Special English Engr. Khrisna Mae C.

Gelogo, ECE, LPT

Unit 1. Nouns perceived by at least one of our five senses. Here
The Eight Parts of Speech are some examples:
1. Noun – describes a person, place, thing, event and  Can I pet your dog?
idea  Please pass the salt.
2. Pronoun – a word used in place of a noun  Your sweater is made of such soft wool.
3. Adjective – used to describe a noun or pronoun Concrete nouns can be: Common nouns, Proper
4. Verb – tells an action, a state of being, or an event nouns, Collective nouns, Countable and
5. Adverb – it answers the questions such as how, uncountable nouns
when, where or why and often ends in -ly. It is used Concrete nouns can appear in singular or plural
to describe everything except nouns and pronouns. forms.
6. Preposition – tells the relationship between nouns, Examples are: flower, bear, music, Niagara
pronouns, or other words in a sentence. Falls, pie, incense, tornado, ranch, milk, team,
7. Conjunction – joins words, phrases or sentences Declaration of Independence, lotion, stars,
together Europeans, water, Big Ben, colony, and car
8. Interjection – a word expression emotion followed
by exclamation points or comma 6. Abstract Nouns - It has no physical existence
which refers to ideas, emotions and concepts.
Noun – a word that names a person, a place, a thing, an Ideas, qualities or conditions like love, hate,
animal, an event or an idea. power, and time are all examples of abstract nouns.
Person Animals Place Things Idea  All you need is love.
Teacher Birds Town Book Courage  I hate my new school.
Dr. Smith Ducks Manila Cake Mercy  We must use this time wisely.
team horse gym utensil love In these sentences, the abstract nouns refer to
Types of Nouns concepts or feelings that cannot be understood
1. Proper Nouns – used to name a SPECIFIC (or concretely or touched physically.
individual) person, place, thing or idea. It always Examples:
starts with a capital letter. Love, fear, anger, joy, excitement, and other
Person: Albert Einstein emotions are abstract nouns.
Place: Philippines Courage, bravery, cowardice, and other such
Thing: Shrek 3 states are abstract nouns.
Ideas: Catholic Desire, creativity, uncertainty, and other innate
feelings are abstract nouns.
2. Common Nouns - used to name people, places or
things in GENERAL. A common noun is not 7. Countable Nouns -  can occur in both single and
capitalized unless it’s the first word in a sentence. plural forms, can be modified by numbers, and can
Person: scientist co-occur with quantifying determiners, such as
Place: country many, most, more, several, etc.
Thing: movie For example, the noun "bike" is a countable noun.
Ideas: religion  There is a bike in that garage.
In this example, the word bike is singular because
3. Compound Nouns - contains two or more words it refers to one bike that is sitting in a particular
that join together to make a single noun. garage. However, "bike" can also occur in the
Compound nouns can be two words written as one plural form.
(closed form), such as softball and toothpaste;  There are six bikes in that garage.
words that are hyphenated (hyphenated form), such In this example, the plural noun bikes refer to
as six-pack and son-in-law; or separate words more than one bike because it is being modified by
(open form), such as post office and upper the number six.
class that go together by meaning. In addition, countable nouns can be used with
Close Form: birdcage, birthplace determiners like "several," rather than a number.
Hyphenated: mother-in-law, editor-in-chief  In that garage, there are several bikes.
Open Form: green house, White House, birth
control 8. Uncountable Nouns - On the other hand, some
nouns are not countable, you'll see them referred to
4. Collective Nouns - are nouns that refer to a group as uncountable, non-countable or mass nouns. For
of something in particular. Often, collective nouns example, the word "clutter" is an uncountable
are used to refer to groups of animals. Consider the noun.
following sentences.  The garage is full of clutter.
 Look at that gaggle of geese. This sentence makes grammatical sense. However,
 There used to be herds of wild buffalo on the the following example does not.
prairie.  That garage is full of clutters.
 A crowd of kids is in the pool today. Uncountable nouns usually cannot take plural
 The team did a great job in the competition. forms. Therefore,  clutters aren’t grammatical.
Examples: class, committee, flock, herd, team,
audience, assembly, team, club. Liquids and powders are among the items that are
considered mass nouns, such
5. Concrete Nouns - are nouns that refer to things as milk, rice, wood, sand, water, and flour. Other
that exist physically and can be touched, seen, more abstract examples that cannot be counted
smelled, felt, or tasted. Concrete nouns can be would be air, freedom, or intelligence. Generally,
we do not use plural forms of these words;
Special English Engr. Khrisna Mae C. Gelogo, ECE, LPT
however, some of these words do end in "s", so cameo cameos
don't get confused. For example, politics ends in
folio folios
“s” but uncountable.
studio studios
Unit 1.2 Number of Nouns • Nouns ending in “o” preceded by a consonant
1. The plural of a noun is formed by adding “s” to generally form their plural by adding “s” or “es”
the Singular Form Examples:
Examples: Singular Plural
Singular Plural buffalo buffalos / buffaloes
bag bags fiasco fiascos / fiascoes
bell bells motto mottos / mottoes
house houses
pupil pupils 7. Nouns ending in “f or fe”, the plural is formed by
changing “f or fe” into “ves”.
stone stones Examples:
2. Noun ending in “s” or the sound of “s” (“ch”, Singular Plural
“sh”, “x” and z”) the plural form is formed by calf calves
adding “es”. loaf loaves
Nouns ending Nouns ending in Nouns thief thieves
in 's' 'ch' ending in 'x'
bus buses coach coaches tax taxes *Exception to this rule are the following:
kiss kisses inch inches box boxes
Singular Plural
Nouns ending
Nouns ending in 'z' cliff cliffs
in 'sh'
gulf gulfs
bush bushes Quiz quizzes roof roofs

