Lesson 001

1. A common noun

   is a word for a person, place or thing. These nouns refer to general, unspecific categories of entities. A common noun is not capitalized.  

Examples: 

dog                          chair                      table                   cup                                      couch          cat                            bike

2. A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place, idea or thing.

It is always capitalized.

Examples:

Coca Cola / Ana / Mississippi River / American Airlines / United Nations / New York/ Asia /  John / English

Ana  went to New York and Boston last summer.

3. A count noun refers to a person, place or thing you can count. Count nouns have a plural form. These nouns can be modified by numerals, and can co-occur with the following quantifiers: most, many, more, several, etc.

Example:

There is an apple on the table. In this example, the word apple is singular as it refers to one apple that is in a particular place.  

There are five apples on the table.

To make it plural you add an “s”.  Look at the example.

There are several apples on the table.

In additional, countable nouns can be used with quantifiers.

4. A non-count noun refers to ideas and things that you cannot count. Non-count nouns use a singular verb and do not have a plural form.

Examples of non-count nouns are:

Education should be free for everyone.

The grass is greener on the other side.

Non-count nouns cannot take plural forms, and therefore a sentence containing        a plural form is grammatically incorrect.

Example:

The coffees are on the table.   

coffees is incorrect because it is a non-count noun.  The correct form for this sentence is:

The coffee is on the table.

5. Collective nouns denote a group of persons or objectives.

Examples:

group                   herd                      crowd                   flock                      pile                    team pack                     class                     collection

1. There is a crowd outside of the stadium.
2. The flock of birds flew rapidly over the sea.
3. I have a bunch of papers on my desk.

6. Concrete nouns are nouns that you can perceive through the five senses. It is something material.

Examples:

The telephone is on the chair.

7. An Abstract nouns refers to something that doesn’t exist and that is intangible, for example feelings and ideas.

Examples:

He has a vivid imagination.

Your happiness should not depend on some else’s happiness.