Nouns - Lesson One
Vocabulary
What is a noun?
Nouns are:
People
Places
Things / Objects
People
man
Mr. Smith
girl
Annie
These nouns have a capital letter at the beginning (Mike) because they are the names of these people. They are proper nouns.
woman
Jill
Places
beach
classroom
Japan
Tokyo
England
London
bank
Egypt
Giza
Why do these places have capital letters at the beginning of the word?
Answer
These nouns have a capital letter at the beginning (London) because they are the individual names of these places. They are proper nouns.
Things / Objects
'Things' are more difficult. This is because they can be 'countable' or 'uncountable'.
For now we will look at 'countable' nouns.
If there is more than one thing it is called a 'plural'.
pen
There is one pen.
pens
There are two pens so we add an 's' to the end of the noun.
book
There is one book.
books
phone
phones
There are four books so we add an 's' to the end of the noun.
There is one phone.
There are three phones so we add an 's' to the end of the noun.
Nouns Exercises
What's wrong with these?
hamburger
Answer
Should be 'hamburgers'
pizzas
Answer
Should be 'pizza'
cups
Answer
Nothing. It's correct!
phone
Answer
Should be 'phones'
Sometimes a plural noun does not have an 's' on the end. For example:
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We will look at those later.
child
childs
children
Determiners - 'A' and 'An'
'a' - when it is followed by a noun means 'one book'.
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a book
-
one book
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"I have a book."
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"I have one book."
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a pen
-
one pen
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"He has a pen."
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"He has one pen."
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three pens
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"She has three pens."
A / An
We use 'a' for most items. 'An' is used when the noun has the letter: a, e, i, o or u at the beginning.
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an apple
​
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one apple
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an egg
​
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one egg
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an ice cream
​
-
one ice cream
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an orange
​
-
one orange
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an umbrella
​
-
one umbrella