NOUNS AND NOUN PHRASES

WHAT IS A NOUN?

     A noun gives the name of people, places, things, qualities, ideas, or activities to act as the subject/object of the verb. 

Examples: children, sugar, party, kid

WHAT IS A NOUN PHRASE?

     A noun phrase is a group of words or a single word that acts as a noun in a phrase or sentence.  For example, my best friend is a noun phrase. It could be followed by a verb phrase, for example arrived early at the party. In this case, the party is another noun phrase. A noun phrase can be one word (e.g. john, she, people) or it can be longer, as in the example above. Sometimes, a noun phrase can be more complicated, for example the underlined part of The woman who answered the door was very friendly. 

DIFFERENT TYPES OF NOUNS

Exercise 1

Look at the sentences below and decide what type of noun each underlined noun is. Some of the nouns have more than one term to describe them. For example, city is a common, countable noun. 

1. London is a city in the UK.

2. The staff here thinks money is important. 

3. I can see the pleasure your family gives you. 

Proper noun 

Often the names of specific places, people and organizations; begin with a capital letter. 

Examples: London, John, the Government, the UK, Mount Everest 

Common noun 

Non-specific things, e.g. there are lots of cities in the world. 

Examples: city, money, family, people, dogs, cats 

Countable noun 

Can be singular or plural; you can have a number of them.

Examples: city, family, men, (an) apple, (three) apples

Uncountable noun 

Cannot have a plural form; you cannot have a number of them, e.g. 'I've got two informations' is wrong. 

Examples: money, pleasure, freedom, information, air, water, rice

Collective noun

Generally used for a group of things, people, animals and places. 

Examples: (the) staff, family, (the) army, furniture, team

Concrete noun

Used for real, physical things that you can touch, see, taste, etc. 

Examples: city, money, family, John, Mount Everest, London, staff

Abstract noun 

Used for non-physical things that you can't touch, see, taste, etc. 

Examples: pleasure, freedom, information, love, power 

     Some nouns, called compound nouns, are made of more than one word. For example, bus stop is a common, concrete, countable noun made from a noun + a noun. We can form nouns from other parts of speech by adding suffixes: for example, by adding the suffix -ment to the verb advertise we form the noun advertisement. The process of making nouns from other parts of speech is called nominalisation. Nominalisation occurs most commonly with verbs and adjectives. We can also form nouns by adding -ing to a verb (e.g. I like swimming). When a verb with an -ing ending is used as a noun, it is called a gerund. 

Exercise 2

Look at the words and write their noun forms. (Do not use gerunds for the verbs) 

1. happy (adjective)______

2. long (adjective)______

3. revise (verb)______

4. fly (verb)______

     Some common suffixes used in nominalisation are: -ness (happiness), -tion (production), -ion (revision), -ment (advertisement), -ance (dependence). Other forms used for nominalisation appear to be more irregular but there are still patterns. For example:
long - length

strong - strength

deep - depth

wide - width

fly - flight

high - height 

see - sight

live - life

believe - belief

relieve - relief. 

     Some verbs can also be used as nouns with no changes to their form. For example, love, which is a verb and an abstract noun. In this case, the meaning does not change greatly. I love him means 'I have feelings of great affection for him'; Love is important means 'The feeling of great affection is important'. 😊