NOUN

Nouns make up the largest class of words in most languages, including English. A
noun is a word that refers to a thing(book), a person(Noah Webster), an
animal(cat), a place(Omaha), a quality(softness), an idea(justice) or an
action(living). It’s usually a single word, but not always: cake, shoes, school bus,
and time and a half are all nouns. (merriam-webster.com, 03.12/22:30).

There are a number of different categories of nouns. According to morphological

composition nouns can be:
 Simple(consist of one root-morpheme) E.g. cat, table, milk
 Derived(are composed of one root morpheme and one or more
derivational morphemes) E.g modesty, vacancy, freedom
 Compound(consist of two or more stems) E.g. airmail, girlfriend,
pineapple(Ye.Mkhitaryan, page 10,03.12/22:35).

Noun
Are individual names given to E.g Ernest Hemingway
Proper persons and things, they Bill Gates
should always be capitalized
Name any person, place, thing E.g. table
Common
Proper or idea. They are not
nouns are: capitalized unless they come at
book

 The the beginning

names of individual of the sentence.
persons(Mary, Michel,
Hemingway)
 Geographical names(London, Yerevan, Spain)
 The names of months and days of the week(Friday, December)
 The names of ships(the Titanic)
 The names of hotels, buildings(Hilton,Marriott)
 The names of squares, streets(Downing Street, Pissadilly Circus)
 The names of newspapers(the Times, the Guardian)(Ye.Mkhitaryan, page
10, 03.12/22:40)
Common noun
Countable Can be counted Pen, book
Uncountable Can’t be counted Money, advice
Noun
Concrete 1)Living beings 1)persons, animals
2)inanimate things 2)toy, desk
3)collective nouns 3)family, foliage
Abstract Ideas or qualities Freedom, honesty
that can’t be
perceived physically
 Noun-Number
The number denotes whether we speak of one object or more:
 Singular Number- A noun that denotes one person or thing
is said to be in the singular number; man, boy, girl, bird, etc.
 Plural Number-A noun that denotes more than one person or
thing is said to be in the plural number; men, boys, girls, birds, etc.

 Remember-Proper, material, abstract nouns have no plural

except when they are used Common nouns:
 Many cases of deaths have occurred.
 Science has worked wonders.

Rules for making plurals:

1. The plural of nouns is generally formed by adding ‘s’ to the singular;
Boy-boys
Book-books
Monarch-monarchs
2. Nouns ending in ‘s’, ‘sh’, ‘ch’,(when ch does not sound as k) or in ‘x’ form
plural by adding ‘es’ to the singular;
Bus-buses
Bench-benches
Box-boxes
3. Most nouns ending in ‘o’ also form the plural by adding ‘es’ to the singular;
Mango-mangoes
Hero-heroes

!! But the following are exceptions to this rule:

Photo-photos
Dynamo-dynamos
Radio-radio
4. Nouns ending in ‘y’ and preceded by a consonant form plural by changing ‘y’
into ‘i’ and then adding ‘es’;
Baby-babies
Lady-ladies

Exceptions-but nouns ending in ‘y’ and preceded by a vowel simply take ‘s’ to the
plural form;
Storey-storeys
Boy-boys
5. Several nouns ending in ‘f’ or ‘fe’ form their plural by changing into ‘v’ and
then +’es’;
Leaf-leaves
Thief-thieves
Exceptions
Roof-roofs
Proof-proofs
6. A few nouns form their plurals by changing internal vowels;
Foot-feet
Tooth-teeth
Man-men
Louse-lice
7. Some nouns take ‘en’ after them to form plural;
Ox-oxen
Child-children
8. Nouns given below are used only in the plural
 Instrument having two parts to make a kind of pair; scissors, tongs,
spectacles,forceps
 Names of certain articles of dress; trousers, pantaloons, shorts
 Names of certain diseases; mumps, measles
 Name of certain games; billiards
 A few other nouns; thanks, assets, annals

9. Plurals of compound nouns are formed by adding ‘s’ to the principal word;
Commander-in-chief|commanders-in-chief
Father-in-law|fathers-in-law
10.Some compound nouns form plurals by adding ‘s’ to both the parts;
Lord-justice|lords-justices
11.In order to form plural of abbreviations, single letters or figures, add
apostrophe(s) in the end;
M.A.|M.A.’s
B.A.| B.A’s. (englishgrammar101.com, 03.12/23:00)

The Category of Case

Case is that property of a noun or pronoun that shows the relation of the
noun or pronoun to the rest of the sentence. Nouns have 3 three cases;they
are listed as follows.
 The Nominative case
 The Objective case
 The Possessive case
Each of these noun cases has the following forms, as shown in the chart
below.
 Nominative Objective Possessive
Girl Girl Girl’s
Lady Lady Lady’s

How to form possessive case

o The possessive case of singular noun is frequently formed by adding an ‘s to the
end of the noun: principal’s, doctor’s
o The possessive case of a plural noun is formed in the following ways;
 By adding an apostrophe to the simple plural when the plural ends in s;
dogs’, girls’
 By adding ‘s, as in the singular, when the plural does not end in s; men’s,
children’s
For singular nouns that end in s or an s-(sound like ce) we usually add only an
apostrophe.
For example: Moses’ story, Jesus’ crucifixion, for conscience’ sake
(Ifioque.com, 03.12/23:20)

Noun-Gender
In English, the four genders of noun are masculine, feminine, common and neuter.
 Masculine nouns refer to words for a male figure or male member of a
species(man, boy, actor, horse)
 Feminine nouns refer to female figures or members of a species(woman,
girl, actress, mare)
 Common nouns refer to members of a species and don’t specify the
gender(parent, friend, client)
 Neuter nouns refer to things that have no gender(rock, table, pencil)
(cliffsnotes.com 03.12/23:45)

Formation of feminine nouns by using different words

Feminine nouns may be formed by using entirely different words from masculine
nouns. For example: husband-wife, bull-cow
Formation of feminine nouns by adding a syllable without dropping a vowel
Feminine nouns may be formed from the masculine by adding a syllable(-ess, -ine,
-trix, -a) without dropping the vowel of masculine ending. For example:author-
authoress, poet-poetess.
Formation of feminine nouns by adding a syllable and dropping a vowel
Feminine nouns may be formed by adding a syllable(-ess, -ine, -trix, -a) after
dropping the vowel of tge masculine ending. E.g. Actor-actress, tiger-tigress
Formation of feminine nouns by placing a word before or after
A feminine noun may be formed by placing a word before the word. E.g.
Grandfather-grandmother, landlord-landlady
Changing masculine nouns to feminine nouns by other means
There are different ways in which we may change the gender of the noun from
masculine to feminine. One such way is by adding the word ‘she’ before the noun.
For example: she-goat, she-wolf(toppr.com 03.12/23:50)

REFERENCES
Morphology|Ye. Mkhitaryan, N.Hambartsoumyan
A. Makaryan, N. Avakyan
Internet sources
Merriam-webster.com
Englishgrammar101.com
Ifioque.com
Cliffsnotes.com
Toppr.com