Add "s" after "ch" that sounds like K 8. Three nouns in the “fe” form their plural by
monarch monarchs adding “s”.
epoch epochs Singular Plural
safe safes
3. The plural form of nouns ending in “y” and “y” is strife strifes
preceded by a consonant simply change “y” to “i” fife fifes
and add “es”. In short “ies”.
Examples:
9.
Singular Plural
baby babies
fly flies
lady ladies

4. But if the final “y” is preceded by a vowel in ay,

ey, and oy just simply add “s” to its singular form.
Examples:
Singular Plural
play plays
day days
key keys

5. For nouns ending in “o” preceded by a consonant,

the plural is formed by adding “es”.
Examples:
Singular Plural
cargo cargoes
echo echoes
mangoe
mango s
Exception to this rule are the following:
solo piano halo
bolo canto alto

6. For nouns ending in “o” preceded by a vowel, the

plural is formed by adding “s”.
Examples:
Singular Plural
Special English Engr. Khrisna Mae C. Gelogo, ECE, LPT
Masculine-Feminine Masculine-Feminine
bachelor - maid/spinster gander - goose
boar – sow/she-bear gentleman - lady
Unit 1.3 Gender of Nouns boy – girl hart - roe
Gender is of four kinds: brother – sister horse - mare
Masculine (denotes male) buck – doe husband - wife
Feminine (denotes female) bull/ox – cow lord - lady
Common (denotes both male and female) bullock – heifer man - woman
Neuter (denotes neither male nor female) cock – hen nephew - niece
Masculine Feminine Common Neuter colt – filly (young horse) sir - madam
boy girl student gold dog – bitch stag - hind
man woman teacher rice drake – duck uncle - aunt
brother sister doctor flower drone – bee wizard - witch
uncle aunt child river father – mother fox - vixen
bull cow diplomat table friar/monk – nun mon/dual – gender
Note: The words masculine and feminine can be used
as adjectives to describe the looks or qualities of Common/Dual Gender
human beings. In this sense masculine means: having Nouns denoting profession
the characteristics of a man, so it can be used of a Most of the nouns denoting profession/occupation are
woman or girl as well. The lady standing in the center in the common gender:
has masculine looks. Similarly, with feminine. Notice Ambassador doctor minister pupil
that in this sense masculine/feminine indicates Artisan editor monarch reader
characteristics or attributes, not sex. Artist enemy monitor relation
Artiste engineer musician scientist
Masculine and feminine forms author fool neighbor secretary
The feminine of nouns is formed in two ways: baby foreigner novelist servant
1. By adding “ess” to the masculine form. captain friend orphan singer
Masculine Feminine child infant person speaker
actor actress clerk judge player student
lion lioness collector lawyer poet teacher
baron baroness cook lecturer politician typist
master mistress cousin librarian president worker
count/earl countess criminal magician principal writer
murderer murderess dancer magistrate professor
duke duchess
priest priestess Unit 1.4. Possessive Case of Nouns
god goddess 1. Singular Nouns - simply add apostrophe "s" (‘s).
prince princess
heir heiress
shepherd shepherdess
host hostess
tiger tigress
hunter huntress
waiter waitress
Note: a) English has only a small number of feminine
forms (noun + ess).
Professional activities are often referred to in the
common gender.
The feminine forms authoress, poetess, directress,
inspectress are no longer in use.
She is the director of this institute. (not, directress)
She is an inspector of police. (not, inspectress)
b) The feminine form of hero is heroine.

2. By adding she/girl/woman to the masculine form

Masculine Feminine
he-goat she-goat
boy-friend girl-friend
student woman student
businessman businesswoman
policeman policewoman
sportsman sportswoman
salesman saleswoman
statesman stateswoman

But in many cases, the feminine form is not derived

from the masculine form. In the examples listed below,
the feminine form is a totally new word, not related to
the masculine form phonetically.