Tips on Using Nouns

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10 TIPS on USING NOUNS

• Grammar Rules and Tips for using Nouns

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What is a Noun?

• A noun is a word that denotes the name and
  quality of a person, animal, place, thing, or
  idea.
• Functions of Noun
• Noun as a subject tells us what that sentence is
  all about. Harish plays with a cricket bat.
• Noun as a direct object receives action from
  verbs. Harish plays with a cricket bat.
• Noun as an indirect object receives the direct
  object. Harish threw Arun the ball.
• Noun as the object of a preposition follows the
  prepositions in prepositional phrases. John threw
  the ball at Arun.
• Noun as a predicate nominative follows linking
  verbs and renames the subject. Harish is a
  cricket player.
• Noun as an object complement completes the
  direct object. They named their dog Rusty.
• Noun as an appositive renames other nouns. My
  friend Harish likes to play cricket.

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Types of Nouns

• Abstract noun names an idea, event, quality, or
  concept that cant be seen or touched. (bravery,
  determination, freedom, love, courage, joy etc.) 
• Concrete noun can be seen or touched and is
  recognizable through the senses. (tree, hammer,
  table, dog, house etc.)
• Collective noun denotes a group of things or
  people as a unit. (team, choir, pack, family,
  flock, audience etc.)
• Common noun is the name of a class or a group of
  similar things. (girl, boy, dog, table, book,
  window etc.) 
• Proper noun refers to the given name of a single
  person, place or thing. Proper nouns begin with a
  capital letter. (New Delhi, Himalayas, New York
  etc.)
• Compound nouns refer to two or more nouns
  combined to form a single noun. (rainfall,
  bedroom, passer-by, sister-in-law, schoolboy,
  fruit juice etc.)
• Countable nouns can be counted and they have a
  singular and a plural form. (books, cars, dogs,
  friends, chairs, houses, boys etc.) 
• Uncountable nouns can't be counted and can only
  be used in the singular form. (milk, food, music,
  money, bread, water, coffee etc.)

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Types of Nouns

• Animate noun refers to a person, animal, or other
  creature. (bird, man, elephant, chicken etc.)
• Inanimate or Material noun refers to a material
  object. (gold, stone, wood, table etc)
• Possessive noun shows ownership or a relationship
  of belonging between one thing and another using
  apostrophe with s. (Jeets car, mothers house,
  days work etc.)
• Verbal noun is derived from verbs but has no
  verb-like properties. (a good building, a fine
  drawing etc.)
• Singular noun refers to one person, place, idea
  or thing. (man, box, hand etc. )
• Plural noun refers to more than one person,
  place, idea or thing and generally ends with s
  except for Irregular Nouns. (men, boxes, hands
  etc.)
• Gendered noun shows Masculine, Feminine, Common
  and Neuter gender by different forms or different
  words when referring to people or animals.
  (Example of Masculine-Feminine are man-woman,
  father-mother, rooster-hen. Nouns like cousin,
  teenager, teacher, doctor, student, friend are
  Common Gender, can be used for either a masculine
  or a feminine context. Neuter Gender denotes a
  thing that is neither male nor female like book,
  pen etc.)

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Capitalization of Nouns

• When noun is at beginning of a sentence. Dogs are
  barking.
• Always use capital letters for Proper Nouns
  capital letters for the names of people, places,
  planets, titles of rank or relationship (when
  joined to persons name, e.g., Sergeant Singh,
  Uncle Tom), months, holidays, departments, clubs,
  companies, institutions, bridges, buildings,
  monuments, parks, ships, hotels, streets,
  historical events, documents, titles of books,
  works and movies, months of the year, days of the
  week, holidays and names of countries,
  continents, rivers, cities, towns etc.
• Do not use a capital letter for a common noun
  unless it is at the beginning of a sentence.
• Examples
• The next church the tourists visited was the
  Church of England. (The word church is a common
  noun. Church Of England is a proper noun and is
  the name of the particular church.)
• The day is celebrated as Friendship Day. (day
  is common noun but Friendship Day is proper
  noun)

