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What is a Noun Form?

Singular and Plural Form of Noun

Noun form can be either singular or plural. Singular means just one of the person, place, idea, thing or animal while plural means more than one person, place, thing, idea or animal.

Following examples of singular and plural noun form :

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Singular Plural
a bike three bikes
my car some new cars
that dog those dogs
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Forming the Plural of Nouns

The rules of plural nouns depend on spelling and pronunciation. Most of the plural noun by adding – s:

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pair - pairs cow - cows
school - schools bike - bikes
part - parts face - faces
cat - cats house - houses
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Types of Nouns

1. Countable Nouns

Countable nouns can be used in both singular and plural forms can be modified by numerals and can co-occur with quantifying determiners such as many, most, more, several, etc.

For example, a car is a countable noun.

  • There is a car in that garage.

This example, the word car is singular because it refers to one car that is sitting in a particular garage. However, a car can also occur in the plural form.

  • There are eight cars in that garage.

In this example, the plural noun cars refer to more than one car because it is being modified by the numeral eight.

2. Uncountable Nouns

Conversely, some nouns are not countable. They’re called uncountable nouns. For example, the word clutter is an uncountable noun.            

  • The tank is full of water.

This sentence makes logical sense. However, the following example does not.

  • The tank is full of waters.

Uncountable nouns usually cannot take plural forms. Therefore, the waters aren’t grammatical. Substances, liquids, and powders are entities that are often signified by uncountable nouns such as milk, oil, rice, wood, sand, water, and flour.

3. Common Noun

Common Noun is the words that refer to most general, unspecific categories of entities. For examples: teacher, grandma, cousin, girl,  city, pen, car, country, evening, laughter, puppy, umbrella, etc.

Common Noun examples in the following sentences are bold for easy identification:​

  • Sita  have many pen.
  • It is the sound of my alarm clock.

4. Proper Noun

Proper Noun is the name that identifies someone or something, a place or a person. Rohan is a proper noun since the word Rohan represents a particular name of a person. For examples: Swift, Divush, Singapore, Mary Kom, John, Audi, Kashmir, Steve Smith, California, etc.

Proper Noun examples in the following sentences are bold for easy identification:

  • My second grade teacher was Mrs. Sunita an old battle-axe.
  • Singapore is a beautiful country.

5. Abstract Noun

Abstract is a type of noun that you can’t see or touch. A noun is a place, person or thing. However, in many cases, that ‘thing’ may be an intangible concept. For examples: happiness, integrity, democracy, success, pride, experience, power, charity,  friendship, knowledge, etc.

Abstract Noun examples in the following sentences are bold for easy identification:

  • He spoke the truth, just as her mother lied to her.
  • Friendship and love are equally important.

6. Collective Noun

Collective Noun refers to the group of persons, place, things. For examples: army, jury, class, audience, government, cattle, bunch, gang, cabinet, school, family, room, etc.

Collective Noun examples in the following sentences are bold for easy identification:

  • Rohit told the class she was getting engaged.
  • There are thousand students in the school.

7. Material Noun

A material noun refers to a substance or material from which things are made. For examples: oil, water, gold, silver, war, chemical, shampoo, cotton, iron, etc.

Material Noun examples in the following sentences are bold for easy identification:

  • We use cotton from a local farm in our shirts.
  • Reena purchased a diamond ring .
  • We use cotton from a local farm in our shirts.
  • I drink milk daily in the morning.

Important Rules:

Rule 1.

There are some nouns which look like a plural but give singular meaning. So, they take singular form only. 

For example: News, Physics, Statistics, Innings, Billiards, Rickets, Phonetics, Diabetes, Gymnastics, Mump, etc.

Rule 2.

There is some noun which exists both in singular and plural it depends upon a sense of sentence . For example: Sheep, Deer, Services, Series, Fish, Apparatus, etc.

Rule 3.

The following words are uncountable and are normally used in the singular form only.

For example: Advice, Furniture, Soap, Food, Bread, Information, Help, Luggage, Scenery, Machinery, Poetry, Breakage, etc.

Rule 4.

There is some noun which to be singular but exists in the plural — so used a plural verb with it.

For example: Police, People, Cattle, Trousers, Scissors, Poultry, Crackers, Gentry, Clergy, etc.

Rule 5.

Noun indicting numerals should be singular form only.

For examples: Two Dozen Eggs, A Dozen Orange, etc

Rule 6.

After collective noun either singular or plural form of a verb is used. The team is strong (here, we are treating the Team as a unit).

Rule 7.

An “Apostrophe” and ‘S’ Should be used with living beings only to show possession. We can use ‘S with the noun which not come in the category of living or non – living things Such as India’s Population, Nature’s law, etc.

Rule 8.

Two ‘S  cannot comes together in a single sentence.

For example,

 Incorrect : His wife’s secretary’s mother has died. 

Correct : The mother of his wife ‘s secretary has died. 

Rule 9.

Add ‘S’ to the main word in compound noun to make it plural. For example Sister- in- law, the plural form is Sisters – in- law, not sister- in – laws, Brother- in- law, the plural form is Brothers -in – law, etc.

Rule 10.

After the phrases One of, Some of, Each of, Either of, Neither of, Any of, None of, it is a plural form. For examples:  One of my best friends, Each of the boys is, etc.

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