english nouns
DESCRIPTION
Grammar material for the English at home Course (part of Virtual Library)TRANSCRIPT
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ENGLISH AT HOMEGrammar syllabus
Theme 1: French v. English
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• accents in many words ------only in foreign words • agreement yes -----no• articles more common----less common • capitalization less common -----more common • conjugations different for each grammatical person----- different only for third
person singular • contractions required----- optional and informal • gender for all nouns and most pronouns -----only for personal pronouns • liaisons yes ------no • negation two words -----one word • prepositions certain verbs require prepositions -----many phrasal verbs • rhythm stress at end of each rhythmic group -----stressed syllable in each
word, plus stress on important word • Roman numerals more common, often ordinal ----less common, rarely ordinal • subjunctive common -----extremely rare • From http://french.about.com/od/lessons/a/differences.htm
Comparison of characteristics
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As previously shown briefly, English nouns and adjectives have no gender
• http://www.edufind.com/English/Grammar/NOUNS1.CFM
Gender
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Definition: A noun is a word used to refer to people, animals, objects, substances, states, events and feelings. Nouns can be a subject or an object of a verb, can be modified by an adjective and can take an article or determiner
For example:• Table• Pencil• The dog• A white house
Let’s focus on Nouns
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Nouns also denote abstract and intangible concepts.
For example:• birth• happiness• evolution• technology, etc.
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The general rule is to add "-s" to the noun in singular
For example: • Book - Books• House - Houses• Chair - Chairs
NOUN PLURALS
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When the singular noun ends in: -sh, -ch, -s, -ss, -x, -o we form their plural form by adding "-es".
For example: • sandwich - sandwiches• brush - brushes• bus - buses• box - boxes• potato - potatoes
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When the singular noun ends in "y", we change the "y" for "i" and then add "-es" to form the plural form. But do not change the "y" for "ies" to form the plural when the singular noun ends in "y" preceded by a vowel.
For example: • nappy - nappies• day - days• toy - toys
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However, there are many Irregular Nouns which do not form the plural in this way:
For example: • Woman - Women• Child - Children• Sheep - Sheep
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• http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/nouns_articles/plural.htm
• http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/71.html
Plural
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For children but nice:http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=723
(Let’s use the timer to do the exercises and see how it works!!)
Playing games
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• Proper nouns are the names of specific things, people, or places, such as Jhon, France. They usually begin with a capital letter.
• Common nouns are general names such as person, mansion, and book. They can be either concrete or abstract.
• Concrete nouns refer to things which you can sense such as clock and telephone.
• Abstract nouns refer to ideas or qualities such as liberty and truth.• Countable nouns refer to things which can be counted (can be
singular or plural)• Uncountable nouns refer to some groups of countable nouns,
substances, feelings and types of activity (can only be singular)
Types of Nouns
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Proper nouns (also called proper names) are the words which name specific people, organisations, places, titles, cities, countries, calendar times, etc. They are always written with a capital letter. They represent unique entities;
In English and most other languages that use the latin alphabet, they are capitalized.
For example: • Janet; Simon; John Wesley; London; The President; Tuesday; Christmas;
Thanksgiving; Atlantic Ocean; Spain.• Examples: • Peter lives in Spain.• Many people dread Monday mornings.• Beltane is celebrated on the first of May.• Abraham appears in the Talmud and in the Koran.
Proper nouns
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A common noun is a word that names people, places, things, or ideas. They are not the names of a single person, place or thing. A common noun begins with a lowercase letter unless it is at the beginning of a sentence.
Examples:• People: man, woman, girl, baby, son, dughther, policeman, teacher• Animals: cat, dog, fish, ant, snake• Things: bear, book, boat, table, chair, phone• Places: bank, school, city, building, shop• Ideas: love, hate, idea, pride• Example sentences: • apple: I love a good red apple after dinner.• dog, yard: The black dog is in my yard.• book, table: The red book is on the table.• call: Give me a call when you arrive.
Common nouns
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Concrete nouns refers to objects and substances, including people and animals, physical items that we can perceive through our senses, that means concrete nouns can be touched, felt, held, something visible, smelt, taste, or be heard.They can be countable nouns or uncountable nouns, and singular nouns or plural nouns. Concrete nouns can also be a common noun, proper nouns and collective nouns.
Example: • This is my house.* In this example the noun "house" names a building where I live. That building is an
individual object and can be seen and touched by everyone. Other examples:
• Common Concrete Nouns: snake, cat, table, girl, water• Countable Concrete Nouns (Singular): table, computer, book, door• Countable Concrete Nouns (Plural): tables, computers, books, doors• Uncountable Concrete Nouns: sugar, rice, water, air, oil, salt, cheese• Proper Nouns: Mrs. Jones, Tom Cruise, Max Ryan• * "Time" is a concept that has no physical existence; it is not a Concrete Noun
Concrete nouns
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An abstract noun refers to states, events, concepts, feelings, qualities, etc., that have no physical existence.
Examples: • Friendship; peace; romance; humor are all abstract nouns that
have no physical existence.An abstract noun can be either a countable noun or uncountable
noun. Abstract nouns that refer to events are almost usually countable: a noise; a meeting.
In English many abstract nouns are formed by adding suffixes (-ness, - ity. – tion ) to adjectives or verbs. For examples: Happiness = Happy ( adj.) , circulation = to circulate (verb)
Abstract nouns
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Nouns
Proper Common
Abstract Concrete
Count. Uncount.
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• http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/exlist/exlist.htm
Identifying nouns
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• http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/exlist/exlist.htm
Countable and Uncountable nouns
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Person/ s Place/s Thing/s
child/renteacher/sstudent/splumber/slawyer/spsychologist/shistorian/seconomist/sbiologist/sreporter/sdean/scoordinator/sresearcher/s
store/small/spark/sbar/soffice/sschool/shome/sstation/schurch/esdeli/scafeteria/sshop/sairport/s
shoe/scar/sdoor/shouse/skey/sletter/schair/sbox/escow/sposter/sglass/esball/s
Countable nouns
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Things Qualities Actions Fields of Study
waterstuffmoneyadviceproofequipmentdusthomeworkfuninformationinkluck
dependabilityhonestyloyaltysincerityintegrity
walking/to walktyping/to typejumping/to jumpthinking/to thinkswimming/to swim
psychologyhistorysocial workeconomicsbiologyEnglishanatomyphilosophyreligiontheology
Uncountable nouns
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Plural, Type of nouns• http://
www.edhelper.com/language/pluralnouns2106.html
Revision
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This is sample material but gives an overall idea
Hope it is useful
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