What is a noun in English? Noun. Number of nouns

What is a noun in English???

The British have a simple answer to this question, they say:

“Look around and name everything you see in a row! Tree, street, tram, school, monument, rain, flower, violinist, ring, bouquet, girl, beauty... Everything you listed will form a series of nouns" An essential object of English grammar

Grammatical features of the English noun

The formation of nouns in English means that that part of speech that denotes a being, object, place, concept or phenomenon is called a noun. It answers the questions:

• WHO? Who? WHAT? What? WHO IS THIS? Who is this? WHAT IS THIS? What is this?.

These are the main questions, but there are also cases when a noun performs other grammatical functions, and accordingly the questions will be different, but more on this in one of the following topics.

Classification by genus

Classification by genus Genus ( Gender) - this is incredible! But in English there are four categories of gender: masculine, feminine, common and neuter. In the Russian language, as you know, there are three, and our neuter gender and English do not always coincide.

Masculine - refers to a male representative of a class, society or breed:

• man - man
• actor - actor
• boy - boy
• waiter - waiter
• lion - lion
• stallion - stallion

Feminine - indicates a representative of the fair sex (even if not always belonging to the human race)

• woman - woman
• actress - actress
• girl - girl
• waitress - waitress
• lioness - lioness
• mare - mare

Judging by the previous examples, you can see that some feminine nouns come from masculine nouns to which the ending -ess is added

• lion - lioness
• waiter - waitress

In the case of nouns denoting animals, but which do not have a masculine and feminine form, dog (dog, goat), goat (goat), the pronouns she (she), he (he) are used as a prefix, so we get:

• She - dog - dog
• he - dog - male
• she - goat - goat
• he - goat - goat

Common gender - in English, it indicates a representative of human society in general and the quality in which he is perceived (kinship, sometimes profession, occupation).

If you look at the translation of nouns of this type into other languages ​​and into Russian in particular, then they could be classified as either feminine or masculine. But the British have their own rules...

Here are some examples of common nouns:

• parent - parent
• student - student (ca), student (ka)
• relative - relative (ca)
• friend - friend
• client - client(s)

Neuter gender - similar to common gender, but refers to inanimate nouns (objects, ideas, etc.):

• table - table
• spoon - spoon
• lamp - lamp.

It is important to note that a noun in the masculine, feminine and general gender can be replaced by one of the pronouns: he or she and answer questions Who? - Who? Whom? - Whom? /To whom?. Neuter nouns and those that denote representatives of flora and fauna are replaced with it, and answer the questions What? - What? Which?-Which? /Which?

But there are exceptions here: if we are talking about pets that have the name Rosie (cat) or Jack (dog), then we can act as in the case of the feminine or masculine gender.

Pronoun She applicable to vehicles: car - car, boat - vessel, boat, ship - ship; as well as to the names of countries, if they are presented from a political or economic point of view, but if from a geographical point of view, then we use the pronoun it.

Watch the video and continue reading the article further

Two cases of an English noun

Since the time of Shakespeare, the number of English-speaking people has increased from 5-6 million to 250 million, truly a global linguistic expansion! Since then, the number of cases has decreased from five to two (apparently for better assimilation). So, thanks to the fact that we live today, and not a couple of centuries ago, we only got general (common) And possessive cases ( possessive case). Noun cases Any noun in its original form is in in general case ( common case), i.e., morphologically, this case does not change the noun in any way. The general case combines the two cases nominative and accusative. British linguists even call such nouns "caseless" because they can be used in all possible ways as a subject, object, nominal (nominative) part of a compound predicate, adverbial, modifier, interjection or address.

Examples of nouns (common case) in the common case with translation:

• desk - table
• laptop - laptop
• idea - idea
• word - word
• case - suitcase, case
• hand - hand
• love - love
• Starbucks - Starbucks (coffee chain)
• Valerie - Valerie (name)
• democracy - democracy
• ache - pain
• relation - connection, relationship.

The possessive (possessive) case (case), in form, is identical to the genitive (genitive) and always denotes ownership.

How are singular and plural formed in the possessive case?

