Noun is one of the eight parts of speech. You must have read about noun in your previous classes. Do you remember what kinds of words nouns are?

Read the story below and underline the nouns.

Friend

Bubbly was a rabblt who lived In the forest. He had many friends. He took pride in their friendship.

One day Bubbly heard the loud barking of the wild dogs. As he was timid, he became afraid. He decided to ask for help. He quickly went to his friend, deer. He said: "Some wild dogs are chasing me. Can you drive them away with your sharp horns?" The deer said: "That is right, I tan. But now I am busy. Why don't you ask the bear for help?"

Bubbly, the rabbit, ran to the bear. "My dear friend, you are very strong. Please help me. Some wild dogs are after me. Please chase them away," he requested the bear.

The bear replied: "l am sorry. I am suffering from hunger and weakness. I need to find some food. Please ask the monkey for help".

Poor Bubbly went to the monkey, elephant, goat and all his friends. Bubbly felt sad that nobody showed any interest to help him.

He understood that he has to think of a way out. He hid under a bush. He lay there till the wild dogs went their way.

Now, compare your underlined. words with a partner.

In pairs, discuss the following questions:

What is a noun?
What different types of nouns are there in English?
What roles do nouns play in a sentence?

Look at some more examples of nouns

Names of people and profession: Alam, Rosy, teacher, doctor

Names of animals: rat, zebra, lion, tiger

Names of places: house, Dhaka, factory, school

Names of objects: table, camera, printer, computer

Names of materials: lead, nitrogen, water, ice

Names of qualities: kindness, beauty, bravery, faithfulness

Names of actions: rowing, cooking, driving, reading, listening

Names of measures: minute, second, day, month, litre

Read the story above again and see whether the words underlined by you are all nouns. As you read the text, try to find the different types of naming words e.g. words that name a particular person/character, words that name an idea and words that name something in general, etc.

Discuss the questions below

What type of noun is Bubbly in the story?
What type of noun is dogs, deer, bear or elephant?
What type of noun is pride, hunger or weakness?

Read the section below to know more about different types of nouns.

Common nouns: These are the general names of people, places, things, or ideas.

Examples: writer, city, park, religion

Proper nouns: This type of noun has two features: i) It names a specific [usually a one-of-a-kind] item, and ii) It begins with a capital letter [no matter where it occurs in a sentence.]

Examples: Rabindranath Tagore, Paris, Dhaka, Islam

The chart below shows examples of common nouns and proper nouns:

Common Noun Proper Noun

writer — Humayun Ahamed

teacher — Prof. Abdur Razzaque

boy — Shubho city Khulna

mango — Langra

school — Ideal High School

Abstract nouns: Look at the following list. Can you touch or see any of them? Can you count any of them?

peace	conduct	speed	taste
warmth	courage	experience	evil
hospitality	leisure	time	liberty

They name something that you cannot experience with your five senses — they do not physically exist.

Concrete nouns: Concrete nouns physically exist and can be experienced by the five senses.

For example:

Can you chase them away with your sharp horns?

Horns is an example of a concrete noun. You can see horns of an animal and touch them with your finger and smell its breath. Look at this chart contrasting abstract and concrete nouns:

Abstract nouns	Concrete nouns
love	table
intelligence	laptop
kindness	cow
mercy	plants
honesty	building

Collective nouns: These are nouns that refer to a group of things. Look at the chart below:

army	council	corporation
audience	department	minority
board	faculty	navy
crowd	family	senate
class	farm	society
committee	group	team
company	jury majority	troupe

Exercise 1

Read the following sentences in pairs and look at the italicized word in each sentence and say whether the italicized nouns are common, proper, collective or abstract.

Honesty is the best policy.
Solomon was famous for his wisdom.
A committee of five was appointed.
Jamil is a bright student.
Wisdom is better than riches.
I didn't believe the clown's story.
A teacher must have patience.
Cleanliness is next to godliness.
My sister is a doctor.
Myfamily lives in that house.

