CHAPTER X:

NOUNS AND NOUN CLAUSE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

1. DEFINITION

The noun is a part of speech telling (denoting) what someone or something is called. A noun can be the name
of a person (John, Mary), an occupation or a job title (worker, student, architect), the name of a thing (computer,
telephone, book), the name of a place (London, Halong, New York), the name of a quality (courage, anger,
kindness), or the name of an action (laughter, writing, talking). We can also say, the noun is a name given
to things, objects, people & phenomena. In other words, the noun is a part of speech which includes words
denoting living creatures, substances (individuals: a boy, a girl, a cat; objects: a book, a tree) or certain facts or
phenomena regarded as substances (qualities: kindness, strength; process: conversation, writing; abstract
notions: time, revolution). The main syntactical functions of the noun in the sentence are those of the subject
and object:

+Subject

E.g.: The student is reading a book.

+ Object:

Eg: The teacher helps the student in their studies.

Besides, a noun may also be used:

+ as a complement / or predicative introduced by the verb "Be" or other link verbs

E.g.: He is a good student. They are architects.

+ as an attribute; The student's answer was all correct.

+ as part of an adverbial modifier: They are learning in their classroom.

+ in apposition: James Smith, an ABC commentator, asked for an interview.

+ when we speak directly to somebody:

E.g.: Jane, turn down the volume, will you?

The noun is associated with the following form - words:

+ The articles or determiners (definite or indefinite): the house, a house.

+ The prepositions: in the house, behind the house, about the house.

In the English language, some words function only as nouns (desk, hat); others function as nouns
or verbs (work, book), while others function as nouns or adjectives (cold, white); we cannot identify
such words as nouns from their letter appearance.

2. CLASSIFICATION

It is necessary, both for grammatical and semantic reasons, to classify nouns in the English
language into different sub-classes. In our classification, we classify them by their contrasts:

2.1. The Concrete nouns are the names given to any concrcte things, objects, people, phenomena.

E.g.: table, chair, book, student, farmer, snow, river, etc.

2.2. The Abstract nouns are often the names given to actions, states or quality formed from corresponding
verbs and adjectives.

E.g.: freedom, health, hope, kindness, reading, denial, equality, idea, etc.

2.3. The Common nouns are the name applied to any individual of a class of things, people, objects,
phenomena. In other word, we can say that any noun that is not the name of a particular person, place,
thing, object, etc. is a common noun, we can use a/an, the or the zero article in front of common nouns.

E.g.: boy,student,city, country, ocean, lake, strait, rain, snow, etc.

2.4. The Proper nouns are the name given to individuals of a class to distinguish them from other
individuals of the same class. It is generally spelt with a capital letter. Articles are not normally used in
front of proper nouns (except in certain cases of special use).

E.g.: John, Mary, Andrew, London, Hanoi, The Thames, The Mekong,The French, The
Vietnamese, India, The Hymalaya, etc.

2.5. The Collective nouns denote a number of object collected together and maybe regarded as a single
object.

E.g.: family, crew, army, company, police, bunch, council, audience, etc.

2.6. The Material nouns denote different kinds of materials and substances.

E.g.: cement, gold, oil, silk, wood, sand, rock, copper, zinc, cotton, nylon, polyester, plastic, wool,
etc.

2.7. The Countable nouns are the nouns that can be counted and go with cardinal numerals.

E.g.: one book, two pens, ten students, dozen friends, hundred workers, thousand farmers, etc.

Generally, the common nouns are usually the countable nouns.

2.8. The Uncountable nouns are the nouns that can only be weighed or measured and they can't go with
cardinal numerals. Most of the material nouns and the abstract nouns are the uncountable nouns

E.g.: coffee, milk, money, time, bread, hatred, anger, air, rice, dust, etc.

2.9. The One word nouns are the nouns which exist as single words.

E.g.: book, pen, disk, mouse, monkey, rain, snow, lake, river, etc.

2.10. The Compound nouns are the nouns formed from two or more free morphemes functioning as single
nouns.

E.g.: cupboard, raincoat, typewriter, mother-in-law, stick- in-the-mud, etc.

