Nouns

Chart of Content: Nouns

Count Nouns
Proper Nouns
Plurals
Irregular Plurals
Mass Nouns
Possessives

Count Nouns denote countable things such as a pencil, a ruler, a house, a girl. Singular count nouns must be preceded by a determiner (a, an, the, this, that, etc.) with the exception of the words home, school, and work. For example: He is at home. not He is at a home.

Proper Nouns are names of a particular person, animal, city, country, etc. These must be capitalized and must not be used with a determiner. For example, compare: I live in a city. I live in Denver.

Plurals of count nouns are formed by adding the "s", "z" or "es" sound to the end of the word. The a/an determiner may not be used, but the, these and those should be taught. Compare: This is a chair. These are chairs.

A short list of examples of each sound follows. Use the vocabulary list to compile a more complete list if needed for teaching.

"s": goats, bats, cakes, shirts, sticks, masks, desks, ships, grapes, caps, cups

"z": chairs, pears, babies, potatoes, balls, roads, apples, puzzles, trees, bowls, rugs, stars, friends

"es": classes, churches, boxes, watches, dishes, faces, kisses, buses, brushes

Irregular Plurals must simply be memorized as a special case. Later mix regular and irregular plurals in drills.

man / men	sheep / sheep	mouse / mice
woman / women	fish / fish	goose / geese
child / children	deer / deer	foot / feet
person / people		tooth / teeth

Mass Nouns denote things which in their original state were uncountable, such as wood, water, chalk, and salt. The determiners a and an are not used with these words and they are not generally pluralized. To show quantity, they are used with words such as a cup of, a piece of, or a glass of.

Many food words can be either count nouns or mass nouns. For example, in the sentence He ate cake for dessert., the word cake is a mass noun. Contrast with He ate a cake for dessert. (meaning a whole cake). Similarly, salad / a salad, pineapple / a pineapple, watermelon / a watermelon, chicken / a chicken, fish / a fish, ham / a ham, hamburger / a hamburger, pie / a pie, etc.

Some food words are always mass nouns: bacon, beef, meat, pork, corn, lettuce, squash, bread, butter, candy, cheese, flour, ice cream and most liquids. These must be used with a piece of, a cup of, a package of, etc. to show amount.

Some food words are always count nouns: apple, banana, egg, potato, vegetable, roll, etc.

Here are a few examples of syntax that may be taught in conjunction with mass nouns:

Item	Objective
There is a lot of water.	Mass nouns are not pluralized.
There are a lot of boats.	Count nouns are pluralized.
Is there any milk? No, there isn't any milk.	Any is used with questions and negatives. Mass nouns are not pluralized.
Are there any pencils? No, there aren't any pencils.	Any is used with questions and negatives. Count nouns are pluralized.
Yes, there is milk. Yes, there is some milk. Yes, there is some. Yes, there are pencils. Yes, there are some pencils. Yes, there are some.	Some is used to show undetermined amounts and as a pronoun with both mass and count nouns.
There is a lot of lemonade, but there isn't much tea. There are a lot of tomatoes, but there aren't many onions.	Much is used in negative statements with mass nouns. Many is used in negative statements with count nouns.
There is a little coffee. There are a few apples.	A little is used with mass nouns. A few is used with count nouns.

Kits from the Dairy Council or similar organizations have excellent food pictures that can be used for drills contrasting mass and count nouns.

Possessives are formed by adding the "s", "es" or "z" sound to the end of the word, i.e. John's house is brown. Teach in conjunction with possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her, our, their) and show interchangeability. Contrast singular and plural possessives: The boy's milk is gone. (singular, 's) The boys' milk is gone. (plural, s')