1. There are two types of nouns: proper nouns and common nouns.
Examples of proper nouns: Calgary, Eugene, English, Market Mall…
Examples of common nouns: teacher, student, store, love…
2. There are two types of common nouns: count and non-count.
: Can count separately; singular or plural; can take an article
: Can’t count separately; usually no plural form; usually
don’t take a/an (but can take some/the); use with a singular verb
Categories of non-count nouns:
Abstractions: love, truth, faith
Diseases: cancer, malaria
Food/Drink: tea, bread, meat
Natural phenomena:
lightning, rain, snow
Particles: salt, rice, dust
Others: news, traffic, equipment
 Some nouns have both a count and non-count meaning:
Experience, history, space, talk, film, reading, work, spice, fish, cuisine
Ex. Studying abroad is a great experience. / Experience is the best
teacher.
Reading is essential for children. / The author gave a reading at the
bookstore downtown.
You can make non-count nouns countable by adding the phrase “a --of”. (To be more precise/formal)
Ex. A piece of advice
A drop of rain
A grain of rice
(More examples on p. 95)
 “Some/any” are more common in casual conversation.
A non-count noun in a countable sense means kind/type/variety of
(especially food/drink):
Ex. The supermarket sells different teas. / Many delicious wines come
from Argentina.
“A/an” can also show an amount: She buys a coffee every morning.
(a coffee = a cup of coffee)
Odds and ends:
 Some non-count nouns end in “-s”. Ex. News, mathematics,
economics, physics. Use a singular verb.
 There are some irregular plurals of count nouns:
cactus/cacti
stimulus/stimuli
phenomenon/phenomena
thesis/theses
 Sometimes the plural is the same for animals:
sheep
deer
moose
fish
 People/police are plural, and take a plural verb: The police are
coming!