Unit 4: The Noun – English I – Psychology –Iarossi – Stéfano – UCES- 2020

4.1 DEFINITION

A NOUN IS A WORD WHICH NAMES A PERSON, PLACE, THING, IDEA, LIVING

CREATURE, QUALITY, OR ACTION.

4.2 COMPLEMENTS

Articles are used before nouns.

- The definite article is used before people or things.

the - el, la, lo, los, las.

- The indefinite article “a” is used before a noun which starts with a consonant sound.

• a man - un hombre
• a woman - una mujer
• a patient – un paciente

- The indefinite article “an” is used before a noun which starts with a vowel or a mute
sound.

• an influence - una influencia

• an illness – una enfermedad
• an hour - una hora
• an honor - un honor

The only exception to the rule above is with the words beginning with “u” and it is
pronounced “iu”

• a university – una universidad

• a universe - un universo

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 Unit 4: The Noun – English I – Psychology –Iarossi – Stéfano – UCES- 2020

4.3 SYNTACTIC FUNCTION

A) SUBJECT OF A VERB

The article shows the correlation between panic attacks and future mental illnesses.

B) OBJECT OF A VERB

Usually we cannot understand people in different scenarios.

There are many things we can take into account to recognize nouns in context: DEFINITION,
COMPLEMENTS, NUMBER, GENDER, TYPES, POSSESSIVE CASE, SUFFIXES,
SYNTACTIC FUNCTION, POSITION, etc.

4.4 TYPES OF NOUNS

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 Unit 4: The Noun – English I – Psychology –Iarossi – Stéfano – UCES- 2020

4.5 GENDER

There exist in English words which are employed both for female and male.

• friend - amigo / amiga

• writer - escritor / escritora

a) Most nouns add -ess for their female gender.

Male Female

god - dios goddess – diosa

heir - heredero heiress – heredera

b) Some words have different words for male and female.

Male Female

man - hombre woman – mujer

father - padre mother – madre

c) Sometimes we can make a distinction between neutral words using before them the words
male or female.

Male Female

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 Unit 4: The Noun – English I – Psychology –Iarossi – Stéfano – UCES- 2020

A man doctor - un doctor A woman doctor - una doctora

A man lawyer - un abogado A woman lawyer - una abogada

4.6 NUMBER

You can watch these videos:

Basic English Grammar 02 -- Singular & plural nouns | English lesson | ESL | Spoken English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbyOkex9qtA

Irregular nouns in the plural | English grammar rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFmzj4yXEv4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGm3b-sNK9U&feature=youtu.be

a) In English most words become plural (nouns with regular plurals) adding the suffix –s
to them but there are other suffixes (-es/-ies).

Singular Plural

symptom - síntoma symptoms - síntomas

stage - etapa stages - etapas

dream - sueño dreams - sueños

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 Unit 4: The Noun – English I – Psychology –Iarossi – Stéfano – UCES- 2020

Singular Plural

dress - vestido dresses – vestidos

bus - autobús buses – autobuses

buzz - zumbido buzzes – zumbidos

beach - playa beaches – playas

dish – plato dishes – platos

box – caja boxes – cajas

b) When nouns end in " -s/-z/-x/-sh" o "-ch", the suffix "-es" is added for plural form.

Singular Plural

potato - papa potatoes - papas

hero - héroe heroes – héroes

c) When nouns end in "-o" there are two ways to make them plural:

- If "-o" is preceded by a consonant, -es is added to the nouns. Though there are
many exceptions to this rule.

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 Unit 4: The Noun – English I – Psychology –Iarossi – Stéfano – UCES- 2020

- If
Singular Plural the
"-o"
is
ability – capacidad abilities – capacidades

memory - recuerdo memories – recuerdos

preceded by a vowel, "-s" is added to the nouns.

Singular Plural

rodeo - rodeo rodeos – rodeos

patio - patio trasero patios – patios

d) If the noun ends in "-y", there are two ways to make it plural:

- If the final"- y" is preceded by a consonant, " -y" changes to "-ies"

-If the final “y" is preceded by a vowel, “-s” is added to nouns.

Singular Plural

boy – chico boys – chicos

day – día days – días

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 Unit 4: The Noun – English I – Psychology –Iarossi – Stéfano – UCES- 2020

- Nouns ending in "-f " o "-fe", change their endings to"-ves" in order to become plural

e) Some nouns have irregular plurals.

-Some nouns of Greek or Latin origin change the final suffix "-is" to"-es" for their plural
form.

