Nouns are an important building block of a sentence. There can sometimes be more than one noun in a sentence.
A noun is a person, place or thing you can touch and name. It can also be something more abstract, like ideas. For example, I’ve got pain in my leg. You can’t see pain or touch it, but it’s a noun because it’s the name of something. Emotion is an abstract noun because you can’t touch it. A small proportion have identifiable endings. e.g., tradition, ability, excellence, significance, factor, rigour.
Countable/ uncountable.
Institution names, place names, and people’s names are proper nouns. Proper nouns are capitalised. e.g., Australia, Melbourne University. Johnny and Cate.
Days of the week, month names, ethnic groups and nationalities, and language names are all capitalised.
Common nouns do not need to be capitalised. Dog, cat, sky, radio, wind and rain are common nouns, so they don’t need capitalising. If it’s not the name of something, it doesn’t need to begin with a capital letter.
Function in Sentence
Nouns are mobile things. They can occur anywhere in the sentence. Nouns can be the subject of the verb: e.g., Johnny (S) loves dogs.
Nouns can be the object of the verb. e.g., Johnny loves dogs. (O)
They can also be the complement of a verb. e.g. Johnny is a man.
Nouns always come after a determiner, such as a, and the (articles), and few and many, as well as much and little. (quantifiers.) Sometimes, an adjective will come in between the determiner and the noun.
e.g. The beautiful sunrise. The sunrise is beautiful.
Many and few can only be used with countable nouns, and much and little can only be used with uncountable nouns.
Plurals Countables and Uncountables
If a noun is countable, it will have a plural form. Regular nouns end with the letter s in their plural form. e.g. car > cars. jar > jars. book > books letter > letters.
Uncountable nouns only have one form, e.g., accommodation, not accommodations, mayonnaise, not mayonnaises, oxygen; how do we determine whether a noun is countable or uncountable?
You can work it out (usually) by looking at what the noun describes. If it describes separate or separable objects, it is countable. e.g. book(s) plan(s) car(s) . However, nouns which describe liquids, materials, substances and abstract qualities are mostly uncountable. e.g. oxygen, water, success, heat, milk, etc.
If you’re not sure, use a dictionary. When you look up a noun, it will have either a C for countable or a U for uncountable after it:
jar
noun [ C ] This is how jar is listed in the Cambridge dictionary. Therefore, it is countable.
Plurals and irregular nouns
Of course, there are always exceptions to every rule. Some nouns are irregular and are treated differently in the plural from the regular nouns. For example, vowel change, man > men, tooth > teeth, foot > feet, goose > geese, louse > lice, mouse > mice. Etc.
No change: sheep > sheep, series > series, barracks > barracks, species > species.
What Ending What Plural
| Noun Ending | Plural Form | Examples |
| F (e) | Change the ending completely to ves | calf > calves, leaf >leaves, wife > wives, shelf > shelves |
| consonant + y | (a) Change y to i and add es For proper nouns, add s. |
(a) baby > babies, lady > ladies, party > parties (b) (The )Kennedeys |
| sh, ch, s, zz, x | Take the spelling from the original language. | church > churches, crash > crashes, box > boxes, buzz > buzzes |
| single z | add extra z and es. | quiz > quizzes f |
| some ending in o | Some nouns ending in o (a) take es to make it plural. Some take s (b). | (a) echo > echoes, hero > heroes, negro> negros, potato > potatoes, tomato > tomatoes. (b) Eskimo > Eskimos, casino > casinos, ego > egos. |
| foreign nouns | Foreign nouns | take the spelling from the original language. |
Nouns ending in f(e) change their ending completely to ves in the plural. e.g. calf > calves, leaf > leaves, wife > wives, shelf > shelves.
If the singular ends in consonant + Y (-by, -dy, -ry), the plural is normally formed by changing the y to an i and adding -es. e.g. baby > babies, lady > ladies, party > parties etc.
Singular ending in -sh, -ch, -s, -zz, -x add es to form the plural: e.g. church > churches, crash > crashes, box > boxes, buzz > buzzes.
If the noun ends with a single z, the plurals take a double z and es is added. e.g. quiz > quizzes.
Some nouns ending in o take es to make it plural. e.g. echo > echoes, hero > heroes, negro > negroes, potato > potatoes, tomato > tomatoes.
Some nouns ending in o do not take the es; you add an s. E.G., Eskimo, casino, ego.
Foreign nouns take the spelling from the original language. e.g. analysis > analyses (Latin), appendix > appendices (Latin), bacterium > bacteria (Latin).
Collective nouns usually take the singular if the writing is formal. E.G. The firm deals with financial planning. In everyday language, collective nouns often take the plural or singular. e.g. the team is, or the team are.
Police is always plural: The police are on their way.
As you can see, the nouns in English are many and varied, so if you’re unsure how to create the plural of a noun, it’s best to use a dictionary. The dictionary is the linguist’s best friend. It gives you more info than you realise.
