Hey, everyone! Today we will discuss nouns in English. Let's look at what a noun is, what it means and what role it plays in a sentence. Let's look at the types and classification of nouns, and also learn how an adjective can be made from a noun. Let's get down to the basics!
Noun in English (noun) is a part of speech that designates (names) an object, person or phenomenon and answers the questions “ Who? or " What?».
Subject
In the role of subject, a noun in English can act independently or with definitions.
The classes begin at eight o'clock . - Classes start at eight o'clock.
Те new student is ill . - The new student is sick.
Predicate
As a predicate, the noun must follow the linking verb. Most often this connective is the verb to be(to be, to appear).
Not a pupil. - He's a student.
Not is a good pupil. - He is a good student.
Addition (object)
The role of a noun in a sentence as an object obliges it to always stand after the predicate and be a direct or indirect addition.
Direct object answers the questions " whom?», « What? and is usually used without a preposition.
The Soviet industry has given the miner(indirect addition) the coal combine(direct object). - Soviet industry gave the miner a coal harvester.
Uranium can be produced from thorium(prepositional object). - Uranium can be obtained from thorium.
Definition (attribute)
As a definition, a noun can be used either with a pretext, or without him.
IN first In this case, it comes after the word being defined and basically corresponds to a Russian adjective or noun.
In the second- before the defined noun after the article. It can also correspond to a Russian adjective.
Do you have any laboratory experience?- Do you have experience working in a laboratory (literally laboratory experience)?
In the radio telephone sound waves are converted into radio waves. - In a radiotelephone, sound waves are converted into radio waves.
The atomic reactor is encased in a jacket of steel.- The nuclear reactor is housed in a steel casing.
Adverbial modifier
As a circumstance, a noun is used only with a preposition, usually the definite article. It can be at the beginning or at the end of a sentence.
His car is in the garage.- His car is in the garage.
Didn't walk back slowly into the room.- He slowly returned to the room.
Bodies are lighter in water than they are in air.- Bodies are lighter in water than in air.
Morphological composition of nouns
According to their composition, nouns are divided into:
- Simple nouns- which do not contain a suffix or prefix: pen - pen, book - book, day - day, cat - cat.
- Derived nouns- which have a suffix or prefix or both: brother hood- brotherhood, engine er- engineer, act ress- actress, im mortal ity- immortality.
- Complex(or compound) nouns- consist of two words: two nouns, or a noun and an adjective, or a noun and a verb.
Sometimes such words are connected by prepositions: letterbox - letterbox (letter - letter, box - box), blackboard - blackboard (black - black, board - board), son-in-law - son-in-law (son - son, in - preposition “in” (or “by”), law - law), waterfall - waterfall (water - water, fall - fall).
Classification of nouns
According to their meaning, nouns are divided into common nouns And proper names.
Proper nouns
Designate one-of-a-kind items or names that stand out from the general class:
- Geographical names, nationality And languages:
Australia- Australia;
the Greeks- Greeks;
English- English language.
- Personal names:
Mary- Mary;
Parker- Parker.
- Months And days of the week:
Monday- Monday;
October- October.
- Names of celestial bodies:
Earth- Earth;
the Moon- Moon.
- Ship names, hotels, clubs:
The Santa Maria- Santa Maria (Columbus ship).
- Names of holidays:
Halloween- Halloween;
the New Year- New Year.
- Names of buildings, streets, parks, bridges:
Hyde Park- Hyde Park;
Broadway- Broadway.
- Names of institutions, organizations, printed publications:
North Atlantic Treaty Organization- North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO);
the Times- Times (newspaper).
Proper names are written with a capital letter (including the names of months and days of the week, unlike the Russian language).
If this is a combination of several words, then all of them, except articles and prepositions, are also written with a capital letter (the United States of America - United States of America).
Common names
Indicate the general names of objects, matters, persons and concepts, their categories and groups: love - love, father - father, bus - bus.
Common nouns include:
- Collective(collective nouns) - nouns that are names of groups of persons, animals, objects considered as a whole: club - club, team - team, crowd - crowd, herd - herd, fleet - fleet;
- Real(material nouns) - various substances: iron - iron, water - water, wool - wool;
- Specific(concrete nouns) - nouns denoting the names of any objects that have the property of being recognized through sensation: ball - ball, stone - stone;
- Distracted(abstract nouns) - nouns denoting the names of concepts, qualities, properties, signs or some state of an object, a person: knowledge - knowledge, strength - strength, courage - courage, beauty - beauty.
Countable and uncountable nouns in English
Common nouns are also divided into countable and uncountable.
