Nouns
can be divided into two kinds: countable and uncountable.
(A) Countable
Nouns
i. Countable nouns are nouns that we can count. They can be singular
or plural.
e.g. I have a boiled egg for breakfast.
I bought three story books yesterday.
The students in this school are very polite.
ii. We use the indefinite
article (a/ an) before singular nouns.
e.g. a boiled egg
iii. We use a definite article
(the) or a number before plural nouns.
e.g. the students
three story books
iv. We change most singular
nouns to plurals by adding ¡Vs. However, there are some that follow different
rules.
Nouns |
We
. . . |
Examples |
Nouns ending in -s,
-x, -ss, -ch, -sh |
¡Ïes |
buses, boxes, dresses,
watches, bushes |
Nouns ending in -o |
¡Ïs or ¡Ïes |
pianos, zoos, tomatoes,
potatoes, heroes |
Nouns ending in a vowel
¡Ï -y |
¡Ïs |
boys, cats, days, monkeys |
Nouns ending in a consonant
¡Ï -y |
change y to ies |
bodies, cities, countries,
ladies, families |
Nouns ending in -f/-fe |
change -f/-fe to -ves |
leaves, shelves, lives,
knives |
Some special nouns |
change the vowel(s),
change some letters at the end,
add letters at the end |
foot---feet, man---men
mouse---mice
child---children |
Some animals |
Make no change |
fish---fish
deer---deer
sheep---sheep |
(B) Uncountable Nouns
i. Uncountable nouns are nouns that we cannot count. We cannot count
them because they
- are too difficult to count.
e.g. rice, hair, sugar
- do not have separate parts.
e.g. air, water, steam
- are abstract.
e.g. friendship, happiness, health
ii. Uncountable nouns do
not have a plural form. We do not use an indefinite article (a/an) or
numerals (one, two, three, etc.) in front of these nouns.
iii. If we want to show
the amount of an uncountable noun, we use quantity words in front of
it.
e.g. two cups of tea
a bowl of rice
three tins of paint
iv. We cannot use many/few
with uncountable nouns, but we can say some/much/ a lot of/
all of the/ most of the water, butter, cheese, etc.
Ouiz
Notes & Exercises |