LOOK AT THE PICTURE BELOW

I have an
important
conference at
hospital
tomorrow, so I
am rather
busy.

I have an important conference at hospital

tomorrow, so I am rather busy.
LOOK AT THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF WORD IN THE
SENTENCE.
VERB

ADJECTIVE

PREPOSITION

ADVERB

have an important conference at hospital tomorrow,

PRONOUN

DETERMINER

NOUN

PRONOUN

so
CONJUNCTION

NOUN

ADVERB

am
VERB

rather

busy.
ADJECTIVE

There are 8 different kinds of word in

English. They are called word classes
or parts of speech.
noun
verb
adjective
pronoun

preposition
adverb
conjunction
determiner

PARTS OF SPEECH
There are 8 different kinds of word in
English. They are called word classes
or part of speech.
noun
preposition
verb
adverb
adjective
interjection
pronoun
conjunction
determin
er

A word that determine the word

that follows.
This
This is my book.

Try to classify these words.

This coffee is
really good.

And it is
cheap!

Try to classify these words.

I think I love you

NOTES
Some words can belong to different
classes depending on how they are
used in a sentence.
Look at the words in bold.
Can

I look at your photos?

I like the look of your uniform.
We work on Saturday morning.
Ill be at work tomorrow.

EXERCISE
Andrew didnt go to the caf with the
other students. Rachel told him they
were going there, but he wanted to
finish his work. Andrew isnt very
sociable. He stays in his room and
concentrates totally on his studies.
Hes an excellent student, but he
doesnt have much fun.

EXERCISE
the

determiner sociable adjective

told

verb

in

preposition

they pronoun

and

conjunction

there adverb

totally

adverb

an

determiner

he

pronoun

finish verb

excellentadjective
but

conjunction

fun

noun

Are they VERB, NOUN or

ADJECTIVE?
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

Laura wanted to talk to Rita.

Laura wanted a talk to Rita
The windows arent very clean.
Doesnt anyone clean the windows?
We went to a fabulous show in New York.
Laura wanted to show Rita her photos.
Henry thought Claire looked beautiful.
A strange thought came into Emmas head.
Sarah is feeling quite tired now.
Studying all night had tired Andrew out.

NOUNS
There are two basic types of nouns in
English:
Proper nouns are the names of specific
individuals, places, and things.
Common nouns are the names of classes
of persons, places, and things.
Barrack Obama ; America ; Microsoft Corporation
man ; country ; company

The most obvious distinction between

them is that proper nouns are capitalized.

COMPARE THE PROPER NOUNS AND

CORRESPONDING COMMON NOUNS
PROPER NOUN

COMMON NOUN

Florence
Nightingale
Bethesda
Mississippi
Atlanta
The Jakarta Post
Fast n Furious
Ambarukma Plaza

nurse
hospital
river
city
newspaper
movie title
mall

EXERCISE
The following pairs of nouns contain one uncapitalized
proper noun and a related common noun. Put the two
nouns in the correct columns as in the list above and
capitalize the proper noun.
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

hamlet ; play
neighborhood ; klitren
car ; ford
ocean ; atlantic
everest ; mountain

f)
g)
h)
i)
j)

actor ; harrison ford

dixie ; song
ship ; titanic
hotel ; the ritz
planet ; mercury

COUNT - NONCOUNT NOUNS

Common nouns are divided into 2 groups.
Count means that we can make the plural and use
number words with the noun. Using the noun dog, for
example, we can make the noun plural:
The dogs are in the park.
We can also use number words with one dog, two dogs,
three dogs, and so on.
Most nouns that refer to concrete objects are count
nouns.

COUNT - NONCOUNT NOUNS

Nouns that refer to abstractions and nouns that are
used to label things that occur in undifferentiated
masses (as opposed to individual persons, places or
things) are often noncount nouns.
Noncount means that we cannot count these nouns
with the number words or make them plural. We
cannot say one water, two waters, three waters. We
cannot use the nouns as a plural.
The waters are cold.

COUNT NOUNS
Most count nouns in English form their
plural by adding a sibilant sound
writtenaas
s.
hospital
some hospitals
one stethoscopefour stethoscopes
an ambulance 40 ambulances
a scalpel
many scalpels
one finger
three fingers
a tablet
some tablets
the surgeon
several surgeons

This rule applies to the majority of

nouns.

COUNT NOUNS
However, some words add es, ies in
the plural form.
Do you know the rules?

