Is the word i considered a noun

I have heard that a word like «I» is considered a word but why? is every other letter considered a word too?

I have used Grammarly and Microsoft word to write and noticed that every single letter(alone) is considered as a word but based on the definition of oxford dictionaries a word is «a single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes alone) to form a sentence and typically shown with a space on either side when written or printed.» so why are they considered as a word?

asked Mar 18, 2021 at 23:20

pobig43001's user avatar

pobig43001pobig43001

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1. «I» is obviously a word because it is a personal pronoun. «A» is the indefinite article.

2. Strictly speaking, every letter is a word. «M» is the name of the letter «m» and is a noun.

m (2) noun (ms, m’s) the thirteenth letter of the alphabet. (Lexico: https://www.lexico.com/definition/m )

3. But if you are asking whether the letters are words when they are used to make up longer words then no. For example, if I write the word «globe», none of the individual letters within that word is serving as a word.

answered Mar 19, 2021 at 5:40

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All the letters of the Alphabet are names once capitalised. I would personally consider that a name is a word.

Nouns;
A noun is a word that represents a person, place, or thing. Everything we can see or talk about is represented by a word. That word is called a «noun.» You might find it useful to think of a noun as a «naming word.»

However, I would suggest that most letters except «a» are never used on there own, except as the name for their character which is mostly used when learning English.

Also note, J and K joined L and M in the Alphabet, would not be marked incorrect by any spell checker


Ref Grammar- Monster… What are nouns

Ref CED J** noun** [C] (LETTER); the tenth letter of the English alphabet

answered Mar 19, 2021 at 4:56

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There are only two words in standard English that are only one letter: “I” and “a.” Those are two regular words that just happen to be only one letter long. No other single letters are English words.

Sometimes people do use nonstandard abbreviations or slang terms, such as writing “are” as “r” because they happen to be pronounced the same. But “r” is not a real English word.

answered Mar 19, 2021 at 1:20

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A noun is a word that depicts a person, place, thing, or idea. Common nouns are things like house and tree, and they are not capitalized. Proper nouns are specific names, like Brooklyn or Joe, and they are always capitalized. To find a noun within a sentence, try to identify the verb, look for capitalized names, and see if there is an article within the sentence to base your identification on.

  1. Image titled Identify a Noun in a Sentence Step 1

    1

    Locate the main verb in the sentence to identify the connected noun. A verb is an action word that usually describes the act of doing. Grabbing, singing, and playing are all verbs. More often than not, the verb in the sentence is directly linked to the subject of the sentence. Identify who or what is completing the action in the sentence.[1]

    • In the sentence “She lifts weights,” “lifts” is the verb, and “she” is the noun.
    • In “The dog ran away,” “ran” is the verb, so “dog” is the noun.
  2. Image titled Identify a Noun in a Sentence Step 2

    2

    Find words that are capitalized as a clue that they might be nouns. Words that are capitalized in a sentence are almost always proper nouns, since they are usually the names of people, places, or things. Look for any words in the middle of a sentence that are capitalized and see if they could be a noun.[2]

    • In the sentence “Agatha Christie wrote a lot of books,” “Agatha Christie” is the noun since it is a name.
    • In the sentence “Do you think the Red Sox will win?” “Red Sox” is the noun, since it is the name of a team.

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  3. Image titled Identify a Noun in a Sentence Step 3

    3

    See if the word follows “a,” “and,” or “the.” These words are called articles. If a word follows an article, it is almost certainly a noun. Try to identify any articles in your sentence and see if there is a noun that follows directly after it.[3]

    • In the sentence “The dance was held on Saturday,” “dance” is the noun since it follows “the.”

    Warning: Sometimes an adjective will precede the noun. Watch out for sentences like “Some hot peppers were eaten.” “Peppers” is the noun in this sentence, not “hot.”

