Types of Nouns
Types of Nouns
A noun is a word that has the job of naming a person, animal, place, thing or idea. The different types of nouns are as follows:
A common noun is a noun that refers to people or things in general, e.g. boy, country, bridge, city, birth, day, happiness.
A proper noun is a name that identifies a particular person, place, or thing, e.g. Steven, Africa, London, Monday. Proper nouns should always begin with capital letters.
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.
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, humour.
Collective nouns refer to groups of people or things, e.g. audience, family, government, team, jury.
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.
A singular noun speaks about only one person, animal, place, thing or idea while a plural noun speaks about more than one. Here are some rules to follow when making nouns plural.
Most nouns are made plural by adding -s to the end of the singular form.
For Examples:
car – cars
bag – bags
table – tables
house – houses
dog – dogs
Singular nouns that end in ‘s’, ‘x’, ‘z’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’,or ‘ss’, form the plural by adding –es.
For Examples:
bus – buses
bench – benches
box – boxes
dish – dishes
truss – trusses
marsh – marshes
lunch – lunches
tax – taxes
blitz – blitzes
watch – watches
Excepting:
fez – fezzes
gas – gasses
quiz – quizzes
bus – busses
The plural form of some nouns that end in ‘f’ or ‘fe’ is made by changing the 'f' or 'fe' to 'v' then add 'es'.
For Examples:
half – halves
hoof – hooves
calf – calves
elf – elves
shelf – shelves
leaf – leaves
loaf – loaves
thief – thieves
wolf – wolves
life – lives
knife – knives
scarf – scarves
wife – wives
Excepting:
cuff – cuffs
knockoff – knockoffs
chef – chefs
belief – beliefs
roof – roofs
chief – chiefs
Nouns that end in ‘o’ preceded by a vowel are made plural by adding -s.
For Examples:
radio – radios
stereo – stereos
video – videos
Nouns that end in “o” preceded by a consonant are made plural by adding -es.
For Examples:
potato – potatoes
tomato – tomatoes
hero – heroes
echo – echoes
veto – vetoes
domino – dominoes
Excepting:
piano – pianos
photo – photos
halo – halos
soprano – sopranos
When the ‘y’ follows a consonant, changing ‘y’ to ‘i’ and adding –es:
For Examples:
city – cities
candy – candies
country – countries
family – families
cherry – cherries
lady – ladies
puppy – puppies
party – parties
For nouns ending with 'y', when the ‘y’ follows a vowel, the plural is formed by keeping the ‘y’ and adding –s:
For Examples:
day – days
holiday – holidays
ray – rays
boy – boys
toy – toys
key – keys
donkey – donkeys
Some nouns change to their plural by changing their spelling.
For Examples:
person – people
ox – oxen
man – men
woman – women
caveman – cavemen
policeman – policemen
child – children
tooth – teeth
foot – feet
goose – geese
mouse – mice
mouse – lice
Some nouns use the same singular and plural form:
For Examples:
aircraft – aircraft
barracks – barracks
deer – deer
gallows – gallows
moose – moose
salmon – salmon
hovercraft – hovercraft
spacecraft – spacecraft
series – series
species – species
means – means
offspring – offspring
deer – deer
fish – fish
sheep – sheep
There are four types of gender nouns.
Masculine nouns are words for men, boys, and male animals, for example: king, son, bachelor, waiter, host, lion, bull, gander, stallion, ram, buck.
Feminine nouns are words for women, girls and female animals, for example: queen, daughter, spinster, waitress, hostess, lioness, cow, goose, mare, doe.
Common gender nouns are nouns that are used for both males and females, for example: cousin, lawyer, doctor, nurse, friend, baby, teacher, singer, dancer.
Neuter gender nouns are words for things that are not alive, for example: school, flower, bag, car, computer, chair
Singular Possessive Nouns
The apostrophe and 's' ('s) are added to singular nouns that do not end with 's'.
The apostrophe (') only is added at the end of a singular noun that ends with 's'.
Examples:
the child’s toy the lawyer’s fee
the girl’s parents the school’s books
Tom Jones’ first album Jesus’ disciples
Selena’s finest drama JFK’s finest speech
anyone’s guess a week’s vacation
Texas’ oil industry
Plural Possessive Nouns
The apostrophe and 's' ('s) are added to plural nouns that do not end with 's'.
The apostrophe (') only is added at the end of a plural noun that ends with 's'.
Examples:
excessive lawyers’ fees children’s toys
the twins’ parents the teachers’ chairs
the Smiths’ vacation house the Jones’ vacation house
the boys’ baseball team the dogs' bones
the families’ vacation someone with twelve years’