Pilipino Ako

| PAGE 1/5 | Nouns are commonly thought of as "naming" words, and specifically as the names of "people, places, or things". Nouns such as John,London, and computer certainly fit this description, but the class of nouns is much broader than this. Nouns also denote abstract and intangible concepts such as birth, happiness, evolution, technology,management, imagination, revenge, politics, hope, cookery, sport,literacy.... Because of this enormous diversity of reference, it is not very useful to study nouns solely in terms of their meaning. It is much more fruitful to consider them from the point of view of their formal characteristics.

Characteristics of NounsMany nouns can be recognised by their endings. Typical noun endings include: -er/-or | actor, painter, plumber, writer | -ism | criticism, egotism, magnetism, vandalism | -ist | artist, capitalist, journalist, scientist | -ment | arrangement, development, establishment, government | -tion | foundation, organisation, recognition, supposition | Most nouns have distinctive SINGULAR and PLURAL forms. The plural of regular nouns is formed by adding -s to the singular: Singular | Plural | car | cars | dog | dogs | house | houses | However, there are many irregular nouns which do not form the plural in this way: Singular | Plural | man | men | child | children | sheep | sheep | The distinction between singular and plural is known as NUMBER CONTRAST. We can recognise many nouns because they often have the, a, or anin front of them: the car an artist a surprise the egg a reviewThese words are called determiners, which is the next word class we will look at. Nouns may take an -'s ("apostrophe s") or GENITIVE MARKER to indicate possession: the boy's pen a spider's web my girlfriend's brother
John's houseIf the noun already has an -s ending to mark the plural, then the genitive marker appears only as an apostrophe after the plural form: the boys' pens the spiders' webs the Browns' houseThe genitive marker should not be confused with the 's form of contracted verbs, as in John's a good boy (= John is a good boy). Nouns often co-occur without a genitive marker between them: rally car table top cheese grater
University entrance examinationWe will look at these in more detail later, when we discuss noun phrases. Common and Proper NounsNouns which name specific people or places are known as PROPER NOUNS. John
Mary
London
FranceMany names consist of more than one word: John Wesley
Queen Mary
South Africa
Atlantic Ocean
Buckingham PalaceProper nouns may also refer to times or to dates in the calendar: January, February, Monday, Tuesday, Christmas, ThanksgivingAll other nouns are COMMON NOUNS. Since proper nouns usually refer to something or someone unique, they do not normally take plurals. However, they may do so, especially when number is being specifically referred to: there are three Davids in my class we met two Christmases agoFor the same reason, names of people and places are not normally preceded by determiners the or a/an, though they can be in certain circumstances: it's nothing like the America I remember my brother is an Einstein at maths |
Pronouns are a major subclass of nouns. We call them a subclass of nouns because they can sometimes replace a noun in a sentence: Noun | Pronoun | John got a new job | ~He got a new job | Children should watch less television | ~They should watch less television | In these examples the pronouns have the same reference as the nouns which they replace. In each case, they refer to people, and so we call them PERSONAL PRONOUNS. However, we also include in this group the pronoun it, although this pronoun does not usually refer to a person. There are three personal pronouns, and each has a singular and a plural form: Person | Singular | Plural | 1st | I | we | 2nd | you | you | 3rd | he/she/it | they | These pronouns also have another set of forms, which we show here: Person | Singular | Plural | 1st | me | us | 2nd | you | you | 3rd | him/her/it | them | The first set of forms (I, you, he...) exemplifies the SUBJECTIVE CASE, and the second set (me, you, him...) exemplifies the OBJECTIVE CASE. The distinction between the two cases relates to how they can be used in sentences. For instance, in our first example above, we say that he can replace John John got a new job | ~He got a new job | But he cannot replace John in I gave John a new job. Here, we have to use the objective form him: I gave him a new job.

Other Types of Pronoun
As well as personal pronouns, there are many other types, which we summarise here. Pronoun Type | Members of the Subclass | Example | Possessive | mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs | The white car ismine | Reflexive | myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves | He injured himselfplaying football | Reciprocal | each other, one another | They really hateeach other | Relative | that, which, who, whose, whom, where, when | The book that you gave me was really boring | Demonstrative | this, that, these, those | This is a new car | Interrogative | who, what, why, where, when, whatever | What did he say to you? | Indefinite | anything, anybody, anyone, something, somebody, someone, nothing, nobody, none, no one | There's something in my shoe |