WAJ 3022 ENGLISH LANGUAGE

PROFICIENCY 1
PARTS OF SPEECH/WORD CLASSES

Part of Speech/Word
Classes
Nouns
Pronouns
Adjectives

What is nouns?
Anounis the name of a person, place, thing,

or idea. Whatever exists, we assume, can be

named, and that name is a noun.

Common nouns

Collective nouns

Material nouns

Nouns

Proper nouns

Abtract nouns

TYPES OF NOUNS:

EXAMPLES:

Proper nouns

Miss Chen, McDonald

Common nouns

Table,chair,computer

Collective nouns

A swarms of bees,a herd of cow

Material nouns

Orange,mobile phone

Abstract nouns

Truth,love

Number of nouns:
Singular -one oblect only

Plural-more than one object

Book

Books

Glass

Glasses

Potato

Potatoes

Man

Men

Deer

Deer

Addesto a noun ending with a whistling sound

(s,sh,ch,x,z) to make it plural.

one bus three buses, a church many churches, a
box boxes, a buzzbuzzes
If the singular noun ends with a consonant +y, drop

they, replace with aniand addes. Dont drop they,

if theyis preceded by a vowel.
one city two cities, a baby babies, a country
countries
If the singular noun ends with a consonant +o,

addes. If theois preceded by a vowel, only addsto

make the plural form.
a potato five potatoes, a hero heroes, an
echoechoes

These nouns have unique plural forms that

survived fromOld English.

a person people
a foot feet
a goose geese
a tooth teeth
a child children
Many nouns have identical forms for both
singular and plural.
a sheep sheep, a deer deer, a moose
moose

Countable/Uncountable
nouns
Countable nouns are easy to recognize.

They are things that we can count.

dog, cat, animal, man, person
bottle, box, litre
coin, note, dollar
cup, plate, fork
table, chair, suitcase, bag

We can usesomeandanywith countable

nouns:
I've gotsomedollars.
Have you gotanypens?
Thus,we can usea fewandmanywith
countable nouns:
I've gota fewdollars.
I haven't gotmanypens.

Uncountable nouns are substances that we

cannot divide into separate elements.
music, art, love, happiness
advice, information, news
furniture, luggage
rice, sugar, butter, water
electricity, gas, power
money, currency

We can usesome,a little,

muchandanywith uncountable nouns:

I've gotsomemoney.
Have you gotanyrice?
I've gota littlemoney.
I haven't gotmuchrice.

Collective nouns
acollective nounis a collection of things

taken as a whole
For examples:
A nest/colony of ants
A flock of birds
A shoal of fishes
A herd of horses

Abstract nouns
Base words

Abstract nouns

free

freedom

true

truth

please

pleasure

chlid

chlidhood

happy

happiness

Exercise
Identify the type of nouns in the sentences
below.
1. We arrived early at the station.
2. There are different species of fish.
3. The man was trying to steal his car.
4. William Shakespeare is a famous english
author.

Form Abstract Nouns from the following.

Base words

Abstract nouns

Scholar

Scholarship

Know

Knowledge

King

Kingdom

Sell

Sale

Complete each sentence by choosing the

correct word.
1. There is so (many,
muchmuch) smoke coming
out of the chimney.
2. She uses
only (a few, a little) cooking oil in
a little
her cooking.
3. (A little, A few) minutes is all it takes for
A few
him to shave.

Fill in the blanks with suitable collective nouns.

1. A flock
____ of birds flew high in the sky.
bunch
2. He ate a
_____ of grapes today.
3. A class
_____ of students are listening attentively
to their teacher.
set
4. You can put the
_____ of tools in that box.