The singular number of this case is formed using the superscript """ apostrophe and the letter "s". Here are a few examples, as always, with translation:

• boy's mother - boy's mother
• car's color - car color
• dog's leg - dog's leg
• dolphin's flipper - dolphin's fin
• James's party - James's party

In the plural of regular nouns, religious and historical names and in the case of borrowings from other languages ​​(when the word ends in -s/ x), only the “"” apostrophe is used.

• pupils" class - class of students
• ox" horn - buffalo horn
• axis" tilt - axis tilt
• Socrates" work - the work of Socrates

But if a noun from a number of exceptions is in the plural, then the possessive case is formed according to the general rule:

• women's goal - women's goal
• babies" toys - toys for kids.

For compound nouns, ‘s is added to its last constituent:

• passer-by's jacket - passerby's jacket
• godfather's advice - godfather's advice

If the possessive case contains a list of several nouns or a subordinate clause that plays the role of a noun, then “"s” is added to the last lexeme of the entire series:

• The boy I met yesterdays" mother - the mother of the boy I met yesterday
• Alison and Jack’s children - children of Alison and Jack (children common to both),
• Alison’s and Rebecca’s children - children of Alison and Rebecca (each of them has their own children)

Other examples of the formation of the possessive case

It is important to note that the above methods for forming the possessive case are valid for animate nouns and for the following exceptions to inanimate nouns:

• nation - nation's treasure - treasure of the nation
• country - country's president - president of the country
• city- city’s landscape - city landscape
• town - town’s population - population of the town
• nature - nature's beauty - the beauty of nature
• water - water's purity - purity of water
• ocean - ocean's mystery - the secret of the ocean

Denoting temporal and spatial landmarks:

• Friday's newspaper - Friday newspaper
• three feet's length - three foot length

Names of cities and countries:

• Michigan's airport - Michigan airport, Great Britain's colors - UK flag

Names of institutions and publications (newspapers):

• British Museum's collection - collection of the British Museum,
• Cosmopolitan’s cover – Cover of Cosmopolitan magazine

• Moon's craters - craters of the Moon,
• Saturn's rings - Saturn's rings

Month names:

• December’s frost - December frost

Certain (stable) phrases:

• at death’s door - at death, on his deathbed,
• at arm's length - at arm's length,
• one’s bearings - get your bearings,
• a hair’s breadth - neck to neck, exactly,
• at a snail’s pace - at a snail’s pace.

Names of holidays:

• Mother's day - British Mother's Day,
• Burn's Night is a holiday in honor of the Scottish poet Robert Burn,
• St. George’s Day - Day of St. George (patron saint of England),
• Queen's Birthday - Queen's Birthday,
• St. Andrew's Day - St. Andrew's Day

In the case of inanimate nouns, the possessive case is formed using the preposition “of”.

• the fifth day of December - fifth day of December
• the chief manager of the company - chief manager of the company

So, following the classic rule, we use the preposition of:

• the cover of the magazine - magazine cover

But, as we already know, English is a language of exceptions, so today it is not uncommon to apply the form for animate nouns (‘s) to inanimate ones, especially in informal speech:

• the magazine's cover.

There is also a form that requires neither 's nor of:

• the magazine cover

In a certain context, only an adjective with an absent noun (no noun) can indicate the possessive case:

• Alison’s children are smaller than Rebecca’s (children).-Alison’s children are younger than Rebecca’s (children).
• She had a haircut at Chloe’s (Chloe’s hairdressing salon). - She got her hair cut at Chloe’s (in the hairdressing salon that belongs to Chloe)
• Who's eyes are blue? Jimmy's -Whose eyes are blue? (eyes) Jimmy. =Who has blue eyes? Jimmy's.

Grammatical functions of a noun (in a sentence)

The versatility of the noun in English is simply amazing! It does not do without the help of other parts of speech, but the noun still plays the most important role. It can become the subject, the nominative part of a compound predicate, an object, a circumstance, a definition, and sometimes it is part of a prepositional phrase.

Subject

• The story is very sad. — The story is very sad.
• The Sun was shining brightly. - The sun was shining brightly.

Nominative part of a compound predicate

• That man was a beggar. - That man is a beggar.
• Sand painting is a new, wonderful art. - Sand painting is a new, wonderful art.

Addition

• She took that suitcase.- She took that suitcase
• I am writng a message now.- Now I am writing a message.