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Tips on using Nouns
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Tip 2 Collective Noun
Tip 1 Advices, An Advice, Some Advice
Team Staff, Herd, Committee, House, Jury, family,
Mob, Crowd, Board, Police, Public These
Collective Nouns can be singular or plural
depending on the context of the
sentence. Singular Used with a singular verb
when they focus on the individual elements acting
together as one unit. The audience was
spellbound. (here audience is a single
unit) Plural Used with plural verb when they
focus on the individuals among the group. The
audience were asked to take their seats. (here
audience is seen as many individuals) Cattle,
Gentry, Peasantry, Poultry, Clergy, People,
Majority, People these are always used with a
plural verb. Cattles are grazing in the field.

• Advice, Employment, Information, Equipment,
  Machinery Uncountable Nouns like these are used
  in singular form only.
• I dont like taking advices.
• Indefinite article is not used before Uncountable
  nouns.
• She gave me an information.
• She gave me a piece of information. (indefinite
  article used to denote singularity)
• Remain true to your words. (word in sense of
  message, discussion, promise)
• Much and Some is used to denote Plurality in
  place of Many.
• He gave me some advice.

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Tip 3 Plural Nouns with Singular Verb
Tip 4 Plural Nouns with Plural Verb

• News, Series, Innings, Summons Some nouns have a
  plural form but take a singular verb.
• News is broadcasted in the evening.
• Branches of Learning Mathematics, Physics,
  Economics, Statistics (as subject, not collection
  of data)
• Mechanics is gaining popularity.
• Games and Sports Billiards, Athletics, Aquatics,
  Gymnastics
• Athletics is encouraged among kids.
• Diseases Mumps, Measles, Rickets
• Is Mumps a contagious disease?
• Titles of Books The Three Musketeers, Arabian
  Nights
• Gullivers Travels is my favourite book.
• Descriptive Names of Countries United States,
  Unites Arab Emirates
• The United States is a great country to live in.

Thanks, Proceeds, Alms, Riches, Contents, Orders,
Manners, Servings, Ashes, Archives, Rations,
Customs, Requirements Some nouns have a fixed
plural form and take a plural verb. Savings are
deposited in the bank. Statistics are collected
from surveys. (here statistics is not a subject
but collection of data) Articles of Dress
Trousers, Breaches, Jeans. My trousers are too
tight. Her jeans are blue. Names of Instruments
Scissors, Spectacles, Shears, Scales. Those
glasses are his. Scissors are made of metal.
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Tip 5 Nouns with Numbers
Tip 6 Possessive Noun with Apostrophe and S

• Numerical Noun when a Compound Noun is made of
  numerical and acts as an Adjective, it is used as
  a Singular noun.
• It is a ten-mile race.
• Give me a five-rupee note.
• Nouns expressing number used in singular with
  numerical adjectives.
• Give me two dozens apples.
• I gave him two hundreds rupees.
• Use of Fractions With words that indicate
  portionspercent, fraction, part, majority, some,
  all, none, remainderif the object of the
  preposition is singular, use a singular verb. If
  the object of the preposition is plural, use a
  plural verb.
• One-third of the city is unemployed. One-third
  of the people are unemployed.

If the noun is plural, or already ends in s,
just add an apostrophe after the s. Which way
is the Girls hostel? I have a complete
collection of Kalidas works. In Compound Noun,
apostrophe with s should be added with last
word only. She went to her mothers-in-laws
place. Apostrophe is not used with Pronouns but
s is retained. We write yours truly at end of
letters.
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Tip 7 Possessive Noun with And, Else,
Tip 8 With Adjective and Preposition
Two adjectives with different meanings but both
qualifying the same noun are considered plural
and used with plural verbs Social and political
scenario are changing in the country. Summer and
winter vacations are planned before the beginning
of a new session. If a noun is repeated after a
preposition, the noun will be in singular
form. We went door to doors looking for the
boy. She took the notes of the lectures speech,
word for word.