REGULAR COUNT NOUNS

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

race
bay
sky
clock
subway
wish
dish
try
cottage
clash

11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
16)
17)
18)
19)
20)

phone
duty
patch
lady
allowance
sheet
box
story
rose
key

Plurals formed
this way are
called regular
plurals.
Some nouns
form their plural
in other ways.
They are called
irregular

IRREGULAR COUNT NOUNS

English has some plurals that are formed in an
irregular way. Seven words form their plural by a
vowel change.
SINGULAR
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)

foot
goose
louse
man
woman
mouse
tooth

PLURAL

feet **
geese
lice
men
women
mice
teeth

** NOTES
In addition to the usual
plural form of feet, the noun
foot has a second plural
form foot when we use the
word to refer to length or
measurement.
He is six foot three inches
tall.

IRREGULAR COUNT NOUNS

Two words retain an old plural ending, -en:
SINGULAR
1)
2)

ox
child

PLURAL

oxen
children

Some words ending in f form their plurals by

changing the f to v and adding the -es.
SINGULAR
1)
2)
3)

half
knife
leaf

PLURAL

halves
knives
leaves

life?
loaf?
self?

thief?
wolf?

IRREGULAR COUNT NOUNS

Some words have a plural form that is identical to
their singular form. Most of these words refer to
animals or fish. For example:
SINGULAR

PLURAL

a cod
a deer
a fish
a sheep
a shrimp
a trout

two cod
two deer
two fish
two sheep
two shrimp
two trout

IRREGULAR COUNT NOUNS

Since the singular and plural forms of these nouns
are identical, the actual number of the noun can only
be determined by subject-verb agreement or by the
use of an indefinite article. For example:
The deer was standing in the middle of the road.
The deer were moving across the field.

I saw a deer in the backyard.

I saw some deer in the backyard.

EXERCISE - Correct the irregular

plurals
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

My niece has a farm where she raises disease-resistant

varieties of sheeps.
Like all farmers, she has constant problem with mouses & rats.
She and her husband run the farm by themselfes, so it is a lot
of work for them.
There are coyotes and wolfs in the area.
The coyotes are like theifs, always waiting and watching
Their valley is full of deers.
The river in the valley is full of salmons in the fall.
Farming is hard work, but we all choose the lifes we want.

NONCOUNT NOUNS
The types of noncount nouns that you are most likely
to encounter fall into the semantic categories listed
below.

Abstractions: beauty, charity, faith, hope, luck

Food: butter, cheese, chicken, rice, salt
Liquids and gases: beer, blood, coffee
Materials: cement glass, gold, paper
Natural phenomena: electricity, gravity, space
Weather words: fog, pollution, rain, snow

NONCOUNT NOUNS
Many noncount nouns can be used as count nouns
with a predictable shift in meaning to something like
different kinds of.

noncount: The price of gasoline is outrageous.

count: The station sells three gasolines.
noncount: I love cheese.
count: The store sells a variety of cheeses.

NONCOUNT NOUNS
Some words can serve as either a noncount noun or
a count noun with a slightly different meaning.

noncount: Chicken is a heart-healthy meat.

count: There are a dozen of chickens in the yard.

The noncount noun chicken refers to chicken as a

food. As such we cannot use it with number words or
in the plural. However, if we use the word chicken to
refer to he living animal, then it is a count noun.

EXERCISE
Some plurals are correctly used, many plurals are
incorrectly used. Analyze them!
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

The roads were closed because of the dense fogs

We had to go shopping because we were out of milks
again.
The teams disappointments at their losses was obvious.
During the operation, the patient needed six pints of
bloods.
The recent storms have caused us to lose powers for
days on end.

POSSESSIVE NOUNS
Virtually all language have some ways of indicating
that a noun is the owner or possessor of another
noun. For example, in the phrase Johns book, John
is said to own or possess the book.
Can you tell me the difference between these words?
book ; books ; books ; books
friend ; friends ; friends ; friends
man ; men ; mans; mens

POSSESSIVE NOUNS
A much better way to think of plural and possessive s
is given below. There are three types of -s endings:
PLURAL ONLY

POSSESSIVE ONLY

-s
Try these words!
SINGULAR

a)
b)
c)

wolf
spy
boy

PLURAL ONLY

PLURAL POSSESSIVE

-s
POSSESSIVE ONLY

-s
PLURAL POSSESSIVE

POSSESSIVE NOUNS
Try these words!
SINGULAR

a)
b)
c)
d)
e)

dog
shelf
tree
lady
fox

PLURAL ONLY

POSSESSIVE ONLY

PLURAL POSSESSIVE

?
s
n
o
i
t
s
e
u
q
y
n
a
e
v
a
h
Do you