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Nouns: the essentials

Nouns are the words we use to give names to things, actions and people.  There are different types of nouns but they all do the same things.  Generally, nouns function as the subjects or objects of verbs, like this:

1. John enjoys camping
2. The machine broke

In 1., the noun camping is the object and John is the subject.
In 2., the noun is machine and is the subject.
So, we can talk of subject nouns and object nouns.

The second essential is that, although in following we focus on individual words for simplicity's sake, nouns should be described as noun phrases even if they only consist of one word.  The noun phrases are underlined in these examples:
    My car has broken down
    She opened the letter from her mother
    The old hospital is being rebuilt
    I like strawberries
    Mary's sister enjoyed the classical concert
    That's the man who owned the big house on the corner
and in the last example, we have three noun phrases, embedded in one another: the big house, the corner and the man who owned the big house on the corner.
So, we can now talk of subject noun phrases and object noun phrases with some confidence and having the right terminology helps our understanding.

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Three sorts of noun phrase

On this site, we use this classification but you may see others, especially in older books.

1. Common nouns
   are the most frequent and apply to things, feelings and people.  For example:
       people, house, apple, happiness, sugar, use, table, computer
   and many thousands more.
   They are of two basic sorts:
   1. count nouns
      take a plural and can come with a singular or plural verb form.  For example:
          There are two cows over there
          She has a new car
          That's the first problem we need to solve
          We have four good neighbours
      etc.
   2. mass nouns
      refer to things we do not count and come only in the singular (except in some special uses).  For example:
          The furniture is worn out
          Would you like some coffee?
          I enjoy running
          She has no time
          We are taking food with us
      etc.
      For more about the difference between count and mass nouns, read on.
2. Proper nouns
   are usually spelled with a capital letter (in English) and refer to people, jobs, times and places.  For example:
       I spoke to Fred
       He is the Chief Executive Officer
       Come on Monday
       I went to Berlin
   There are some special rules for these, explained below.
3. Collective nouns
   refer to groups of people and things and can be either singular or plural.  For example:
       They have joined a new class
       She keeps a flock of sheep
       The police are coming soon
       The government is about to fall
   For more, see below.

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	Proper noun phrases
Albert Einstein

Proper nouns are the names for people and places.  They usually begin with a Capital letter.  There is a range of types and a number of difficulties for learners and teachers:

• People
  • Mary, Tiger Woods, Mr Smith, Uncle Fred etc.
    English does not use an article with proper nouns for people unless we are distinguishing two people with the same name as in, e.g.:
        No, I don't mean the John who works in IT, I mean the John from Finance.
    Many languages routinely use an article with people's names so elementary learners in particular may say something like.:
        *I'll talk to the Mr Smith
    English can use an article with names if there is some restriction:
        the young King Edward, the old Mr Smith etc.
    English, exceptionally, uses the articles with some titles:
        the Duke of Westminster
        the Reverend Smith
    but not
        *the Bishop Smith
        *the Lord Michael
• Jobs and Positions
  • The President, The Pope, The Chief Executive, The Queen etc.
    We usually put the definite article, the, before these nouns because there is only one of them that is the reference (although, of course, there are a number of presidents, queens, kings, prime ministers and so on, but both speaker and listener know which one is the topic).  This is, incidentally, known as homophoric reference but that is not something with which you should trouble your learners.
• Times
  • Monday, February, the summer, Christmas, Easter
  • Capitalisation:
    Days, months and festivals are capitalised but seasons are generally not capitalised in English (other languages do things differently).
  • Article use:
    When the noun is used with a unique meaning for days, months and festivals, the article is omitted:
        On Monday, in February 1934, at Christmas etc.
    When the nouns are restricted in some way, the article is used, especially with the adjectives previous and following:
        the previous March, the following Christmas, the May of 1968, the Monday afterwards
    The adjectives next and last do not require the article if the time is implicit in what is being said:
        She arrived last Wednesday and is leaving next Thursday
        They spent last Easter with us and will return next Christmas
    but when it is not clear from the point of speaking which time is the topic, the article is used:
        She left the next Wednesday, having arrived the Thursday before
        I spent the next Whitsun in Rome
    Seasons are a little tricky.  They usually function as common countable nouns, see below, and take the article normally:
        I enjoy the summers here
        The winter is always harsh in Scotland
    They can, however, function like other times and the article is then omitted:
        She came in spring and stayed till autumn
    Usually, seasons are not capitalised.
  • Plurals:
    Days of the week and seasons regularly take plurals:
        I spent many summers in Spain
        I get bored on Sundays
• Places and buildings etc.
  • Britain, Germany, Margate, London, Lake Victoria, Jamaica, The Thames, The Suez Canal, Baker Street, St Paul's Cathedral, The Tate Gallery etc.
    The use of the article is idiomatic in English (not so in many languages) so this is a cause of a good deal of error.  There are some rules of thumb, however:
    • rivers, mountain ranges and canals
      We usually put the before these: The Thames, The Nile, The Himalayas, The Alps, The Suez Canal, The Panama Canal
    • lakes, countries, islands, streets and cities
      We do not usually put the before these:
          Lake Tanganyika, France, Crete, Rome
      But we do put the in front of the name of the country if it contains a classifying adjective like united or Arab:
          The United States of America, The United Kingdom, The Federal Republic of Germany, The United Arab Emirates
      One or two countries have, in the past, been used with an article but the practice is dying out: The Sudan, The Argentine, The Gambia, for example.
      There are some exceptions including:
          The Hague, the Bronx, the City (of London), The Strand, The Mall etc.
    • buildings and mountains
      This is a very idiomatic area and not easy to learn or teach because there are rules of use rather than rules of grammar.  Again, a classifying adjective denoting the name of the building or mountain will usually compel the use of the article.
      The Guggenheim Museum, The British Museum, Scotland Yard, Mont Blanc, The Eiger
    • continents
      Do not usually take the article and are always capitalised so:
      Asia, Europe, (South) America, Antarctica etc.
      but
      the Antarctic, the Arctic