Sometimes, compounds are spelt with a hyphen, sometimes they are not. They are usually
pronounced with the stress on the first syllable. However, there are many exceptions to this rules.

E.g.: 'heavy weight (boxer)

'heavy 'weight (a weight that is heavy)

'horse-riding, 'sight-seeing, 'sunbathing, 'drinking water.

3. FORMATION

The noun formation in the English language can be made by 4 major ways:

3.1. The Conversion (converted nouns) is the process of making new noun whereby an item changes its
word class without the addition of an affix. For example, a verb corresponds to a noun, a noun corresponds
to a verb... and vice versa. This relationship may be seen as parallelto that of many words in English.

Eg.: doubt, love, laugh, walk, catch, retreat, (v &n)

daily, comic, ......................... (adj & n)

bottle, comer, mask, peel, nurse, cash, nail, (n & v)

3.2. The Derived nouns (affixation) are formed by adding affixes to the root word.

E.g.: Adjective + ness: goodness, kindness, happiness, etc.

Adjective + dom: freedom, wisdom, etc.

Adjective + th: depth, length, truth, etc.

Adjective + ty: certainty, cruelty, etc.

Adjective + ism: socialism, optimism, etc.

Adjective + ist: imperialist, socialist, etc.

Noun + hood: boyhood, childhood, neighborhood, etc.

Noun + ship: friendship, relationship, etc.

Verb + tion ( ation, sion): production, imagination, aggression Verb + ment: development,
movement, etc.

Verb + ing: reading , speaking, etc.

Verb + er ( or, ar): reader, visitor, beggar, etc.

Noun + er: footballer, volleyballer Noun/Verb + yer:

lawyer, sawyer

3.3. The Compound nouns (composition) are formed by combining two or more free morphemes together.

E.g. : Noun + Noun: classroom, notebook, school boy, post office.

Adj. + Noun: blackboard, sweetheart,quicksilver, etc.

Verb + Noun: breakfast, telltale, pickpocket, etc.

 Gerund + Noun: dinning room, walking stick, etc.

Noun + Gerund: horse-riding, sight seeing, etc.

Adverb + Verb: income, overlook, outbreak, etc.

Verb + Adverb: drawback, standstill, bearkthrough, etc.

Preposition / Adverb + Noun: afternoon, overcoat, inside, etc.
Present participle + Noun: running water, crying child, etc.
3.4. The shortened nouns (shortening) are made / formed by cutting short the original nouns in several
ways, such as: clipping, blending, acronym,....
Eg.: exam, bike, fridge, flu, V day, H bomb, smog, brunch, motel, camcorder, UNO, WTO, VOV,
NATO, VIP, BBC, ............................ ....

4. GENDER

In many European languages, the name of things, objects, etc. such as book, table, radio, etc. have gender,
that is they are classified grammatically as masculine, feminine and neuter, although very often gender
doesn’t related to sex. There is a clear distinction between: /it - she - it / his - her - its.
The determiners we use do not vary according to the gender of the noun.
E.g.: A man, a woman, a pen, etc.

The man, the woman, the pen, etc.

Many men, many women, many pens, etc.

In Modern English there is no grammatical gender. The noun does not possess any special gender forms,
neither does the accompanying adjective, pronoun or article which indicates any gender agreement with
the head noun:

E.g.: a little boy / a little girl / a little room.

In the English language, the difference between male and female can be made by two main ways:

a. By two different words:

E.g.: boy - girl, man - woman, husband - wife, etc.
b. By morphemes combination:
Noun (male) + ess - noun (female)
E.g: actor - actress waiter - waitress
host - hostess lion - lioness
tiger - tigress steward - stewardess
boyfriend - girlfriend

manservant - maidservant

cock sparrow - hen sparrow

he bear - she bear

bull calf - cow calf

In the English language, there are nouns used for both: male and female.

E.g.: parent, cousin, teacher, worker, farmer, professor, etc.

In literature, the nouns denoting strength or terrible concept are usually considered as male.

