NOUNS

Regular & Irregular Plural Nouns

Possessive Nouns
Nouns as adjective
Count & Noncount Nouns
Basic Article Usage
Expression of Quantity
 Regular Plural Nouns
SINGULAR PLURAL
• a song • songs
• a box • boxes
• a baby • babies
• an echo/ a hero/ a potato/ a tomato • echoes/ heroes/ potatoes/ tomatoes
a memento mementos/ mementoes
a mosquito mosquitos/ mosquitoes
a tornado tornados/ tornadoes
a volcano volcanos/ volcanoes
a zero zeros/ zeroes
• a calf/ a shelf/ a wolf/ a leaf/ a loaf/ • calves/ shelves/ wolves/ leaves/
a thief/ a knife/ a life loaves/ thieves/ knives/ lives
a scarf scarves/ scarfs
a belief/ a chief/ a cliff/ a roof beliefs/ chiefs/ cliffs/ roofs

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 Irregular Plural Nouns
SINGULAR PLURAL
• a man/ a woman • men/ women
• a child/ an offspring • children/ offspring
• an ox • oxen
• a foot/ a goose/ a tooth • feet/ geese/ teeth
• a louse/ a mouse • lice/ mice
• a deer/ a sheep • deer/ sheep
• a fish/ a shrimp • fish(es)/ shrimp(s)
• a means/ a species/ a series • means/ species/ series
• a criterion/ a phenomenon/ a bacterium/ • criteria/ phenomena/ bacteria/
a curriculum/ a datum/ a medium/ a curricula/ data/ media/ memoranda
memorandum
• a cactus/ a syllabus • cacti/cactuses// syllabi/syllabuses
• a fungus/ a nucleus/ a stimulus • fungi/ nuclei/ stimuli
• a formula/ a vertebra • formulae/formulas// vertebrae
• an appendix/ an index • appendices/appendixes// indices/indexes
• an analysis/ a basis/ a crisis/ a hypothesis/ • analyses/ bases/ crises/ hypotheses/
an oasis/ a parenthesis/ a thesis oases/ parentheses/ theses
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 Possessive Nouns
N  N’s
Ns  Ns’
e.g.,
the girl  the girl’s
Tom  Tom’s
my children  my children’s
* Thomas  Thomas’/ Thomas’s
the girls  the girls’

* Alan and Lisa’s apartment

both Hugo’s and Jacinto’s marks

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 Nouns as adjectives
N + N  Compound N
(~ adjective  sing. N)
e.g., The soup has vegetables in it.
 It is vegetable soup.
The building has offices in it.
 It is an office building.

*** The test lasted two hours.

 It was a two-hour test.
Her son is five years old.
 She has a five-year-old son.
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 Count Nouns (cN)
Noncount Nouns (uN)
COUNT NOUNS NONCOUNT NOUNS
- SINGULAR:
a/ an/ the/ this/ one/each/ my … + cN
Always SINGULAR
- PLURAL: (the/ my/ some/ a lot of/ much …) + uN
(the/ my/ two/ some/ many/ …) + cNs/es
e.g., furniture
e.g., chair (the) furniture
a/ one/ the/ my chair (some) furniture
(the/ two/some) chairs (my/ much/ a lot of) furniture
(my/ many/ a lot of) chairs
* some chair * a coffee
** a hair/ the light ** hair/ light
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 Count Nouns (cN)
Noncount Nouns (uN)
SOME COMMON NONCOUNT NOUNS
- WHOLE GROUP MADE UP OF SIMILAR ITEMS: baggage/ luggage, equipment, food, fruit,
furniture, garbage, jewelry, machinery, mail, makeup, money/cash, postage, scenery, traffic, …
- SUBSTANCES, MATERIALS, OR PARTICLES: water, coffee, tea, milk, oil, soup; ice, bread,
butter, cheese, meat, gold, iron, silver, glass, paper, wood, cotton, wool; air, oxygen, nitrogen,
smoke, pollution; rice, chalk, corn, dirt, dust, flour, grass, hair, pepper, salt, sand, sugar, wheat,
…
- ABSTRACTS: beauty, confidence, courage, education, enjoyment, happiness, health, help,
honesty, hospitality, importance, intelligence, justice, knowledge, laughter, luck, music,
patience, peace, pride, progress, recreation, significance, sleep, truth, violence, wealth; advice,
information, news, evidence, proof; time, space, energy; homework, work; grammar,
vocabulary, …
- LANGUGAES: Arabic, Chinese, English, Spanish, Vietnamese, …
- FIELDS OF STUDY: chemistry, engineering, history, literature, mathematics, psychology, …
- RECREATION: baseball, soccer, tennis, chess, bridge, poker, …
- ACTIVITIES (Ving): driving, studying, swimming, travelling, walking, …
- NATURAL PHENOMENA: weather, dew, fog, hail, heat, humidity, lightning, rain, sleet, snow,
thunder, wind, darkness, light, sunshine,
1/28/2021 Grammar 1 - electricity,
Designed by Tranfire, gravity,
Phuong Linh … 7

INDEFINITE ARTICLES: A/ AN
- Before a singular countable noun
 a banana
 an apple
* a/ an/ (some): before an
indefinite noun or a generic noun
 I ate a banana.
 I ate some bananas.
 Bananas are yellow.
1/28/2021 Grammar 1 - Designed by Tran Phuong Linh
Basic articles usage
DEFINITE ARTICLE: THE
- Before a countable or uncountable noun
 the banana
 the bananas
 the fruit
* before a noun that is the only one, or is the
specific thing or person we are talking about
 The sun is bright today.
 Omar is in the kitchen.
 Please open the door.
* Before a definite noun (which is mentioned
second in a sentence)
 Yesterday, I saw some dogs. The dogs were
chasing a cat.
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 Expressions of quantity used with count N & noncount N
EXPRESSIONS OF QUANTITY USED WITH USED WITH
COUNT NOUNS NC NOUNS
one one apple
each each apple
every every apple
two two apples
both both apples
a couple of a couple of apples
a few >< a little a few apples a little rice
several/ some/ any several apples
some / any apples some / any rice
many >< much many apples much rice
a number of >< a great deal of a number of apples a great deal of rice
a lot of = lots of/ plenty of a lot of apples a lot of rice
plenty of apples plenty of rice
no/ hardly any/ most/ all no/ hardly any/ no/ hardly any/
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Designed by Phuong Linh most/ all/ rice 9
 Quantifiers with Count Nouns (cN) &
Noncount Nouns (uN)
NOTES
* She has already made a few friends. >< She has (very) few friends.
I’ve been able to save a little money. >< I have (very) little money.

* Many of my/ John’s/ the/ those books are in English.

>< Many books are in English.

one (of) all (of) some (of)
two (of) each (of) several (of)
half of every (a) few (of)
50 percent of almost all (of) (a) little (of)
three-fourths of most (of) hardly any (of)
a majority of many (of) none of
hundreds of much (of) no
thousands of a number of
millions of a great deal of
a lot of
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