Singular Plural

thesis - tesis theses - tesis

Singular Plural
analysis - análisis analyses - análisis

life - vida lives – vidas

crisis - crisis crises - crisis

wife - esposa wives - esposas

oasis - oasis oases - oasis

half - mitad halves - mitades

hypothesis – hipótesis hypotheses – hipótesis

shelf - estante shelves - estantes

diagnosis – diagnosis diagnoses – diagnosis

- Others ending in "-us", change it to "i" to become plural

Singular Plural

nucleus - núcleo nuclei - núcleos

focus - foco, centro foci - focos, centros

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 Unit 4: The Noun – English I – Psychology –Iarossi – Stéfano – UCES- 2020

stimulus - estímulo stimuli - estímulos

- When they end in "-on", they change it to "-a"

Singular Plural

criterion - criterio criteria - criterios

phenomenon – fenómeno phenomena – fenómenos

- There are words with different kinds of changes to become plural.

Singular Plural

man - hombre men – hombres

woman - mujer women - mujeres

person - persona people – personas

child - niño children – niños

tooth - diente, muela teeth - dientes, muelas

foot – pie feet – pies

goose - ganso geese – gansos

-There are nouns which are always used in plural.

• trousers - pantalones
• pants - pantalones
• glasess - anteojos
• goods - mercancías
• stairs - escaleras

-There are some nouns having the same form both for plural and singular.

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 Unit 4: The Noun – English I – Psychology –Iarossi – Stéfano – UCES- 2020

sheep - oveja / ovejas

fish - pez / peces
species- especie / especies
aircraft - avión / aviones
means - medio / medios

f) We can use the article “the” before many adjectives to refer to certain groups of people.
the poor - los pobres
the rich - los ricos
the young - los jóvenes
the old - los viejos
the sick - los enfermos
the elderly - los ancianos
the blind - los ciegos
the unemployed - los desempleados
the dead - los muertos
the homeless - los sin casa
the English - los ingleses
the French - los franceses

• A nurse is trying to heal the sick.

Una enfermera está tratando de curar a los enfermos.
• The goverment is helping the unemployed.
El gobierno está ayudando a los desempleados.

4.7 COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Watch the videos for extra explanations.

Learn English - Countable and Uncountable Nouns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfHuXPSWJK4

Lesson on COUNTABLE and UNCOUNTABLE Nouns

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xao9HHbapEk

Countable nouns are words which can be counted (one car, two bees) and uncountable nouns
demand a modifier to express quantity (a glass of water).

Uncountable nouns use only a singular verb but countable nouns accept either singular or
plural verbs.

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 Unit 4: The Noun – English I – Psychology –Iarossi – Stéfano – UCES- 2020

Examples

A) QUANTIFIERS USED WITH NOUNS

Uncountable Countable

How much? - ¿Cuánto? How many? - ¿Cuántos?

much money - mucho dinero many bills - muchos billetes

much traffic - mucho tráfico many cars - muchos autos

little food - poca comida few cookies - pocas galletas

little fruit - poca fruta few apples - pocas manzanas

B) MORE QUANTIFIERS USED WITH NOUNS

With uncountable nouns With countable nouns

much - mucho many - muchos

so much - tanto so many - tantos

too much - demasiado too many - demasiados

little - poco few – pocos

a little - algo de a few - algunos

less- menos - menor cantidad de fewer - menor número que

the least - la menor cantidad the fewest - el menor número de

a large amount of - una gran cantidad de a large number of - un gran número de

a great deal of - mucho/a a great many - muchísimos

C) LIST OF MOST COMMON UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS THAT CAN BE MADE COUNTABLE

Uncountable nouns Countable nouns

accommodation - alojamiento a place to stay - un lugar donde

alojarse

advice - consejo a piece of advice - un consejo

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 Unit 4: The Noun – English I – Psychology –Iarossi – Stéfano – UCES- 2020

information - información a piece of information - un dato

news - noticias a piece of news - una noticia

4.8 COLLECTIVE NOUNS

Watch this video on collective nouns

https://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/collective_nouns.htm

Collective nouns are words that refer to an indefinite set of beings or people.

• army- ejército

• class - clase

• crowd - multitud

• majority - mayoría

• senate- senado

• jury - jurado

• company - compañía

• board - junta

• minority - minoría

• committee -comité

• The committee meets with the director every Friday.

El comité se junta con el director todos los viernes.

- Sometimes they could be used with a plural verb if we refer to each

member of the group separately.

• The committee are discussing the best decision to make.

El comité (los miembros) (están) está discutiendo la mejor
decisión a tomar.

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Unit 4: The Noun – English I – Psychology –Iarossi – Stéfano – UCES- 2020

- Groups of people

• A crowd of people - Una multitud de personas

• A group of women - Un grupo de mujeres
• A gang of youngsters - Una pandilla de jóvenes
• The company staff - El personal de la compañía
• A fooball team - Un equipo de fútbol
• The board of directors - La junta de directores

- Groups of animals

• A school of fish - Un cardumen de peces

• A flock of sheep - Un rebaño de ovejas
• A flock of birds - Una bandada de pájaros

- Groups of things

• A bunch of flowers - Un ramo de flores

• A pile of books - Una pila de libros
• A network of computers - Una red de computadoras

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