Nouns

Chapter 2

• A noun is a word that names a person, a place, a thing, or an idea.

• PERSONS: sister, player, coach, pianist, children

• PLACES: park, zoo, lake, school, playground, desert, city

• THINGS: magazine, boots, rose, pencil, peach, baseball, car

• IDEAS: honesty, truth, democracy, pride, maturity, progress

Common noun and proper noun

• A common noun names any person, place, thing or idea.

• A proper noun names a particular person, place, thing, or idea.

• The first word and all other important words in a proper noun are capitalized: Edgar Allan Poe, Statue of Liberty.

• Common nouns can be either concrete or abstract.

• Concrete nouns name things you can see or touch.

• Abstract nouns name ideas, qualities, and feelings that can’t be seen or touched.

KINDS OF NOUNS COMMON NOUNS PROPER NOUNS ABSTRACT CONCRETE truth document Supreme court courage crown Queen Elizabeth I time snow December history museum Museum of Modern

Art entertainment actor Meryl Streep education school Howard University comedy comedian Jerry Seinfeld friendship friend Jessica tragedy ship Titanic

Compound nouns• Compound nouns are nouns made of two or more words.

• A compound noun can be one word, like storybook, or more than one word, like ice cream.

• A compound noun can also be joined by one or more hyphens, like runner-up.

Examples of compound nouns

• ONE WORD: housekeeper, showcase, bookmark, outdoors, teammate

• MORE THAN ONE WORD: post office, dining room, high school, maid of honor

• HYPHENATED: sister-in-law, great-aunt, kilowatt-hour, walkie-talkie

Singular and plural nouns

• A singular noun names one person, place, thing, or idea.

• A plural noun names more than one.

• To form the plurals of most nouns, you simply add -s.

• Other plural nouns are formed in different ways.

FORMING PLURAL NOUNSNOUNS ENDING WITH

TO FORM PLURAL

EXAMPLES

s, z, ch, sh, x

Add -es. bus buses

buzz buzzes

box boxes

o preceded by a vowel

Add -s rodeo rodeos

studio studios

radio radios

o preceded by a consonant

Usually add -es

hero heroes

potato potatoes

echo echoes

Sometimes add -s

zero zeros

photo photos

piano pianos

y preceded by a vowel

Add -s day days

turkey turkeys

toy toys

y preceded by a consonant

Usually change y to i and add -es

city cities

diary diaries

penny pennies

f or fe Usually change f to v and add -s or -es

wife wives

leaf leaves

half halves

Sometimes add -s

roof roofs

chief chiefs

belief beliefs

• To form the plural of compound nouns written as one word, usually add -s or -es.

• To form the plural of compound nouns that are written as more than one word or are hyphenated, make the main noun in the compound word plural, or check a dictionary.

• ONE WORD: doorbells, necklaces, rosebushes; Exception: passersby

• MORE THAN ONE WORD: post offices, dining rooms, maids of honor, high schools

• HYPHENATED: brothers-in-law, great-aunts, eighth-graders, push-ups

Collective noun• Words such as family and team are called collective nouns.

• A collective noun names a group of people, animals, or things.

• A collective noun subject may be followed by a singular verb or a plural verb, depending on the meaning.

• The subject is singular when the members of the group act as a single unit.

• The subject is plural when each member of the group acts separately.

• Other words in a sentence can sometimes help you decide whether a collective noun is singular or plural.

• EXAMPLE: • The team shares the field with its opponent.

(shares, its, singular)• The team share their jokes with one another.

(share, their, plural)

Possessive nouns• A noun can show ownership or possession of things or qualities.

• This kind of noun is called a possessive noun.

• A possessive noun tells who or what owns or has something.

• Possessive nouns may be common nouns or proper nouns.

• They may also be singular or plural.

• Notice the possessive nouns in the following sentences:

• SINGULAR NOUN: Rita has a book about baseball.

• SINGULAR POSSESSIVE NOUN: Rita’s book is about baseball.

• PLURAL NOUN: Several cities have baseball teams.

• PLURAL POSSESSIVE NOUN: These cities’ teams attract fans.

• Possessive nouns are formed in one of two ways .

• To form the possessive of singular nouns and plural nouns not ending in s, add an apostrophe and s (‘s).

• To form the possessive of plural nouns ending in s, add just an apostrophe at the end of the word.

• EXAMPLE: a girl- a girl’s name babies’- babies’ birth weight

Recognizing plurals, possessives, and contractions

• Most plural nouns, all possessive nouns, and certain contractions end with the sound of s.

• These words may sound alike, but their spellings and meanings are different.

• NOUN FORMS AND CONTRACTIONS:• PLURAL NOUN: The students wrote a play.

(more than one student)

• PLURAL POSSESSIVE NOUN: • The students’ play is good. (the play by several students)

• SINGULAR POSSESSIVE NOUN:• I saw the student’s performance.

(the performance of one student)

• CONTRACTION:• This student’s the author. (This student is the author)

• This student’s written other plays.

(This student has written other plays.)

• A contraction is a word made by combining two words and leaving out one or more letters. An apostrophe shows where the letters have been omitted.

• Plural nouns don’t have an apostrophe.

• Contractions and singular possessive nouns look exactly alike.

• Some plural possessive nouns end with ‘s, and some end with just an apostrophe.

• You can tell these words apart by the way they’re used in a sentence.

• PLURAL NOUNS: speakers, women, echoes

• CONTRACTIONS: speaker’s, woman’s, echo’s

• SINGULAR POSSESSIVE NOUNS: speaker’s, woman’s, echo’s

• PLURAL POSSESSIVE NOUNS: speakers’, women’s, echoes’

Appositives• An appositive is a noun that is placed next to another noun to identify it or add information about it.

• EXAMPLE:• Jame’s Madison’s wife, Dolley, was a famous first lady.

• The noun Dolley identifies the noun next to it, wife. In this sentence, Dolley is an appositive.

• An appositive phrase is a group of words that includes an appositive and other words that modify the appositive.

• EXAMPLE:• Madison, our fourth president, held many other offices.

• The words our and fourth modify the appositive president.

• The phrase our fourth president is an appositive phrase. It identifies the noun Madison.

• An appositive or an appositive phrase can appear anywhere in a sentence as long as it appears next to the noun it identifies.

• EXAMPLE:• Our fourth president, Madison held many other offices.

• Many historians have studied the life of Madison, our fourth president.

• Appositives and appositive phrases are usually set off with commas.

• If the appositive is essential to the meaning of the sentence, however, commas are not used.

• EXAMPLE:• Madison’s friend Thomas Jefferson was president before Madison.

• Madison’s father, James Madison, was a plantation owner.

• Obviously, Madison had more than one friend, so the appositive, Thomas Jefferson, is needed to identify this particular friend.

• No commas are needed. However, Madison had only one father. The father’s name is not needed to identify him. Therefore, commas are needed.