The noun

Word classes: The noun

English word classes Word classes are a group of words that have the same formal properties. We are going to study five of the most important families of word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions.

Main word classes:  Nouns  Verbs  Adjectives  Adverbs  Prepositions

Attention! There are words, like book or fast, that can be nouns or verbs or adjectives. The context of the sentence will tell us which category it is. Look at the examples to understand this: I am reading a very interesting book. (it is a noun ) We are going out tonight and I need to book a table for us. (it is a verb)

Sometimes suffixes can help us. Check the table below

NOUNS -ion -er -ism -ment -ness

VERBS -ed -en -ize, ise

ADJECTIVES -able, ible -al -less -ful

ADVERBS -ive -ous -ant

-ly -Ward -wise

A noun is a word that identifies a person, a thing or an idea or state.

Examples of nouns are child, country, happiness, etc.

There are common nouns, like child or country; proper nouns like London or Stuart; and abstract nouns like happiness or beauty.

Remember that a noun can belong to different categories (happiness for example is a common and abstract noun) Countable and uncountable nouns.

We can divide the nouns into countable nouns- when refer to something that can be counted- and uncountable nouns- when the noun refers to things that cannot be counted.

Countable nouns have both, singular and plural forms but uncountable nouns have only singular forms.

Examples of countable nouns: house, country, brother, book, etc.

Examples of uncountable nouns: milk, water, wood, cheese, sky, earth, etc.

We frequently use determiners, especially quantifiers, with the nouns. For example, we use a/an with countable singular nouns; some, many, few, much, with plural nouns. Check the table of the most common quantifiers we normally use along with nouns.

a/an

They are indefinite articles and are used with singular countable nouns. We use ‘an’ when the noun begins with a vowel. Examples: A car, an ant, a house, an elephant, etc

some

It is used to talk about an unspecific amount of something and it is used in affirmative sentences. . (used with both countable and uncountable nouns)

any

It is also used to talk about an unspecific amount of something but it is used in negative sentences and questions. (used with both countable and uncountable nouns)

many much

It refers to a large amount of something and it is used with plural countable nouns.

It refers to a large amount of something and it is used with plural uncountable nouns.

Forming plurals The general rule to form plurals is the same as Spanish: to add ‘-s’ at the end of the word. However, there are some nouns that do not follow this general rule and the table below shows the exceptions to that rule.

Nouns ending ‘-y’

Drop the –y and add –‘ies’ Examples: baby- babies; countrycountries; etc Nouns ending ‘–ch’, Add ‘-es’ ‘-sh’, ‘-s’, ‘-x’, ‘-z’ Examples: church- churches; foxfoxes; bus- buses, etc Nouns ending’- f’ Change ‘-f’ by ‘-v’ Examples: knife- knives; wife- wives, etc.

Nouns ending ‘-o’ Add ‘-es’ except when there is a vowel before the final o that follows the general rule(add ‘-s’) Examples: tomato- tomatoes, heroheroes, zoo- zoos,