Tag: Nouns

Possessive Determiners

Possessive Determiner

A determiner used in front of a noun to express possession or belonging, e.g. my book, his coat, our house, your car, its colour, their culture.

The possessive determiners in English are my, your, his, her, its, our and their.

Possessive Determiners are sometimes called Possessive Adjectives or Possessive Pronouns.

They are called Possessive Adjectives as they are used with nouns and do the work of adjectives, e.g.

This is my pen.

 Those are your pens.

That is his pen.

In the following sentences the words in italics are Possessive Pronouns:-

This notebook is mine.

Those notebooks are yours.

That notebook is hers.

That plan of yours is wonderful.

Nouns – Singular and Plural

Nouns – Singular and Plural (One and More than one)

  • Study the following pairs of sentences:
  1.     Please show me your book.

                   Please show me your books.

     2.         There is a tree in my garden.

                 There are many trees in my garden.

   3.      A bird is sitting on the branch.

            Many birds are sitting on the branches.

  4.         A boy is running in the park.

           Boys are running in the park.

 5.         This box is very heavy.

             These boxes are very heavy.

 

  • The nouns book, tree, bird, branch, boy, box in the first sentence of each pair stand for only one thing. We, therefore say that they are in the singular number. (Singular suggests ‘one’).
  • The nouns books, trees, birds, branches, boys, boxes in the second sentence of each pair stand for more than one thing. We, therefore say, that they are in the plural number.(Plural suggests ‘More than one’)
  • Any noun standing for one person, animal, place or thing is said to be in the singular number.
  • A noun standing for more than one person, animal, place or thing is said to be in the plural number.

 

  • Formation of plurals:

 

  •     Most nouns form their plurals by adding ‘s’ to the singular; as,

 

Singular

Ball

Chair

Toy

Bag

Cat

 Plural

Balls

Chairs

Toys

Bags

Cats

   Singular

Pencil

Table

Window

Eye

Cup

 Plural

Pencils

Tables

Windows

Eyes

Cups

 

  •       Nouns ending with s, ss, sh, ch and o (after a consonant) form their plural by adding ‘-es’ to the singular; as,

 

Gas

Bus

Class

Glass

Brush

Dish

Bench

Match

 Gases

Buses

Classes

Glasses

Brushes

Dishes

Benches

Matches

   Box

Fox

Tomato

Hero

Zero

Buffalo

Mosquito

 Boxes

Foxes

Tomatoes

Heroes

Zeroes

Buffaloes

Mosquitoes

 

  • There are however certain exceptions to this rule; as,

 

Photo

Kangaroo

Bamboo

Radio

 Photos

Kangaroos

Bamboos

Radios

 

  •      Nouns that end in’ f ‘or’ fe ‘ form  their plurals by changing ‘f’ or ‘fe’ to ‘ves’; as,

 

Leaf

Wolf

Wife

knife

Thief

Loaf

Scarf

Calf

 Leaves

Wolves

Wives

Knives

Thieves

Loaves

Scarves

Calves

 

  • Exception:  Roof – Roofs; Chief – Chiefs; Dwarf – Dwarfs.

 

  •      Some nouns ending in ‘y’ form their plural by changing the ‘y’ into ‘ies’; as,

 

Baby

Army

Enemy

City

 Babies

Armies

Enemies

Cities

   Lady

Fly

Story

Country

 Ladies

Flies

Stories

Countries

 

  •  If the final vowel comes just after  a vowel, the plural is formed by simply adding  ‘-s’ to the singular; as,
Boy

Toy

Tray

Ray

 Boys

Toys

Trays

Rays

   Key

Day

Valley

Monkey

 Keys

Days

Valley

Monkeys

 

  •     Some nouns do not follow any of the rules mentioned above, so we have to simply remember them:

 

Man

Woman

Foot

Tooth

Goose

Mouse

 Men

Women

Feet

Teeth

Geese

Mice

 Sheep

Deer

Fish

Ox

Child

Fruit

 Sheep

Deer

Fish/fishes

Oxen

Children

Fruit/fruits

Pronouns

Pronouns – Words Used in Place of Nouns

Look at the following sentence groups:

1. Alice is a little girl.

Alice is pretty.

Alice has an umbrella.

The umbrella is very colourful.

2. Listen to Alex.

Alex is singing.

John and Alan are Alex’s friends.

John and Alan have come to hear Alex.

Alex is glad to see John and Alan.

We can write these sentences as:

1. Alice is a little girl.

She is pretty.

She has an umbrella.

It is very colourful.

2. Listen to Alex.

He is singing.

John and Alan are his friends.

They have come to hear him.

He is glad to see them.

In sentence group 1, we have used she for Alice and it for Umbrella.

In sentence group 2, we have used he, his and him for Alex; they and them for John and Alan.

By writing like this we avoid repetition and make our sentences better.

Such words which are used for or in place of a noun are called Pronouns.

The word Pronoun means ‘for a noun’.

Now read the following sentences carefully and note that the words in bold italics are Pronouns:

Teacher: Lucy, show me the drawing book

Lucy: I forgot to bring it, sir.

Here, me stands for the teacher. I stands for Lucy, and it stands for the drawing book. Teacher, Lucy and drawing book are Nouns. Me, I, and it are used in place of Nouns.

Jack and Jill: We want to go to the park. Will you allow us, mother?

Mother: Yes, but come back soon, else your father will get angry.

Here, we, us, and your stand for Jack and Jill and You stands for mother.

Jack, Jill and mother are nouns. We, us, you, your, are words used in place of Nouns.

