Basic English Grammar: Nouns part 1

1. NOUN GENDER

Nouns answer the questions “What is it?” and “Who is it?”  Nouns give names to things, people, and places.

EXAMPLES:

Dog, bicycle, Mary, girl, beauty, France, world.

In general, there is no distinction between masculine, feminine in English nouns. However, gender is sometimes shown by different forms or different words when referring to people or animals.

EXAMPLES:

Soma is my friend. She is a doctor.

Tushar is my cousin. He is a doctor.

 

It is possible to make the distinction between these neutral words by adding the words male or female.

EXAMPLES:

Sam is a female doctor.

No, he is not my boyfriend, he is just a male friend.

I have three female cousins and two male cousins.

 

Infrequently, nouns describing things without a gender are referred to with a gendered pronoun to show familiarity. It is also correct to use the gender-neutral pronoun (it).

EXAMPLES:

I love my car. She (the car) is my greatest passion.

France is popular with her neighbors at the moment.

                        

 

2.SINGULAR AND PLURAL NOUNS

 

Regular

Most singular nouns form the plural by adding -s.

EXAMPLES:

Singular     Plural

boat              boats

house           houses

cat                cats

river              rivers

 

A singular noun ending in s, x, z, ch, sh makes the plural by adding es.

 

EXAMPLES

Singular     Plural

Bus                buses                                                                                                                                             wish               wishes                                                                                                                                       pitch              pitches                                                                                                                                   box                 boxes

 

A singular noun ending in a consonant and then y makes the plural by dropping they and adding-ies.

EXAMPLES

Singular        Plural

penny                pennies

spy                    spies

baby                  babies

city                    cities

 

 

IRREGULAR NOUNS

There are some irregular noun plurals. The most common ones are listed below.

 

EXAMPLES

Singular     Plural

woman        women

man                men

child                children

tooth               teeth

Some nouns have the same form in the singular and the plural.

EXAMPLES

Singular    Plural

sheep       sheep

fish             fish

deer          deer

 

 

IRREGULAR VERB/NOUN AGREEMENT

Some nouns have a plural form but take a singular verb.

 

Plural nouns used with a singular verb                                    Sentence

News                                                                        The news is at 6.30 p.m.

Athletics                                                                  Athletics is good for young people.

Linguistics                                                             Linguistics is the study of language.

 

 

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