TO countable nouns refer to the names of objects that can be counted. They are used both in the singular and in the plural: a book - a book, five books - five books.
TO uncountable nouns include names of substances and concepts that cannot be counted, i.e. real and abstract nouns. They are used only in the singular: iron - iron, capitalism - capitalism.
Some English nouns can be either countable or uncountable in different meanings:
My dad has bought a couple of papers. - My dad bought a couple of newspapers.
Paper was invented in China in 105 BC. - Paper was invented in China in 105 AD. e.
Just look at those beauties ahead! - Just look at those beauties ahead!
Her beauty was stunning. - Her beauty was stunning.
Singular and plural nouns
As you already understood, a noun can be both singular and plural.
Singular(singular) denotes one object: cup - cup, gun - gun, bubble - bubble.
Plural(plural) denotes two or more objects: three cups - three cups, two guns - two guns, hundreds of bubbles - hundreds of bubbles.
Forming the plural of English nouns
An English noun can be made plural by adding the ending “-” s».
It reads like [ z] after vowels And voiced consonants: shoe - sho es, hen-he ns. Or how [ s] after deaf consonants: bat - ba ts.
How to make an adjective from a noun?
In English you can form an adjective from a noun by adding a suffix.
Let's look at some suffixes that can be used to form an adjective from a noun.
- Suffix "- al": center - center, centr al- central; form - form, appearance, form al- relating to the external side (of a question, problem), formal.
- Suffix “-ary”: element - element, element ary- elementary; document - document ary- documentary.
- Suffix "- ful": use - benefit, use ful- useful; beauty - beauty, beauty ful- Beautiful.
- Suffix "- ic": magnet - magnet, magnet ic- magnetic.
- Suffix "- ive": progress - progress, progress ive- progressive; mass - mass, mass ive- massive.
- Suffix "- less": use - benefit, use less- useless; hope - hope, hope less- hopeless.
- Suffix "- ous": adventure - adventure, adventur ous- recklessly brave, adventurous; fame - fame, fame, fam ous- famous, famous. We replace the extreme vowel.
- Suffix "- y": rain - rain, rain y- rainy; taste - taste, tast y- delicious. We also replace the extreme vowel.
Noun cases in English
In modern English there are only two cases: general And possessive.
- Common case (common case) of English nouns is not indicated by anything, that is, nouns in this case have null ending(chair, car). Its meaning is very vague, and depending on the context, a noun in the common case can perform a variety of functions.
- Possessive(possessive/genitive case) most often expresses belonging(hence the name possessive).
The possessive case is formed using the sign apostrophe And letters « s"("s) or just an apostrophe (").
The last method is used for nouns in plural(pupils " work, cars " colour) and Greek loanwords ending in [- iz] (Xerxes " army, Socrates " wife)
Gender of nouns
The gender of nouns indicates whether the noun is masculine or feminine.
In English, it is not always possible to determine gender by the ending of a word, as in Russian. Besides nouns only, pointing to animate objects, of people may vary by gender(male and female). All other nouns refer to neutral family(it).
Nouns meaning male floor, belong to the masculine gender: boy - boy, man - man, horse - horse.
Nouns meaning female floor, belong to the feminine gender: girl - girl, woman - woman, mare - mare, lioness - lioness.
Nouns meaning inanimate objects, and abstract nouns, as a rule, belong to the neuter gender. The same gender usually includes nouns denoting animals. For example: chair - chair, fear - fear, cat - cat.
Many animate nouns neutral. Out of context, they do not denote a specific gender and have the same shape for both male and female. These are the so-called nouns of indeterminate gender: child - child (can be a boy or a girl); singer - singer, singer; cook - cook (male and female); cousin - cousin, cousin; assistant - assistant (male and female).
Also, if you want to practice the knowledge you have acquired, we recommend doing a couple of exercises in our Online Trainer and in the Grammar section.
Conclusion
Let's summarize.
- Nouns- these are words denoting objects, people, animals, and other animate or inanimate things.
- All nouns in English are divided into 2 groups: names own(proper nouns) and names common nouns(common nouns).
- Nouns related to names common noun are divided into countable(countable nouns) and uncountable nouns (uncountable nouns).
- The concept of gender in English nouns practically absent. All animate words are either masculine or feminine according to their meaning, and can be replaced by the pronouns “he” - he or “she” - she.
- All animals And inanimate items relate To average family and can be replaced pronoun « it"- he/she/it, inanimate.
- English nouns are subdivided on simple(simple nouns), derivatives(derived nouns) and composite(compound nouns).