Exercise 2

Circle the proper nouns and underline the common nouns in the following sentences:

To make cakes, we need eggs, flour, sugar, and butter.
Jafrin read Gulliver's Travels last week.
Every Tuesday in June, my team takes part in a charity match.
Spelling Bee is my favorite show on television.
The Shishu Park is a place to visit with friends and parents.

Exercise 3

Circle the proper nouns and underline the collective nouns. (There are 10 all together.)

1 . Junaid is the captain of the school cricket team.

My family is going to Kuakata on vacation.
I love the month of June because schools have holidays.
I want a computer for my birthday.

What do nouns do?

Nouns can do lots of things in sentences. Let's look at some of the jobs noun do:

1. Subjects are nouns that tell us who or what a sentence is about.

e.g. Maya kicked the ball.

Direct objects are nouns that receive the action of certain kinds of verbs (transitive active verb)

e.AMaya kicked the ball.

Indirect objects are nouns that receive the direct object.

e.g. Mary kicked Joya the ball.

4. Objects of prepositions are nouns that come after prepositions in prepositional phrases. Maya kicked the ball to Joya.

Exercise 4

Identify the function of the underlined nouns as indicated below:

subject direct object

indirect object

object of preposition

The iury selected Rima as winner.
What is Jewel doing on his birthday?
Bipasha is my friend.
The committee elected Mahfuz its new Vice President.

Lesson 3: Countable and Uncountable Nouns

In the previous lesson you learnt about various kinds of nouns. In this lesson you will look at two types of nouns - countable and uncountable.

Read the text and underline the nouns in it. Then discuss the following a questions in pairs.

Which nouns can you count?
Can you find any nouns that you cannot count?
Which nouns take an article before them?

When I am free, I listen to the radio. There are some good radio stations that play music I like, and other stations play a lot of music I don't really like. I like to listen to both old songs and new songs. In fact, I listen to a lot of different music, from classical to modern. Some music on the radio reminds me of when I was younger. I still like those old songs.

Have you got any idea about countable and uncountable nouns from your discussion? Read the section below.

Nouns can be divided into two categories — countable and uncountable. Countable nouns are words that represent things we can count. For example, the word song is a countable noun. Here are some more examples:

An old song, two new songs, etc.
A collection of 100 songs

Uncountable nouns are words that represent things we do not count. For example, the word music is an uncountable noun. Here are some examples:

a lot of music
the music of the 70s

Now, let's look at countable and uncountable nouns in more details. Countable nouns

Countable nouns are either singular or plural. They can be counted and expressed in numbers.

I need to buy four new suitcases. - Suitcase (s) is a countable noun as adding 's' to it makes it plural.
I want five oranges? - Here five is used to count the number of oranges.

Countable nouns are easy to recognise. They are things that we can count. For example: 'pen'. We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens. Most countable nouns become plural by adding an 's' at the end of the word.

We can use the indefinite article a/an with countable nouns:

a good book

When a countable noun is singular, we must use a word like a/the/my/this with it:

I want an orange. (not I want orange.)
Where is my watch? (not Where is watch?)

We can use some and any with countable nouns:

I've got some coins.
Have you got any pens?

We can use a few and many with countable nouns:

I've got a few coins.
I haven't got many pens.

Now, in the above examples you must have noticed the way plural nouns are formed. Discuss with a partner the following questions:

How do we convert singular nouns into plural?
Do we follow the same rules for making plurals with all nouns?
What do the names 'regular nouns' and 'irregular nouns' suggest?

Read the sections below to check your ideas.

Formation of plural of regular nouns

Most nouns form the plural by adding -s.

