What a noun is and what it does:
A noun tells us what someone or something is called. For example, a noun can be the name of a person (John), a job title (doctor) the name of a thing (radio), the name of a place (London), the name of a quality (courage), or the name of an action (laughter/laughing). Nouns are the names we give to people, things, places, etc in order to identify them. Many nouns are used after a determiner (this) and often combine with other words to form a noun phrase (the man next door). Nouns and noun phrases answer the questions Who? or What? and may be:
- the subject of a verb
Our agent in Cairo sent a telex this morning
- the direct object of a verb
Frank sent an urgent telex from Cairo this morning
- the indirect object of a verb
Frank sent his boss a telex
- the object of a preposition
read about it in the paper
- the complement of be or a related verb like seem
Jane Forbes is our guest
- used 'in apposition'
Laura Myers, a BBC reporter asked for an interview
- used when we speak directly to somebody
Caroline shut that window will you please?
How to identify countable and uncountable nouns:
All common nouns fall into one of two sub-classes they may be either countable nouns (sometimes known as unit or count nouns) or uncountable nouns (sometimes known as mass or non-count nouns) The distinction between countable and uncountable nouns is fundamental in English, for only by distinguishing between the two can we understand when to use singular or plural forms and when to use the indefinite, definite and zero articles or the appropriate quantifier a few much many, etc. Unfortunately, we cannot always rely on common sense (using the idea of counting as a guide) to tell us when a noun is countable or uncountable For example, the noun information is uncountable in English, but its equivalent in another language may refer to an item or items of information and will therefore be countable. Experience is uncountable, but we can refer to an experience to mean an event which contributes to experience. For detailed information about individual nouns, we must consult a good dictionary. but until then:
COUNTING THE UNCOUNTABLES.
We can use several expressions to count uncountable nouns.
| a tube of a litre of a kilo of one carton/two cartons of a slice of a bottle of a packet of |
| a tin of an item of a piece of a spoonful of a glass of a bowl of a loaf of a can of |
UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS.
Some uncountable nouns in English can be countable in other languages. Here you have a list of the most common uncountable English words:
| advice bread news luggage baggage furniture spaghetti pasta |
| weather research work money grass scenery health progress |
NOUNS BOTH COUNTABLE and UNCOUNTABLE.
Some nouns are countable with one meaning and uncountable with another meaning:
| A fish/Some fish A paper (a newspaper)/Some paper An iron/Some iron A wood/Some wood |
| A hair/Some hair A coffee (a cup)/Some coffee A glass/Some glass A time/Some time |
And let us not forget, this is how we count them:
