Countable and Uncountable Nouns

What are Countable and Uncountable Nouns

• Most nouns can be assessed in quantity.

• We categorise them as countable and uncountable nouns.

Some indefinite adjectives are specific to countable and uncountable nouns.

Countable	Uncountable
Few	Little
Fewer	Less/lesser
Many	Much

Gender

Nouns: Gender

In grammar, gender refers to the sex of the noun. We use grammatical gender to refer to human beings, animals, plants, ideas and things. We shall learn about identifying the gender of the nouns in this chapter.

What are the Types of Grammatical Gender?

We can divide gender into four categories:

• Masculine gender
• Feminine gender
• Common gender
• Neuter gender

Masculine Gender

• Masculine gender is used to refer to nouns which are male (human and animal).

Gentleman

Peacock

Actor

Stag

Bull

King

• It also refers to nouns associated with strength, harshness and aggression.

• The Sun bears down on the Earth with his hot rays.
• Power is a strange friend; his friendship is never permanent.

Pronouns for Masculine Gender

• Masculine gender nouns agree with masculine pronouns.

Feminine Gender

• Feminine gender is used to refer to nouns which are female (human and animal).

Lady

Peahen

Actress

Doe

Cow

Queen

• It is also used to refer to nouns which are associated with gentleness, love and softness.

• The ship cradled us like we were her children.
• Spring blesses us with her bounty.

Pronouns for Feminine Gender

Subject: She Object: Her Possessive: Hers

Possessive adjective: Her

Reflexive: Herself

Common Gender

• Common gender is used to refer to nouns which stand for both male and female.

Doctor

Professor

Preacher

Animal

Person

Imposter

Pronouns for Common Gender

Since these nouns can refer to both genders, masculine and feminine pronouns can be used to refer to them.

Neuter Gender

• Neuter gender is used to refer to things which are non-living.

Pillar

Place

Computer

Fruit

Building

Cup

• Apart from concrete nouns, neuter gender nouns also refer to abstract nouns.

Life

Sadness

Joy

Optimism

Beauty

Success

Changing Gender of Nouns

Nouns can be changed from masculine to feminine in the following ways:

• By using a completely different word

Masculine	Feminine
Man	Woman
Gander	Goose
Bachelor	Spinster
Monk	Nun

• By using suffixes like ‘-ess’

Masculine	Feminine
Baron	Baroness
Lion	Lioness
Patron	Patroness
Shepherd	Shepherdess

• By using suffixes like ‘-trix’

Masculine	Feminine
Bellator	Bellatrix
Executer	Executrix
Testator	Testatrix

• By dropping the vowel at the end of the masculine noun and adding ‘ess’

Masculine	Feminine
Actor	Actress
Hunter	Huntress
Tiger	Tigress
Seamster	Seamstress

• By using the pronoun ‘She’ as a prefix and joining it to the main word with a hyphen

Masculine	Feminine
Wolf	She-wolf
Devil	She-devil
Goat	She-goat
Fox	She-fox

How to Change the Gender of Compound Nouns?

• Compound nouns are made of two or more nouns.

Toothbrush

Milkman

Cleaning lady

Peahen

• The gender of a compound noun can be changed by modifying a part of the noun by making it feminine or masculine.
• If the compound noun is formed out of one part noun, change the gender of that noun.

Great-uncle	Great-aunt	Landlord	Landlady
Bellboy	Bellgirl	Billy goat	Nanny goat
Queen bee	Drone bee	Queen cat	Tom cat
Peacock	Peahen	She-wolf	He-wolf

Nouns: Number

What is Number in Grammar?

Previously, we learnt that nouns can be either singular or plural.

What is Singular and Plural?

• When one is speaking about a single thing, person, place or idea, the noun used is singular.
• When one is speaking about more than one thing, person, place or idea, the noun used is plural.

Let us consider the following examples:

• As is evident from the table above, the noun undergoes a change while turning from singular to plural.
• Most nouns become plural on the addition of ‘–s’ at its end. Example: Stone – Stones
• In English, the rules for changing the number of the nouns are quite diverse.
• In this chapter, we shall learn these rules that govern the number of nouns.

