Nouns and the Explanation of the Types of Nouns

Learn the first type of English grammar part of speech, “noun.” In this lesson, we will learn all about the nouns and their types in English with helpful explanations. We will talk about usage, rules, how to form noun sentences, and how to use the types of nouns in English grammar. Let’s learn…

Nouns and the Explanation of the Types of Nouns

This lesson is divided into three sections. The first two sections describe in detail the two basic types of nouns: proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are the names of specific individuals; common nouns are the names of categories. The third section describes how we form possessive nouns.

Proper Nouns

Proper nouns are the names of specific individuals; here are some examples of proper nouns:

• Specific persons: Dorothy, Miss Marple, Senator Smith, Uncle Fred
• Specific places: Chicago, Jordan, Red Sea, Mount Olympus
• Specific things: New York Times, Microsoft Corporation

Capitalization of Proper Nouns

The most obvious feature of proper nouns is that they are capitalized. However, the conventions of capitalization are anything but simple. Here are some of the more important capitalization rules for persons, places, and things:

1. Capitalization of Persons. Capitalize all parts of the name, including Jr. and Sr.:

• Fred Smith Sr.
• Martin Luther King, Jr.

When civil, military, religious, and professional titles precede a name and are used as part of the name, they are capitalized:

• General Patton
• Pope Benedict XVI
• President Bush

However, if the title follows the name or is used to talk about a person, then the title is considered a common noun and is not capitalized. For example, compare the following:

• Proper noun: Governor Schwarzenegger was reelected.
• Common: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, was an actor.
• Common: Arnold Schwarzenegger is the governor of California.

The names of groups of people (linguistic, religious, or racial) are normally capitalized. For example:

• Catholics
• Chinese
• Latinos

2. Capitalization of Places. Geographical terms (for example, street, river, or ocean) that are part of a name are also capitalized. For example:

• Great Barrier Ree
• Lake Erie
• Mississippi River
• Rocky Mountains
• Atlantic Ocean
• Deep Cree
• Empire State Building
• Elm Street

The names of distinct regions are usually capitalized. For example:

• Mid Atlantic
• the Midwest
• Southeast Asia
• the South

Popular names of places are usually capitalized (and not enclosed in quotation marks). For example:

• Badlands (South Dakota)
• Bay Area (California)
• Eastern Shore (Chesapeake Bay)
• Fertile Crescent

Strangely enough, words derived from geographical names are generally not capitalized. For example:

• china (dishes)
• plaster of paris
• french fries
• venetian blinds

3. Capitalization of Things. The complete names of private and public organizations of all kinds are capitalized. For example:

• Cheney High School
• Peace Corps
• Green Bay Packers (football team)
• Xerox Corporation
• New York Philharmonic

The names of historical, political, and economic events are generally capitalized. For example:

• Boston Tea Party
• New Deal
• Great Depression

The names of acts, treaties, laws, and government programs are generally capitalized. For example:

• Declaration of Independence
• Marshall Plan
• Federal Housing Act
• Monroe Doctrine

The names of months and the days of the week are capitalized, but not the names of the seasons. For example:

• fall
• summer
• February
• Wednesday
• spring
• winter

Plural Forms of Proper Nouns

Plural proper nouns are uncommon, not because there is any grammatical restriction on them, but because we rarely need to use them. Here are some examples of plural proper nouns:

• We have had three hot Julys in a row.
• The Smiths went to the beach this weekend.
• There are two New Yorks, one for the rich and another for the rest of us.

Do not use an apostrophe for the plural of proper nouns. For example:

X. We have known the Johnson’s for a long time.

Common Nouns

Common nouns refer to persons, places, things, and ideas (abstractions). Here are some examples:

• Persons: student, women, reporter, father, employee
• Places: city, river, mountains, forest, sidewalk
• Things: computer, book, water, elephant
• Ideas: justice, love, friendship, honesty, respect

Common nouns are divided into two main categories: noncount and count. Noncount nouns are nouns that cannot be used in the plural. The term noncount refers to the fact that these nouns are literally not countable; that is, they cannot be used with number words. Most common nouns are count nouns; they can be counted and used in the plural. The distinction between noncount and count nouns is of particular importance in determining which article to use.

