NOUNS
Nguyen Thi Kim Anh

I. Kinds of nouns
II. Functions of nouns
III. Gender
IV. Plurals
V. Uncountable nouns
I. Kinds of nouns
There are four kinds of nouns in English:
- Common nouns: dog, man, table
- Proper noun: France, Madrid, Mrs Smith, Tom
- Abstract nouns: beauty, courage, fear, joy
- Collective nouns: crowd, flock, group, team
II. Functions of nouns
A noun can function as:
- The subject of a verb: Tom arrived
- The complement of verbs be, get: Tom is an actor
- The object of a verb: / saw Tom
- The object of a preposition: / spoke to Tom.
- A noun is in the possessive case: Tom`s books.
III. Gender
A. Masculine, feminine, neuter
B. Masculine/feminine nouns denoting people
1. Different forms
2. The same forms
C. Domestic animals with different forms





A. Masculine, feminine, neuter
- Masculine: men, boys and male animals (pronoun he/they).
- Feminine: women, girls and female animals (pronoun she/they)
- Neuter: inanimate things, animals whose sex we don`t know and sometimes babies whose sex we don`t know (pronoun it/they)

B. Masculine/feminine nouns denoting people
1. Different forms
boy/ girl gentleman/ lady
son/ daughter bachelor/ spinster
husband/ wife uncle/aunt
bridegroom/bride man/ woman
widower/widow father/mother
nephew/niece prince/ princess
lord/lady king/ queen

Exceptions:
Baby infant
Relative child
Parent spouse
Cousin teenager


2. The majority of nouns indicating occupation have the same form
For example: artist, cook, driver, guide, assistant, dancer, doctor

Exceptions
actor, actress host, hostess
conductor, conductress heir, heiress
manager, manageress steward, stewardess
hero, heroine waiter, waitress
Also salesman, saleswoman etc , but sometimes -person is used instead of -man, -woman` salesperson, spokesperson.

C. Domestic animals with different forms
Domestic animals and many of the larger wild animals have different forms
bull, cow duck, drake
ram, ewe stallion, mare
cock, hen gander, goose
stag, doe tiger, tigress
dog, bitch lion, lioness
Others have the same forms
IV. Plurals
1. General rules
2. Nouns ending in o or ch, sh, ss or x
3. Nouns ending in y
4. Nouns ending in f or fe
5. Plurals formed by vowel changes
6. Unchanged forms



7. Collective nouns
8. Certain words are always plural
9. Words ending in –ics
10. Plural in form but singular in meaning
11. Latin words
12. Compound nouns



1. The plural of a noun is usually made by adding s to the singular:
day, days dog, dogs house, houses
Note:
s is pronounced /s/ after a p, k or f sound.
Otherwise it is pronounced Izl.
When s is placed after ce, ge, se or ze an extra syllable (/iz/) is added to the spoken word.

2. Nouns ending in o or ch, sh, ss or x form their plural by adding es:
tomato, tomatoes
brush, brushes
box, boxes
church, churches
kiss, kisses

But words of foreign origin or abbreviated words ending in o add s only:
dynamo, dynamos kimono, kimonos
piano, pianos kilo,kilos
photo, photos soprano, sopranos
When es is placed after ch, sh, ss or x an extra syllable (/iz/) is added to the spoken word


3. Nouns ending in y following a consonant form their plural by dropping the y and adding ies`
baby, babies
country, countries
fly, flies
lady, ladies

Nouns ending in y following a vowel form their plural by adding s-
boy, boys
day, days
donkey, donkeys
guy, guys


4. Twelve nouns ending in f or fe drop the f or fe and add ves These nouns are calf, half, knife, leaf, life, loaf, self, sheaf, shelf, thief, wife, wolf:
loaf, loaves
wife, wives
wolf, wolves

The nouns hoof, scarf and wharf take either s or ves in the plural
hoofs or hooves
scarfs or scarves