In grammar, a part of speech (also a word class, a lexical class, or a lexical category) is a linguistic category of words (or more precisely lexical items), which is generally defined by the syntactic or morphological behavior of the lexical item in question. Common linguistic categories include noun and verb, among others. There are open word classes, which constantly acquire new members, and closed word classes, which acquire new members infrequently if at all.
Almost all languages have the lexical categories noun and verb, but beyond these there are significant variations in different languages. For example, Japanese has as many as three classes of adjectives where English has one; Chinese, Korean and Japanese have nominal classifiers whereas European languages do not; many languages do not have a distinction between adjectives and adverbs, adjectives and verbs (see state verbs) or adjectives and nouns, etc. This variation in the number of categories and their identifying properties entails that analysis be done for each individual language. Nevertheless the labels for each category are assigned on the basis of universal criteria.
Nouns
Nouns are naming words for people, animals, places, things, and qualities. In fact, they name everything around us including those that are invisible (wind, gas). A noun can be recognized by the determiners - the, a, an, some, this, etc - that come before it.
Kinds of Nouns
Singular and Plural Nouns
Countable and Uncountable Nouns
Collective Nouns
There are different types of nouns. There are common nouns, proper nouns, concrete nouns, and abstract nouns. A common noun names every person or thing that belongs to the same group. A proper noun is a name of a particular person, animal, place, or thing. A concrete noun refers to a material object that we can see and touch. An abstract noun is something we cannot see or touch (love, anger). We use it to refer to things that are not concrete objects such as quality, idea, condition, etc.
Nouns can be singular or plural. We use a singular noun for one person, animal, place, or thing. For two or more people, animals, places, or things, we use plural nouns.
There are countable nouns and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns are things such as books, cars, and houses, and we can count them. Uncountable nouns such as milk, water, and flour are things which we cannot count.
We use a collective noun to indicate a group of people or things.
1. Kinds of Nouns There are four kinds of nouns:
Common Nouns
Proper Nouns
Concrete Nouns
Abstract Nouns
a) Common Noun
A common noun names a class of similar things (chair, box), and not an individual member of a specified group of people or things. We do not capitalize the first letter of a common noun unless it is the first word in a sentence.
Common nouns are names of people, things, animals and places, etc.
Places – airport, beach, bullring, cemetery, church, country, hospital, library, mall, park, restaurant, zoo
b) Proper Noun
A proper noun is a special name of a person, place, organization, etc. We spell a proper noun with a capital letter. Proper nouns also refer to times or to dates in the calendar.
We can use plurals for proper nouns in exceptional cases. There are three Johns in my class. We can also use the, an, or a for a proper noun in special circumstances. This is no longer the London I used to live in. Proper nouns are names of people, places, organization, etc.
People – Ali Baba, George Bush,
Places – Downing Street, Museum of Modern Art, Sahara Desert
Things – Financial Times, Eiffel Tower
Organization – International Labour Organization, Red Brigades, United Nations,
Animals – King Kong, Lassie
Times and dates – Saturday, April
c) Concrete Noun
A concrete noun is something we see or touch. It is the opposite of an abstract noun. There are countable concrete nouns and uncountable concrete nouns.
Countable: teacher (people); valley (place); deer (animal); comb (thing)
Uncountable: water (liquid); steam (gas); copper (substance)
d) Abstract Nouns
An abstract noun is a quality or something that we can only think of rather than as something that we can see or touch, e.g. beauty, courage, friendship, intelligence, truth. We can form abstract nouns from common nouns (child – childhood); from verbs (know – knowledge); and from adjectives (happy – happiness).
2. Singular and Plural Nouns A singular noun refers to just one person, animal, thing or place while a plural noun represents more than one person, animal, thing or place. Nouns are either singular or plural. Most plural nouns have an -s added to their endings. Other plural nouns do not follow this same ending.
Singular PluralHow the plural is formed daughter daughters By adding –s class classes By adding –es to nouns ending –s brush brushes By adding –es to nouns ending –sh watch watches By adding –es to nouns ending –ch box boxes By adding –es to nouns ending –x potato potatoes By adding –es to nouns ending –o piano pianos By adding –s to nouns ending –o baby babies By changing –y to – ies key keys By adding –s to some nouns ending –y leaf leaves By changing –f to – ves knife knives By changing –fe to – ves roof roofs By adding –s to some nouns ending –f safe safes By adding –s to some nouns ending –fe tooth teeth By changing vowels ox oxen By adding –en child children By adding –ren deer deer Some nouns have same singular and plural
There are nouns that are always plural and take a plural verb.
"A pair of" can be used with the above plural nouns and take a singular verb.
This pair of purple trousers does not match your yellow jacket.
These knives do not cut well. A new pair of stainless steel scissors is what I need.
Other nouns that are always plural.
Clothes: My clothes need to be washed but I don't have the time.
Earnings: Earnings in the agricultural sector have increased by 5% in the fourth quarter.
Cattle: Cattle are reared for their meat or milk.
Police: Police are charging him with the murder of the princess.
People: People in general are not very approachable. (Peoples when used in the plural (i.e. with '–s') refers to peoples from more than one race or nation, e.g. the peoples of Asia)
Football team: Liverpool are a very successful football team. (But Liverpool is a great city.)