  4. Image titled Identify a Noun in a Sentence Step 4

    4

    See if the word follows “some,” “a lot,” or a specific number. Words that describe quantities almost always precede a noun. If the sentence has a quantity word in it, look at the word that is directly after it to see if it could be a noun.[4]

    • In “Some computers in here are broken,” “computers” is the noun since it follows “some.”
  5. Image titled Identify a Noun in a Sentence Step 5

    5

    Determine if the word has a descriptor in front of it. Descriptive words, or adjectives, almost always are describing a noun. If you are questioning whether a word is a noun or not, see if there is an adjective in front of it. If there is, chances are the word is a noun.[5]

    • For example, in the sentence “The stinky socks were gross,” “stinky” is the adjective, and “socks” is the noun.
    • In “A dead tree fell down,” “dead” is the adjective and “tree” is the noun.
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  1. Image titled Identify a Noun in a Sentence Step 6

    1

    Identify words that are a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns are words that depict specific objects, ideas, or people, that the sentence is built around. Look out for words in a sentence that are not actionable or descriptive, and instead only state exactly what something is.[6]

    • In the sentence “She walked home,” “She” is the noun because she is a person.
    • In “Portland is a cool city,” “Portland” is the noun because it is a place.
    • In “The windows need to be open,” “windows” is the noun because it is a thing.
    • In “Your courage is inspiring,” “courage” is the noun because it is an idea.
  2. Image titled Identify a Noun in a Sentence Step 7

    2

    Recognize common endings that indicate a word is a noun. Sometimes, the ending of a word, or the suffix, can clue you in as to what function it serves in a sentence. Often, nouns end in -ity, -ness, and -hood. Some other common examples of noun suffixes are:[7]

    • -tion (population)
    • -ance/-ence (permanence)
    • -ar/-or (doctor)
    • -ism (socialism)
    • -ist (dentist)
    • -ment (government)
    • -y (beauty)
    • -acy (accuracy)
    • -age (image)
  3. Image titled Identify a Noun in a Sentence Step 8

    3

    Test to see if the word can be pluralized. If you can add a plural modifier onto the back of a word, it is most likely a noun. Choose the word that you believe to be a noun and add a letter or letters on the end of it to make it plural. Most often, the plural version of a word has an “s” on the end of it.[8]

    • For example, “My shirt doesn’t fit.” “Shirt” can be pluralized by adding an “s” to the end of it to make “shirts.” “Shirt” is the noun in this sentence.
    • If a noun is plural in a sentence, it is a plural noun.
  4. Image titled Identify a Noun in a Sentence Step 9

    4

    Spot possessive nouns by looking for an apostrophe and an “s.” Possessive nouns add ownership to a person, place, thing, or idea by adding an apostrophe and an “s” after the word. Theses nouns usually stand right in front of the thing that they are possessing. If a person, place, thing, or idea owns something, that word is a noun.[9]

    • In “The book’s cover is gold,” “book’s” is the possessive noun.
    • In “The laundry’s smell was enticing,” “laundry’s” is the possessive noun.
    • In “My lawyer’s fee was too much,” “lawyer’s” is the possessive noun.
  5. Image titled Identify a Noun in a Sentence Step 10

    5

    Look for nouns that describe groups as a single entity. Collective nouns, or nouns that give a name to a large group of people, things, objects, or ideas, can be hard to spot, since they may not seem like nouns at first glance. Watch out for words like “array,” “choir,” and “class” to find collective nouns in a sentence.[10]
    More common collective nouns include:

    • Department of technology
    • Crowd of fans
    • String of pearls
    • School of fish
    • Brood of chickens
    • Deck of cards
  6. Image titled Identify a Noun in a Sentence Step 11

    6

    Look up the word in the dictionary to see if it is a noun. If all else fails, take a peek inside of a dictionary to find out what part of a sentence that word usually is. Dictionaries have symbols next to each definition of a word. A lowercase “n” signifies that a word is a noun.[11]

    Warning: You will not be able to find slang words or most proper nouns in a dictionary.

