Hanoi Open University Learning Opportunity for All

PART 1

UNIT 1: NOUNS

UNIT 2: ARTICLES

UNIT 3: ADJECTIVES
UNIT 1: NOUNS
Hello Learners, in the first unit about “NOUNS” we are going to learn:
 The definition and formation of nouns
 The syntactical function of nouns
 The classification of nouns
 The grammatical features of nouns
Required Readings
1. Hoàng Tuyết Minh (2013), Fundamentals of Practical English Grammar,
NXB Giáo dục Việt Nam (p.16-32)
2. LG. Alexander (1992), Longman English Grammar Practice (5th ed.),
Longman. (p.34 – 51).
3. Lê Huy Trường (chủ biên) (1999), Ngữ pháp Tiếng Anh (A Grammar of
the English Language), Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Hà Nội, Nxb. Giáo
dục.
4. S. Chalker (1984), Current English Grammar, Macmillan Publisher Ltd.
(p. 25-46)
I. DEFINITION
Nouns: words that name things, places, people, state, etc.
For example:
Vietnam, Hanoi Open University, jealousy, bravery, hatred, table, chair,
water, idea, opportunity

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II. FORMATION

Nouns are formed in many ways. Simple nouns have only one root word, for
example room, desk, fan, chair
Derived nouns have one root words with affixes, for example reconstruction,
unhappiness, organization, teacher.
Compound nouns have at least two root words, for example boyfriend,
writing paper, pickpocket, runner-up, nosebleed
III. FUNCTIONS OF NOUNS
What can a noun do in a sentence? Syntactically, nouns can function as
Subject, Direct Object, Indirect Object, Subject Complement, Object Complement,
Apposition to another noun and Vocative. For example:

1. Subject: Books are valuable.

2. Direct Object: I love Hanoi Open University.
3. Indirect Object: She gave the boy a letter.
4. Subject Complement: The winner is a girl.
5. Object Complement: We consider him our teacher
6. Apposition: Mr Johnson, my teacher, is very strict.
7. Vocative: Tuan, come here.
IV. CLASSIFICATION OF NOUNS

As for the classification, English nouns are classified into common noun and
proper nouns.
A common noun is the word for something (e.g., boy, cat, lake, bridge). It is
different from a proper noun, which is the name we give to something (e.g., Peter,
Lan, Sword Lake, Hanoi). Proper nouns start with a capital letter.
Common nouns can be countable, uncountable and collective.
Countable nouns are nouns that can be ‘counted’ as individual, separate
units.
For example: a chair, a desk, a tiger, a student
Uncountable nouns are nouns that cannot be ‘counted’ as individual, separate
units.
For example: water, wine, cheese, butter, rice
Collective nouns are names for a collection or a number of people or things.
For example: class, army, family, audience

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V. GRAMMATICAL FEATURES OF NOUNS – NUMBER

English nouns have two numbers: Singular and Plural.
When we speak about one person and one thing, we use the noun in singular
form. In the following sentences
A man is smoking within the premises and A group of cows is called Herd the
nouns man, group are in singular forms.
When we speak about more than one person and one thing, we use the noun
in plural form.
For example:
These chairs are made of plastic.
Children should be given proper guidance.
So how to form plural from singular?
1. We form plural by suffixing s to the singular-noun.
For example:
Joy-joys
Chair-chairs
2. We form plural by suffixing es to the singular-noun
For example:
Glass-glasses
Bench-benches
Bush-bushes
Buffalo-buffaloes
Potato-potatoes
3. We form plural by changing the last letter y into ies.
For example:
Baby-babies
City-cities
4. We form plural by changing the inside vowel of the singular.
For example:
Man-men
Woman-women
Foot-feet
Tooth-teeth
Goose-geese
5. We form plural by suffixing en to the singular.
For example:

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Ox-oxen
Child-children
6. We form plural by changing f or fe into ves.
For example:
Thief-thieves
Life-lives
Wife-wives
Knife-knives
However, there are some exceptions:
Chief-chiefs
Roof-roofs
Gulf-gulfs
Safe-safes
7. And finally, plural Singular-nouns from foreign languages retain their
original plural.
For example:
Criterion-criteria, stimulus-stimuli
POSSESSIVE CASE / GENITIVE CASE
The possessive or genitive case is used to show ownership or association.
There are two patterns of genitive case: of genitive and ‘s genitive, for example:
the mother of the bride and the bride's mother
The possessive pattern 's is generally used when indicating a relation of
ownership or association with a person or an animal, rather than a thing.
For example:
Lynne's website, the dogs' tails
But the legs of table, the content of the website, the top of the page
Singular and irregular plural nouns that don't end in s take 's.
For example:
Lynne's web site
The people's court
Plural nouns that end in s take an apostrophe at the end.
For example:
The girls' dresses
People's names that end in s you can write (') or ('s).
For example:
Charles' job was on the line.