Nouns which are plural in form but take a singular verb
The following plural nouns are used with a singular verb as they are treated as singular:
Economics: Economics was my favorite subject at school.
News – The good news is that we have all been invited.
Diseases such as mumps, measles, etc: An infectious illness, mumps was common among children.
Measurements and amounts that are considered as a single unit:
One hundred years is a century.
Ten kilometers is a long distance.
Twenty dollars is not enough to buy a good shirt.
Seven days in prison is all he got for shoplifting.
A collective noun can take a singular or a plural verb The following nouns can be singular or plural. Viewed as a single unit, the noun takes a singular verb; regarded as a group of separate members or parts, it becomes a plural noun used with a plural verb.
The new government has gained more support since taking office. The Government are determined to keep inflation in check.
The explorers stumbled across a species of plant unknown to science. Different fish species have been found in the coastal waters of the island
Data indicates that most of the offenders come from broken home. We will not draw any conclusion until we have looked at all the data.
Statistics is included in this year's Mathematics syllabus. The statistics tell us the current trend is towards more consumers' spending.
The enemy is calling for a ceasefire. Security is very tight as the enemy are everywhere.
A collective noun treated as singular uses a singular possessive pronoun; a plural collective noun takes a plural possessive pronoun.
Our team has won its first trophy. (The singular possessive pronoun is its. The singular possessive pronoun its agrees with the singular collective noun team.) Our team are deciding on the strategy for their next game. (Plural possessive pronoun: their)
The audience showed its approval by clapping and cheering. When the curtain came down, the audience began leaving their seats.
The full orchestra led by its new conductor is performing in the city. The orchestra do not agree to the venue for their next performance.
Two subjects expressed as a single unit and take a singular verb
Time and tide waits for no man.
Bread and jam is what he eats most in the morning.
3. Countable and Uncountable Nouns
Countable nouns (also called count nouns) are nouns that can be counted (e.g. oranges). Uncountable nouns (also known as non-count or mass nouns) are amounts of something which we cannot count (e.g. sand). So how do we know whether or not a noun is countable or uncountable?
The noun is countable:
if we can use the indefinite article a/an before it. Example: I own a car. / I play with an ostrich.
if we can use the word 'many' (and not 'much') to describe it. Example: She has many friends. (It's wrong to say: She has much friends.)
if we can express its quantity by using a number before it. Example: I have five apples.
if it takes on singular as well as plural forms. Example: an orange / some oranges / fifty oranges
The noun is uncountable:
if a/an is not normally used in front of it. Example: He is eating some rice. (NOT: He is eating a rice.) Rice is treated as not countable, so some (which can be used for both countable and uncountable nouns) is used with it.
if the word much can be correctly used with it. Example: How much rice have you eaten? (NOT: How many rice have you eaten?)
if it is not possible for us to count it. However, we can make it countable by having a quantity for it. Example: I have just bought two cartons or litres/liters of milk. (NOT: I have just bought two milk.)
if it takes only a singular form. Example: some ice (NOT: some ices) / some ink (NOT: some inks) / some soup (NOT: some soups)
Some nouns can be countable or uncountable. It depends on how they are used. Example: I boil an egg. (Countable noun) Example: I like egg. (Uncountable noun, as it refers to egg in general.) Countable and Uncountable Nouns are used with the following:
Countable NounUncountable Noun a, an, a few, several, many, a little, much, some, plenty of, some, plenty of, a lot of, a lot of, a large amount of, a large number of a great deal of
4. Collective Nouns A collective noun is a name used for a number of people, animals or things that we group together and speak of as a whole. For example, we say a bunch of bananas, a litter of puppies, a flock of sheep, etc. Viewed as a single unit, a group uses a singular verb; regarded as separate members making up the group, it takes a plural verb.
The family is planning an overseas trip. (The family is viewed as a single unit planning and going overseas together, so it takes a singular verb.)
The family are discussing about the plan. (The family members are taking part in the discussion and are no longer considered a single unit, so it uses a plural verb.)
A collective noun can take a singular or a plural verb The following nouns can be singular or plural. Viewed as a single unit, the noun takes a singular verb; regarded as a group of separate members or parts, it becomes a plural noun used with a plural verb.
The new government has gained more support since taking office. The Government are determined to keep inflation in check.
The explorers stumbled across a species of plant unknown to science. Different fish species have been found in the coastal waters of the island
Data indicates that most of the offenders come from broken home. We will not draw any conclusion until we have looked at all the data.
Statistics is included in this year's Mathematics syllabus. The statistics tell us the current trend is towards more consumers' spending.
The enemy is calling for a ceasefire. Security is very tight as the enemy are everywhere.
A collective noun treated as singular uses a singular possessive pronoun; a plural collective noun takes a plural possessive pronoun.
Our team has won its first trophy. (The singular possessive pronoun is its. The singular possessive pronoun its agrees with the singular collective noun team.) Our team are deciding on the strategy for their next game. (Plural possessive pronoun: their)
The full orchestra led by its new conductor is performing in the city. The orchestra do not agree to the venue for their next performance.
The audience showed its approval by clapping and cheering. When the curtain came down, the audience began leaving their seats.
Two subjects expressed as a single unit and take a singular verb
Time and tide waits for no man.
Bread and jam is what he eats most in the morning.