PARTS of SPEECH


 NOUNS
 A noun is a word that names something: a person, place, a
thing, a quality, an act, or an idea.
 Singular or plural nouns
 Add an S or ES to the singular
 If there is a vowel before the Y at the end of a noun, simply
add S. If there is a consonant before the Y, replace the Y
with an I and ES.
 Sallys and MacNallys
Wors ending in –quy. These change y to ies: soliloquies,
obloquies, and colloquies
 Putting Nouns into
Plurals

 Words ending in ‘F’ or’FE’
some of these words change their ending to ‘–ves’ in the
plural, but some end simply in ‘–s’. A few allow a choice.
Here are some examples:
• Ending –s: beliefs, carafes, chiefs, cliffs, cuffs, oafs, safes.
• Changing to –ves: calves, elves, halves, sheaves, loaves.
• Taking either plural: dwarfs/ dwarves, hoofs/hooves,
wharfs/ wharves.
• Not one life, two lives- but two paintings of bowls of
fruit are two still lifes.
 What Is A Noun?

 Typically, nouns:
• can be used with ‘ the’ in front of them: the house,
the lightning, the absence.
• have different forms for the singular and plural- a
boy/two boys, the teachings, goose/geese.
• can be made possessive- the dog’s dinner, my
children’s teacher, grass’ usefulness.
• can serve as subjects of verbs( The milk came straight
from the cow), as objects of verbs (I drank the milk),
as complements of verbs( That seems to be milk).
 PARTS of SPEECH

 Irregular Plurals: Child, Mouse.
 No Singular forms: auspices, clothes, cattle.
 No plural forms: training, furniture, milk.
 English & Latin Plurals: Index
 Plural in form but singular in meaning: statistics
 Measurement & Figures:
 PARTS of SPEECH

 Common & Proper Nouns:
 A common noun is a non-specific item such as
house, a building, book or violin.
 A proper noun names a specific thing such as a
person, location, a building etcetra.
 Captain Pugwash is a fearless captain.
 PARTS of SPEECH

 Collective Nouns: People, animals, plants.
 They can be singular or plural like the noun, Group
& the word number.
 Concrete or Abstract Nouns: can be seen , touched,
smell or tasted because they refer to tangible items
such as chairs, books or food.
 Abstract Nouns: cannot be detected by the senses
because they name ideas, concepts, generalities,
qualities, notions, and trends- e.g. pleasure, beauty,
wisdom , justice.
 Collective Nouns

 In American and Australian English these words are
generally treated as singulars- that is they take singular
verbs, and are referred to as it. British English ,
however, is more flexible:
• The audience was/ were more enthusiastic than it/
they expected it to be.
• Scotland has/have won the cup.
• The company has outperformed itself this ear.
• The cabinet is united on this.
• The cabinet have long been fighting among themselves.
 Collective Nouns

 Words like majority and minority, pair and couple,
are best treated in the same way.
• Only majority of the public is in favour.
• The majority of my friends agree with me.
• A pair of those shoes costs at least $ 100.
• The pair were sitting together in the corner.
 PARTS of SPEECH

 NOUN CASES:
 A case is the form of a noun that shows the reader how the
noun functions in the sentence. Nouns can function as a
subject, an object, a complement, and an appositive.
 The appositive is usually a noun that renames a noun nearby.
 Sherlock Holmes, the detective, tapped his pipe. He felt a
sense of foreboding.
 In the complement case of the noun, the second noun is
placed apart from the first noun through a helping/ linking
verb.
 Muhammad Ali, was an excellent athlete.
 PARTS of SPEECH

 NOUN STRINGS & NOMINALIZATIONS:
o A noun string is a term for a series of nouns or other words, all
of which modify the final noun. For example, in the noun string
“U.S. energy consumption” the nouns "U.S." and "energy"
modify the final noun "consumption."
 An uncertainty management system.
 A disaster victim identification specialist
 A noun derived from a verb or adjective has a technical name:
nominalization" (Williams, 38).
 (a) A re-examination of the evidence led prosecutors to a
reconsideration of the defendant's guilt.
 (b) Prosecutors re-examined the evidence and reconsidered
the defendant's guilt.
 Nominalizations and Their Verb Forms


Nominalization Verb Form
 Analysis  Analyze
 Belief  Believe
 Conclusion  Compare
 Determination  Conclude
 Failure  Determine
 Reaction  Fail
 React
 Suggestion
 Suggest
 Nominalizations and
Their Adjective
 Forms
Nominalization Adjective Form

Carelessness  Careless
Difficulty  Difficult
Intensity  Intense
 Nouns from Adjectives


 The same principle applies with adjectives. Avoid
turning an adjective, such as careless, into its
corresponding nominalization, carelessness.

 Avoid: His carelessness in driving caused a multi-car

accident.

 Prefer: His careless driving caused a multi-car

accident.