Language Structures # 3 – What is a Noun?

Nouns A noun is the name of any person, place, or thing. A proper noun refers to the name of a person, place or organizations and begins with a capital letter. Mr Smith, Joe, Amanda, Nigeria, British Gas An improper noun refers to a thing or object and does not begin with a capital letter e.g.

• Animal names: cow, pig, sheep, horse, chicken, duck, monkey, lion elephant, crocodile, dog, snake, hippopotamus
• Body part names: hair, mouth, nose, eyes, teeth, feet, toes, fingers,ears
• Objects names: table, chair, comb, oil, box, house, mosque, station, vehicle names, car, bus, train etc

Many nouns are countable, they are singular when one in number and plural when more than one.

Singular	Plural
Child	Children
Knife	Knives
Pot	Pots
Leaf	Leaves
Father	Fathers
Tomato	Tomatoes
Sister	Sisters
Passer- by	Passers-by
Woman	Women

Some nouns are mass and do not have plural forms e.g. fruit, food, money Some nouns have no singular e.g. trousers, tweezers, scissors, thanks   Example:

1. The child is going to school. (singular)
2. The fathers are going out to eat pizza. (plural)
3. The woman hides her bag from the robber. (singular)
4. The tomatoes are growing so fast in her garden. (plural)