THE COMPONENTS OF COMMON NOUNS ( 2 )

 3. POSSESSIVE NOUNS are used to show possession.

by adding ( 's ) to nouns that do not end with ‘ s ‘

e.g.

man’s wife

tiger’s tail

children’s toys

by adding ( ' ) to nouns that end with ‘ s ‘  or  ‘ ce ‘

e.g.

ladies’ hats

Alice’ shoes

With inanimate objects, ‘ of ‘ is often used.

e.g.

the legs of the chair

the colours of the rainbow

4. COUNTABLE and UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Basic understanding of the countable and uncountable nouns.

i. Countable nouns are nouns that can be counted.

e.g.

boy , chair , dog , tree , house

We use ‘ a ‘ or ‘ an ‘ to denote a singular countable noun.

e.g. a boy , a chair , a dog , a tree , a house

We add ‘ s ‘ to countable nouns to make them plural.

e.g.

boys , chairs , dogs , trees , houses

We use  ‘ numerals ‘ , ' a few ' , ' several ' , ‘ a lot of ' , ' many ' ,

' a large number of ' with plural countable nouns.

e.g.

three boys ,  a dozen chairs , a few trees , many houses

Three boys were seen loitering at the supermarket after school.

ii. Uncountable nouns are nouns that cannot be counted.

e.g.

water , air , gold , powder

Note: ‘ hair ‘ or ‘ feather ‘ is considered uncountable because

of its quantity.

We use ‘ the ‘ with uncountable nouns.

e.g.

the water , the air , the gold , the powder

In fact, we can add a ‘ measurement ' to uncountable nouns

to make them plural.

e.g.

two glasses of water , three kilogrammes of gold

THE COMPONENTS OF COMMON NOUNS ( 1 )

1. GENDER

     is used to denote the sex of persons , creatures or things.

a. Masculine Gender denotes the male sex.

e.g.

boy , man , king . father , uncle , tiger , lion

b.  Feminine Gender denotes the female sex.

e.g.

girl , woman , queen , mother , aunt , tigress , lioness

c. Common Gender denotes either the male or female sex.

e.g.

cousin , student , doctor  

d. Neuter Gender denotes neither the male nor the female sex.

e.g.

chair , table , tree , car 

2. SINGULAR and PLURAL NOUNS

Numbers may be singular when it denotes one.

e.g.

a boy , a car , a tiger 

or plural when it denotes more than one.

e.g.

two boys , five cars , many tigers

Plural nouns are formed from singular nouns.

We normally add 's' to the singular noun to make it plural.

But there are rules and exceptions in English.

i. by adding 's'

e.g.

boy         -          boys

girl          -          girls

ii. by adding 'es'

 e.g.

box         -          boxes

glass      -          glasses

iii. by replacing 'y' with 'ies'

e.g.

story       -           stories

city         -           cities

iv. by replacing 'f' or 'fe' with 'ves'

e.g.

thief       -          thieves

wife       -           wives

v. by adding 's' to compound nouns

e.g.

son-in-law     -    sons-in-law

passer-by      -    passers-by

vi. plurals used as singular

e.g.

news , politics , athletes

vii. singular and plural nouns having the same form

e.g.

sheep ,  deer , furniture

viii.  singular nouns having unusual plurals.

e.g.

child          -      children

man          -      men

mouse      -      mice

ix.  nouns used only in the plural form.

e.g.

scissors ,  trousers ,  spectacles

 

THE USES OF NOUNS

1. NOUNS as SUBJECTS and OBJECTS

For example:

a. My father bought a watch.

         subject             object

b. The boy carries a heavy basket.

         subject                    object

c. Shirley bought a basket of fruits for her sick friend.

    subject              object      object                object

d. Ahmad and Abu play football in the field.

    subject     subject      object          object

2. NOUNS as SUBJECTS and COMPLIMENTS

For example:

a. P. Ramlee was a good singer and actor.

    subject                           compliment

b. Petroleum, tin and palm oil are among the main exports of Malaysia.

    subject     subject  subject                          compliment

c. Brinjals, cabbage, long beans and ladies fingers are vegetables.

