Hello Learners,

What did you eat this morning? 

Where do you come from? 

What is the name of your pet?

You are welcome to today’s lesson.

in this lesson we are going to:

• Identify noun types ( common, proper, countable and uncountable, concrete) from passages.
• Construction sentences using noun types.
• Categorize plural noun forms ( emphasis on irregular nouns) in passages e.g. mouse – mice . child- children, sheep – sheep. half – halves.
• Use plural noun forms in paragraphs.

Key words:

let’s read the story and scan the text to identify the nouns in the passage.

Read this story and identify the names of people, things, place etc.

What do you know about the story?

Have you read it before?

How would you feel if you were the lion?

Read the story aloud in pairs taking turns, a sentence each.

Ask learners questions on their opinions of the story, who is who, what is happening, etc.

Ask learners what a noun is. If learners do not know, write a sentence from the story on the board. underline the noun and ask what it refers to ( an object, a place, a person etc.)

What do you know about the story?

Have you read it before?

How would you feel if you were the lion?

Read the story aloud in pairs taking turns, a sentence each.

What is a noun?

A noun is a word that refers to a thing (book), a person (Noah Webster), an animal (cat), a place (Omaha), a quality (softness), an idea (justice), or an action (yodeling). It’s usually a single word, but not always: cake, shoes, school bus, and time and a half are all nouns.

or In other words , a noun is a name of a person, a place, an animal, a thing or an idea.

You can give noun a simple definition by saying a noun is a naming word.

If learners do not know, write a sentence from the story on the board. underline the noun and ask what it refers to ( an object, a place, a person etc.)

Sarah is going to school.

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.

Types Of Nouns

There are several types of noun.

Common noun

A common noun is a noun that refers to people or things in general, e.g. boy, country, bridge, city, birth, day, happiness.

Proper noun

A proper noun is a name that identifies a particular person, place, or thing, e.g. Steven, Africa, London, Monday. In written English, proper nouns begin with capital letters.

Concrete noun

A concrete noun is a noun which refers to people and to things that exist physically and can be seen, touched, smelled, heard, or tasted. Examples include dog, building, coffee, tree, rain, beach, tune.

Abstract noun

An abstract noun is a noun which refers to ideas, qualities, and conditions – things that cannot be seen or touched and things which have no physical reality, e.g. truth, danger, happiness, time, friendship, humor.

Collective nouns

Collective nouns refer to groups of people or things, e.g. audience, family, government, team, jury. In American English, most collective nouns are treated as singular, with a singular verb:

The whole family was at the table.

In British English, the preceding sentence would be correct, but it would also be correct to treat the collective noun as a plural, with a plural verb:

The whole family were at the table.

 For more information about this, see matching verbs to collective nouns.

 A noun may belong to more than one category. For example, happiness is both a common noun and an abstract noun, while Mount Everest is both a concrete noun and a proper noun.

Count and mass nouns

Nouns can be either countable or uncountable. Countable nouns (or count nouns) are those that refer to something that can be counted. Uncountable nouns (or mass nouns) do not typically refer to things that can be counted and so they do not regularly have a plural form.

Nouns are everywhere in our writing. But what are all the types of nouns you come across, and how do you use them?

What is a noun?

A noun is a word that names something, such as a person, place, thing, or idea. In a sentence, nouns can play the role of subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object complement, appositive, or adjective.Make your writing shineGrammarly can help you write your bestWRITE WITH GRAMMARLY

Types of nouns

Nouns form a large proportion of English vocabulary and they come in a wide variety of types. Nouns can name a person: Albert Einstein, president, my mother ,a girl

Nouns can also name a place: Mount Vesuvius Disneyland my bedroom

Nouns can also name things, although sometimes they might be intangible things, such as concepts, activities, or processes. Some might even be hypothetical or imaginary things. shoe faucet freedom The Elder Wand basketball

Proper nouns vs. common nouns

One important distinction to be made is whether a noun is a proper noun or a common noun. A proper noun is a specific name of a person, place, or thing, and is always capitalized. Does Tina have much homework to do this evening?

Tina is the name of a specific person. I would like to visit Old Faithful.

Old Faithful is the specific name of a geological phenomenon.

The opposite of a proper noun is a common noun, sometimes known as a generic noun. A common noun is the generic name of an item in a class or group and is not capitalized unless appearing at the beginning of a sentence or in a title. The girl crossed the river.

Girl is a common noun; we do not learn the identity of the girl by reading this sentence, though we know the action she takes. River is also a common noun in this sentence.