Noncount Nouns

Many noncount nouns are generic names for categories of things. For example, the noncount noun luggage is a generic or collective term that refers to an entire category of objects that we use for carrying things while we travel, such as backpacks, briefcases, handbags, suitcases, and valises. The generic noun luggage is not countable, while all of the specific nouns are countable.

Noncount:

• X. one luggage, two luggages

Count:

• one backpack, two backpacks
• one briefcase, two briefcases
• one handbag, two handbags
• one suitcase, two suitcases

Most noncount nouns fall into one of ten semantic categories:

• Abstractions: beauty, charity, faith, hope, knowledge, justice, luck, reliability
• Academic fields: anthropology, chemistry, economics, literature, and physics
• Food: butter, cheese, chicken, pepper, rice, salt
• Gerunds (-ing verb forms used as nouns): hoping, running, smiling, winning
• Languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, Russian, and Spanish
• Liquids and gases: beer, blood, coffee, gasoline, water, air, and oxygen
• Materials: cement, glass, gold, paper, plastic, silk, wood, wool
• Natural phenomena: electricity, gravity, matter, and space
• Sports and games: baseball, chess, football, poker, soccer, and tennis
• Weather words: fog, pollution, rain, snow, wind

Many noncount nouns can be used as count nouns, but with a predictable shift in meaning—to convey something like “different kinds of.” Here are some examples:

• gasoline—noncount: The price of gasoline is outrageous. (liquid)
• gasoline—count: The station sells three gasolines. (different grades of gasoline)
• Spanish—noncount: I am learning Spanish. (language)
• Spanish—count: There are several Spanishes in America. (different kinds of Spanish)
• cheese—noncount: I love cheese. (food)
• cheese—count: The store sells a variety of cheeses. (different kinds of cheese)

Some noncount nouns have count noun counterparts but with different meanings. Here are some examples:

• iron—noncount: The chain is made of iron. (material)
• iron—count: The hotel will provide irons. (electric appliances for pressing clothes)
• paper—noncount: Books are made of paper. (material)
• paper—count: I left my papers on the desk. (documents)
• chicken—noncount: Chicken is a heart-healthy meat. (food)
• chicken—count: There were a dozen chickens in the yard. (living animals)
• coffee—noncount: Too much coffee makes me nervous. (liquid)
• coffee—count: We would like two coffees, please. (cups or servings of coffee)

Plural Forms of Count Nouns

The distinctive feature of countable nouns is that they can be used in the plural. Most nouns form their plural with  (e)s, but there are also a number of irregular plural forms. Most irregular plurals are either nouns of English origin that have retained older ways of forming the plural or Latin words that have retained their Latin plurals. In addition, there are a small number of plural-only nouns, and finally, there is a difference between British and American English on whether collective nouns are singular or plural.

Regular Plurals. The regular plural is most often written as -s. For example:

Singular	Plural
cat	cats
dog	dogs
llama	llamas

If the regular plural is pronounced as a separate syllable, the regular plural is spelled -es. For example:

Singular	Plural
batch	batches
bench	benches
box	boxes
class	classes
wish	wishes

There are two special spelling rules for regular plurals:

Words ending in a consonant + y. When a word ends in a consonant + y, the plural is formed by the following rule:

CHANGE THE Y TO I AND ADD -ES

Singular	Plural
baby	babies
family	families
lady	ladies
story	stories

However, if the word ends in a vowel plus y, the preceding rule does not apply, because the letter y does not represent a separate vowel. The y is part of the spelling of the vowel and therefore cannot be changed.