E.g.: day, war, the sun, death, etc.

And the nouns showing beautiful, attractive concept are usually considered as female.

E.g.: night, the moon, freedom, peace, spring, etc.

5. NUMBER

Number is the grammatical category of the noun which shows whether we speak or write of one thing or
more than one. Accordingly the noun in the English language has 2 numbers: the singular and the plural.

5.1. The singular form of nouns is the original form which indicates one thing. Both the countable nouns
and the uncountable nouns have the singular form.

E.g.: a book, a watch, a dog, a cat, breed, money, water, cement, soil,....

5.2. The plural form of nouns is the form which serve to denote more than one thing. It is expressed by
a countable noun added with a bound morpheme expressing plural.

E.g.: Noun + S (es)-Noun (plural)

In the English language, only the countable nouns have the plural form and they are formed by the following
ways:

a. Most of the nouns in the English language formed their plural form

by adding "S" to the singular form.

E.g.: ook - books boy - boys

table - tables radio - radios

b. The nouns that end in -for -fe are changed into - ves.
E.g.: shelf - shelves knife- knives
loaf - loaves wife- wives
However, there are exceptions. The nouns that end in - ief, - oof -ff, -rf -take the ending “-s”
E.g.: chief - chiefs ( except: thief --- thieves )
roof - roofs ; cliff - cliffs; serf - serfs

Some of them have two plural forms.

E.g.: hoof - hoofs or hooves

staff - staffs or staves

dwarf - dwarfs or dwarves

wharf - wharfs or wharves

c. The nouns that end in sibilant sounds ( -ch, - sh, -s, -ss, -x, -z ) need the ending "-es" to form their plurals.

E.g.: church - churches class - classes

brush - brushes box - boxes

bus - buses buzz - buzzes

quiz - quizzes match - matches

d. The nouns that end in -y preceded by a consonant are change as follows: y ==> i +es

E.g.: city - cities lady - ladies

story – stories fly - flies

The nouns that end in -y preceded by a vowel need only the ending "-s" to form their plural.

E.g.: boy - boys key - keys

day - days donkey - donkeys

e. The nouns that end in -o take the ending "-es":

E.g.: tomato - tomatoes

potato - potatoes

hero - heroes

There are also exceptions such as:

E.g.: radio - radios bamboo – bamboos

piano - pianos kangaroo - kangaroos

Eskimo - Eskimos Filipino - Filipinos

f. In Compound nouns, the main elements usually change its form tn form plural.

E.g.: boyfriend - boyfriends son-in-law - sons-in-law

passer-by - passers-by bookshelf - bookshelves

Some compound nouns take the ending M-s" at their last elements.

E.g.: forget-me-not - forget-me-nots

grown up - grown ups

In compound nouns with "man" or "women" to distinguish tin gender, the plural form appears
in both elements.

E.g.: manservant - menservants

woman teacher - women teachers

g. There are nouns in the English language that do not change into their plural forms as the above - rules, they take
the inter - vowel change as follow:
 E.g.:

child - children foot - feet

mouse - mice man - men

woman - women goose - geese

tooth - teeth louse - lice

h. There are nouns with two plural forms and two different meaning.

E.g.: brother-brothers (sons of one mother)/brothei (members of one community)

cloth - cloths (pieces of cloth for cleaning)/clothes (pieces of cloth worn by people) penny
- pennies (number of coins) / pence (amount ol pennies in value)

i. There are nouns without any change in singular and plural forms.

E.g.: aircraft, sheep, deer, swine, bison, cod, grouse, moose, greenfly, mullet, etc.

j. There are a number of special forms and use of nouns in the English language.

+ The uncountable nouns used with singular verbs, but which refer to things that are considered countable
in other languages.

E.g.: advice, baggage, garbage, furniture, information, knowledge, luggage, progress, rubbish, etc.

+ The nouns with singular forms and plural meanings and used with plural verbs.

E.g.: cattle, people, police, army, etc.

+ The nouns with plural forms and used with singular verbs.

