What are nouns?

There are numerous words in English. These words are divided into eight classes on the basis of their grammatical behaviour.

The eight parts of speech are: noun, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, verb and interjection.

Nouns

A noun is the name of a person, place or thing. Examples are: boy, girl, tree, apple, computer, India, mother, father, Raju, river, breeze, heat, country etc.

A noun can be the subject or object of a verb.

Some nouns have plural forms. These are called countable nouns. Example are: apple, boy, book, car, flower, country, student etc.

Most singular nouns form their plurals by adding -s to the singular.

• Apple -> apples
• Boy -> boys
• Girl -> girls
• Book -> books
• Flower -> flowers
• Student -> students

Some singular nouns form their plurals by adding -es to the singular.

Examples are:

• Fox -> foxes
• Box -> boxes
• Mango -> mangoes
• Tomato -> tomatoes

Some nouns form their plurals irregularly.

• Man -> men
• Woman -> women
• Child -> children
• Foot -> feet
• Tooth -> teeth

We can use numbers and the definite articles a/an with countable nouns. We can, for example, say an apple or two apples. A singular countable noun always has an article or another determiner with it. We say a book, my book, the book, this book or that book, but not just book.

Some nouns do not have plural forms. In grammars, these nouns are uncountable nouns. Uncountable nouns are the names of materials, liquids, abstract ideas, collections and other things which we do not see as separate object. Examples are: water, oil, petrol, air, gas, weather, wool, rice, milk, sand etc.

We cannot use numbers or the article a/an with uncountable nouns. We say weather, not a weather or two weathers.

Most uncountable nouns are followed by singular verbs. However, there are some exceptions to this rule. Some nouns which are uncountable in English have plural countable forms in many languages.

Sections in this article

Nouns
Plural Nouns
Formation of plurals
Compound nouns and their plurals
Irregular plurals
Possessive Nouns
Nouns that always require a plural verb