Introduction to nouns

A noun is a word that describes a person, place, thing, or idea. Examples of nouns include names, locations, objects in the physical world, or objects and concepts that do not exist in the physical world; for example, a dream or a theory.

The difference between singular and plural nouns is that a singular noun refers to one thing, and a plural noun refers to multiple things. "Button" is singular. "Buttons" is plural. Most English nouns can be made plural by adding an "s" to the end.

Introduction to singular and plural nouns

Types of nouns

The difference between common and proper nouns is that common nouns refer to general things (like "a city" or "a mountain"), and proper nouns refer to specific, named things (like "Chicago" or "Mt. Kilimanjaro"). Proper nouns are always capitalized, and co

Common and proper nouns

A concrete noun refers to a physical object in the real world, such as a dog, a ball, or an ice cream cone. An abstract noun refers to an idea or concept that does not exist in the real world and cannot be touched, like freedom, sadness, or permission.

Concrete and abstract nouns

Irregular plural nouns: base plurals and irregular endings

Not all English nouns can be made plural only by adding an "s" to the end. These are called irregular plurals. Many words that end in "f", like "leaf", "loaf", and "calf", change their sound when they become plural: "leaves", "loaves", and "calves".

Irregular plural nouns: -f to -ves plurals

We talk about irregular plurals in English, focusing on the "en" ending. David explains that "child" becomes "children" and "ox" becomes "oxen.

Irregular plural nouns: -en plurals

Some nouns look the same whether they're singular or plural – these nouns are called "base plurals", and we'll demonstrate how they behave the only way I know how... by using sheep!

Irregular plural nouns: the base plural

Irregular plural nouns: mutant and foreign plurals

English has seven MUTANT PLURALS—irregular nouns that change their vowel sounds when they go from singular to plural. Because of weird language reasons, they don't form plurals normally. Those nouns are "foot", "woman", "man", "tooth", "goose", "mouse", an

Irregular plural nouns: mutant plurals

You don't need to know how to speak Latin and Greek in order to understand English, but some words in English come from those languages. It's helpful to know how some Greek and Latin words change from singular to plural.

Irregular plural nouns: foreign plurals

Why does "goose" become "geese" and "foot" become "feet"? David the Grammarian and Jake the Linguist explain.

關於我們

相關連結

支持我們