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Collective noun phrases

In all languages, some nouns are used for groups of things or people.  In English, these can be both singular and plural but in most languages they are only singular.  For example, in English, we can say:
    The army is very large (thinking about it as a single thing)
and
    The army are helping (thinking about the army as a lot of individual people)
We can also have:
    The football team are playing on Sunday
and
    The football team is playing on Sunday
In the first one, we are thinking about all the players separately; in the second one we are thinking of it as a single thing, the team.
Other collective nouns are, e.g., navy, crew, flock, herd, staff, family, committee, government, class, staff etc.
(There is a difference between collective nouns which are not usually followed by the of + noun phrase and assemblage nouns such as:
    a swarm of bees
in which the of-construction is usually seen.)
In American English these words are normally used with a singular verb as is the case in most languages.

Plural nouns

One class of nouns appears only in the plural.

• Pairs:
  Some tools and items of clothing appear in the plural because the phrase a pair of is usually omitted in English:
  scissors, pliers, tongs, shears secateurs etc.
  shorts, trousers, tights, flannels etc.
• Pluralia tantum (the singular of which is plurale tantum):
  These are nouns which only appear in the plural or are used in the plural with a particular sense.  There are plenty of these and when they occur in your teaching, you need to point out their special use.  Some examples will suffice (a '-' in the second column means that there is no obvious singular noun equivalent):
  

  plural	singular	difference
  funds	fund	money vs. a collection of money
  brains	brain	intelligence vs. thinking organ
  customs	custom	checking of luggage vs. usual practice
  guts	gut	courage vs. digestive organ
  clothes	cloth	attire vs. piece of material
  arrears	-
  amends	-
  annals	-
  auspices	-
  contents	-
  fireworks	firework	display vs. individual device
  greens	-
  heads	head	side of a coin vs. part of the body
  looks	look	appearance vs. the act of looking
  minutes	minute	record of proceedings vs. time period
  pains	pain	efforts vs. unpleasant feeling
  remains	-
  surroundings	-
  tropics	tropic	warm areas of the world vs. line of latitude
  wits	wit	intelligence vs. amusing person

This list can be greatly extended

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	Plural markers in nouns
crocuses or croci?

The regular plural system in English is simple and the requires -s or -es suffixes, depending on how the singular form ends.  If it ends with an e we just add -s and if it ends in any other letter, we add -es.
There are, however, some exceptions and issues to note:

1. The pronunciation of the plural ending in English is either /s/ or /z/ but it is a predictable system.  It works like this:

   /t/, /p/, /f/, /k/ /θ/ endings plural pronounced as /s/	All other endings Plural pronounced as /z/
   cats cups kick laughs maths	boys girls fathers homes cubs

   The word house is an exception.
   This is a regular system to which there is a guide linked below.
   The plural of words ending in f is a bit irregular so we get:

   calf – calves elf – elves half – halves hoof – hooves leaf – leaves life – lives loaf – loaves

   and so on.
   But the plural of roof is seen both as roofs and ?rooves (and differently pronounced).  The word wharf also has two acceptable plural forms, wharves and wharfs, as does dwarf.
2. A small number of nouns have retained older English plural forms involving a change to the vowel or an ending other than a simple -s or -es.  They include words like

   child – children die – dice foot – feet goose – geese louse – lice mouse – mice

   man – men ox – oxen penny – pence (or pennies) person – people tooth – teeth woman – women

   which simply have to be learned and taught individually.  That is, by the way, almost a complete list.
3. Zero-marked plurals
   Some nouns have no marking in the plural (a Ø plural) but the plural still exists. These often (not always) refer to animals:

   (air)craft bison deer elk fish grouse

   lobster moose salmon sheep shrimp trout

   Some of these words do take regular plurals when we are considering small numbers of identifiable entities:
       six fishes
       two shrimps
   etc.
   but some resist any kind of plural marking.
   Note: These are all count nouns and should not be confused with mass nouns which take no plural.  No plural form is not the same thing as a zero plural form.
4. Invariable unmarked plurals
   A few words in English are always plural but take no inflexion to show it.  Examples are:

   cattle clergy folk gentry

   people police poultry vermin

   Again, these are unmarked plural forms or countable nouns, not mass nouns.