- Nouns in English have only 2 case: general(nominative case) and possessive(possessive case), answering the question “whose?”
And that's pretty much it! Now you are familiar with the basic rules for using nouns in English, and, perhaps, have expanded your vocabulary a little. Never forget the basics!
Big and friendly EnglishDom family
Linguists conventionally divide nouns into proper nouns and common nouns. Conventionally, because words “walk” from one category to another. The simplest one: if you call your yacht the word faith/belief, then it instantly becomes a proper word from the group of common nouns.
Own
English proper names include:
- first and last names of people, for example, John Smith, Emma Watson;
- animal names – Belka, Gray, etc.
- names of geographical objects (countries, cities, seas, rivers, mountains, lakes, etc.), for example, Moscow, Hudson River, Ontario;
- names of hotels, shops, brands, ships, etc.
Surprising for a Russian person is that the English also classify the names of the days of the week and months as proper names. That's why Monday and February are written with a capital letter.
Common nouns
Common nouns in the language are presented in a huge variety. They, in turn, are divided into animate and inanimate.
Naturally, we include the names of animals, birds, insects, fish, etc. as animate. – animal, fish, bird etc...
The classification of inanimate nouns includes:
- names of objects and things, individual and collective – a clock, a table;
- name of materials – paper, wool, wood.
English nouns can be concrete or abstract. Words such as illness, friendship, childhood belong to the abstract group, and the words ticket, shirt, cup belong to the concrete group.
Nouns are divided into two groups according to the principle of countability and uncountability. Water, milk, cotton cannot be counted, therefore, these nouns belong to the second group, unlike nouns that can be listed and counted - pen, flag, lamp.
Signs of nouns
Nouns in have the sign of number. To correctly name a word in the plural, you need to add a plural ending: –s or –es if the word ends with a hissing or whistling sound. For example, watch – watches.
Unlike the Russian language, English nouns do not have a gender marker. As an example, consider the word table. In Russian, “stol” is masculine. In English there is no gender of the noun. However, when naming people of certain professions, we find signs of gender designation. For example, actor-actress.
The sign of a noun is the article, either the definite the, or the indefinite – a, an. We always use the indefinite article when talking about some object or living creature for the first time. For example, I saw a girl. The girl is my new classmate./I saw a certain girl. This girl is my new one. From the example it is clear that the subsequent narration is about the girl using the definite article.
The article is an integral part of the noun. If we suddenly forget to put an article in front of a noun, it can immediately turn into a verb. For example, help – we translate into Russian with the verb “help”, but the help – with the word “help”.
A noun in English, as well as in Russian, denotes objects in a very broad sense. The English word "noun" comes from the Latin word nomen, meaning "name". The English noun is significantly different from its Russian counterpart. These differences are significant and you definitely need to know them.
The main differences between a noun in English and a noun in Russian
In English, nouns are NOT inflected according to gender. Those. in Russian, “table” is masculine, “cup” is feminine, “cloud” is neuter. Depending on this, their endings change in different cases.
In English, table (table), cup (cup), cloud (cloud) are not divided into masculine and feminine - they are just nouns. If you ask an Englishman what type of word table is, he simply will not understand you.
English nouns have only 2 cases: nominative and possessive
Compare:
I have cup. – I have a cup.
I have no cups. – I don’t have a cup.
He filled cup. – He filled a cup.
He played cup. – He played with a cup.
As you can see, in Russian phrases we used 4 cases, but in English there is only one - the nominative. In English, everything is much simpler with nouns than in Russian.
Plural of nouns in English
As in Russian, English has singular and plural nouns. The singular number means one item, and the plural means 2 or more items.
As in Russian, the plural of English nouns is formed by changing their ending.
Compare: cup – cups | cup - cups
There are a number of English exception words that form the plural in an irregular way. We will not consider them in this article.
Pluralizing nouns in English (regular way)
In most cases, simply adding an s to the end of a noun is enough to create a plural.
S
dog - dogs
pen - pens
wallet - wallets
To nouns ending in s, ch, sh, x, z, add es.
s, ch, sh, x, z + es
watch – watches
bush – bushes
box – boxes
consonant+y = y ies
In words ending with a consonant + y, replace y with i and add es.
consonant+y = y ies
party – parties
try - tries
bunny - bunnies
vowel + y + s
In words ending with vowel + y, we simply add s without changing anything else.
vowel + y + s
play - plays
toy – toys
boy - boys
You can learn about the pronunciation of the endings of English plural nouns from
Classification of English nouns:
Abstract and concrete
Abstract nouns are ideas, events, qualities or emotions.