E.g.: news, summons, billiards, bowls, darts, cards, measles, diabetes, mumps, etc.

+ There are many nouns in the English language that are different in meanings in their singular and plural
forms.

E.g.: air - airs bond - bonds

compass - compasses force - forces

custom - customs good - goods

drawer - drawers physic - physics

spectacle - spectacles pain - pains

minute - minutes damage - damages

security - securities people - peoples

+ There are nouns with common sense in singular form and referring to individuals in plural forms.

E.g.: fruit - fruits

 hair - hairs

fish - fishes

+ There are nouns in the English language that are always in their plural form and use with plural verbs.

E.g.: trousers, pants, shorts, glasses, scales, scissors, etc.

+ There are nouns in English that end in "s" and look as if they are plural, but in fact they are uncountable
nouns and they are used with verbs in singular.

E.g: acoustics, politics, physics, economics, genetics,

linguistics, statistics, athletics, etc.

+ Foreign plurals. Some nouns keep the plural form of the original languages (Latin, Greek, etc.) from which
they have been borrowed:

E.g.: memorandum - memoranda datum - data

Phenomenon – phenomena crisis - crises

Stimulus - stimuli index - indices

Sometimes these words can also take the English plural

E.g.: memorandum - memorandums formula - formulas, etc.

The nouns in English can either be variable (occurring either singular or plural number) or have invariable
plural. Here is a brief summary of rules and refferences for singular and plural of nouns in Engli

- Non-count nouns: concrete: gold, fumiture

Singular - Non - count: abstract: music,homework
invariables - Proper nouns: Henry,The Thames
- Some nouns ending in -s: news,darts
- Abstract adjectival heads: the young,the true
Invariable
- Summation plural: scissors, pliers
- Other pluralia tantum in -s: thanks
Plural - Some plural proper nouns:The Netherlands
invariables - Unmarked plural nouns: cattle, people
- Personal adjectival heads: the rich, the poor

Variable Regular boy, girl boy, girls

plurals
- Voicing - calf,knife - calves,knives
-Mutation - foot,goose - feet,geese
Irregula -EN plural - ox,child - oxen,children
- Zero ending - sheep,deer - sheep, deer
r
- us-i: radius,stimulus - radii,stimuli
- a-ae:larva,formula-larvae,formulae
- um-a :datum,stratum - data,strata
Foreign - ex,-ix- ices.matrix - matrices
plurals - is -es: thesis,basis - theses,bases
l. There are three ways of pronouncing plural form in the English language.

+ We pronounce / s / after voiceless consonants

E.g.: books, maps, cats, cakes....

+ We pronounce / z / after voiced consonant and vowels.

E.g.: pens, tables, keys, pronounce / iz / after sibilants/'sibilənt/ Âm xuýt

E.g.: pieces, boxes, churches, bushes, buses, oranges....

6. CASE

In the early stages, English had a more developed system of cases by means of which the various
syntactical functions of nouns or pronouns in a sentence were marked. In Old English, there were the
following cases: Nominative, dative, vocative, ablative, accusative and genetive. However, actually
nowadays we consider just the following cases: Nominative, objective and genetive (possessive).

Case is the form of the noun (or pronoun) built up by means of inflexion, which indicates the relations of the
noun (or pronoun) to the other words in the sentence. Thus case - inflexion is one of the means of showing
the syntactical function of the noun (or pronoun) in the sentence.

The nouns in the English language are usually used in three following cases:

6.1. The nominative case. When a noun is used as the subject of a sentence, it is in the nominative case.

E.g.: Mary is a best student in the class.

The workers are working hard in their factory.

6.2. The objective case is the case in which the nouns are used as the object of a sentence.

E.g.: We saw Mary in the concert hall.

We help the workers to learn new skills.

However, in Modern English, the nominative case and the objective case can be called the common case.
The common case is characterized by the zero - inflexion. The common case has a very general and
indefinite meaning. The noun in the common case may have various functions in the sentence, which are
defined syntactically by means of word order and prepositions.