A Pronoun is a word used instead of a Noun.

I, Me, my, you, your, he, him, his, she, her, it, its, we, us, our, they, them, there are some common Pronouns.

Kinds of Nouns

Kinds of Nouns

There are four kinds of nouns:

  1. Proper Nouns
  2. Common Nouns
  3. Abstract Nouns
  4. Collective Nouns

 

Notice the difference between these two lists of nouns:

  1. Jack   Mary   London   India   The White House   Alice in Wonderland
  2. Boy     girl         city          country          building                            book

 

The nouns in list 1. are special names of persons, places and things. They begin with a capital letter. They are called Proper Nouns.

 

The nouns in list 2. are Common Nouns, as they are not special names. They can be used for any person, place or thing. ‘Boy’ can be any boy –Alec, Bob, George, John, William etc.  

A noun which names a particular person, place or thing is called a Proper Noun.

 Proper Nouns include the names of persons, cities, towns, villages, countries, parks, libraries, historical buildings, streets, schools, colleges, universities, hills, mountains, days of the week, months of the year, books, festivals, newspapers, etc.

A proper noun always begins with a capital letter.

 

A noun that gives a common name to persons, places, or things of the same kind is called a Common Noun.

The words city, country, school, river, mountain, book, boy, girl, woman, man, bird, animal, are all common nouns. England, France, India, China, Japan are the names of countries. The word country is a common noun. It is common to all the five named here. But the words England, France, India, China, and Japan are particular names. They are Proper Nouns.  

 

Now look at the following sentences:

  1. Honesty is the best policy.
  2. Laughter is the best medicine.
  3. Poverty is a great curse.   
  4. The soldiers were awarded for their bravery.

The words in bold italics name Quality (honesty, bravery), Action (laughter), and State (poverty). Such a name given to some state, quality, feeling, or action that we can only think of is called an Abstract Noun.

Abstract Nouns are formed:

  1. From Adjectives, as Kindness from kind, Bravery from brave.(Most abstract nouns are formed thus.)
  2. From Verbs, as Obedience from obey, Laughter from laugh, Growth from grow.
  3. From Common Nouns, as Childhood from child, Slavery from slave.

 

Now read the following sentences:

  1. Our team won the match.
  2. The army fought bravely.
  3. Our class consists of fifty students.
  4. A flock of sheep was grazing in the field.
  5. She gave me the bunch of keys.

The words team, army, class, flock and bunch are used for a collection of persons or things. Such a name given to a collection of things taken as a whole/ group is called a Collective Noun.

Crowd, mob, team, army, family, committee, flock, herd, swarm, fleet, jury etc are some Collective Nouns.

Nouns – Common and Proper

  • Look at the following sentences:

 

  1. Jack is boy.
  2. Tom is a boy.
  3. John is a boy.
  4. Dick is a boy.

 

  • The word boy occurs in all the four sentences. It is a common name used for all the boys. But all boys have special names too. Jack, Tom, John and Dick are special names of these four boys.
  • Pets and places also have special names. Cat and dog are common names used for all cats and dogs. But we often give special names to our pets:

       1.   My cat’s name is Silky. 

      2.   I call my dog, Naughty.

  • Jackie, Jimmy, Buddy, Molly, Rover, Rustam, Rosebud, Tiger, Pussy, Snowy, Snowball, Rocky, Jumbo, Appu, are some special names of our pets.
  • Places also have both common and special names. The words village, city, town, country, school, college, hospital, park, street are common names. But India, Australia, Delhi, Aton School, Sony Hospital, White Park are special names of places.
  • Similarly books, newspapers, magazines, days, months, festivals, institutions, companies, products etc. also have special names .The Bible, The Gita, Great Expectations, Harry Potter, The Times, Femina, Sunday, January, Christmas, Diwali, are all special names.
  • These special names are called Proper Nouns and common names are called Common Nouns.
  • Special names or Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter.
  • Some examples:
  1. Susan is a good girl.      
  2.  Peter is a smart boy.
  3. Bombay is a big city.
  4. Jackie is my dog.     
  5. Ganga is a holy river
  6. Femina is a woman’s magazine.

 

Susan, Peter, Bombay, Jackie, Ganga and Femina are Proper Nouns and girl, boy, city, dog, river, woman, magazine are Common Nouns.

 

  • A Proper Noun is the special name of a particular person, place or thing.
  • A Common Noun is a name given in common to all persons or things of the same class or kind.

 

 

 

Nouns

Nouns – Naming Words

  • Look  at the following words:

Apple, airplane, bat, ball, butter, bread, balloon, bus, banana, bag, car, cat, crow, cow, cap, chair, chocolate, doll, dog, donkey, egg, elephant, fan, fish, flower, goat, grass, gun, hen, helicopter, ice-cream, ink, jam, jug, kite, kangaroo, lion, lamp, monkey, mango, orange, owl, parrot, peacock, park, queen, rat, shoes, school, ship, tap, tiger, umbrella, van, watch, zoo, mummy, papa, uncle, aunt, Mary, John, etc.

 

  • All these words are names of something, somebody or someplace.
  • Names are usually the first words which small children learn.
  • These naming-words are called Nouns.

 

  • Read the following  sentences carefully:

 

  1. James is a good boy.
  2. The cat ran after the rat.
  3. India is in Asia.
  4. The book is on the table.
  • The words James and boy are the names of persons.
  • The words cat and rat are the names of animals.
  • The word India and Asia are the names of places.
  • The words book and table are the names of things.
  • Words which are used as the names of persons, animals or birds, places or things are called Nouns.