Abstract
love - love
time - time
excitement - excitement
Concrete nouns are names of something that we can perceive through our senses. Simplified: people, places, things
Specific
car - car
cat - cat
doctor - doctor
Animated and inanimate
Animate nouns refer to people, animals or other creatures
Animated
boy - boy
giraffe - giraffe
duck - duck
Inanimate nouns refer to materials and objects
Inanimate
glass – glass
brick – brick
house - house
Collective nouns
Collective nouns describe a group of people or things as one entity.
Collective
family - family
team - team
flock – flock (of birds)
Proper and common nouns
Proper nouns are names of things, places, names.
Own
Peter – Peter
Broadway - Broadway
The Times - Times (newspaper name)
Common nouns are names of groups of similar things.
Common nouns
table - table
book - book
cup – cup
Countable and uncountable nouns
Countable (or count) nouns can be counted and have a plural form.
Countable
spoon – spoons (spoon – spoons)
idea – ideas (idea – ideas)
knife – knives (knife – knives)
Uncountable (or non count) nouns cannot be counted and have only a singular form.
Uncountable
money - money
coffee - coffee
bread – bread
The division into countable and uncountable nouns in English does not always coincide with Russian. For example, the word “advice” is uncountable in English. Although in Russian we can say “I’ll give you 2 pieces of advice.” An Englishman here will say “I’ll give you some advice.”
Attention! Pronouns are not nouns.
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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)
Nouns in English 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
At the initial stage of learning English, you must first of all develop at least a small vocabulary. Then you can move on, gradually expanding it. If you are a beginner, then 500 worked words in English is quite enough to get started. But this does not mean that you need to open a dictionary and learn everything in alphabetical order.
To begin with, you must select and learn only the most commonly used words in everyday speech, let's call them basic words. In order for you to be able to navigate at least a little in the English language and understand phrases on everyday topics, this basic dictionary must include different parts of speech. The main and most numerous are: nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Now we will focus on nouns. To make things easier for you, we have sorted out 100 nouns in English that you need to know first and compiled a table. I suggest you first remember what characteristics a noun has in English. What can nouns mean in English?
Noun in English
A noun is one of the most important parts of speech in the English language. A noun can denote objects, living beings, abstract concepts and phenomena. The noun answers the questions “who?” So what?".
According to the expressed meaning, nouns can be classified into proper nouns - proper (Great Britain - Great Britain, Olga Popova - Olga Popova) and common nouns - common (freedom - freedom, and woman - woman). Common nouns are divided into concrete (a table) and abstract (love), animate (a dog) and inanimate (a house).
The topic of plural formation of nouns is very closely related to the above topic, to which we also devoted a separate article. In addition to the number category, a noun also has a gender category and a case category.
According to their morphological composition, nouns are divided into simple (sky - sky, man - man), derivatives (friendship - friendship, teacher) and compound (seaman - sailor, girl-friend - friend). Get acquainted with this topic in the article “Formation of nouns in English”.
100 basic nouns in English
In the following video lessons you will be able to get acquainted with the list of basic nouns in the English language. They are divided into groups of 20 and are also presented with translations and examples (in the context of sentences). I advise you to work through one video lesson a day to quickly gain and consolidate the following vocabulary.
Table: 100 basic nouns of the English language
To make things easier for you, we have listed the 100 fundamental English nouns from the above video lessons in the following table. The nouns are given with translation and arranged in alphabetical order.
| Noun in English — Noun translation |
| air - air animal - animal answer - answer area - area bird - bird body - body book - book bottom - bottom boy - boy brother - brother car - car child - child children - children city - city class - class color - color country - country day - day day - day dog - dog door - tree east - east example - example eye - eye face - face family - family farm - farm father - dad feet - legs fire - fire fish - fish food - food foot - leg friend - friend girl - girl hand - hand head - head home - house horse - horse house - house idea - idea king - king land - earth letter - letter life - life line - line list - list man - man men - men month - month mother - mother mountain - mountain music - music name - name night - night north - north number - number order - order page - page paper - paper pen - pen people - people person - person picture - drawing piece - piece place - place plant - plant problem - problem product - product question - question river - river rock - rock room - room school - school science - science sea - sea sentence - sentence ship - ship side - side sister - sister song - song sound - sound south - south space - space state - state/state story - history sun - sun top - top tree - tree watch - watch water - water week - week west - west wind - wind woman - woman women - women wood - tree word - word world - world year - year |
Of course, people distinguish basic nouns in English differently. Therefore, this table may not be ideal for some. Someone may dispute the importance of some of the nouns given in the table, or, conversely, add other nouns to it.