E.g.: The workers finished their work and went home. (Subject) It was a bright, clear and sunny
morning. (Part of complement)

She gave the children some apples and pears. (Direct and indirect object)

He sent a letter to his new girl - friend. (Direct and indirect object)

They looked at the picture that was hung on the wall .(Prepositional object)

The children ran to the river to swim. (Part of adverbial modifier)

The letter was written by an old friend of mine. (Prepositional object)

 The door of that room was firmly locked. (Attribute)

This is an old brick house. (Attribute)

6.3. The possessive case is the case which expresses the possession of a nouns. In Modem English, the
use of the possessive case is restricted chiefly to nouns referring to occupation, people, animals, time,
distance and its syntactical function is exclusively that of an attribute.

E.g.: Mary's handbag is on the table over there.

The farmers' crop this year is very successful.

But even within the attributive function, with nouns expressing living beings, the meaning of the
possessive case is very much narrow. The possessive case expresses possession with various shades of
meaning depending on the lexical meaning of the words. The possessive case is formed by and apostrophe
and "-s" to the singular nouns and plural nouns without the ending "-s".

E.g.: the student's book a three mile's distance

the children's toys a day’s journey

The apostrophe is used with the plural nouns ending in "-s"

E.g.: The students' club.

The doctors' room.

The use of two possessive cases is also possible

E.g.: My brother's neighbor's sister is a doctor.

And there is also double possessive case in the combination “of + possessive case”:

E.g.: She is a new friend of Mary's.

That brother of his is looking for trouble himself.

he pronunciation of the ending "-s" in possessive case is similar to that of the plural nouns.

7. NOUN FUNCTIONS

In English, the nouns can be used with such function as: subject, complement, object (direct object, indirect
object and prepositional object), attribute, part of adverbial modifier.

E.g.: The students study hard for their exams.

They are students of English.

I love Margaret with all my heart.

She wrote a long letter to her mother on the "Mother's Day". They are talking about football
matches.

This is an old brick house. They are working in the field.

2. Noun/Norminal Clause in English laguage

I. Definition: A noun (nominal) clause is a subordinate clause. A noun clause has a subject and verb, and
can be used like a noun, either as a subject or an object.
1. As subject : His discovery was important.
Noun
His discovery is a noun. It is the subject of the sentence.
What he discovered was important.
Noun clause
What he discovered is a noun clause. It is the subject of the sentence. It has a subject he and verb
discovered.
2. As object: People believed his discovery.
Noun
His discovery is a noun. It is the object of the verb believed.
People believed what he discovered.
Noun clause
What he discovered is a noun clause. It is the object of verb believed.
Noun clauses are introduced b y the following words:
When Why Who what If Whose
Where How Whom which That whether

II. Classification of Noun Clause.

1. Noun clauses beginning with a question words
Question words such as when, where, why, how, who/ whom, what, which, and whose can introduce a
noun clause.

Question Noun Clause

1. What did he discover?
2. When did he discover it?
3. Where did he discover it?
4. How did he discover it?
5. Who is Faraday?
6. Whose discovery is that?
7. What did he discover?
I don’t know what he discovered.
I m not sure when he discovered it.
It is not known where he discovered it.
I’m not certain how he discovered it.
I don’t know who he is.
It is not certain whose discovery that is
What be discovered is not certain.

♠Note: Do not use question word order in a noun clause. The subject comes before the verb in a
noun clause.

Exercise 1: Which of the following sentences do not have correct word order in the noun clause?
Write “C” for correct or “NC” for not correct.
NC
-------- 1. It is amazing what discovered Faraday in the field of science without the use of mathematics.
C
-------- 2. Early scientists did not know how a strong, steady electrical current could be produced.
C
-------- 3. How Faraday did his experiments without the use of mathematics is not known.
NC
-------- 4. In the early 1800s it was unknown what was the electric current.
NC 5. People have known what are the effects of electricity since ancient times.
--------
C 6. Before Faraday’s experiments, people were unsure what the connection between electricity and
--------
magnetism was.