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or
Charles's job was on the line.
GENDER
The Noun-Gender tells us about the sex of the noun.
English nouns have four genders.

1. Masculine gender:

A noun is said to be in the Masculine gender if it refers to a male character or

member of a species.

For example:

man, lion, hero, boy, king, horse and actor

2. Feminine gender:

A noun is said to be in the feminine gender if it refers to a female member of

a species.
For example:
Woman, lioness, heroine, girl, mare, niece, empress, cow and actress

3. Common gender:

A noun is said to be in Common gender if it refers to a member of species which

can be a male or a female, for example:
child, student, friend, applicant, candidate, servant, member
4. Neuter gender:
A noun is said to be in the neuter gender if it refers to a member of a species
which is neither a male nor a female.
Normally nouns referring to lifeless objects are in neuter nouns.
For example:
chair, table, tree, star, mountain, street, book, car, school, paper, pencil,
computer
SUMMARY
Dear Learners, in this unit we have learned
- The definition and formation of nouns

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- The syntactical function of nouns

- The classification of nouns
- The grammatical features of nouns
See you in the next unit. Good bye for now.
UNIT 2 ARTICLES
After this unit you shall be able to understand
- How English articles are classified.
- How each subtype is used.
Required Readings
1. Hoàng Tuyết Minh (2013), Fundamentals of Practical English
Grammar, NXB Giáo dục Việt Nam (p.33-51)
2. A.J. Thomson & A.V Martinet (1986), A Practical English Grammar
Practice, (3rd ed.), Longman. (p.34-51)
3. L.G. Alexander (1992), Longman English Grammar Practice, (5th ed.).
(p. 55-66)

I. DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION

An article is a part of speech which is always used with and gives some
information about a noun.
There are three types of articles: indefinite (a, an), definite (the), and zero.
First of all, let us look at indefinite article.
II. INDEFINITE ARTICLES: a, an
While a is used before words beginning with a consonant, for example:
a cat / hat / fan / student
an is used before words beginning with a vowel, for example
an egg / apple / island / uncle
1. We use a/an before something mentioned for the first time.
Her parents have a big dog.
2. We use a/an to show the person or thing is one of a group:
She is a student at Hanoi Open University.
3. We use a/an with a singular noun to say something about all things of
that kind:
A cat is quieter than a dog.
4. We use a/an before names of professions. For example:
My boyfriend is an actor.
My mother is a nurse.

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5. We use a/an in some expressions of quantity:

a lot of, a great many, a couple, a dozen
III. DEFINITE ARTICLES: the
You have been dealing with indefinite article, now let’s turn to talk about
definite article the.
Definite article the is pronounced as /ðə/ before consonants: chair /desk, and
as /ði:/ before vowels: apple/ egg
The is used with countable nouns, both singular and plural, and uncountable
nouns, for example:
the student(s)
the water/ sugar
Here are some major ways of using definite article The:
1. the is used with singular, countable nouns to refer to a class of
animals or things, for example:
The cat is smaller than the dog.
The whale is in danger of becoming extinct
2. The is used before nouns which can be specified in the immediate
environment, for example:
The blackboard is dirty now.
The teacher is very strict.
3. The is used before nouns mentioned the second time, for example:
There is a big dog in her house.
4. The is used before an object or a group of objects which is
considered unique, for example:
the earth, the sun, the star, the sea, the equator
The earth moves round the sun.
5. The is used before names of countries/organizations made up from
parts or plural names of countries, for example:
The United States, the Philippines, the Netherlands
the United Nations
6. The is used before nouns made definite by modifying elements, for
example:
The girl next door
The apple on the desk
The teacher of grammar

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7. The is used to show part and whole relationship, for example:

The house is old but the windows are new.
The man was hit on the head.
8. The is used before superlatives and ordinal numbers, for example:
The tallest man
The first /second (week)
Zero article
Finally, it is time to consider zero article.
Zero article Zero article goes with uncountable nouns or plural
countable nouns, for example:
When poverty comes in at the door, love flies out of the window
He sells cars.
Zero article is used in a number of cases.
We use zero article to talk about things in general, for example:
Girls are more talkative than boys.
Love is blind.
We use zero article before proper names and titles, for example:
Tom is a student.
Mr. Smith is good at English.
We also use zero article before names of meals, as seen in the
example:
Have breakfast/lunch/dinner
Zero article is used before names of games, for instance:
I play football.
He plays golf.
Finally, we use zero article in a number of set expressions. Here are
some examples:
go to bed/ church/ school
at night
at work
by car
SUMMARY
Dear Learners, in this unit we have learned
Three types of English articles and their usage.
Good bye and see you again in the next unit.

