noun

5. The monument is also dedicated to the [families] of the workers.
collective noun
non-countable noun
abstract noun

6. During winter, approximately eight kilometres of the Canal becomes a [skateway].
proper noun
abstract noun
compound noun

7. [Malaria] was endemic in Ontario during the construction of the canal.
non-countable noun
countable noun

8. The Rideau Waterway was designated a Canadian Heritage River in the [year] 2000.
countable noun
non-countable noun
concrete noun

9. The [locks] of the Rideau Canal are still operated the way they were in 1832, when the Canal was first built.
concrete noun
abstract noun
collective noun

Possessive
When we want to show that something belongs to somebody or something, we usually add an apostrophe + s ('s) to a singular noun and an apostrophe (') to a plural noun.

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

The structure can be used for a whole phrase:
the man next door's mother (the mother of the man next door)
the Queen of England's poodles (the poodles of the Queen of England)

Although we can use of to show possession, it is more usual to use possessive 's. The following phrases have the same meaning, but #2 is more usual and natural:
the boyfriend of my sister
my sister's boyfriend

We very often use possessive 's with names:
This is Mary's car.
Where is Ram's telephone?
Who took Anthony's pen?
I like Tara's hair.
When a name ends in s, we usually treat it like any other singular noun, and add 's:
This is Charles's chair.
But it is possible (especially with older, classical names) to just add the apostrophe ':
Who was Jesus' father?

Irregular Plurals
Some nouns have irregular plural forms without s (man → men). To show possession, we usually add 's to the plural form of these nouns:

Mini Quiz

1. Which is correct?
"Are you going to _______ birthday party?"
a) Harry's
b) Harrys'
c) Harrys

2. "To prevent cheating in exams, all the _______ phones are collected beforehand."
a) student's
b) students'
c) students's

3. "My father's living in an _______ home."
a) old peoples'
b) old people's
c) old peoples

4. "Whose cat is this? Is it your _______ ?"
a) next door neighbours
b) next door's neighbour
c) next door neighbour's