4
Noun Phrases
movie, star wars
Proper noun
Common noun
Star Wars
movie
1. hamlet, play 2. neighborhood, soho 3. car, ford 4. ocean, atlantic 5. everest, mountain 6. actor, harrison ford 7. dixie, song 8. ship, titanic 9. hotel, the ritz 10. planet, mercury From this point on, we will focus only on common nouns.
Count and noncount nouns Common nouns are divided into two groups: count and noncount. Count means that we can make the noun plural and use number words with the noun. Using the noun dog, for example, we can make the noun plural: The dogs are in the park. We can also use number words with dogs: one dog, two dogs, three dogs, and so on. Most nouns that refer to concrete objects are count nouns. However, nouns that refer to abstractions and nouns that are used to label things that occur in undifferentiated masses (as opposed to individual persons, places, or things) are often noncount nouns. The term noncount means that we cannot count these nouns with number words or make them plural. For example, the abstract noun luck cannot be counted: we cannot say X one luck, X two lucks, X three lucks. Also we cannot use the noun as a plural. For example: *X They have had really bad lucks over the last few years.
*Throughout the book, X signifies an incorrect choice or answer.