English Grammar Learning - Nouns

NOUNS

It's not easy to describe a noun. In simple terms, nouns are "things" (and verbs are "actions"). Like food. Food (noun) is something you eat (verb). Or happiness. Happiness (noun) is something you want (verb). Another example is "human being"". A human being (noun) is something you are (verb).

What are Nouns?

The simple definition is: a person, place or thing
teacher, school, book

Types

Countable Nouns, Uncountable Nouns
dog/dogs, rice, hair(s)

Proper Nouns (Names)

Do we say "Atlantic Ocean" or "the Atlantic Ocean"? Should I write "february" or "February"?
Shirley, Mr Jeckyll, Thailand, April, Sony

Possessive 's

Adding 's or ' to show possession.
John's car, my parents' house

Noun as Adjective

Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first noun is "acting as" an adjective.
love story, tooth-brush, bathroom

PROPER  NOUNS AND COMMON NOUNS

Nouns name people, places, and things. Every noun can further be classified as common or proper. A proper noun has two distinctive features: 1) it will name a specific [usually a one-of-a-kind] item, and 2) it will begin with a capital letter no matter where it occurs in a sentence.

Check out the chart below:

Common Noun	Proper Noun
writer	Herman Melville
teacher	Mrs. Hacket
beagle	Snoopy
cookie	Oreo
cityOrlando	Orlando
restaurant	Tito's Taco Palace
document	Declaration of Independence
school	University of Southern California

Read the following sentences. Notice the difference between the common and proper nouns.

Tina offered Antonio one of her mother's homemade oatmeal cookies but only an Oreo would satisfy his sweet tooth.

Cookies = common noun; Oreo = proper noun.

Charlie had wanted an easy teacher for his composition class, but he got Mrs. Hacket, whose short temper and unreasonable demands made the semester a torture.

Teacher = common noun; Mrs. Hacket = proper noun.

Gloria wanted to try a new restaurant, so Richard took her to Tito's Taco Palace, where no one dips into the hot sauce until the drinks have arrived at the table.

Restaurant = common noun; Tito's Taco Palace = proper noun. 

COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

In English grammar, words that refer to people, places, or things are called nouns. They can be classified in many ways.

One way to classify nouns is according to whether they can be counted or not. Many English mistakes are related to this point. By reading through this page, you will understand:

what countable and uncountable nouns are 
how to use them correctly in a sentence

Countable (or count)nouns are words which can be counted. They have a singular form and a plural form. They usually refer to things. Most countable nouns become plural by adding an ‘s’ at the end of the word.

For example:

Singular	Plural
chair	chairs
bottle	bottles
student	students

Uncountable (or non-count)nouns are words which cannot be counted. Therefore, they only have a singular form. They have no plural forms. These words are thought of as wholes rather than as parts. They usually refer to abstractions (such as confidence or advice) or collectives (such as equipment or luggage).

For example:

Singular
money
furniture
information

COMPOUND NOUNS

Words can be combined to form compound nouns. These are very common, and new combinations are invented almost daily. They normally have two parts. The second part identifies the object or person in question ( man, friend, tank, table, room ). The first part tells us what kind of object or person it is, or what its purpose is ( police, boy, water, dining, bed ):

What type / what purpose	What or who
police	man
boy	friend
water	tank
dining	table
bed	room

The two parts may be written in a number of ways :

1. as one word.
Example: policeman , boyfriend

2. as two words joined with a hyphen.
Example: dining-table

3. as two separate words.
Example: fish tank .

There are no clear rules about this - so write the common compounds that you know well as one word, and the others as two words.

The two parts may be:	Examples:
noun + noun	bedroom water tank motorcycle printer cartridge
noun + verb	rainfall haircut train-spotting
noun + adverb	hanger-on passer-by
verb + noun	washing machine driving licence swimming pool
verb + adverb*	lookout take-off drawback
adjective + noun	greenhouse software redhead
adjective + verb	dry-cleaning public speaking
adverb + noun	onlooker bystander
adverb + verb*	output overthrow upturn input

Compound nouns often have a meaning that is different from the two separate words.

Stress is important in pronunciation, as it distinguishes between a compound noun (e.g. greenhouse ) and an adjective with a noun (e.g. green house ).

In compound nouns, the stress usually falls on the first syllable:

a ' greenhouse = place where we grow plants (compound noun)
a green 'house = house painted green (adjective and noun)
a ' bluebird = type of bird (compound noun)
a blue 'bird = any bird with blue feathers (adjective and noun)

* Many common compound nouns are formed from phrasal verbs (verb + adverb or adverb + verb).

Examples

breakdown, outbreak, outcome, cutback, drive-in, drop-out, feedback, flyover, hold-up, hangover, outlay, outlet, inlet, makeup, output, set-back, stand-in, takeaway, walkover.