Changing Singular Nouns into Plural Nouns

Nouns ending with –s, –ss, –sh, –ch, –x

• Nouns ending with ‘–s’, ‘–ss’, ‘–sh’, ‘–ch’ and ‘–x’ become plural on the addition of ‘–es’.

Nouns ending with consonant + o

• Some nouns ending with a consonant + o structure become plural on the addition of ‘–es’.

Singular	Plural
Superhero	Superheroes
Echo	Echoes
Tomato	Tomatoes
Archipelago*	Archipelagoes

• Some nouns ending with a consonant + o structure become plural on the addition of ‘–s’.

Singular	Plural
Banjo	Banjos
Piano	Pianos
Kangaroo	Kangaroos

• Some nouns ending with a consonant + o structure become plural on the addition of both ‘–es’ or

‘–s’.

Singular	Plural
Buffalo	Buffaloes/buffalos
Halo	Haloes/halos
Desperado*	Desperadoes/desperados

• The plural form of some nouns ending with ‘–y’ is formed by removing ‘y’ from the word and replacing it with ‘–ies’.
• These nouns end with a consonant + y structure.

Singular		Plural
Baby		Babies
Penny		Pennies
Theory		Theories

• Some nouns ending with ‘–y’ become plural on the addition of ‘s’.
• These nouns end with a vowel + y structure.

Singular	Plural
Boy	Boys
Way	Ways
Essay	Essays

• Proper nouns ending with ‘–y’ become plural on the addition of ‘s’.

No:-

Singular	Plural
Reddy	The Reddys
McCauley	The McCauleys
Kennedy uns ending with ‘–f’ and ‘–fe’ The plural form of some nouns ending with ‘–f’ ves’.  Singular CalfLoaf Wife	The Kennedys or ‘–fe’ is formed by replacing the letters with
	Plural
	Calves
	Loaves
	Wives

• Some of these nouns become plural on the addition of ‘s’.

Singular	Plural
Puff	Puffs
Hoof	Hoofs
Giraffe	Giraffes

• Abbreviations and numbers become plural on the addition of ‘s’.

Compound Nouns

• The plural of compound nouns is formed either by adding‘s’ in the end or by making the most

Singular		Plural
Brother-in-law		Brothers-in-law
She-wolf		She-wolves
Paintbrush		Paintbrushes

• There are also some variations in certain compound nouns.

Singular	Plural (old)	Plural (new)
Cupful	Cupsful	Cupfuls
Spoonful	Spoonsful	Spoonfuls
Basketful	Basketsful	Basketfuls

Nouns which are always singular

• Some abstract nouns are always considered singular.

• Some uncountable nouns are considered singular.

Grammer | Nouns

• Singular nouns ending with ‘–s’ are used with singular verbs.
• They may seem plural but are actually singular.

Nouns which are always plural

• Some collective nouns are always used with plural verbs.
• They may seem singular but are actually plural.

• Some common nouns are always in the plural form.

Nouns that do not change form

• Some nouns do not change form when they become plural from singular.

Singular	Plural
Sheep	Sheep
Deer	Deer
Fish	Fish
Trout	Trout
Salmon	Salmon
Moose	Moose
Aircraft	Aircraft

• Some nouns in English are borrowed from other languages like Greek and Latin.
• These nouns do not follow the same rules as other nouns when it comes to numbers.
• The rules governing these words are distinct to their language of origin.
• Some singular foreign nouns ending with ‘–um’ or ‘–on’ become plural when the letters are replaced by ‘a’.

Singular	Plural
Bacterium	Bacteria
Criterion	Criteria
Datum	Data
Memorandum	Memoranda

• Some nouns of foreign origin ending with ‘–a’ become plural when ‘e’ is added.

Singular	Plural
Formula	Formulae
Antenna	Antennae
Alga	Algae
Larva	Larvae

• Some nouns of foreign origin ending with ‘–us’ become plural when ‘i’ is added instead.

Singular	Plural
Syllabus	Syllabi
Alumnus	Alumni
Focus	Foci
Cactus	Cacti
Bacillus	Bacilli
Stimulus	Stimuli

• Nouns of foreign origin ending with ‘–ex’ and ‘–ix’ become plural when ‘ices’ is added to them.