2. Noun clauses beginning with whether or if

When a yes/no question is changed to a noun clause, whether or if is used to introduce the clause.

Statement Noun clause

Will it work? He wonders whether it will work.
He wonders if it will work.
Did they believe him? I don’t know whether they believed him

I don’t know if they believed him

2. Noun clause beginning with that

For a statement of a fact or an idea. He word that is used to introduce the noun clause.

Statement Noun Clause

1. The world is round.
2. The world is round.
3. The world is round.
We know that the world is round. (That the world is round is object of
the verb know)
We known the world is round (the word that is frequently omitted in
spoken English)
That the world is round is a fact. (That the world is round is the subject
of the sentence. The word that cannot be omitted when it introduces
a noun clause that is the subject of a sentence).

♠ Note: A noun clause must have a subject and a verb. Look for a subject and a verb when the noun
clause is the object or the subject of a sentence.

Exercise 2: Circle the letter of the correct noun clause that completes the sentence.

1. Faraday argued that________

a. electricity in a wire magnetic effect 4._____in science was important for Faraday.
b. electricity in a wire by magnetic effect a. Children that were interested
 c. electricity in a wire produces a magnetic effect b.That children interested
d. magnetic effect produced by electricity in a wire. c.That children should be interested
d.That interested children.
2. It is a fact that ________ form of energy. 5.After listening to Humphrey Davy, Faraday
a. electricity is the most useful realized that______
b. electricity the most useful a.Wanting to be a. a scientist
c. the most useful in electricity b.being a scientist
d. electricity being the most useful c.wanted to be a scientist
d. he wanted to be a scientist
3. Over long distances is a fact. 6. Today it is know that ________ magnetism.
a. that electricity can be transmitted a.electricity relating to
b. that electricity transmitting b.electricity is related to
c. that electricity. c.relating to electricity
d. that can be transmitted d. as electricity to
III. Exercises on Noun Clause

Exercise 3: Fr om t he f o ur wo r ds or p hras es ( A ), ( B) , ( C) , or (D) , c h o os e t h e o ne th at bes t

c om pl et es t Se n te nc e .

1. Astronomers studied the 1987 2. Despite recent attempts to prove ________did

Supernova to learn ________when a star indeed reach the North Pole in 1909, the
explodes. evidence still remains questionable.
a. what happens a. what Robert Peary
b. that happens b. that Robert Peary
c. that is happen c. Robert Peary who
d. what does happen d. Robert Peary was
3. Around 1789, Antoine Lavoisier was the first person to 4. Where ________ is the commonest form of color-
demonstrate ____all kinds of burning involve the addition blindness.
of oxygen. a. are the red and green not easily distinguished
a. if b. they are not easily distinguished red and green
b. what c. are not easily distinguished red and green
c. that d. red and green are not easily distinguished
d. so that
5. It has been estimated ________ 6. It is only in the last 200 years________ have
milligram of skin scales have over half a million begun climbing
bacteria. Mountains.
a. that a a. because people
b how a b. that people
c. a c. people
d. to be a d. as people
7 . ________of smell might, without our 8. From the existence of radio wave, most
realizing it, affect who we choose as friends has scientists were convinced ________ really
been suggested. happened.
a. That our sense a. the Big Bang was
b. sense b. it was the Big Bang
c. For our sense c. how the Big Bang
d. Because our sense d. that the Big Bang
9 . Sample of rock showed ________4600 million 10. ________was lowered to the sea bed in a
years old. glass container to make observations is debated,
a. that the moon is a. Alexander the Great who
b. how is the moon b. whether Alexander the Great
c. when is the moon c. Alexander the Great
d. to be the moon d. What Alexander the Great

1 1 ________ so incredible is that it can 12. Science fiction writers believe _____ in the future, with
grow 385 miles of roots in four months, or about 3 new material and greater knowledge, their vision will
miles in a day. become reality.
a. That makes the rye plant a. that they
b. What makes the rye plant b. they
c. The rye plant c. that
d. The rye plant which was d. They wil

main clause, noun clause, adjective clause and adverbial clause are in
the test.