Singular Plural

house	houses
cat	cats
river	rivers
boat	boats

A noun ending in s, x, ch, sh makes the plural by adding — es

Singular Plural

bus

buses

wish

pitch

wishes

pitches

box

boxes

A noun ending in a consonant and then y, makes the plural by dropping the y and adding —ies

Singular — Plural

spy — spies

baby — babies

city — cities

Formation of plural of irregular nouns

There are some irregular formations of plural nouns. Some of the most common ones are listed below:

Singular. Plural

woman	women
man child	men children
goose	geese
knife	knives
wife	wives
elf	elves
potato	potatoes

Some nouns have the same form in the singular and the plural

Singular. Plural

sheep	sheep
fish	fish
deer	deer
species	species
aircraft	aircraft

Remember, these are singular nouns.

news	The news is at 6.30 p.m.
athletics	Athletics is good for young people.
linguistics	Linguistics is the study of language.
darts	Darts is a popular game in England.
politics	Politics is played all over the world.

Some nouns have a fixed plural form and take a plural verb.

Plural noun with plural verb	Sentence
trousers	My trousers are too tight.
jeans	Her jeans are black.
glasses	Those glasses are new.

Uncountable nouns

Uncountable nouns are the exact opposite of Countable Nouns. These nouns are the names of things that cannot be counted and have only a singular form.

These nouns use singular verbs in a sentence.

The furniture was new. (Furniture is an uncountable noun and therefore, we use the singular 'was' in referring to it.)
Is 250gm of sugar enough? (Sugar is an uncountable noun as sugar itself cannot be counted. It can only be weighed.)
He is praised for his honesty. - Honesty is an uncountable noun as it has no plural and cannot be counted in physical terms either.

List of some Uncountable Nouns

General	Abstract
homework	advice
equipment	help
luggage	fun
clothing	recreation
furniture	enjoyment
machinery	information
gold	knowledge
silver	news
cotton	patience
glass	happiness
jewelry	progress

Using Countable & Uncountable Nouns

Look at the following list and notice which words are used with countable and uncountable nouns:

Words used with countable nouns only
a	a doctor, a pen, a meal, a class, a college
many	many cups, many books, many libraries, many flights

Words used with countable nouns only
few		few questions, few tables, few apples, few holidays, few countries
a few		a few questions, a few problems, a few issues
Words used with uncountable nouns only
much			much money, much time, much food, much water, much energy
little			little trouble, little equipment, little meat, little patience
a little bit of			a little bit of confidence, a little bit of sleep, a little bit of rain
Words used with both countable & uncountable nouns
the	countable			the monkeys, the schools, the teachers, the boats, the bananas
	uncountable			the machinery, the luggage, the grass, the knowledge

Words used with both countable & uncountable nouns
some	countable	some tables, some stores, some grapes, some cities, some nurses
some	uncountable	some time, some news, some bread, some salt
any	countable	any socks, any bathrooms, any ideas, any beliefs
any	uncountable	any advice, any soap, any transportation, any gold, any homework
no	countable	no magazines, no chocolates, no pilots, no rings, no markers
no	uncountable	no trouble, no grass, no scenery, no money, no furniture
a lot of	countable	a lot of animals, a lot of coins, a lot of people, a lot of babies
a lot of	uncountable	a lot of help, a lot of happiness, a lot of fun
lots of	countable	lots of computers, lots of buses, lots of colleges
lots of	uncountable	lots of cake, lots of ice cream, lots of energy, lots of laughter
enough	countable	enough plates, enough onions, enough restaurants
enough	uncountable	enough courage, enough wisdom, enough rice, enough time
plenty of	countable	plenty of houses, plenty of books
plenty of	uncountable	plenty of oil, plenty of sugar

Note: Usage of few, a few, little, a little

The expressions a little and a few mean some.

We use a little with singular nouns.

Example:

I havea little money.

We use a few with plural nouns.

Example:

Kaberi has a few friends.

Note that there are differences of meaning when you use a little / a few or little / few with nouns. Without the article, the words have a restricted or negative meaning.

a little means 'some' little means 'hardly any'

Examples:

I need a little money. That means - I need some money.

I need little money. That means - I need hardly any money.

Again read about the differences between a few and few.

a few = some few = hardly any

Examples:

A few friends visited me. - Some friends visited me.

Few friends visited me. - Hardly any friends visited me.

Exercise 1:

Are these nouns countable or uncountable? Discuss in pairs and write C for countable and U for uncountable next to each noun.