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    How do you spot a noun in a piece of writing?

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    Take a look at the suspected noun in the sentence and ask «What is this?» or «Who is this?» A noun should easily be able to answer these questions. For example, if you were reading a sentence about a dog, you could ask the question «What is this?» and get «dog» as your answer. Through this process, you’d confirm that «dog» is a noun.

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The Noun. Classification of nouns in English

что такое конкретное существительное

Beginners to learn English usually do not think about such grammatical categories as gender, number, conjugation, mood, etc., considering this theoretical knowledge to be very far from practice.

However, the time has come to deal with the noun in English and we will start with the fact that all nouns in English can be divided into some classes.

Knowing these classes is necessary, since the use of articles, as well as other determinants of the noun. To find out what qualifiers a noun has, use the reference.

So, let’s begin.

Noun in English (for beginners). Classification

I. Nouns in English (nouns) are divided into:

  1. concrete: a book, a ball, a computer, a story
  2. material: wood, iron, water, snow
  3. abstract: love, success, help, progress
  4. collective: police, family, company, crowd

These 4 groups of nouns are called common nouns There are still own nouns (personal names and place names), which we will not consider for now.

II. Nouns in English (nouns) are also divided into:

  1. countable (specific & collective)
  2. uncountable (material and abstract)

* * *

Beginners of learning English need to get acquainted with specific and tangible nouns… Let’s see how these groups are related to each other.

1. Specific nouns (objects)

Specific nouns (subjects) are countable, that is, they can be counted (put in the plural).

EXAMPLE
one book = two books

* * *

2. Material nouns

Material nouns are uncountable, that is, they cannot be counted (put in the plural).

EXAMPLE
water — some water

* * *

Depending on whether the noun is quantifiable or uncountable depends on use with it article and quantity indicators.  Also, if a noun acts as a subject, then it is important to remember about it agreement with the predicate verb. The last point is the most important, since ignorance of it is the cause of a large number of errors.

Source: http://englishinn.ru/the-noun-klassifikatsiya-sushhestvitelnyih-v-angliyskom-yazyike-chast-1.html

German nouns

что такое конкретное существительное

A noun denotes an object in a broad, generalized sense of the word.

Nouns are divided into common nouns and proper nouns. Common names can be concrete and abstract in meaning.

Specific nouns include:

  1. Nouns that denote countable things:
    Fenster (window), Haus (house), Mensch (person).
  2. Nouns that denote a collection of objects or a group of persons: Gemüse (vegetables), Obst (fruits), Geflügel (poultry), Studentenschaft (students).

    These nouns are called collective nouns.

  3. Real nouns denoting material, substance:
    Wasser (water), Saft (juice), Kreide (chalk), Gold (gold).

Abstract nouns include words that denote abstract concepts: Wärme (warmth), Freundschaft (friendship), Wiederholung (repetition), Lesen (reading).

All nouns in German are capitalized.

The noun is a variable part of speech, it has gender, number, case.

The gender, number and case of a noun in German shows a special service word accompanying the noun — the article. The article is of two types: definite and indefinite.

Unit h. Multi. h

Definite article Indefinite article
masculine — der masculine — ein
feminine — die feminine — eine
neuter — das neuter — ein
— die

There is no indefinite article in the plural, since ein is one:

units h .: pl. h .:

    Examples showing the gender of a noun in German:

  • der Zug, ein Zug (train) is the name of the creatures. male;
  • die Reise, eine Reise (journey) is the name of the creatures. female;
  • das Land, ein Land (country) — the name of the creatures. neuter.

Examples showing the number of a noun in German:

units h. pl. h
der Leiter — Manager die Leiter — executives
das Zimmer — room die Zimmer — rooms

It will also be helpful to read:

Source: http://deutsch-online.ru/dop_mat/grammatics/gram_tab_01_01_01

Distinctive features of specific and non-specific nouns

что такое конкретное существительное

All common nouns can be divided into two large groups according to their lexical meaning and grammatical features: non-specific и specific.

Specific and non-specific

Every word in the language has its own meaning. Representatives of specific nouns are phenomena, things that exist in real life. You can see them, touch them. For example, a bed, a chair, clothes. They can name single objects or designate phenomena. They can be changed numerically, and can also be combined with the numerals that define the quantity.

In a large group of words that are specific in meaning, singularly considered nouns (singulars) are singled out separately. These are names denoting one item from a mass of substance: raisins, pearls, beans.

But non-specific nouns denote non-material concepts (feelings, actions, definitions of state and properties). Non-specific representatives, in turn, can be divided into several groups:

  1. Real… They call substances. These items can also be quantified. They can be measured, but not counted. Units of measurement are combined with them (liter of milk, half a kilogram of sugar).
  2. Collective… Words related to this part of speech denote many objects together, but at the same time one whole (raw materials, equipment, nobility). When forming, suffixes are used -ur, -st, -from, -hedgehog.
  3. Abstract or abstract… This is a large group of words that do not denote a real object, but define a property, quality and action. Most often formed from adjectives or verbs using suffixes -stvo-, -from-, -in-, -to-, -th-, -atst-, -in-, — ni-, -ost-… (to rejoice is joy, flight is to run, blue is blue).

Some of them differ in an incomplete numerical paradigm: they are used only in the singular (joy, kindness, beauty, movement) or plural (yeast, cream, blush). They cannot be combined with numerals. BUT indefinitely quantitative words can be used with them (a lot of troubles, a little happiness, a lot of nonsense).

Lexical features of specific nouns

It is possible to determine the belonging of nouns to specific ones by certain criteria.

  1. They have the form of a single and a plural: a chair — chairs, wardrobes, cucumber — cucumbers.
  2. Combined with numbers, countable: two tables, one bush, eight books.
  3. Combined with words a little / a lot.

Also includes the following special categories:

  • Singulatives — mean one thing, an object that is isolated from a mass of similar objects: a vessel, a potato, a peasant. When forming such words, suffixes are used -inc-, -in-.
  • words that are used exclusively in the plural form: sleigh, watch, scissors.

Determining the belonging of a word to any group is not difficult if you understand its meaning and know certain rules.

Grammatical features of specific nouns

This category can be identified by a number of characteristic features. They are used when naming real objects and phenomena.

  1. In terms of meaning and morphological properties, they are opposed to real, abstract and collective types.
  2. These items can be counted.

Also included in this group are the names of things and objects that have an exclusively singular number. These specimens are presented in reality only in a single form.

Concrete nouns denote objects that have a certain weight, size, dimensions. We can say about them: a large table, a long pencil.

To understand which group a particular word belongs to, you need to analyze its grammatical and lexical properties.

Source: https://kakpishem.ru/chasti-rechi/sushchestvitelnoe/otlichitelnye-osobennosti-konkretnyh-i-nekonkretnyh-suschestvitelnyh.html

Specific nouns

Specific nouns — these are words denoting individual or individual objects, phenomena, living beings that can be counted.

To understand what specific nouns are in Russian, we indicate their semantic groups, find out their grammatical features. Here are some examples of specific nouns.

The noun as an independent part of speech has objectivity, that is, the ability to name an object of reality. The words of this part of speech answer the questions of who? or what?

Nouns denote a huge number of objects, phenomena, actions and states, their signs, among which the following lexical and grammatical groups can be indicated by meaning:

Let’s consider in more detail which nouns are specific.

The concept of specific nouns

If a separate object can be picked up, touched, stroked, etc., then it can be called a concrete noun, in contrast to an abstract concept or phenomenon.

Let’s compare:

  • drawing and coloring;
  • notebook and writing;
  • eye and look.

Specific nouns are words that denote real things, persons, animals, plants, etc. From this point of view, specific nouns are divided into semantic groups according to their meaning:

  • names of people (person, master, driver);
  • names of animals, birds, plants (cat, falcon, tree);
  • natural phenomena (rain, thunderstorm, downpour, rainbow);
  • manifestations of actions, states and processes (song, dance, complaint)

Let’s take into account that not all objects of reality can be touched, touched, that is, touched. Some of them can only be heard or seen, that is, to detect their presence with the help of the senses.

A gray cloud covered the sun.

We only see the cloud and the sun, and we can hear or sing the song ourselves, but nevertheless these words are concrete nouns. To understand this, we point out that specific nouns, in addition to a certain lexical meaning, have a number of grammatical features that radically distinguish them from abstract, real and collective nouns.

Features of specific nouns

1. Specific nouns change in numbers:

  • cloud — clouds
  • song — songs
  • dance is dancing.

They are singular and plural. Although there is nothing absolute in the grammar of the Russian language, therefore, a number of specific nouns are used only in the plural form:

  • watch
  • scissors
  • stretcher
  • rake
  • sledge
  • sled
  • jeans
  • pants

2. Concrete nouns are the names of separate or singular objects that can be counted. These words are used with cardinal numbers:

  • month — one month;
  • backpack — two backpacks;
  • entrance — three entrances;
  • window — five windows;
  • pencil — twelve pencils.

3. Nouns in the genitive plural are combined with the indefinite quantitative words «a lot», «a little»:

  • a lot of children;
  • few clouds;
  • many lakes;
  • little talk.

Source: https://russkiiyazyk.ru/chasti-rechi/sushhestvitelnoe/konkretnye-imena-suschestvitelnye.html

Noun. Lexico-semantic categories of nouns. lesson. Russian language Grade 6

We use nouns more often than other parts of speech: on average, there are about 100 nouns per 40 words.

The famous philologist L. Uspensky said: «A noun is the bread of the tongue.»

1. What is a noun?

A noun is an independent part of speech that designates an object or phenomenon and answers the questions “Who? What?». For example:

Who? — man who? — eagle, who? — Carlson.

What? — apple, what? — movement, what? — a memory.

Nouns have morphological signs of gender, number and case.

Nouns belong to one of three declensions.

The initial form of the noun is the nominative singular. For example: apple, person, friendship.

2. The syntactic role of nouns

In a sentence, a noun can be any member of the sentence, but most often it can be a subject or object. For example: Teacher took my notebook.

There are two nouns in this sentence: teacher and notebook. Let us put a question to them in order to determine which members of the sentence they are: (who?) The teacher, this is the subject; took (what?) a notebook, this is an addition.

And also a noun in a sentence can act as:

— predicate (Moscow is the capital) Moscow is (what is?) The capital.

— definitions (I saw a ladder to the attic) a ladder (which one?) To the attic.

— by circumstance (there was a cabinet in the corner) stood (where?) In the corner.

3. Educational observation

We will distribute the words palace, corn, gate, snow, friendship, bear, dream into three groups.

The words palace, gate, bear belong to the group of nouns denoting objects that can be seen, can be touched, can be counted.

The words corn, snow belong to the group of nouns denoting objects that can be seen, can be touched (but not always), can be measured, weighed (cannot be counted).

The words friendship, dream will belong to the group of nouns denoting objects that cannot be seen, cannot be touched, cannot be measured, weighed or counted.

Distributing words into appropriate groups, we divided nouns on the basis of a common semantic feature for their lexical meanings. From the Greek language, the word «semantics» is translated as «designating». In linguistics, semantics is a section that studies the meaning of language units.

4. Lexical-semantic categories

By meaning, all nouns can be divided into 4 groups:

1. Specific nouns name objects and processes that can be counted (as a rule, such nouns have singular and plural forms; the only exceptions are the names of paired objects: trousers, scissors):

  • book — two books, many books;
  • table — two tables, many tables;
  • teacher — two teachers, many teachers.

