The Noun : - Kinds of Nouns

Nouns are the names of persons, places or things. There are four kinds of nouns:
(1) Common Nouns :–
These are the names which are shared by a large class of persons or things.
Ex :- boy girl village country day month
(2) Proper Nouns :–
These are the personal names of people, places or things. The names usually do not belong to others
of the same kind. These nouns always start with a capital letter.
Ex :- Nimal Nayani Matara India Sunday April
^3& Collective Nouns : –
These are the names of groups of persons or things of the same kind.
Ex :- crowd mob team flock herd army
fleet jury family nation committee
(4) Abstract Nouns :– These are the names of states, qualities or actions.
An Abstract Noun is usually the name of a quality, action or state.
Quality :- goodness, kindness, whiteness, darkness, hardness, brightness, honesty, wisdom
Action :- laughter, the movement , judgment, hatred
State :- childhood , boyhood, youth, slavery, sleep, sickness, death, poverty
Nouns :- Possessive
Singular nouns – Use apostrophe s ( ’s)
Ex:- Nimal’s house. The man’s hat. The boy’s book . The lion’s tail.
Plural Nouns
Plural nouns 1. If the plural ends with ‘s’ add only an apostrophe after s
Ex:- The boys’ house. The girls’ books.
2. If the plural does not end with ‘s’ add apostrophe s ( ’s)

Plural Possessive
Men Men’s clothes
Women Women’s clothes
Children Children’s school
We use the possessive (‘s or s’) form of nouns that name people and most animals. It is not
generally used for nouns that name things.
So we say  the boy’s leg ; the cat’s eyes etc.
But we say  the leg of the table. the roof of the house etc.
Nouns :- Singular and Plural
(1) With most nouns in English we make the plural by adding s to the singular.
Ex:- Boy  Boys Girl  ……… Tree  ………..
Pen  ………… Cow  ……… Temple  ……….
(2) Nouns ending in –s, -sh, -ch, -x, -z make their plurals by adding –es.
Ex:- Brush  Brushes Bus  ……. Tax  ………. Fox  ……….
Box  …. Class  ……….. Branch  ………… Watch  ………
(3) Some nouns that end in –o form their plurals by adding -es.
Ex:- Potato  Potatoes Mosquito ………… Echo  ……….
Hero  ……… Volcano  ……….. Cargo  ………..
Buffalo ……….. Negro  ………. Mango  ………….

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Exceptions :- Dynamo  Dynamos Photo  Photos kilo  kilos
Piano  Pianos Radio  Radios Casino  Casinos
( 4) Nouns that end in –f or –fe generally change the ending to –ves for the plural.
Ex:- Leaf  Leaves Wife  Wives Calf  ……….
Half  ………. Knife  Knives Shelf  ………..
Wolf  ………. Life  …….. Thief  ………..
But the following nouns ending in –f or –fe form their plurals by addins -s
Serf  serfs roof  ………… grief  …………. Proof  …………
Chief  ………. Safe  ………. Strife  ………. Gulf  ……….
Belief  ……….. cliff  ……….. handkerchief  …………..
The following nouns take either –s or –ves in the plural.
Dwarf  dwarfs or dwarves hoof  hoofs or hooves scarf  scarfs or scarves
^5& Nouns ending in –y preceded by a consonant sound, form their plurals by changing –y into -ies
Ex :- Baby  Babies Army  ………. Story  ……….
Lady  ………. City  ………. Pony  ………..
Fly  ………. Body  ………. Ceremony ………….
These nouns ending in –y preceded by a vowel sound, form their plurals by adding –s
Monkey  monkeys boy  ………. Donkey  ……………..
Toy  …………… key  ………. Day  ……………….
(6) A few nouns don’t follow any of these rules.
Man  Men Foot  Feet Mouse  Mice
Louse  Lice Woman  Women Ox  Oxen
Goose  Geese Child  Children Tooth  Teeth
Some nouns have the singular and plural alike ;
sheep ex:- one sheep, ten sheep
Swine  swine deer  deer cod  cod trout  salmon
Pair, dozen, score (=20) , hundred, thousand (when used after numerals) :
Asoka bought two dozen apples yesterday.
Few people reach the age of four score and ten.
This bicycle cost him three thousand rupees.
Some nouns, plural in form , are generally used in the singular :-
Ex: mathematics, physics, mechanics, news, innings
No news is good news.
Physics is my favourite subject.
Sri Lanka won the match by an innings.
Compound nouns generally form their plural by adding –s to the principal word.
son-in law  sons-in-law step-daughter  step-daughters
father-in-law  …………. passer-by  ……………..
commander-in-chief  ………………. looker-on  ………….
step-son  ………….. maid-servant  ……………………
( but man-servant men-servants)
Make the following Nouns Plural, and put the right Plural Noun in each space:
A. Box half fly sheep loaf toy
1. Kamal’s mother buys three _________ of bread every day.
2. How may ___________ of matches have you got?
3. The little boy is playing with his ___________.
4. The wolves ate three ______________.
5. I cut the apple into two _____________.
6.______________ can walk on walls and ceilings.

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B. bus country fox leaf roof shelf
1. Some people sit on the __________ of their houses in summer.
2. America and Russia are very big ______________.
3. There are no _____________ on this tree in winter.
4. The boys walked to school because all the ____________ were full.
5. ____________ live in holes.
6. The teacher put the books on the _____________ of the cupboard.
C. branch brush city class knife mouse
1. How many ___________ are there in this school ?
2. The act caught three ____________ yesterday.
3. The birds are sitting on the ___________ of the trees.
4. We use _____________ to clean our teeth.
5. These _____________ are very sharp.

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