Nominative part of the adverbial clause

• The girl was staring at me with interest.- The girl looked at me with interest.
• The letters are in the postbox.- The letters are in the mailbox.

Definition

Noun with the preposition "of":

• the name of the book - the name of the book
• the neighborhood of Alsace - the neighborhood of Alsace

Noun presented in the possessive case:

• my sister’s dress - my sister’s dress
• that girl’s toy-bear
• baby's bottle - baby's bottle - the bottle of the baby -

Noun- a part of speech that denotes an object that is used to describe everything that can be asked about: who is this? (Who is this?) or what is this? (What is this?).

Speaking about the classification of nouns, it should be noted that the use of nouns is closely related to the article. The choice of using one or another article in different situations depends on which noun is used.

Nouns are divided into common nouns (Common nouns) and proper nouns (Proper nouns).

Proper Nouns designate specific people or specific places. They can be the name of a certain individual person (John Smith, Alexander), a concept, a locality (Moscow, New Orleans), they are, as it were, assigned specifically to a given individual or place, but do not apply to other similar phenomena.

Common Nouns express the general name of an object, an entire category or class of objects or concepts. For example - a river (can refer to any river), a dog (to any dog), a pleasure (to any feeling of pleasure).

Common nouns can be divided into two groups:

1 . Countable nouns– these are the names of objects that can be counted, that is, they have a certain size and a certain shape:

A stick - two sticks

stick - two sticks

A desk – seven desks

table - seven tables

A pen – twenty five pens

pen - twenty-five pens

They are used in both singular and plural. Countable nouns can be used with both an indefinite and a definite article:

Countable nouns can be specific(Concrete Nouns) – a pen, a desk and abstract(Abstract Nouns) – a night, a song, a talk.

2. K uncountable nouns ( Uncountale Nouns) refer to the names of objects that cannot be counted, i.e. they do not have exact sizes or shapes.

Uncountable nouns in English are used only in the singular:

These bottles consist of glass - These bottles are made of glass.

Uncountable nouns can be divided into:

• real(material nouns):

Silver, snow, iron, hair

• abstract(Abstract Nouns):

beauty, life, love, light, darkness

Uncountable nouns do not have a plural form. Also, the indefinite article cannot be placed before such nouns:

Our time is running out - our time is running out

There is another type of noun in English - Collective(Collective Nouns). This means that a noun can be the name of not only one object, but a group of objects or persons, but they are considered as a single whole.

the committee agrees with recommendation - The committee agreed with the recommendation.

(In this sentence, the word committee means the whole, not the individual members of the committee)

Usually collective nouns are used in singular(Singular), except when referring to individual members of the group:

The committee members agree with the recommendation - Committee members agreed with the recommendation

(In this sentence we mean individually all members of the committee, i.e. the word committee is not used as a whole concept)

Also, some collective nouns are considered both singular and plural:

The jury is deliberating - The jury is discussing

(This refers to the jury - as a whole or single concept, therefore it is used in the singular)

The jury took their seats - The jury (jury members) took their places

(In this case, the word jury means each member, i.e. each member of the jury took his place, so the plural form is used)

In English nouns real can be used to designate an object or objects that consist of a given substance or material; in this case they become countable nouns:

3 liters of tea - three liters of tea

A piece of information - piece of information

Compare:

There isn't much light in this room - There is little light in this room

(in this example light- uncountable)

Is there a light in this room? - Is there light in that room?

(this means we saw light in the window, such as a small light, and we ask about it precisely as a specific physical source of light, so it turns into a countable value)

Nouns real can also be used to express different varieties and types of substance. And in this case they also turn into countable nouns:

Wine is very healthy drink. - Wine is a very healthy drink. (uncountable)

wines are the most delicious - Italian wines are the most delicious (Countable)

Nouns distracted become countable nouns when their meaning is specified:

Uncountable(Uncountable):

How much time does jack spend watching South Park? - How much time does Jack spend watching South Park (this cartoon is on Mtv)

Anna has to go because she does"t have much time. - Anna has to go because she doesn't have much time.

Countable(Countable):

How many times have you been married? - How many times have you been married?