2. Abstract (or abstract) nouns name phenomena and concepts perceived mentally. These are actions, processes, states, qualities. (Such nouns cannot be counted):

3. Real nouns name various substances that cannot be counted (but can be measured). These are chemical elements, minerals, building materials, food products, medicines, etc. They are used either in a unit or in many others. including:

4. Collective nouns call a set of identical objects, persons, creatures as a whole. They are used only in the form of a unit. numbers that cannot be counted:

  • kids, furniture, crows.

5. We distribute nouns according to lexico-semantic categories

You need to pay attention to words such as «platoon», «group», «herd», «detachment», «flock». Such words also denote a collection of objects or persons, but more specific and limited. Such nouns are specific and countable.

The noun «kids» refers to an indefinite number of persons of the same age, as a whole. This noun defies counting. That is, you cannot say “two kids”. This noun is collective.

And in the phrase «a group of children» the noun «group» names a specific limited set of persons and lends itself to counting: you can say «two groups of children», «several groups.» This is a specific noun.

The noun «crow» refers to a collection of objects of the same type, indefinite in number, as a whole. It defies counting. You cannot say «two crows». This is a collective noun.

And in the phrase «flock of crows» the noun «flock» refers to a specific, limited set of objects. It lends itself to counting: you can say «two flocks», «several flocks.» This noun is specific.

Some nouns, depending on the meaning that appears in their context, can be considered either as material (a silver bracelet), or as collective (silverware).

References

  1. Russian language. Grade 6 / Baranov M.T. and others — M .: Education, 2008.
  2. Babaytseva V.V., Chesnokova L.D. Russian language. Theory. 5-9 cl. — M .: Bustard, 2008.
  3. Russian language. 6 cl. / Ed. MM. Razumovskaya, P.A. Lecant. — M .: Bustard, 2010.

Additional recommended links to Internet resources

Source: https://interneturok.ru/lesson/russian/6-klass/bglava-3b/imya-suschestvitelnoe-leksiko-semanticheskie-razryady-imen-suschestvitelnyh

What is a Noun?

The simplest definition of a noun is a thing and nouns are the basic building blocks of sentences. These things can represent a person, animal, place, idea, emotion – almost any thing that you can think of. Dog, Sam, love, phone, Chicago, courage and spaceship are all nouns. The more nouns you know in a language, the better you will be able to communicate your ideas. Here, we’ll take a closer look at what makes a noun a noun, and we’ll provide some examples of how nouns are used.

Noun examples: respect, faith, apple, seashore, peanut, motorcycle

Noun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.

  1. The boy and girl were holding hands as they crossed the bridge on the way to town.
  2. John loves watching the cat playing with the pink yarn.
  3. Visiting Big Ben was a highlight of the trip to England.

Categories of Nouns

There are several categories of nouns, and there can be an overlap across the categories. For example, there are common and proper nouns, and concrete and abstract nouns, yet some nouns are both concrete and common, or concrete and proper. It will become clear as you read on.

 Common nouns are the words that refer to most general things: country, evening, laughter, puppy, umbrella

Common noun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.

  • Cathy loves the weekends in the country.
  • We enjoy swimming after breakfast.
  • The cup fell and broke.

Proper nouns are the name that identifies someone or something, a person or a place. Proper nouns are capitalized. John is a proper noun, since the word John represents a particular, single example of a thing, John.

Proper noun examples: Mary, Jimmy, Aunt Audrey, Honda, Philadelphia

Proper noun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.

  • Emily loved spending time with her Aunt Nancy in Paris.
  • Buick and Jeep are two important carmakers.
  • We visited Lake Erie, which separates the United States and Canada.

Concrete nouns represent a thing that is real and tangible: pig, person, rock, smell, air, soup, Larry are all concrete nouns.

Concrete noun examples: cup, computer, diamond, rollercoaster, shampoo, Debby

Concrete noun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.

