NOUNS - PARTS OF SPEECH BASIC INFORMATION AND TUTORIALS

WHAT IS A NOUN?
WHEN TO USE A NOUN?
TYPES OF NOUNS?

Nouns

A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing. Nouns come in these varieties: common nouns, proper nouns, compound nouns, and collective nouns.

1. Common nouns name any one of a class of person, place, or thing. girl city food

2. Proper nouns name a specific person, place, or thing. Proper nouns are always capitalized. Barbara New York City Rice-a-Roni

3. Compound nouns are two or more nouns that function as a single unit. A compound noun can be two individual words, words joined by a hyphen, or two words combined.

Individual words: time capsule
Hyphenated words: great-uncle
Combined words: basketball

4. Collective nouns name groups of people or things. audience family herd crowd

Possessive Nouns

In grammar, possession shows ownership. Follow these rules to create possessive nouns.

1. With singular nouns, add an apostrophe and an s.
dog → dog’s bone
singer → singer’s voice

2. With plural nouns ending in s, add an apostrophe after the s.
dogs → dogs’ bones
singers → singers’ voices

3. With plural nouns not ending in s, add an apostrophe and an s.
men → men’s books
mice → mice’s tails

Plural Nouns

Here are the guidelines for creating plural nouns.

1. Add s to form the plural of most nouns.
cat → cats computer → computers

2. Add es if the noun ends in s, sh, ch, or x.
wish → wishes inch → inches box → boxes

3. If a noun ends in consonant -y, change the y to i and add es.
city → cities lady → ladies

4. If a noun ends in vowel -y, add s. Words ending in -quy don’t follow this rule (as in soliloquies).
essay → essays monkey → monkeys