Every time I try to talk to you you didn't look at me - Every time I try to talk to you, you don't look at me

A noun in English is a part of speech that denotes a person (name, gender, title, etc.), animal (name, species, class, gender, etc.), place, thing, or idea. The English word noun (noun) comes from the Latin nomen - name. In English grammar, a noun functions as a subject or object in a sentence.

Types of nouns

Common nouns

All nouns are divided into common nouns and proper nouns. Common nouns denote general, collective concepts.

Girl- girl, girl
City- city
Animal– animal
Friend- Friend
House- house
Food- food
Noun- noun

Own

Proper names are used to refer to specific objects, places or people. In writing, they begin with a capital letter. Proper nouns in English grammar are distinguished by the fact that in most cases they are not preceded by an article, although this rule has exceptions.

John– John
London– London
Pluto– Pluto
Monday– Monday (days of the week and months in English are written with a capital letter)
France– France

Composite

English compound (or compound) nouns are formed from two or more words. Sometimes they look like one word (haircut), in other cases they are written separately (bus stop). The emphasis is most often on the first word (sunglasses - sunglasses, swimming pool - pool).

Toothbrush- Toothbrush
Rainfall– downpour
Sailboat- sailing vessel
Mother-in-law– mother-in-law/mother-in-law
Well-being– well-being
Alarm clock- alarm
Credit card- credit card

Countable

are nouns that can be counted. They have singular and plural forms and can be used with numerals.

Car- automobile
Desk- board
Cup- cup
House- house
Bike- bike
Eye- eye
Butterfly- butterfly

Uncountable

Accordingly, those that cannot be counted. In English, they often denote materials (paper, wood, plastic), liquids (milk, oil, juice), gases (air, oxygen) and abstract concepts ( happiness - happiness, time - time, information - information).

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Water– water
Coffee- coffee
Cheese- cheese
Sand- sand
Furniture- furniture
Skin– leather
Wool- wool
Gold- gold
Fur- fur

Collective

Collective nouns are words that designate a group or collection of people, animals or objects.

Staff– staff
Team- team
Crew– crew
Herd– flock
Flock- herd
Bunch– bunch, heap
Set- kit

Specific

Concrete nouns refer to people and objects that exist physically and can be detected by at least one of the senses (sight, touch, hearing, smell, taste).

Dog- dog
Tree- tree
Apple- apple
Moon- moon
Coin- coin
Sock– sock
Ball- ball
Water– water

Abstract

Abstract nouns, unlike concrete nouns, do not physically exist. In English, they represent ideas and emotions—concepts that cannot be seen, touched, smelled, heard, or tasted. Most abstract nouns are uncountable.

Love- Love
Time- time
Happiness- happiness
Bravery– courage
Creativity- creation
Justice- justice
Freedom- Liberty
Speed- speed

Gerund

In English grammar, a gerund is a noun formed from a verb. Therefore, it is also called a “verbal noun”. Because the gerund always ends in -ing, it is often confused with a verb in the continuous tense.

Reading– reading
Writing– writing (process)
Dancing- dancing
Thinking– thinking
Flying– flight

How are nouns formed?

Usually in English grammar nouns are not formed in any way, since they are a separate part of speech, and most nouns initially have their own form. However, in some cases they come from other parts of speech (most often from adjectives and verbs), and here there are already two ways of formation.

Suffixal

With the help of different parts of speech they become nouns. For example:

Happy(happy) - happiness(happiness)
Construct(design) – construction(design)
Use(use) - user(user)
Free(free) - freedom(Liberty)

Suffixes that can form a noun in English: -er, -ness, -ist, -ism, -tion, -sion, -ess, -hood, -ship, -ment, -ance (ence), -dom.

Conversion

Conversion is when a word moves from one part of speech to another without any change:

Love- love, love
Beauty- beautiful, beauty
Order- order, order

Table of the most common nouns in English

Video about nouns in English:

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As in Russian, nouns in English are words denoting the names of objects, names of people, names of plants, concepts, and answering the question who? -Who? and What? - What? Here, for example, are a few words denoting objects: a sofa - a sofa, an elephant - an elephant, a rose - a rose, milk - milk, coffee - coffee, difficulty - difficulty, happiness - happiness. Nouns distinguish between proper nouns, which begin with a capital letter (people's names, geographical names, animal names), and common nouns, which, in turn, are divided into countable and uncountable.

