Nouns in English

1. Generalities

Nouns are the basic element of a sentence.

They describe persons or living things, places, things and ideas (feelings, notions,
concepts)

They can be used alone or with determiners (articles; adjectives…) and can be
replaced by pronouns.

There are several possible categorizations for nouns:

- concrete (a child, the table, a he-goat, the Taj-Mahal…) vs abstract
(love, the Sublime, beauty, energy…)
- common (a table, the sky, a building, a snake, a student) vs proper
(Toulouse, France, Nelson Mandela, the Eiffel Tower…)
- countable (a domino, the lion, a skyscraper…) or uncountable
(glass/wood/sugar…)

NB: we’ll come back to what is at stake with countable and uncountable nouns when
we work on articles later on.

2. Singular vs Plural

The very first thing to remember is that only countable nouns (those that canbe
counted) do have a plural form. Uncountable nouns only have one form: the singular.
Also, some nouns only have a singular form (advice, news) or a plural form (scissors,
trousers)…

The most common and regular form of the plural is -S

Singular Form Plural Form

person - being personS - beingS
animal - bat animalS - batS
student - teacher studentS - teacherS
bath - oath bathS - oathS
palace - firm palaceS - firmS
stock exchange stock exchangeS
rate - increase rateS - increaseS

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When the noun ends with the sounds [ʃ], [tʃ], or [s], the plural form is -ES:

Singular form Plural form

kiss - bus kissES - busES
wish wishES
beach beachES

When the noun ends with the letter “o”, the plural form is also -ES:

Singular form Plural form

domino dominoES
hero heroES
potato potatoES
There are exceptions to this rule: piano – pianoS ; photo - photoS

When the noun ends with the letter “y”, the plural form is -IES:

Singular form Plural form

cherry cherrIES
buddy buddIES
photography photographIES

Some nouns ending with -lf, -eaf, -ife have a plural form in -VES:

Singular form Plural form

calf calVES
half halVES
wolf wolVES
leaf leaVES
wive wiVES
knife kniVES

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Some words have kept the plural of their original language:

1) German plural

Singular form Plural form

foot – tooth - goose feet – teeth - geese
mouse - louse mice - lice
man - woman men - women
child children

2) Latin plural

Singular form Plural form

datum - medium data – media*
octopus - syllabus octopi - syllabi
series - species series - species
larva larvae [-vi:]

* As English evolves with time, the singular Latin forms (i.e: datum and medium) tend
to disappear. Data and media are becoming singular forms. Their plural is the regular
English plural (i.e: datas and medias)

3) Greek plural

Singular form Plural form

phenomenon phenomena
criterion criteria
crisis [-sis] crises [-si:z]
analysis [-sis] analyses [-si:z]

Some nouns have the same form whether singular or plural

It is the case for deer, sheep, counsel (avocat) or craft (embarcation)

A flock of sheep has crossed the road

NB: the subject here is “flock” à has crossed

The two spacecraft were launched …

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Nouns designating sciences, school subjects or human activities

such as mathematics (maths), physics, economics, gymnastics, politics, athletics…

are generally followed by a singular verb

Physics is easier than I expected.

She believes politics is too complex to understand.

They are followed by a plural verb when they are preceded by an article or a
possessive pronoun

The acoustics of this hall are excellent.

My maths are just awful!

Plural nouns without singular form

à trousers, shorts, jeans, pyjamas, scissors, people* (les gens), folk**

(les gens)

These trousers fit you well.

My son’s shorts are torn; I need to buy new ones.
Some folk never stop complaining.

* The plural peoples does exist; in this case, the word means “les peuples”.
** The plural folks also exist but it’s familiar and more used in American English.

Some words are usually followed by a plural verb

as it is the case with audience, committee, company, family, firm, government, staff,
team, police

My family have lived in Paris for 20 years.

The police have arrested the thief.

The singular form can be used, though. In this case, the noun represents the institution,
not the people

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 3. Compound nouns

Compound nouns are nouns made of two or three words/elements.

Here are some possible combinations:

- Noun + noun bedroom; tennis ball; headache

- Noun + verb rainfall; haircut
- Noun + preposition passer-by
- verb + adverb take-off; drawback
- Verb + noun washing machine; driving license
- Adj + verb dry-cleaning; public speaking
- Adj + noun grandchild; blackboard; top hat
- Preposition + verb output
- Preposition + noun underworld; afterlife

In all these cases, the 1st element gives a characteristic to the second element which
identifies a thing or a person.

