The Parts of Speech
Nouns
 What
A
is a noun?:
noun is any word which names
a person, place, thing, idea,
animal, quality, or activity.
Count and Collective Nouns
Count Nouns
Count nouns refer to anything
which can be counted. They have
a singular form and a plural form

Examples:
person - Jennifer
 place – downtown
 thing - table
 idea – equality
 animal - gopher
 quality – height
 activity - navigation
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Types of Nouns:
Proper nouns are the names of specific things,
people, or places, such as Chicoutimi and
Christine. They usually begin with a capital
letter.
Common nouns are general names such as
person, mansion, and book. They can be either
concrete or abstract.

Concrete nouns refer to things which you can
sense such as clock and telephone.

Abstract nouns refer to ideas or qualities such
as liberty and truth.
How to form Plurals
The plural usually ends in -s:
 Singular: car plan dollar piece apple
dot
 Plural: cars plans dollars pieces apples
dots
 Most nouns ending in s, sh, o, or ch
require an -es suffix to be plural:
 Singular: bus latch wish potato hero
echo
 Plural: buses latches wishes potatoes
heroes echoes

 Nouns
ending in a consonant
followed by y become plural by
changing the y to i and adding es:
 singular worry story apology spy
mystery
 plural worries stories apologies
spies mysteries
 Irregular
count nouns do not form
their plurals using the rules stated
above:
 singular man goose mouse crisis
child ox
 plural men geese mice crises
children oxen
Possessive Nouns
 Nouns
can also be possessive.
The possessive expresses
ownership, usually of the
following noun, and often
corresponds to a structure with
of.
 Example: Khan's wrath = the
wrath of Khan
 Most
singular possessives are
formed by adding an
apostrophe + s.
 Most plural possessives are
formed by adding an
apostrophe
 Common
Possessive:
 Singular: bird / bird's
 Plural: birds / birds'
 Most
plural possessives are
formed by adding an
apostrophe following the sending of the plural.
 the bird's territory = the territory
of the bird
 the birds' territory = the territory
of the birds
Collective Nouns
Collective nouns refer to groups of people
or things. Collective nouns can usually be
counted; therefore, they have plural forms.
 Examples:
 herd
gang staff bunch state
 herds
gangs staffs bunches states