Singular	Plural
Index	Indices
Codex	Codices
Apex	Apices/apexes
Appendix	Appendices
Matrix	Matrices

Grammer | Nouns

• Nouns of foreign origin ending with ‘–is’ become plural when ‘is’ is dropped and is replaced by

‘es’.

Singular	Plural
Crisis	Crises
Analysis	Analyses
Ellipsis	Ellipses
Parenthesis	Parentheses
Hypothesis	Hypotheses
Oasis	Oases

• Nouns of foreign origin ending with ‘–eau’ take either ‘–eaux’ or ‘–s’ in the end when they become plural.

Singular	Plural
Tableau	Tableaus/tableaux
Chateau	Chateaus/chateaux
Bureau	Bureaus/bureaux

Nouns – Possessive Case

What is the Possessive Case?

Let us examine the following phrases:

• In each of the phrases above, the nouns in blue belong to the nouns indicated in red.
• The apostrophe sign (’) is an indicator of the red noun’s possession.
• This is known as possessive case in grammar.
• It answers the question ‘Whose?’
• For example, ‘Whose uncle? Maria’s uncle’.

Relationships Expressed through the Possessive Case

Apart from possession, the possessive case also denotes relationships such as origin, type, quality and

authorship.

Relationship	Possessive Case
Ownership	Lalith’s restaurant	Shiva’s office	Gurmeet’s pet
Origin	Israel’s Prime Minister	Cuba’s cigars	Gandhiji’s Satyagraha
Type	Mother’s love	Children’s wear	Doctor’s coat
Quality	Meena’s intelligence	Simon’s patience	Mustafa’s perseverance
Authorship	Hemingway’s novel	Wordsworth’s poems	Da Vinci’s Last Supper

Formation of Possessive Cases

Certain rules are applicable while forming possessive cases from nouns.

Singular Nouns

• When it comes to singular nouns, we have to affix an apostrophe with an ‘s’ at the end of the word.

• An exception to this case will be when the noun itself ends with the letter ‘s’. In such cases, only an apostrophe ( ’ ) will suffice.

• This exception is also seen in words ending with a hissing sound (sss). Even in such cases, only an apostrophe can be put at the end of the word.

Plural Nouns

• For plural nouns ending in s, the apostrophe is added at the end of the word after the ‘s’.

• An exception to this case is seen in plural nouns which do not end in ‘s’.

• In such cases, ’s is added to the end of the word.

Proper Noun

• For proper nouns,’s is added at the end of the word.

• An exception to this rule is seen in proper nouns ending in ‘s’.
• In such cases, an apostrophe is put at the end of the word.

Titles and Compound Nouns

• For titles (made of more than one word) and compound nouns, the apostrophe is put at the end of the last word.

Nouns: Types of Nouns

Revision

Previously, we learnt that nouns are names given to people, places, ideas or things. Let us now learn about the types of nouns.

Types of Nouns

• The types of nouns which we will learn in this chapter are
  • Common noun
  • Proper noun
  • Abstract noun
  • Collective noun

Common Noun

• Common nouns are names which are given commonly to people, places, things or ideas of the same kind.
• In other words, it is a name shared by all the members of a given category.

• In the above examples, the underlined words soldier, wife, house and window are not special names.
• They are common names given to all the members of the category.

Proper Noun

• Proper nouns are specific names given to people, places or things.

• They begin with capital or uppercase letters.

• In the above examples, the underlined words Roy, Acme Technologies and Paris are specific names.

• Sometimes, proper nouns can be used as common nouns.

• In the first case, the plural form of Mary is used to signify a category of girls who are named Mary.
• In the second case, using indefinite articles with the proper noun Ayodhya and Sarayu signifies one of many.

Abstract Noun

• An abstract noun is a name given to qualities, feelings, ideas, beliefs, areas of study and time periods.

• Abstract nouns represent things that exist as notions and which do not have a physical form.

• In the above examples, the underlined words childhood, life, philosophy and subject are names given to notions which do not have physical forms.

Collective Noun

∙

• In the above examples, the underlined words herd and bevy of beauties represent a group or a collection of things.