  • The person threw the rock across the yard.
  • My dog, Oreo, jumped in the air and caught the ball!
  • Can you smell the soup, John?

An abstract noun represents a thing that is more like a concept or idea: love, integrity, democracy, friendship, beauty, knowledge are examples of abstract nouns.

Abstract noun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.

  • Love and friendship are equally important.
  • Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
  • Your mind can know a million things.

Nouns can also be categorized as countable or uncountable.

A countable noun is a thing can be numbered or counted: airplane, sock, bowl, noodle, teacher, as in two airplanes, three socks, 1000 noodles.

Countable noun examples: peach, horse, shirt, telescope

Countable noun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.

  • There are five dogs in the street.
  • I bought three tons of coal.
  • Margaret has six pairs of blue sandals.

Uncountable nouns can have a quantity or amount but cannot be actually counted: water, music, clothes, understanding. In the second example above, tons is a countable noun, but coal is not. Coal is referred to as an uncountable noun.

Uncountable noun examples: hate, confidence, attractiveness, wisdom

Uncountable noun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.

  • Love is in the air.
  • The four elements are air, earth, fire and water.
  • Her humor knows no bounds.

Collective nouns refer to a group of people or things: audience, team, bunch, family, class. When speaking of collective nouns, Americans consider them as singular, using singular verbs with them, such as the group dances happily. When speaking British English, both singular verbs and plural verbs might be used, as in the group dance crazily before the Queen.

Collective noun examples: government, jury, team, bunch, school, class, and room (the people in the room or building)

Collective noun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.

  • The team threw confetti when it was over.
  • Steve buys the band some sandwiches.
  • Meredith told the class she was getting married.

As mentioned above, when we talk of categories of nouns, some nouns can be described as being in more than one category. Some nouns are concrete and countable, for example, such as raindrops and wedding rings, while some are proper and uncountable, such as the Atlantic Ocean and Alaska.

Forms of Nouns

The same noun can appear in different forms, depending on how it is used.

A countable noun can be singular or plural. Most nouns in English form the plural by adding -s or -es to the noun, although there are some exceptions:

  • One dog, two dogs, red dog, blue dog.
  • I missed not just one bus today, but two buses.
  • New York City is one of the grandest cities in the world.

Uncountable nouns and proper nouns are always considered to be singular:

  • The air in the countryside and in the city is clean and fresh (not the airs).
  • All knowledge is a good thing (not knowledges).
  • Florida has mostly warm weather in the winter.

Nouns can also indicate ownership. This form of a noun is called a possessive noun, and is indicated by an apostrophe and the letter –s. It is equivalent to using the word of and the noun.

  • The light’s color is red. (or: The color of the light is red.)
  • The country’s flag has blue stripes. (or: The flag of the country has blue stripes.)
  • The hunters’ guns were loaded. (or: The guns of the hunters were loaded.)

Note that when the noun already ends with -s, possession is indicated by adding only an apostrophe – hunters’ guns, not hunters’s guns.

A noun can be used as the subject of a sentence, or in another capacity as an object:

  • John is nice. – John is the subject of the sentence
  • I saw John – John is the simple (direct) object of the sentence.
  • I gave John the phone. – John is the indirect object of the sentence.
  • I gave the phone to John. – John is the object of the preposition to.

Additional Info About Nouns

Sometimes nouns are used as adjectives, which is referred to as a noun adjunct. In fact, English is amazingly flexible in that almost any noun can also be used as an adjective, though sometimes the use is considered comical or slangy:

  • Ocean view – Ocean describes the type of view you would see outside your window.
  • Jazz concert – Jazz is specifying what kind of concert is being played.
  • Cheese omelet – It’s a certain type of omelet, eggs with cheese. Using a true adjective as in a cheesy omelet means any type of omelet (onion and peppers, mushroom) that has a lot of cheese.
  • Dog tired – Really really tired – even though dogs aren’t known to be especially tired.
  • Fear Factor – An example of using just any old word as a noun adjunct.

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