NOUNS

K.A.A.I.PREMAKEERTHI
LUC0004910134292018
 A noun is a naming word.
It refers to, quality
state events
person

actions
place noun

occasions

thing feelings

processes
 Many nouns have characteristic word endings
which are called suffixes.
 - er /or : farmer ,monitor ,tractor
 -ist : pharmacist , communist
 -ity :electricity ,simplicity
 -ance /ence : evidence ,maintenance
 -ure : picture ,agriculture
 -ion :nation ,examination
 -ment :measurement ,enjoyment
 -hood :childhood ,womanhood
 -ness :kindness ,goodness
 -acy :democracy ,accuracy
 Classification of nouns.
Nouns can be broadly classified as
 PROPER NOUNS
• Proper nouns are names of specific. All proper nouns begin with a CAPITAL
letter

• Nayana
• John
people

• Countries :Sri Lanka, India

• Continents : Asia , Europe
Geographical • Water bodies : Yellow Sea ,The Indian Ocean
names • Mountain and Mountain Ranges : the Himalaya , The Everest

• Colombo National Museum

Places / • Eiffel Tower

buildings
 • Vesak
Festivals
• Ramazan

• January
Calendar items
• Sunday

• Sri Lankan
• Indians
Members of
national groups • British
 • Sinhalese
Racial
groups • Tamils

• Hinduism
Religions • Buddhism

• Elizabethan Era
Historical
Periods • Modern Era
 Exercise 01
Select all proper nouns from the box and rewrite them beginning with capital letters.

himalayas jainism
chinese
airport
thai pongal
everest kitchen
colombo national museum

taj mahal ball

bank of ceylon
 Now see your answers.
• Himalayas
• Taj Mahal
• Everest
• Chinese
• Thai Pongal
• Colombo National Museum
• Jainism
• Bank of Ceylon
 Common nouns
• A noun that is a member of a general class.
Eg: girl, cat.
It is not a name of a particular person or place.
Do not begin a common noun with a capital letter unless it is at the
beginning of a sentence.
Eg: I have a cat.
Cat eats meat.
Common nouns further can be sub - classified
in different ways.

01 sub -
classification
 Countable nouns

• Nouns that can be seen as individual countable items.

eg: a boy .ten girls ,five balls
• Preceded by the indefinite articles ‘ a’ and ‘an’.
eg: a boy , a girl , an umbrella , an egg
• Can have a number in front of countable nouns.
eg: two mangoes ,eleven elephants
• Have singular and plural forms.
eg: ball-balls , cupboard-cupboards
 Uncountable nouns
An uncountable noun is seen as an
undifferentiated mass that cannot be
counted.
• Uncountable nouns can be shown
as unit nouns.
eg: a loaf of bread - two loaves of bread
a kilo of rice - six kilos of rice
a glass of milk - five glasses of milk
 Uncountable nouns
• Cannot use numbers or general determiner such as a, an , many etc
before uncountable nouns nor can be changed into plural.
 Exercise 2
Put countable nouns into the circle and uncountable nouns into the box

• An apple, milk , tea , ten pillows , paint , salt , sand , two mangoes , orange
juice , a pawpaw
 Mark your answers

Milk An apple
Ten pillows
Tea
Two mangoes
Paint
A pawpaw
Orange juice

Salt
sand
 Common nouns can be also classified as follows.

• 02 sub- classification
 Concrete nouns

• Concrete nouns can be seen and

touch.
 Abstract nouns
abstract nouns cannot be seen and touch.
eg: states
events
feelings
Abstract nouns can be divided into 02 groups.

Abstract nouns countable

uncountable
 Abstract nouns

Countable abstract nouns Uncountable abstract nouns

• Events • States
eg: sports meet eg: sorrow , happy
• Processes • Feelings
eg: idea , thought eg: love , anger
• Occasions • Quality
Eg: funeral ,wedding eg: beauty , cleanliness
 Exercise 3
Draw a table and divide the following nouns as concrete nouns and abstract nouns.

• Happy • Meeting
• Sorrow • Honesty
• Love • Classroom
• Stone • Pencil
• Butterfly • frustration
• Tiger
• Funeral
 Check your answers.
Concrete nouns Abstract nouns
Stone Happy
Butterfly sorrow
tiger Love
Pencil Funeral
classroom Meeting
Honesty
frustration
 Collective / group nouns
• Countable nouns which are use to represent a group of people , animals
,or objects.
eg : an army of soldiers
a heap of stones
a gang of thieves
Many group nouns represent a group of people who have special
relationship with each other.
 Singular nouns
• There are some nouns which are ending in ‘s’ are singular.
eg : measles
mathematics
linguistics
gymnastics
news
 Plural nouns
• There are some nouns which occur only in the plural form.
eg : people
spirits
stairs
goods
clothes
Generally we do not use numbers before these nouns.
 Regular Nouns and Irregular Nouns
• Count nouns can be classified as
Regular nouns
Irregular nouns

Regular nouns form their plural form by adding ‘-s / -es’ .

Eg: ball-balls
tomato-tomatoes
 Regular Nouns and Irregular Nouns
Irregular nouns form their plural form in different ways.
• In words which ending with letter ‘f’ or ‘fe’ form their plural by changing ‘v’ and adding ‘-es’.
eg: leaf-leaves ,hoofs-hooves
• By changing internal vowel.
eg : man-men , tooth-teeth
• By adding’-en’
eg : child- children
• Foreign plural
eg: syllabus-syllabi , formulas/formulae
 Animate Nouns And Inanimate Nouns
• Animate nouns= all living creatures.
eg: boy, girl , woman
• Inanimate nouns = cannot move and non-living
eg : tree, mountain
 Compound nouns
• There are some nouns combine with other word classes to form compound
nouns.
 Noun + noun [river bank , book shop ,oil can]
 Noun + gerund[letter writing , stamp collecting]
 Gerund +noun[dining room , walking stick]
 Adjective+ noun[national flower ,cotton saree]
Let’s enjoy