Welcome to your Nouns lesson! In this topic we talk about:
• Noun Genders
• Countable Nouns
• Uncountable Nouns
• Using “a”/”an”
• Using “the”
• Gerunds
Take the quizzes when you’re ready! If you’re having problems, use the comment box to contact our English Teachers.
Noun Genders
In English, most nouns don’t have genders:
“My cousin.”
(It could be a boy or a girl)“My doctor.”
(It could be a man or a woman)
Sometimes, the genre can be discovered using the context of the sentence:
“My cousin has a house. Her house is in London.”
(“Her” – now we know it is a girl.)“My doctor is nice. His name is Dr. Jarvis.”
(“His” – now we know it is a man.)
Coubtable Nouns
Countable nouns have plurals finishing with “s”:
Car → Cars
Computer → Computers
Table → Tables
House → Houses
There are lots of exceptions to this rule:
- Nouns that change completely:
Man → Men
Woman → Women
Child → Children
Foot → Feet
- Nouns that finish with “fe” have “ves” in their plural form:
Wife → Wives
Knife → Knives
- Nouns that finish with “o” have “oes” in their plural form:
Hero → Heroes
Tomato → Tomatoes
- Nouns that finish with a “ch” sound, have “es” in thier plural form:
Beach → Beaches
Church → Churches
Uncountable Nouns
Uncountable nouns don’t have plural forms:
rice →rice
bread → bread
milk → milk
water → water
Using “a” / “an”
We use “a”/”an” in front of singular countable nouns:
a car
a dragon
a computer
an apple
Using “the”
We use “the” when the noun is defined, wether it be countable or uncountable:
“The kids in my class like sweets.”
“The milk in the fridge is off.”
Gerunds
We use the gerund form of verbs as common nouns:
- Used in a general sense, the nouns are uncountable:
“Walking is my favourite hobby.”
“Driving always makes me tired.”
- The gerund can also be used to talk about a specific thing. It can be placed after a possessive adjective or a possessive ‘s:
“Susan’s driving is terrible!”
“Your writing is lovely.”
Vocabulary“The news” – This is a singular noun, despite it finishing in “s” |
