Grammar for English Language Teachers - Nouns Flashcards
Nouns can be both…
..countable and uncountable.
What is the traditional definition of a noun?
A noun is a person, a place or a thing.
Why is the traditional definition of a noun insufficient?
Nouns can also be concepts, qualities, organisations, communities, sensations and events.
What are typical noun endings?
- or
- ion
- ility
- ence
- ance
Where do nouns typical appear in an utterance?
Nouns usually finish or complete a phrase which begins with an article or quantifier, and often follow adjectives.
What are countable and uncountable nouns, really?
“Although the distinction between countable and uncountable nouns is based on the reality of what the nouns describe, the distinction is a grammatical rather than a real one. For example, learners can be surprised by some uncountable nouns, such as accommodation.
What typical difficulties do learners have with nouns?
- word endings
- capitalisation
- countable v uncountable
- wrong plurals
- avoidance and overuse of -‘s
What happens when you put two nouns together?
The first one becomes known as the ‘modifying /modifier noun’. Sometimes people refer to it as an adjective, but this can be confusing for students.
Modifying nouns often end in -ing and are usually the stressed noun. The second noun often ends in -er.
How do you pluralise nouns that finish in -s?
Both s’s and s’ are acceptable.
What is important to remember about countable and uncountable nouns?
- Some U nouns have equivalent C nouns (work/job and travel/journey)
- U nouns can often be broken up into C nouns (money: dollars, pounds, euros)
- U nouns often need ‘itemising’ words to help count them
- Some words can be both C and U (wood)
- U nouns can be used as C nouns to describe types of things and/or a unit of something
What are quantifying phrases and when do we use them?
- A number, A range, A variety…
these are used before plural nouns to express something about the quantity of something - A small/large amount of…
this can only be used before C nouns - A small/large quantity/proportion/majority of…
these can be used with C (plural) or U nouns - A pair of…
What do we do with collective nouns?
Many people use either plural or singular forms of the verb with collective nouns such as party, team, government, staff - the nouns themselves are singular.