    subject  subject    subject              subject              compliment

TYPES OF NOUNS

TYPES OF NOUNS
1. COMMON NOUN
is a name used to identify people, places, things, creatures or ideas
of ordinary quality; without special rank or position.
For example:
boy, town, table, tiger, opinion
2. PROPER NOUN
is a special name for an individual people, places, things or creatures and spelt with a capital letter.
For example:
Ahmad, Kota Bharu, The Mall, Jumbo the Elephant
3. ABSTRACT NOUN
is a thing that is intangible ie. cannot be touched. We cannot see it, yet we can feel, talk, think and perhaps even write or argue about.
For example:
happiness, speech, idea, air, education
4. COLLECTIVE NOUN
is a noun that is grammatically singular and denotes a collection or number of individuals be it people, places, things or creatures taken to be as one.
For example:
a crowd of spectators
a cluster of villages
a pile of books
a herd of cows

AN INTRODUCTION TO NOUNS

AN INTRODUCTION TO NOUNS
1. Nouns are names we give to everything we see, feel or touch be it people,
places, things, creatures or ideas.
For example:
Ahmad is a teacher.
I live in Kota Bharu.
This table is made of wood.
A cat is a tame animal.
Honesty is the best policy.
2. Nouns are important because we use them
a. as subjects in our sentences
b. as questions which may have ideas, thoughts, descriptions, orders,
requests and much more.
3. We also use them as objects and complements to complete our sentences.

IMPORTANCE OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH

LANGUAGE is used every day for TWO very important communicative activities namely, speaking and writing. Parts of speech, when arranged in sentences according to grammar rules help us to speak and write correctly.
These PARTS OF SPEECH are NOUNS, PRONOUNS, VERBS, ADVERBS,ADJECTIVES, ARTICLES, PREPOSITIONS, CONJUNCTIONS and INTERJECTIONS.

Let's take a look at each part of speech.

1.NOUNS are names we give to
a. every thing we can see, touch or feel.
e.g. aeroplane, box, chair, door etc
b. animals
e.g. animal, buffalo, cat, dog, elephant etc
c. places
e.g. town, supermarket, railway station, Kota Bharu
d. people
e.g. boy, girl, father, uncle, doctor, Mr Tan etc.

2. PRONOUNS are used to replace the nouns.It is not interesting to use the names of people such as Ah Meng, Zaharah, dog or supermarket. So we use words like ' he ',' she ' or ' it '.
e.g.
Nouns                       Pronouns
Boy                           he
Girl                           she
Cat                            it
Ali and I                   we
The players              they
Teacher to pupil       you( singular )
Teacher to pupils      you ( plural )

3.VERBS are doing words, that is, they show action or activity.
e.g. eat, bathe, catch, draw etc.

There are also modal verbs. They are non-action words but they help to clarify the action verbs.
e.g. can play, will help, are singing etc.

4.ADVERBS tells us how we perform an action thus making the action more interesting and meaningful.
e.g
The doctor speaks to his patient politely.
He also treats everyone kindly.

5.ADJECTIVES are used to describe and to give more information to the nouns making the sentences more interesting and colourful.
They are usually placed before the nouns they described.
e.g.
Mr Samy is a gentle, kind-hearted and polite old man.

6. ARTICLES are three little words a, an and the. They are used to make the sentence much clearer when we use them correctly. Without them, a sentence may not be complete. But sometimes, we may not need the article at all in a sentence.
e.g.
The little boy is playing with a puppy.( Article used )
Dr Mathews plays badminton every Friday evening. ( No Article used )

7. PREPOSITIONS are used to show how a certain action, person, place or thing connects with one another.
e.g.
The bullock charged towards the farmer.

8.CONJUNCTIONS are words that join other words, group of words
or even sentences.
e.g.
a. one by one
b. The boy and his dog
c. Kassim as well as his friend, Chong Beng is good at mathematics.

9. INTERJECTIONS are used to show feelings and expressions such as anger, joy, danger, warning etc.
e.g.
a. Happy Birthday!
b. Look out!
c. Ouch!