• Two nouns in possessive case joined by and
  denote plural
• Sumeets and Raghavs mothers are coming to meet
  the teacher. (the mother of Sumeet and Raghav,
  two different persons.)
• Two nouns joined by and but only one is in
  possessive case, it denotes singular
• Sumeet and Raghavs mother is coming to meet the
  teacher. (the mother of two brothers Sumeet and
  Raghav, same person.)
• Else takes the apostrophe with s when
  combined with Indefinite Pronouns
• This is somebody elses book.
• Whose else can it be?
• Note Possessive case of Who else is Whose
  else and NOT Who elses

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Tip 9 Making Plurals
Tip 10 Change in Meaning with Plural

• Irregular Nouns make plurals without adding s
  to it woman-women, child-children, tooth-teeth,
  foot-feet, wife-wives, cactus-cacti,
  diagnosis-diagnoses, oasis-oases, thesis-theses,
  crisis-crises, phenomenon-phenomena, datum- data,
  criterion- criteria, life-lives, elf-elves,
  loaf-loaves, potato-potatoes, tomato- tomatoes,
  focus-foci, fungus- fungi, nucleus-nuclei,
  syllabus-syllabi/syllabuses, analysis- analyses.
• The king had four wives.
• She is his wife.
• Some irregular nouns have the same form in the
  singular and the plural Sheep-Sheep, Deer-Deer,
  Species-Species, Aircraft- Aircraft
• Ten aircraft are waiting on the tarmac.
• The aircraft is waiting for take-off.

• Some Noun take different meaning when converted
  to plural adding s
• water material waters sea
• Asset quality assets property
• Wood material woods property
• Custom ritual customs tax
• Arm organ arms weapon
• Cloth material clothes dress
• Iron material irons chains

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Spot the Errors
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Spot the Error

• Coffee keep me awake at night.
• The next Lake I want to visit is lake Michigan.
• There are a pack of hyenas outside.
• Economics are the study of demand and supply in
  market structure.
• The binoculars was very expensive.

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Spot the Error

• Coffee keep me awake at night.
• Coffee keeps me awake at night.
• The next Lake I want to visit is lake Michigan.
• The next lake I want to visit is Lake Michigan.
• There are a pack of hyenas outside.
• There is a pack of hyenas outside.
• Economics are the study of demand and supply in
  market structure.
• Economics is the study of demand and supply in
  market structure.
• The binoculars was very expensive.
• The binoculars were very expensive.

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Spot the Error

• Sheeps are grazing in the field.
• Alms is given as an act of charity.
• Measles are very common among children.
• The poultry is mine.
• She lives with her two daughter-in-laws.

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Spot the Error

• Sheeps are grazing in the field.
• Sheep are grazing in the field.
• Alms is given as an act of charity.
• Alms are given as an act of charity.
• Measles are very common among children.
• Measles is very common among children.
• The poultry is mine.
• The poultry are mine.
• She lives with her two daughter-in-laws.
• She lives with her two daughters-in-law.

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Spot the Error

• The Japanese is a hard-working people.
• There are many different people in Europe.
• Dot your i-s and cross your ts.
• I brought somebodys else book from the library
  by mistake.
• He studies in the Municipality Boyss school.

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Spot the Error

• The Japanese is a hard-working people.
• The Japanese are a hard-working people.
• There are many different people in Europe.
• There are many different peoples in Europe.
• Dot your i-s and cross your ts.
• Dot your i's and cross your t's.
• I brought somebodys else book from the library
  by mistake.
• I brought somebody elses book from the library
  by mistake.
• He studies in the Municipality Boyss school.
• He studies in the Municipality Boys school.

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Spot the Error

• He has committed many mischiefs.
• The summons have been served on him.
• A five-kilometers races are arranged during
  annual sports events.
• I cannot find my wallet but yours is on the
  table.
• Dev and Ruhis family are coming for the party.

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Spot the Error

• He has committed many mischiefs.
• He has committed much mischief.
• The summons have been served on him.
• The summons has been served on him.
• A five-kilometers races are arranged during
  annual sports events.
• A five-kilometer race is arranged during annual
  sports events.
• I cannot find my wallet but yours is on the
  table.
• I cannot find my wallet but yours is on the
  table.
• Dev and Ruhis family are coming for the party.
• Dev and Ruhis family is coming for the party.

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