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		Mass nouns and Count noun phrases
milk	pencils

The distinction between these two types of nouns either does not exist at all in some languages or is very differently handled.  The problems for learners in this area are extensive.

Most nouns in English are count nouns.  Count nouns have a singular (for one) and plural (for more than one).  This means we can say, for example:
    I have three pencils
    I want that pencil
    The pencil is here
    Those pencils are no good
    Please give me a pencil
    I have several pencils on the desk
Count nouns cannot usually appear in the singular without an article (a(n) or the) so we do not find:
    *Pencil is needed
    *Person is here
etc.
In some set phrases, the rule is broken so we do find:
    Please write in pencil
    They walked arm in arm

Many nouns in English are mass nouns.  These nouns do not have a plural.  We can say, for example:
    I want that milk
    I have some milk
    The milk is here
    This milk is bad
    Please give me some milk
    I have some milk in the glass
Mass nouns always use a singular verb and never take a plural.
They can also appear without an article as in:
    Milk is good for you

Most mass nouns are:

Materials: metals, liquids, gases, cloth etc. For example: It's made of iron She needs water There's no air in here The chair is covered with blue cloth	Ideas and Feelings For example: She has no understanding You have my sympathy Love is important for children His anger was clear
Small objects For example: They grow rice here The sand gets in my shoes The dust is everywhere Use milk powder in the pudding	States For example: I need more sleep Childhood is a good time You can't buy happiness
Weather For example: There's a lot of snow this winter We have a lot of rain in the spring The sunshine is nice

There are hundreds of mass nouns in English but here is a list of very common ones:

advice air anger art bread cash cheese childhood clothing coffee damage danger education energy equipment fire food freedom friendship

fun furniture gold hair happiness health heat help honesty housework humour imagination information intelligence kindness knowledge labour laughter love

luck management metal milk money music news paper pronunciation punctuation quality quantity rain rice rubbish safety sand shopping sleep

smoke snow soup sport strength sugar sunshine tea time traffic transportation travel understanding warmth water weather weight wood work

That list is available as a PDF document from the link in the table at the end.

It is possible, of course, to make mass nouns countable by the addition of what is called a partitive or a quantifier as in, e.g.:
    three hours' sleep
    a piece of iron
    a bar of chocolate
    two means of transportation
    pints of milk
    drifts of snow
etc.
As you will see, however, the choice of quantifier or partitive is not an easy one to make.

The grammar of mass and count noun phrases

Noun	Before the noun	But ...	For example
Singular count nouns like pencil, car, house, person, cat, elephant	one, every, any, this, that, the, a(n)	We must always use a determiner with these nouns	I have only one blue pencil Every child's pencil is broken Any black pencil is OK This old pencil is no good That pencil is better but not: *Pencil is broken
Plural count nouns like pencils, cars, houses, people, cats, elephants	many, both, some, several, these, those, the, a couple of or no word	a/an is not possible: *A people arrived It is possible to have no determiner: People arrived	I have many pencils I want some pencils There are several pencils on the desk These new pencils are no good Those pencils are better Give me a couple of sharp pencils Both pencils were broken Pencils must be sharp
Mass nouns like milk, information, hope, education, tea	much, little, less, more, this, that or no word		How much milk do we have? We have a little milk There is less milk in the fridge Give me some more milk This milk is bad That milk is better Milk is good for children

Noun	After the noun	But ...	For example
Singular count nouns like pencil, car, house, person, cat, elephant, team	a singular verb like is, breaks, opens, lives	Singular collective nouns (like team or family) can be plural: The family have arrived	The pencil is on the floor The car was clean The houses look nice The person is ringing the bell The cats sleep here The elephant smells awful The team is coming The team are playing
Plural count nouns like pencils, cars, houses, people, cats, elephants, team	Always a plural verb		The pencils are on the desk The cars have arrived The houses look beautiful The people are here The cats are eating The elephants are angry The team are here Her family are really friendly
Mass nouns like milk, information, hope, education, tea	Always a singular verb	No exceptions	The milk is in the fridge The information is useful Hope is important Education is necessary Tea is common in England

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Try a simple matching test on this area.

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Related guide
word class map	this link takes you to the index of guides to word classes on this site
in-service guide to nouns	for a guide which includes some of the above (with extensions) and focuses on grammar more
pronouncing inflexions	this covers the plurals of nouns and also other inflexions in English
mass nouns	for a PDF list of the most common mass nouns in English
concord	for more about verb forms with nouns in English
(un)countability	for more on mass and count concepts in English
articles essentials	for an overview of the article system
articles	for a fuller guide to the article system in the in-service section
determiners	for a consideration of how nouns are determined (in-service guide)
modification	to see how noun phrases are constructed and get some ideas about how to teach them
subject and object	to see how nouns and verbs work together to make meanings

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