Characteristics of Nouns

Characteristics of Nouns

Many nouns can be recognised by their endings. Typical noun endings include:  

  

-er/-or	actor, painter, plumber, writer
-ism	criticism, egotism, magnetism, vandalism
-ist	artist, capitalist, journalist, scientist
-ment	arrangement, development, establishment, government
-tion	foundation, organisation, recognition, supposition

  

Most nouns have distinctive SINGULAR and PLURAL forms. The plural of regular nouns is formed by adding -s to the singular:  

 

Singular	Plural
car	cars
dog	dogs
house	houses

  

However, there are many irregular nouns which do not form the plural in this way:  

 

Singular	Plural
man	men
child	children
sheep	sheep

  

The distinction between singular and plural is known as NUMBER CONTRAST.  

We can recognise many nouns because they often have the, a, or anin front of them:  
  

the car  
an artist  
a surprise  
the egg  
a review

These words are called determiners, which is the next word class we will look at.  

Nouns may take an -'s ("apostrophe s") or GENITIVE MARKER to indicate possession:  
  

the boy's pen  
a spider's web  
my girlfriend's brother  
John's house

If the noun already has an -s ending to mark the plural, then the genitive marker appears only as an apostrophe after the plural form:   
  

the boys' pens  
the spiders' webs  
the Browns' house

The genitive marker should not be confused with the 's form of contracted verbs, as in John's a good boy (= John is a good boy).  

Nouns often co-occur without a genitive marker between them:  
  

rally car  
table top  
cheese grater  
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We will look at these in more detail later, when we discuss noun phrases.  

  

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Common and Proper Nouns

Nouns which name specific people or places are known as PROPER NOUNS.   
  

John  
Mary  
London  
France

Many names consist of more than one word:   
  

John Wesley  
Queen Mary  
South Africa  
Atlantic Ocean  
Buckingham Palace

Proper nouns may also refer to times or to dates in the calendar:   
  

 January, February, Monday, Tuesday, Christmas, Thanksgiving

All other nouns are COMMON NOUNS.   

Since proper nouns usually refer to something or someone unique, they do not normally take plurals. However, they may do so, especially when number is being specifically referred to:  
  

there are three Davids in my class  
we met two Christmases ago

For the same reason, names of people and places are not normally preceded by determiners the or a/an, though they can be in certain circumstances:   
  

it's nothing like the America I remember  
my brother is an Einstein at maths