Countable and uncountable nouns in English

Countable nouns include nouns that denote certain concrete objects and abstract concepts from which the plural can be formed - a building, an answer, an effort. Among the uncountable nouns are words denoting substances and abstract concepts from which it is impossible to form a plural - air, coffee, sugar.

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Countable nouns can be counted and, accordingly, have both singular and plural forms. Countable nouns denote objects:

• A book – books
• A girl – girls
• A friend – friends

Uncountable nouns do not have a plural form and are combined exclusively with a singular verb form:

• His hair is black. His hair is black.
• The money is in the pocket. Money in your pocket.
• This information is wrong. The information is incorrect.
• Our progress is significant. Our successes are significant.

There are a certain number of uncountable nouns that end in “-s”, but are nevertheless used only with a singular verb form. Here are the most common ones:

• mathematics - mathematics
• politics - politics
• physics - physics
• electronics - electronics
• news - news
• billiards - billiards

• luggage - luggage
• advice - advice
• information - information
• furniture - furniture
• scenery - landscape

No news is good news. No news is good news.
This politics is wrong. This policy is wrong.

The plural form of nouns in English is in most cases formed by adding the ending “-s (-es)”, for example:

• A house – houses
• A carpet – carpets carpet – carpets
• A rose – roses rose – roses

However, there are a few nouns that form their plural in a special way:

When forming the plural, nouns ending in “-f/-fe” change their ending to “-ves”. Nouns ending in “-o” are made plural by adding the suffix “-es”. And a word ending in “-y” with a preceding consonant, when forming the plural, changes the letter “y” to “i” and the ending “-es” is added to it.

Examples of these rules are shown in the following table.

But there are also nouns that are used exclusively in the plural and, accordingly, are combined only with the plural form of the verb:

• The police were looking for the criminal. — The police were looking for the criminal.
• There were few people at the meeting. — There were few people at the meeting.
• These clothes are too small for me. — These clothes are too small for me.

Possessive case of English nouns

What is the possessive case in English and how is it formed, you will learn from our video lesson.

The bitter truth when learning English is that it will not be very easy to immediately form beautiful sentences with introductory words and participial phrases. The fact is that, as in Russian, you first need to gain active and passive vocabulary. At the initial stage, it is not necessary to memorize some pompous and pretentious adjectives in order to amaze native speakers. Even if you achieve this goal, you won’t have such a conversation, because conversations in everyday life are usually about everyday trifles. That is why let's look at English nouns, touch on their differences, methods of formation, and compile the top 100 most common English words of this part of speech.

First, let's figure out what English nouns are.

The Noun () or noun in English – an independent part of speech that denotes an object / person / phenomenon / abstract concepts and answers the questions what is this? (what is this?) and who is this? (who is this?).

Depending on their structure, meaning and method of formation, nouns can be divided into several groups.

English nouns are formed by:

• Rodu (gender)
• Case
• Number

Gender of nouns

The gender of nouns in English is masculine, feminine and neuter. There is no grammatical ending for separating genders in the English language, so they do not change by gender and do not obey any grammar rule, which greatly facilitates the use of nouns. However, when replacing nouns with pronouns, you need to take into account that:

• The pronouns he (he) and she (she) are used when talking about people:

• The pronoun it (it) is used when talking about the neuter gender, that is, about inanimate objects and animals.

Nowadays, pet owners often use the pronouns she / he in relation to them when they know their gender, so this English form of replacing a noun is also possible.

Noun cases

English grammar has two cases in its arsenal:

• General case is a case that absolutely all nouns have. They are given in this form in dictionaries and textbooks. The noun in this case has no ending.

• - a case that is usually characteristic of animate objects. This case shows that some object or sign belongs to one person or another. The form is formed by adding an apostrophe and the ending –s to the noun. Let's look at some features of using this form on tables:
• If the noun is singular, add an apostrophe and the ending –s:

• If a singular noun ends in –s, you can use two options:

• If an object or attribute refers to several nouns at once, then the apostrophe and ending are used only with the last one:

• If an object or attribute refers to several nouns separately, then an apostrophe and an ending are used with each:

• In the case of inanimate nouns, the possessive case is usually not used, replaced by the preposition of, but such use is possible:

From the examples above we can conclude that possessive nouns perform the function of defining another noun. However, nouns in the general case can also be used as modifiers. These nouns stand before another noun and are translated into Russian as adjectives or nouns in the indirect case, used in a sentence as a definition:

The definition of a noun can be determined not by one word, but by several at once. The word being defined will still be at the end:

If there is a numeral before the qualifying noun, the noun that is used as a qualifying noun is used in the singular, connected with a numeral hyphen:

You can understand that a noun is used in a defining function by looking at the context.

