Grammar - NOUNS

 NOUNS*

USED TO NAME A PERSON, PLACE, THING, IDEA, QUALITY, OR ACTION

1. COMMON NOUNS = general names, common to an entire group -- e.g., boy, singer, field, horse

2. PROPER NOUNS = name specific for one-of-a-kind thing -- e.g., Istanbul, Turkey, Bob, Colorado

3. CONCRETE NOUNS = things that can be perceived by the senses -- e.g., cows, rain, shelf, cup

4. ABSTRACT NOUNS = things that cannot be observed by the senses -- e.g., intelligence, happiness, fear

	COMMON	PROPER
ABSTRACT	freedom	Age of Discovery
CONCRETE	man	Denver

5. COMPOUND NOUNS = formed by combining two or more words, but the new word expresses a single idea -- e.g., boyfriend, folk tale, brother-in-law

	SINGULAR	PLURAL	POSSESSIVE
EQUAL PARTS	FOLK TALE	FOLK TALES	FOLK TALE'S / FOLK TALES'
	BIRTHRIGHT	BIRTHRIGHTS	BIRTHRIGHT'S / BIRTHRIGHTS'
UNEQUAL PARTS	FATHER-IN-LAW	FATHERS-IN-LAW	FATHER-IN-LAW'S / FATHERS-IN-LAW'S
	PASSERBY	PASSERSBY	PASSERBY'S / PASSERSBY'S

6. COLLECTIVE NOUNS = NOUNS THAT REFER TO GROUPS OF PEOPLE OR THINGS -- E.G., ARMY, FLOCK, CLASS

NOTE the following:

• AMERICAN ENGLISH:  Collective nouns always take a singular noun -- e.g., The army is attacking.
• BRITISH ENGLISH:  Collective nouns can be singular or plural--whether you mean all the individuals separately (plural) or the group (singular) -- e.g., The army are eating their dinners.  (Each member of the army is eating.)  / The army is attacking. (They are attacking as one -- as a group.)

 

7. POSSESSIVE NOUNS = nouns that show who or what owns something 

CATEGORY	POSSESSIVE NOUN RULE	EXAMPLE
ALL SINGULAR NOUNS	ADD APOSTROPHE PLUS -S	George's, sister-in-law's, jury's, Jesus's
PLURAL NOUNS NOT ENDING IN "S"	ADD APOSTROPHE PLUS -S	men's, people's, children's
PLURAL NOUNS ENDING IN "S"	ADD APOSTROPHE ONLY	witnesses', males', friends', churches'

 

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*The information on this page was adapted from literature textbook:  Applebee, Arthur, Andrea B. Bermudez, et.al. (2006).  The Language of Literature: American Literature, Teacher's Edition. Evanston, IL: McDougal-Littell Inc., p. 1306.    For a more detailed explanation and exercises, see the text.