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UNIT 3. ADJECTIVES
Hello Learners, in this unit about “ADJECTIVES” we are going to learn:
- The definition of adjectives
- The formation of adjectives
- The function of adjectives
- The classification of adjectives
- The common order of adjectives
- And the degrees of comparison of adjectives
Required Readings
1. Hoàng Tuyết Minh (2013), Fundamentals of Practical English
Grammar, NXB Giáo dục Việt Nam (p.52-67)
2. LG. Alexander (1992), Longman English Grammar Practice (5th ed.),
Longman. (p.106 – 116).
3. S. Chalker (1984), Current English Grammar, Macmillan (p.162-184)
I. DEFINITION

Adjectives give information about quality, size, age, temperature, shape,

colour, origin, for example:
intelligent, small, old, hot, square, red, Vietnamese
They are normally placed before a noun but, they can also come after the
verb to be and also after other linking verbs such
as stay, look, seem, appear, become.
II. FORMATION

Many of the most common adjectives have no special endings., for example:
good, bad, thin, tall
Other adjectives can be formed with prefixes or suffixes from nouns, for
example beautiful (from beauty) or motionless (from motion), or even from other
adjectives (for example yellowish).
Adjectives can also be formed by combining available words, for example:
Noun and adjective: sea-sick, ankle-deep, class-conscious
Adjective and adjective: red-hot, dark-blue
Adjective and noun: long-distance, high-quality
Noun and present participle: time-consuming, long-suffering
Noun and past participle: hand-made, self-employed

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We have just looked at some major ways of forming English adjectives. And
the next question is what are the syntactic functions of an adjective?
III. FUNCTION

An adjective modifies a noun and functions as a modifier. For example:

An attractive house
An exciting match
Sometimes an adjective can go after an indefinite pronoun and functions as a
post-modifier. For example:
nothing new
something important
An adjective can also follow a linking verb (like the verb to be) and functions
as subject complement, for example:
She is beautiful.
They are intelligent.
An adjective may modify an object and functions as object complement, for
example:
She made him happy.
She painted the door green.

IV. CLASSIFICATION
In this part of the lesson, we will look at how English adjectives are
classified.
English adjectives can be classified based on their meanings. Thus we may
have:
Adjectives denoting opinion: wonderful, terrible
Adjectives denoting quality: busy, famous
Adjectives denoting size: big, small, tall
Adjectives denoting age: old, young, new
Adjectives denoting temperature: hot, cold, cool
Adjectives denoting shape: square, round
Adjectives denoting colour: red, blue, pink
Adjectives denoting origin: Vietnamese, Japanese
Adjectives denoting material: plastic, wooden
Adjectives denoting type: chemical, electronic
Adjectives denoting purpose: alarm (clock)

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V. ORDER OF ADJECTIVES
When we use more than one adjective in front of a noun, the adjectives
usually come in the order:
Opinion + size + quality + age + shape + colour + participle forms + origin +
material + type + purpose
Here are some examples:
An old cardboard box (age and material)
a German industrial company (origin and type)
two excellent public tennis courts (opinion, type and purpose)
VI. COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES
There are three degrees of comparison: Equality, Comparative and
Superlative.
To express equality we use as + adjective + as or not as or not so … as…,
for example:
Jane is as tall as John.
John is not as tall as Arnie.
The comparative form of a short adjective, that is the one with one syllable
like tall or the one which ends in y or er, such as dirty and clever, takes er. For
example:
I’m feeling happier now.
We need a bigger box.
That boy is cleverer.
Long adjectives or adjectives of three or more syllables and two-syllable
adjectives not ending in y or er follow more for comparative meaning. For example:
This exercise is more difficult.
We use than when we want to compare one thing with another:
She is two years older than me.
She is more beautiful than her younger sister.
The superlative form of a short adjective takes est and is preceded by definite
article the, whereas that of a long one follows the most. Here are some examples:
He is the tallest boy in the class.
It was the happiest day of my life.
It is the most interesting story I have ever heard.
It should be noted that some adjectives have irregular comparative and superlative
forms, for example:
good – better – best

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old – older – oldest

far – farther (further) – farthest (furthest)
SUMMARY
Dear Learners, in this unit we have learned
- the definition of adjectives
- the formation of adjectives
- the function of adjectives
- the classification of adjectives
- the common order of adjectives
- and the degrees of comparison of adjectives
See you in the next unit. Good bye for now.

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