Types of common nouns

Common or generic nouns can be broken down into three subtypes: concrete nouns, abstract nouns, and collective nouns. A concrete noun is something that is perceived by the senses; something that is physical or real. I heard the doorbell. My keyboard is sticky.

Doorbell and keyboard are real things that can be sensed.

Conversely, an abstract noun is something that cannot be perceived by the senses. We can’t imagine the courage it took to do that.

Courage is an abstract noun. Courage can’t be seen, heard, or sensed in any other way, but we know it exists.

A collective noun denotes a group or collection of people or things. That pack of lies is disgraceful.

Pack of lies as used here is a collective noun. Collective nouns take a singular verb as if they are one entity – in this case, the singular verb is. A pride of lions roamed the savanna.

Pride of lions is also a collective noun.

Plural nouns

What is a plural noun?

A plural noun is the form of a noun used to show there are more than one. Most nouns simply add –s or –es to the end to become plural. 

What is an example of a plural noun?

“Kids” is the plural noun form of “kid.” Some nouns have an irregular plural form; for instance, the plural noun of “child” is “children,” not “childs.”

A singular noun is a noun that refers to only one person, place, thing, or idea. It’s contrasted with plural nouns, which refer to more than one person, place, thing, or idea. An example of a singular noun is cat, which represents one cat; an example of a plural noun is cats, which represents two or more cats. 

hen do you use singular and plural nouns?

In English grammar, if you are describing a single person, place, thing, or idea, you use the singular form of the noun. 

one student

a teacher

this class

If you are describing more than one of these, you use the plural form of the noun. 

fifteen students

a few teachers

these classes

Countable nouns vs. uncountable nouns

Countable nouns are nouns which can be counted, even if the number might be extraordinarily high (like counting all the people in the world). Countable nouns can be used with a/an, the, some, any, a few, and many. Here is a cat.

Cat is singular and—obviously—countable. Here are a few cats. Here are some cats.

Uncountable nouns are nouns that come in a quantity which is impossible to count; liquids are uncountable, as are things that act like liquids (sand, air). They are always considered to be singular, and can be used with some, any, a little, and much.

An I.Q. test measures intelligence.

Intelligence is an uncountable noun. Students don’t seem to have much homework these days.

This example refers to an unspecified, unquantifiable amount of homework, so homework is an uncountable noun.

Irregular plural nouns are nouns that do not become plural by adding -s or -es, as most nouns in the English language do. You’re probably familiar with many of these already. For example, the plural form of man is men, not mans. The plural form of woman is women, not womans. There are hundreds of irregular plural nouns, and in truth, you must memorize them through reading and speaking. There are, however, some common patterns to look out for.

The most common irregular plurals

Nouns ending in -f and -fe

To make a plural of a word ending in -f, change the f to a v and add es. Similarly, if a word ends in -fe, change the f to a v and add an s. The result for both types is a plural that ends in -ves. This spelling arose because of the difficulty of pronouncing f and s together in English (an attempt to do this will produce a v sound).

Singular (-f, -fe)	Plural (-ves)
knife	knives
life	lives
wife	wives
calf	calves
leaf	leaves

Exceptions: roofs and proofs (among others).

Nouns ending in -o

Plurals of words ending in -o are usually made by adding -es.

Singular (-o)	Plural (-oes)
potato	potatoes
tomato	tomatoes
hero	heroes
torpedo	torpedoes
veto	vetoes

But of course, there are exceptions. (Aren’t there always?) Some words ending in -o that are borrowed from other languages take only an s to make a plural, such as pianos, cantos, photos, and zeros. Cello, which is an abbreviation of the Italian word violoncello, can be written the traditional way, celli, or the commonly accepted anglicized way, cellos.

Nouns that change vowels

Many English words become plural by changing their vowels, such as oo to ee or an to en.

Singular	Plural (vowel change)
foot	feet
tooth	teeth
goose	geese
man	men
woman	women

Fun fact: The eighteenth-century American dictionary reformer Noah Webster preferred spellings that were closer to their most common pronunciations. Thus, he advocated for the return of the Old English plural wimmen. Wouldn’t that have been convenient?

Irregular nouns that change substantially

For a variety of historical reasons, some words change in spelling substantially when made plural.

louselice

Singular	Plural
mouse	mice
die	dice
ox	oxen
child	children
person	people*
penny	pence (in British usage)

Irregular nouns that do not change at all when made plural

Some English nouns are identical in both the singular and the plural forms. Many of these are names for animals.