What about the plural of compound nouns?

When the plural form is possible, the “s” (or other plural form) usually is on the
second element, as for:

- bedroomS; tennis ballS; headacheS

- rainfallS; haircutS
- take-offS; drawbackS
- washing machineS; driving licenseS
- granbdchildREN; blackboardS, top hatS
- outputS
- underworldS; afterliVES

For 3-element compound nouns, the plural “s” is on the first element.

- MotherS-in-law; sisterS-in-law….

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 4. –‘s (genitive form) or of… (noun complement)

The genitive form (which indicates possession) is used in 4 cases:

• for people or animals

-‘s for singular nouns or plural not ending with an “s”
Tom’s car
My sister’s appartement
The children’s toys
The cat’s tail
Dickens’s novel [dikinsiz]
John and Eva’s wedding
-s’ for plural nouns
My parents’ house
The Carters’ car
The cats’ tail

• for countries or cities

London’s underground
Italy’s Prime Minister

• for an organization
The government’s policy
The company’s success

• with time expressions

Today’s newspaper
Next week’s meeting

For things, ideas, etc. you should use the noun complement as in
The door of the garage (and not the garage’s door)
The beginning/end/middle of the month (and not the month’s end…)
The title of the book (and not the book’s title)
The back of the car
The top of the hill…
In this case, you can sometimes use a compound noun. For instance
The garage door
The book title

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 5. Countable vs uncountable nouns

• Countable
Countable nouns are quite easy to recognize as they represent living beings, places,
things, ideas… that can be counted. They can be either singular or plural; they accept
the definite or the indefinite article + quantifiers such as few, several, many and of
course numbers.

Fall into this category most concrete nouns (horse, bag, table, pencil, statue, tree,
insect, child, student…) and a few abstract nouns (trip, journey, mistake, idea, joke,
laugh, nuisance, event, threat, novel…

A horse, horses, the horse, the horses, few horses, several horses, many
horses, two horses, 100 horses…

• Uncountable
As their name indicate, those nouns design objects, activities or notions that cannot be
counted. They have no plural form; they can’t be preceded by the quantifiers few,
several or many, can’t be preceded by a number or the indefinite article. They can
accept the quantifiers some, any, no, (a) little, a lot of, a piece of and the demonstrative
adjectives this and that.

In this category, you’ll find all names of materials (wood, petrol…), food (water, tea,
bread…), all collective nouns (luggage, baggage…), names human activities (travel,
football, jazz, cooking…), most abstract nouns (information, news, knowledge, advice,
fun…)

The wood, wood, some, wood, any wood, no wood, a lot of wood, a piece
of wood, this wood, that wood

Special case
It concerns uncountable nouns which can be preceded by “a” in a few idiomatic
expressions. Are in this category the 9 following words: pity, shame disgrace, fuss,
belief, fuss, relief, hurry, waste.

What a pity!
It’s such a shame!
You are making a fuss about nothing.
I’m in a (great) hurry!
It’s a waste of time.

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 • Some nouns are sometimes countable, sometimes uncountable
Two types of nouns are being at times countable and at times uncountable:

- Abstract nouns which are uncountable in their general meaning and

countable in a more restricted/precise context
Examples:
Truth, prejudice, scandal
Chance, success, punishment, failure
Virtue, weakness, sin
Love, sympathy, friendship, kindness, jealousy
Pleasure, joy, comfprt
Fear, fright, concern
Life, death, war
Freedom, habit, genius, test, experience, etc.

Truth (uncount.) is sometimes stranger than fiction. La réalité dépasse parfois la fiction
I told him some home truths (count.) Je lui ai dit ses quatre vérités.

- A few nouns which are countable in their concrete sense and

uncountable in their abstract or collective meaning

Noun Meaning if countable Meaning if uncountable

glass Un verre (d’eau) Le verre (matériau)

room Une pièce De la place
dress Une robe Une tenue (combat/soirée)
play Une pièce de théêtre Le divertissement
country Un pays La campagne
business Une entreprise Les affaires
hair un poil Les cheveux / la chevelure

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