Unit 2

Limbs of a language and Naming words

Objective: To learn the rudiments of parts of speech and naming words.

Limbs of a language:
The following parts are considered to be the limbs of English language.
1. Noun
2. Pronoun
3. Verb
4. Adjective
5. Adverb
6. Preposition
7. Conjunction
8. Interjection

A noun is a naming word.
E.g. Ram, John, Chennai, New York, Fan, Board

A pronoun is used instead of a noun.
E.g. He, She, It, You, We, I, They

A verb is an action word.
E.g. Run, Eat, Read, Sleep, Dance

An adjective adds something to a noun.
E.g. Beautiful, terrific, interesting, sloppy

An adverb adds something to a verb or an adjective or an adverb itself.
E.g. beautifully, easily, carefully, usually, often

A preposition is a relationship word. It relates a noun or pronoun to other words in the sentence. It is
always positioned before a noun or pronoun.
E.g. in, on, at, over, above, across, through

A conjunction is a connecting word. It connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together.
E.g. and, or, as, but, because

An interjection expresses emotion or sentiment.
E.g. Wow!, Alas!, Well!, Oh!, Cheers!, Hurray!, Oh dear!

Naming words
A noun is a naming word.
It can be a name, place or a thing.
Generally, nouns are classified into two categories. They are,
1. Countable nouns and
2. Uncountable nouns

Countable nouns: Things that we can count.
E.g. dog, cat, animal, man, person
Countable nouns can be singular or plural:
My dog is playing.
My dogs are hungry.
Note:"People" is countable. "People" is the plural of "person". We can count people:
There is one person here.
There are three people here.

Uncountable nouns: substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot
"count" them.

E.g. rice, sugar, butter, water, music, art, love, happiness, electricity, gas, power
We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example:
This news is very important.
Your luggage looks heavy.
Note: Uncountable nouns are also called "mass nouns".

Here are some more examples of countable and uncountable nouns:

Countable Uncountable
Dollar Money
Song Music
Suitcase Luggage
Table Furniture
Battery Electricity
Bottle Wine
Report Information
Tip Advice
Journey Travel
Job Work
View scenery

Different types of nouns:
There are five different types of nouns. They are,
1. Proper noun
2. Common noun
3. Collective noun
4. Concrete noun and
5. Abstract noun

Proper noun: Proper nouns are nouns that refer to specific entities. Writers of English capitalize proper
nouns like Chennai, Krishna, Anna, or White House to show their distinction from common nouns.

Common noun: Common nouns refer to general, unspecific categories of entities. Whereas Tamilnadu
is a proper noun because it signifies a specific state, the word state itself is a common noun because it
can refer to any of the states in India. Anna refers to a particular institution of higher learning, while the
common noun university can refer to any such institution.

Collective noun: In general, collective nouns are nouns that refer to a group of something in a specific
manner. Often, collective nouns are used to refer to groups of animals. Consider the following sentences.
Look at the gaggle of geese. There used to be herds of wild buffalo on the prairie. A bevy of swans is
swimming in the pond. A colony of ants live in the anthill.
In the above examples, gaggle, herds, bevy, and colony are collective nouns.

Concrete noun: Concrete nouns are nouns that can be touched, smelled, seen, felt, or tasted. Steak,
table, dog, Maria, salt, and wool are all examples of concrete nouns.
Can I pet your dog?
Please pass the salt.
Your sweater is made of fine wool.
Concrete nouns can be perceived by at least one of our senses.

Abstract Noun: More ethereal, theoretical concepts use abstract nouns to refer to them. Concepts like
freedom, love, power, and redemption are all examples of abstract nouns.
They hate us for our freedom.
All you need is love.
We must fight the power.
In these sentences, the abstract nouns refer to concepts, ideas, philosophies, and other entities that
cannot be concretely perceived.
The Rules of Regular and Irregular Plurals
For most nouns, just add -s

For nouns ending in s, x, z, ch or sh, add -es
Singular Plural

Singular Plural
hand hands

box boxes
rabbit rabbits

pitch pitches
key keys

wish wishes
clock clocks

boss bosses
football footballs

buzz buzzes
door doors

glass glasses

For some words ending in o, add -es

However, for some words ending in o, just
add -s
Singular Plural

Singular Plural
potato potatoes

cello cellos
tomato tomatoes

disco discos
hero heroes

hairdo hairdos
echo echoes

logo logos
banjo banjoes

patio patios
The plural of many words ending in o can be
spelt with -s or -es.

photo photos

piano pianos

radio radios

For some words ending in f, change the f to
a v and add -es
However, for some words ending in f, just
add -s
Singular Plural

Singular Plural
half halves

chef chefs
loaf loaves

cliff cliffs
elf elves

ref refs
leaf leaves

roof roofs
self selves

The plural of some nouns ending in f can be
spelt using either variation.
shelf shelves

thief thieves

wolf wolves


For some nouns ending in ife, change the f
to a v and then add -s
For common nouns that end with consonant
+ y, change the y to an i and then add -es
Singular Plural

Singular Plural
wife wives

poppy poppies
life lives

fly flies
knife knives

penny pennies

spy spies

nappy nappies

sty sties

Some nouns are the same in both singular
and plural from
For some nouns, change other letters or just
change the word completely!
Singular Plural

Singular Plural
fish fish

person people
sheep sheep

child children
deer deer

ox oxen
tuna tuna

foot feet
salmon salmon

tooth teeth
trout trout

goose geese


mouse mice


louse lice

man men