Copyright 2016, Kathleen McManus

Welcome to Nouns. Be sure to watch the introductory grammar video on the left before continuing to read this section.

You will learn many ways to use nouns in English. Nouns are people, places, things or ideas. Each sentence normally has a noun and a verb and often has more than one noun. A noun can be the subject or the object (indirect or direct). The hardest thing about nouns is learning the spelling rules to make the plurals.

There are different types of nouns and they are often the subject of a sentence.

Nouns must agree in number with the verb in the sentence.

Click on the link below to learn more about nouns:

Possessive Nouns and Pronouns
Different Types of Nouns

Try the games below to practice what you learned:

Nouns 1
Nouns 2
Nouns 3
Countable/Uncountable Gapfill Games
Countable/Uncountable Sorting Games
Learn New Vocabulary
Plural Nouns

Practice converting singular nouns to plural nouns below:

Make Nouns Plural

Noun Tips

A noun is a person, place, thing or idea, and it is often the subject of a sentence. Proper nouns must be capitalized.

Plurals are often used to make generalizations but you must not use the article (a, an, the). Ex: Children need love.

A plural noun is normally formed by adding -s to the end of the word. However, there are many exceptions to this rule as stated below:

When a noun ends in ss, sh, ch, or x, add -es.

When a noun ends in a consonant + y, change the y to an i and add -es.

When a noun ends in a consonant + o, add -es.

When a noun ends in f or fe, change the f to v and add -es.

The following nouns have an irregular plural form. You must memorize them:

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