Singular	Plural
boy	boys
key	keys
subway	subways

Words ending in a consonant + o. There are two spellings for words that end in a consonant + o. In one group, the plural is formed by adding -s in the normal way. In a second group, the plural is formed by adding -es. Unfortunately, there is no way to predict the group to which any particular word belongs. You simply have to look up each word ending in a consonant + o. Here are some examples of each group:

-s Plurals

-es Plurals

Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
ego	egos	hero	heroes
kilo	kilos	potato	potatoes
memo	memos	tomato	tomatoes
zero	zeros	volcano	volcanoes

Irregular Plurals of English Origin. Seven words form their plural by a vowel change alone:

Singular	Plural
foot	feet
goose	geese
louse	lice
man	men
mouse	mice
tooth	teeth
woman	women

Note: In addition to the usual plural form feet, the noun foot has a second plural form, foot, when we use the word to refer to length or measurement. For example:

• I bought a six-foot ladder.
• He is six foot three inches tall.

Some words ending in f form their plurals by changing the f to v and adding -es. Here are the most common words that follow this pattern:

Singular	Plural
half	halves
knife	knives
leaf	leaves
life	lives
loaf	loaves
self	selves (also the plural themselves)
thief	thieves
wolf	wolves

Some words have a plural form that is identical to their singular form. Most of these words refer to animals or fi sh. For example:

Singular	Singular
a cod	two cod
a deer	two deer
a fish	two fish
a sheep	two sheep
a shrimp	two shrimp
a trout	two trout

Since the singular and plural forms of these nouns are identical, the actual number of the noun can be determined only by subject-verb agreement or by the use of an indefinite article. For example:

• Singular: The deer was standing in the middle of the road.
• Plural: The deer were moving across the fi eld.
• Singular: I saw a deer in the backyard.
• Plural: I saw some deer in the backyard.

If one of these words is used as an object with a definite article, then the number is inherently ambiguous. For example:

• Look at the deer! (one deer or many deer?)

Two words retain the old plural ending -en:

Singular	Plural
child	children
oxchild	oxen

Irregular Plurals of Latin Origin. English uses thousands of words of Latin origin. In formal or scientifi c writing, the original Latin forms of the plural are often used. While the irregularity of Latin grammar is almost beyond belief, there are two patterns that are regular enough to merit our attention:

Plurals of Latin words ending in -us. The plurals of these words typically end in -i. For example:

Singular	Plural
alumnus	alumni
focus	foci
locus	loci
stimulus	stimuli
syllabus	syllabi

Plurals of Latin words ending in -um. The plurals of these words typically end in -a. For example:

Singular	Plural
addendum	addenda
curriculum	curricula
datum	data (See note.)
memorandum	memoranda
spectrum	spectra
stratum	strata

Note: Data is often used as a kind of collective singular, except in formal scientific papers. For example:

• The data is very clear in this matter.

Plural-Only Nouns. Some plural nouns have no corresponding singular form at all or else have a singular form that differs substantially from the meaning of the plural.

One group of plural-only nouns refers to tools or articles of clothing that have two equal parts joined together:

• Tools: bellows, binoculars, (eye) glasses, forceps, pincers, scissors, sheers, spectacles, tongs, tweezers
• Clothing: braces, briefs, fl annels, jeans, pants, pajamas, shorts, slacks, suspenders, tights, tops, trousers, trunks

Here are some other plural-only nouns with idiomatic meanings:

accommodations (living arrangements)

• Funds (Money)
• Arms (Weapons)
• Guts (Courage)
• Brains (Intellect)
• Looks (Appearance)
• Communications (Means of Communication)
• Manners (Behavior)
• Credentials (Records or Documents)
• Pains (Trouble, Effort)
• Customs (Duty)
• Wits (Intelligence)

A few plural-only nouns have no plural marking: cattle, livestock, poultry, people, and police. Here are some examples with the plural verb underlined:

• The police are investigating the crime.
• People were beginning to talk.

