Introduction

Nouns are words like house, team, idea, arrival, confusion, Canada. Together (usually) with other words such as determiners or adjectives, they form noun phrases, which act as subjects, objects and complements in sentences.

• Our house was miles from anywhere.
• Anna’s had a great idea.
• The discussion left us in considerable confusion.

Names of people, places, events, etc, (e.g. Alice, Canada, Christmas) are called proper nouns; they are grammatically different from other (common) nouns in some ways – for instance, they may not have articles (see here).

Countable/uncountable

English makes a distinction between countable and uncountable (or mass) nouns. Countable nouns (e.g. horse, microphone) are typically words for classes of separable things that can be counted; uncountable nouns (e.g. water, oxygen) are typically words for mass-like materials, substances, etc that can’t be separated into countable units. Countable nouns can be singular or plural (e.g. horse, horses); uncountable nouns are generally singular in form; and there are other grammatical differences between the two groups.

The countable-uncountable distinction is partly to do with the way things really are: clearly horses and microphones are separate objects, water and oxygen aren’t. But it is also partly to do with the way things are seen. Wool can be seen as a mass or as separate strands: English chooses to make wool uncountable. Aggression and attack express similar ideas, but the first is generally uncountable and the second countable.

Possessive

Besides singular and plural forms, nouns can also have possessive forms (e.g. horse’s, microphones’).

Agreement

1. Singular noun-phrase subjects are generally used with a special present-tense verb form (e.g. works, goes). For information about noun-verb agreement in some special cases, (see here).

2. Some determiners (e.g. an, each, many, much) are only used with certain kinds of noun: singular, plural or uncountable. Determiners: a/an and the; my, your, etc; this, that, etc, Determiners: quantifiers for details.

Nouns in combination

English can put two or more nouns together in three ways:

• possessive noun + noun (e.g. the doctor’s secretary)
• noun + noun (e.g. garden furniture)
• noun + preposition + noun (e.g. the head of the department).

This is a very complicated area of English grammar. General guidelines are given in entries (see here), but, unfortunately, there is no easy way to be quite sure which structure is used to express a particular compound idea. The most common expressions will be learnt by experience; in case of doubt a good dictionary will often show which form is correct or most natural.

Do you know what’s wrong with these, and why?

The children were climbing like monkies. (see here)

A new disease is affecting much cattle. (see here)

A number of people has replied to my advertisement. (see here)

Half of them lives in Scotland. (see here)

Where are those five pounds I lent you? (see here)

Tell the children to blow their nose. (see here)

Did you have a good travel? (see here)

Let me give you an advice. (see here)

Good evening. Here are the news. (see here)

Is there a parking near here? (see here)

We’re having a terrible weather. (see here)

You speak an excellent English. (see here)

I’m doing an interesting work. (see here)

We were shown the childrens’ room. (see here)

How did the cat get onto the house’s roof? (see here)

I eat an awful lot of chocolate milk. (see here)

My sister works in a shoes shop. (see here)

All the staff were showing tiredness signs. (see here)

Can you change a hundred euros note? (see here)

Please stop kicking the table’s leg. (see here)