When deciding which of the two cases to choose for the word being defined, keep in mind that the possessive case is usually used with animate nouns and shows ownership, while the common case is used as a determiner, “complementing” the main noun.

Singular and plural noun

Apart from the cases above, nouns vary according to number. They are singular and plural. A singular noun is the dictionary form of a noun with an (in)definite article. There is no singular ending. The plural according to the rules is not used with the indefinite article and is formed by adding the ending –s:

But there are a number of nuances related to the features of nouns that need to be taken into account. To simplify their understanding, nouns can be divided into 2 groups: “regular” and “irregular”. No, no, don’t be afraid, you won’t have to learn three forms again, as is customary for irregular verbs, but you definitely need to know such nouns.

• Let's start with the features of the plural of regular nouns.
• Nouns ending in –o are added with the ending –es:

However, this rule does not work for all such nouns, so note the following exceptions, to which only -s is added:

• In nouns that end in –y, this letter changes to –i, and the ending –es is added to the word. The rule only works if there is a consonant before –y:

• Nouns that end in –ch, –tch, –sh, –s, –ss, –x, –z also end in –es:

• Nouns ending in –f or –fe change the plural from –f to –v, adding the ending -es:

• In compound nouns, the ending is added only to the last word:

• In compound nouns, the ending is added, on the contrary, only to the first word:

• Certain words only have a plural form. Here are some commonly used words from this group:

The reason for creating all these rules is to simplify the language. Try saying a word ending in –ss or –x, adding the standard ending –s. It’s not very easy to pronounce several identical sounds at once, is it? And it will be even harder to understand you. Therefore, do not perceive these rules as an additional burden, because in fact they only help you.

• Now let's focus on irregular nouns. While the regular form of nouns can be explained, irregular nouns cannot be explained. Irregular forms include:
• Exception words that have their own plural form. The table shows the words that are most common in speech:

• Words that have the same form in singular and plural are also called irregular:

Please note that such words in English do not differ in either spelling or pronunciation, but when translated into Russian there is a difference between singular and plural person.

They need to be remembered, since adding an ending to some of these words can lead to a change in meaning:

English nouns: morphological composition

Based on their composition, English nouns are divided into 3 types:

1. Simple nouns or simple nouns, the group of which includes monosyllabic words. They are easy to recognize because they do not look “overloaded” because they do not contain prefixes (prefixes) and suffixes. Let's look at an example table:

1. Derivative nouns or derived nouns are words that have a prefix and/or suffix.

There are not many prefixes in English. They are usually used to turn a word with a positive connotation into a negative one, that is, to turn a word into its antonym. The Russian analogue of such prefixes can be the prefix “not”. Let's look at the most common of them:

• The prefix dis- can be used both with words starting with a vowel and with words starting with a consonant. There is no specific rule for using this prefix, so you should just remember the words in which it can be used:

• The prefix im- is usually used with adjectives, but there are also cases of use with a noun:

• Among the prefixes not related to antonymy, we can note the following: ex- (meaning “former”) and pre- (before / before):

• With nouns you can also find the prefix re- in the meaning of “re”:

There are many more suffixes in English. They are actively used to form nouns. Here are some of them:

• Suffixes -er, -or, -eer, -ant, -ent for professions:

• Suffixes -dom, -ty, -sion, -ness, -ship, -hood, -ment, -ism for concepts, processes, feelings, sciences:

1. Compound nouns or compound nouns are nouns that have 2 or more roots, which are written together or with a hyphen. These words are created when two or more nouns become one:

English nouns: method of formation

Based on the above cases, it is not difficult to guess that the following are used to form nouns:

• Affixation;
• Suffixes;
• Compounding.