Collective Nouns

Collective nouns refer to groups of people, either individually or collectively. Here are some examples:

• Audience
• Class
• Committee
• Government
• Team

Logically, we can think of a team, for example, as being either a unit (singular) or a group of individuals (plural). In American English, collective nouns are almost always treated as singular nouns; in British English, collective nouns are almost always treated as plural nouns. For example, compare the following sentences with the verbs underlined:

• American: The team is on the field.
  British: The team are on the field.
• American: The American government has announced a new policy.
  British: Her Majesty’s government have announced a new policy.

Possessive Forms of Nouns

Modern English is a hybrid of two languages: Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and French. Reflecting this mixed heritage, Modern English has two ways of forming the possessive: the Old English way, which uses an inflectional ending (’s and s’), and the possessive way, which is a kind of loan-translation of the French way of forming the possessive. Here is an example of each:

• Inflectional possessive: Shakespeare’s plays
• Of possessive: the plays of Shakespeare

Inflectional Possessives

It is essentially a historical accident that the regular plural and the possessive inflections are pronounced exactly alike, with the same sibilant sounds. Up until the sixteenth century, the plural and the possessives were also spelled alike: -s. During the sixteenth century, however, the apostrophe began to be used for the possessive ending to distinguish it from the plural ending. For example:

Plural	Possessive
boys	boy’s
girls	girl’s
friends	friend’s

The use of the apostrophe after the -s to signal the possessive use of a plural noun did not become widely accepted until the nineteenth century:

Plural	Plural Possessive
boys	boys’
girls	girls’
friends	friends’

While it is correct to call -s’ the “plural possessive,” it is a mistake to think of the -‘s as the “singular possessive.” The problem with this definition arises with the possessive forms of irregular nouns that become plural by changing their vowel rather than by adding a plural -s. For example:

Singular

Plural

Noun	Possessive	Noun	Possessive
man	man’s	men	men’s
woman	woman’s	women	women’s
child	child’s	children	children’s

As you can see, -’s is used with these plural possessive nouns, not -s’. Using the -s’ with these nouns would mean (incorrectly, of course) that the /s/ is what makes these nouns plural. What actually makes them plural is the change in their vowels.

A much better way to think of plurals and possessive is as follows:

Plural Only	Possessive Both Only	Both Plural and Possessive
-s	-’s	-s’

This analysis will help ensure that you will always use the right form.

Mercifully, the spelling of the possessive forms is regular (though there are a few exceptions for proper nouns, which are discussed later in this section). Here are some examples using words that form their plurals in different ways.

WORDS ENDING IN A CONSONANT + Y

Singular

Plural

Noun	Possessive	Noun	Possessive
baby	baby’s	babies	babies
family	family’s	families	families

WORDS ENDING IN O

Singular

Plural

Noun	Possessive	Noun	Possessive
ego	ego’s	egos	egos’
memo	memo’s	memos	memos’
hero	hero’s	heroes	heroes’
volcano	volcano’s	volcanoes	volcanoes’

Notice that in the last two examples, the singular possessive and the plural forms are spelled differently.

WORDS ENDING IN F

Singular Plural
Noun Possessive Noun Possessive
thief thief’s thieves thieves’
wolf wolf’s wolves wolves’

Singular

Plural

Noun	Possessive	Noun	Possessive
thief	thief’s	egos	thieves’
wolf	wolf’s	wolves	wolves’

The possessives of some proper nouns ending in a sibilant sound are often spelled with just an apostrophe. For example:

• In Jesus’ name (this spelling is conventional)
• Ramses’ tomb
• Charles Dickens’ novels
• Kansas’ main city

The Meaning of the Inflectional Possessive. As its name suggests, the possessive is most commonly used to show ownership or possession. For example:

• Ralph’s car
• My family’s house

However, the possessive is used in many other meanings, the two most important being relationships and measurement:

Relationships

• Ralph’s neighbor (Ralph does not own his neighbor.)
• My family’s doctor (The family does not own the doctor.)