Singular/ Plural (no change)

sheep

fish

moose

swine

buffalo

shrimp

trout

I have seen several deer when walking in the woods near here.

How many shrimp did you catch?

Aircraft, watercraft, hovercraft, and spacecraft are all the same whether singular or plural.NASA has made several different types of spacecraft in their fifty-nine-year history.

Plurals of Latin and Greek words

There are certain words we use on a regular basis, especially in mathematical and scientific contexts, that are borrowed from Latin or Greek. Many of these words retain their Latin or Greek plurals in math and science settings. Some of them also have anglicized plural forms that have come into common use.

Nouns ending in -us

To make a word ending in -us plural, change -us to -i. Many plurals of words ending in -us have anglicized versions, formed by simply adding -es. The latter method sounds more natural in informal settings. If there is an anglicized version that is well accepted, this will be noted in the dictionary entry for the word you are using.

Singular (-us)	Plural (-i)
focus	foci (also focuses)
radius	radii (also radiuses)
fungus	fungi
nucleus	nuclei
cactus	cacti
alumnus	alumni*
octopus	octopuses (or octopi)
hippopotamus	hippopotami (or hippopotamuses)

With the double i, radii (pronounced RAY-dee-i) sounds unwieldy, but if you are a mathematician, you probably use it every day. If you are a zoologist, you might say, “Hey, did you see those hippopotami?” but it would sound silly on a casual visit to the zoo. Many people resist the spelling octopuses, but it is perfectly acceptable. In fact, if you put a fine point on it, since octopus is of Greek origin rather than from Latin, theoretically the spelling should be octopodes, not octopi.

Irregular formation of nouns ending in -is

Nouns with an -is ending can be made plural by changing -is to -es. Some people have a hard time remembering that the plural of crisis is crises and the plural of axis is axes, but crisises and axises are incorrect.

Singular (-is)	Plural (-es)
axis	axes (this is also the plural of ax and axe)
analysis	analyses
crisis	crises
thesis	theses

Irregular formation of nouns ending in -on

These Greek words change their -on ending to -a.

Singular (-on)	Plural (-a)
phenomenon	phenomena
criterion	criteria

Irregular formation of nouns ending in -um

Words ending in -um shed their -um and replace it with -a to form a plural. The plurals of some of these words are far better known than their singular counterparts.

Singular (-um)	Plural (-a)
datum	data
memorandum	memoranda
bacterium	bacteria
stratum	strata
curriculum	curricula (also curriculums)

Irregular formation of nouns ending in -ix

Nouns ending in -ix are changed to -ices in formal settings, but sometimes -xes is perfectly acceptable.

Singular (-ex, -ix)	Plural (-ces, -xes)
index	indices (or indexes)
appendix	appendices (or appendixes, in a medical context)
vortex	vortices (or vortexes)

These rules for irregular plural nouns must simply be memorized, although it is helpful to understand the patterns first in order to master

Possessive nouns

Possessive nouns are nouns which possess something; i.e., they have something. You can identify a possessive noun by the apostrophe; most nouns show the possessive with an apostrophe and ans.The cat’s toy was missing.

The cat possesses the toy, and we denote this by use of ‑’s at the end of cat.

When a singular noun ends in the letter s or z, the same format often applies. This is a matter of style, however, and some style guides suggest leaving off the extra s.I have been invited to the boss’s house for dinner.Mrs. Sanchez’s coat is still hanging on the back of her chair.

Plural nouns ending in s take only an apostrophe to form a possessive.My nieces’ prom dresses were exquisite.

Nouns FAQs

What are nouns?

Nouns refer to a person, place, thing, or idea. They make up the subjects, direct objects, and indirect objects in a sentence, along with other roles. 

What are examples of nouns?

Nouns can be living things (Keanu Reeves or cat), places (beach or Detroit), things (ruler or PlayStation 5), or ideas (nihilism or the theory of evolution). 

What are the different types of nouns?

Common nouns refer to general things (like parks), and proper nouns refer to a specific thing (like Yellowstone National Park). Nouns can also be plural or singular, depending on how many there are, and countable or uncountable, depending on how their plural form is used. 

How do you identify a noun in a sentence?

Nouns usually have articles (the, a, or an) before them in a sentence, but not always. Sometimes you’ll see adjectives or words like “some” or “this” before nouns. Aside from the first word in a sentence, if a word is capitalized then it’s a noun, such as a person’s name.