However, there is another way of forming nouns, which is quite common - the formation of verbal nouns. Such nouns are formed from verbs by conversion or adding the ending –ing. During conversion, the word does not change its form, but changes the part of speech, turning the verb into a verbal noun. In the second case, a noun becomes a verbal noun when an ending is added to the verb in the infinitive. Let's study the table:

English nouns: classification

English nouns can be classified into proper and common nouns:

1. Similar to the Russian language, Proper Nouns or proper names indicate the singularity of objects and phenomena. Such nouns are written with a capital letter. If such an English noun consists of several words, each is written with a capital letter, with the exception of articles, conjunctions and prepositions. A proper name is used with:

• First names, last names, nicknames, pseudonyms, animal names:

• Nationalities and languages:

If languages ​​are followed by the word “language”, they are preceded by the article the: the English language.

• Astronomical names:

• Geographical names include: continents, countries, cities, settlements, oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, deserts, caves, canyons, waterfalls:

• Names of streets, attractions, theaters, galleries, hotels:

• Names of newspapers, magazines, books, films, TV series:

• Names of days of the week and months

• Names of holidays

1. The remaining nouns belong to common nouns or common nouns, the list of which includes objects, persons, phenomena and concepts:

Common nouns are further divided into several subgroups that help determine the type of noun:

• Concrete nouns or concrete nouns include English words that identify person and thing. Such nouns can be presented in either singular or plural. They can usually be felt by at least one of 5 senses:

• Abstract nouns or abstract nouns in English are abstract words in English grammar, used to express states, feelings, emotions, character, ideas. Such nouns cannot be seen, touched, smelled, or counted:

Although these groups are very different from each other, there is some debate among linguists that some abstract nouns can also be concrete nouns:

• Collective nouns or collective nouns in English are used to express classes of animals/birds/plants/people. They are called collective because, in one word, they characterize an entire group.

• Material nouns or material nouns, the group of which includes substances, substances and materials that cannot be counted:

Based on the above types, common nouns form another classification: countable and uncountable nouns in English.

• Countable nouns can be counted and are used with indefinite and definite articles in the singular and plural. These include the following examples of specific and collective nouns:

• Uncountable nouns, accordingly, include nouns that cannot be counted. They are used exclusively in the singular, and adverbs are often used to determine their quantity. The indefinite article cannot be substituted for such words. Abstract and real nouns are called uncountable.

However, there are certain situations where uncountable nouns become countable. It happens:

• When a different meaning of a word is assumed:

Such count nouns are formed from real nouns and consist of the materials that these real nouns represent.

• If we add the ending of the 3rd person singular in the present tense to the uncountable, that is -(e)s. The meaning of the word in such cases also sometimes changes:

• To specify abstract nouns:

• To denote real nouns used in the meaning of portion:

1. If we go into classification in more detail, nouns can also be divided into animate and inanimate.

An animate noun includes words that answer the question “who?”

Inanimate English nouns are words that answer the question “what?” and having no signs of life.

As you can see, the classification of nouns in English is a fairly extensive topic. However, due to many similarities with Russian nouns, mastering it will not take much time. If the types of nouns are not memorized, solving a series of exercises on this topic may help.

English nouns: role in a sentence

A noun in a sentence can play the role of subject, attribute, object, circumstance, and even predicate. Table with examples for clarity:

English nouns: 100 most popular nouns in the English language

Having studied all the features of nouns, the question may arise: “Where, exactly, should I start?” This confusion is understandable, since there are about two hundred thousand nouns in the English language. In such cases, both in English and in any other language, you can find a frequency dictionary in the form of a list, the words in which are recognized as the most commonly used in the speech of native speakers. However, such dictionaries indicate not only nouns, but also verbs, adjectives, and even prepositions. Therefore, so that you do not waste time searching for the most common nouns, we have compiled a list of 100 nouns that you need to know at an elementary level. Table for convenience:

Of course, it is quite difficult to fit into a hundred nouns with such a variety of languages. Someone might argue with the choice of these particular nouns, arguing that the list is biased. However, this choice could not have been objective from the beginning, since each person will have a unique list. However, we can guarantee that these words occur very often and ignorance of them will affect your understanding of the language. Therefore, try to learn this list through exercises, associations, compiling your own examples and other methods familiar to you.

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