Measurement

• Time: an hour’s delay; a week’s postponement; two years’ duration
• Value: the euro’s value; the dollar’s decline; fi ve dollars’ worth

Of Possessive

While the inflectional possessive and the of possessive mean the same thing, they are not always interchangeable. For example:

• Inflectional possessive: Sarah’s taxi
  Of possessive: X. the taxi of Sarah
• Inflectional possessive: X. a soup’s bowl
  Of possessive: a bowl of soup

Let us use the term possessive noun to refer to both (a) nouns that can have inflectional possessive ’s or s’, and (b) nouns that follow of. In the first of the preceding examples, the possessive noun would be Sarah. In the second example, the possessive noun would be soup.

Here is a general rule that will help you decide which form of the possessive noun to use:

• If the possessive noun is animate, use the inflectional possessive.
• If the possessive noun is inanimate, use the of possessive.

Here are some examples with animate possessive nouns:

Inflectional	Of Possessive
the gentleman’s hat	the hat of the gentleman
the cat’s dish	the dish of the cat
our family’s house	the house of our family

Here are some examples with inanimate possessive nouns:

Of Possessive	Inflectional
a map of Australia	Australia’s map
a glass of water	water’s glass
the back of the room	the room’s back

As with most broad generalizations, the rule about possessives is overly black-and-white. The first part, which says that animate nouns require the inflectional possessive, does seem to hold true. The real problem is with the second part, which says that inanimate nouns use only the of possessive.

We can (but do not have to) use the inflectional possessive with the following types of inanimate nouns:

Inanimate possessive nouns that are a product of human creation. For example:

Inflectional	Of Possessive
the economy’s growth	the growth of the economy
the performance’s success	the success of the performance
the game’s rules	the rules of the game

Natural phenomena. For example:

Inflectional	Of Possessive
the storm’s damage	the damage of the storm
the tide’s surge	the surge of the tide
the sun’s glare	the glare of the sun
the earth’s climate	the climate of the earth

Possessive nouns that express location or time. For example:

Inflectional	Of Possessive
the city’s population	the population of the city
the river’s bank	the bank of the river
this year’s profits	the profits of this year
today’s lesson	the lesson of today

 

When the inflectional and of possessive forms are both grammatical, there are still stylistic differences between them.

In general, the inflectional forms are somewhat less formal, and the of possessive forms are more formal. For example, if you were writing a report, you would probably choose the population of the city rather than the city’s population as the title of a section.

Everything else being equal, the inflectional possessive implies shared or previous knowledge, while the of possessive does not. For example, compare the following:

• Inflectional: We met Jim’s friend last night.
• Of possessive: We met a friend of Jim’s last night.

The inflectional sentence implies that the listener already knows who Jim’s friend is. The of possessive sentence implies that the listener is not expected to know who Jim’s friend is.

Double Possessive

We use a special form of the possessive when the possessive noun is a personal pronoun or an animate noun. This construction is sometimes called a double possessive or double genitive. The pronoun, or animate noun, is itself used in the possessive form.

If the possessive is a pronoun, the pronoun must be in the possessive pronoun form (as opposed to the possessive adjective form). For example, compare the following possessive nouns:

• In object form: X He is a friend of me.
• In possessive adjective form: X He is a friend of my.
• In possessive pronoun form: He is a friend of mine.

If the possessive noun is an animate noun (most commonly a proper noun), we have the option of using the possessive form or not. For example:

• He is a friend of Sam.
• He is a friend of Sam’s.

 

• He was a contemporary of Mozart.
• He was a contemporary of Mozart’s.

 

• It is a policy of the company.
• It is a policy of the company’s.

So, that was our lesson today, in which we learned all about the nouns in English with their types and explanations. Learning this lesson will be easier after watching the below worksheets of the nouns and their types. We will provide an easy way to memorize this lesson, and we will also share a free PDF book of this lesson. You can download this PDF book and repeat this lesson when you need to.