NAME: Macabenta, Crislyn B.

BSE-1ENGLISH

ENGLISH – 103 STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY

 Refers to specific properties of a word that can cause that word and/or a related word to
change in form for grammatical reasons (ensuring agreement between words).
 Is a system of expressing a generalized grammatical meaning by means of paradigmatic
correlation of grammatical form.
Some that we know when we see:
 Frog, utensil, liberty :noun
 Jump, know, donate: verb
 Smooth, intense, magenta, likely: adjective
 Rapidly, halfheartedly, effectively, well: adverb
 On, under, aboard: preposition

What is Nouns?

A noun is a part of speech that is used to name or identify a person, place, thing or idea. Almost
every sentence will definitely nave a noun, and they perform different roles in a sentence. Nouns can
act as the subject, an indirect object, a direct object, a subject complement and an object
complement. Nouns can also function as adjectives and verbs.

There are different types of nouns like common nouns, proper nouns, abstract nouns, collective
nouns, concrete nouns and so on.

What are the different functions of nouns?

Nouns can also function a verbs and adjectives with a slight change of spelling or by adding a suffix.
For example, divorce can be used as a noun and verb; money is a noun, while monetary is the
adjective form of the verb. Nouns can also function as different components of the sentence as well.

Example of nouns:

 People – Rshul, sheela , man, person, tommy, woman, girl, the prime minister
 Places - Bangalaro, india, mexico, north pole, south Africa, the nile river, classroom,
bedroom, basketball court, cricket ground, swimming pool
 Animals/ bird/ aquatic animals/reptile- lion, zebra, snake, ostrich, flamingo, bear, cat, fish
 Ideas – Evolution, invention, extinction, argument, destruction
 Object/things – Bat, cycle, curtains, paper, bag, blackboard, cupboard

Types of Nouns
1. PROPER NOUNS: Nouns that are used to name a person, place or thing specifically are called
a proper noun. Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter.
Example: May name is Rose. (Name of a particular person).
2. COMMON NOUN: Common nouns are those nouns that refer to generic item, group or
place. This means that, unlike proper nouns, they are not used to identify specific people,
places or objects. Common nouns are not capitalized unless they appear at the beginning of
a sentence.
Example; I bougth a pen yesterday. ( Common object)
I am going to school.( common place).
3. SINGULAR NOUNS: These are word that are used to name a single person, place, animal,
bird or object.
Example; There is a little boy in front of our house. (Single Person)
I found a wounded sparrow in the bush. (Single Bird)
4. PLURAL NOUNS: Plural nouns refer to a number of people, places, animals or things. Nouns
are made plural by adding an ‘s’ or ‘es’ or ‘ies’ or ‘ves to the exiss ting roots word. Nouns
that end with an ‘s’ remain the same. Some nouns remain the same in the same in the both
their singular and plural forms, and some others have totally different spelling.
Example; I need some apples.
I bought mangoes from market.
We took photos of some deer on our way.
5. COUNTABLE NOUNS: are those nouns that can be counted or measured.
Example; Tom brought ten packets of lay for the trip. (specific number-ten)
Mom asked me to buy a dozen eggs. (specific-dozen means twelve)
6. UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS : are those nouns that cannot be counted. This category of nouns
includes both concrete and abstract nouns.
Example; I have a lot of homework to do ( not specific)
I have a cup of tea. ( cannot counted)
7. COLLECTIVE NOUNS: A collective noun is a naming word that is used to denote a group of
objects, animals or people.
Example; Collective nouns for groups of animals
 A pride of lions
 A flocks of sheep
 A swarm of bees
 A herd of elephants

Collective nouns for groups of people

 A band of musicians
 A board of directors
 A crew of sailors
 A company of actors
8. CONCRETE NOUNS: A concrete noun refers to objects that are material and can be
perceived by the human senses.
Example; The book is on the table.
I had a cup of coffee.
 9. ABSTRACT NOUNS: Any entity that cannot be perceived by the five senses of the human
body are called and abstract noun.
Example; Love is a strong emotion.
Honesty is the best policy.

Nouns Used as Different Components of a Sentence

NOUNS USED AS A SUBJECT

When used as a subject, a noun mostly appears at the beginning of a sentence. It can be identified
by asking the question ‘who’.

Example; Bruno went to the playground.

The teacher asked the students to submit their assignments.

NOUNS USED AS AN OBJECT

When nouns are used as object, they appear in the letter part of a sentence. It can be identified by
asking the question ‘what’.

Example; where is your book?

I cannot find today’s newspaper.

NOUNS USED AS A DIRECT OBJECT

You can identify a noun used as direct object by asking the question ‘what’.

Example; Do you want a lollipop? ( What do you want? – a lollipop)

I love my dress. ( What did you love? – my dress)

NOUNS USED AS AN INDIRECT OBJECT

You can ask the question ‘for whom’ to identify a noun used as an indirect object.

Example; Dan bought his sister a mini cooper. ( for whom did Dan buy a mini cooper? – his sister)

Megha baked Julie a cake. ( for whom did Megha bake a cake? – Julie)

NOUNS USED AS A COMPLEMENT

When a noun is used to modify or describe another noun, it acts a complement.

NOUNS USED AS SUBJECT COMPLENT

Professions and positions can perform the role of a complement.

Example; My Brother is an engineer.

NOUNS USED AS AN OBJECT COMPLEMENT

Object Complement are nouns that follow the noun they modify. Names, professional and positions
can perform the role of an object complement.

Example; We named our dog, shadow.

The teacher made Tabitha, the class leader.

Multifunctional Nouns

NOUNS USED AS VERBS

 There are some nouns which can also be use as a verb. Some nouns can be used as verbs
with a slight change in the spelling of the original word.
Example;
 His divorce is final. ( used as a noun) I am divorced. ( used as a verb)
 Do you like my new dress? (used as a noun) I am dressed and ready to go. ( used
as a noun)

NOUNS USED AS ADJECTIVES

 With a slight change in the spelling or adding a suffix to the root word, nouns can sometimes
be used as adjectives.
Example;
 I have no money. ( used as a noun) There has been a change in the monetary policy
of the country. ( used as an adjective)
 Javed sensed some danger. ( used as a an adjective) What you are trying to do is
dangerous. ( used as a an adjective)

INFLECTION AND DECLENSION

Inflection – is the process by which a single word takes different forms. For example, if we have the
noun cat, we can add plural ending to it create cats. This is known as inflecting a noun and the
ending we add is called a suffix.

Declension – refers to the changes that a noun ( or pronoun or adjective) undergoes to indicate its
role in a sentence. In may language, declension involves changing the ending on the noun. These
changeable ending are called case endings.

PROPERTIES

1. PERSON
2. NUMBER
 Singular in number indicates one object only.
Example; bus, girl, boy, town, stone
 Plural in number indicates two or more objects. Most noun form their plural by
adding –s or –es
 Example; bags-bags, tree-trees, glass-glasses, church-churches
3. GENDER determine the sex of a noun.
 Masculine gender indicates the male sex.
Example; brother, gander, nephew, father, john
 Feminine gender indicates the female sex.
Example; mother, sister, doe, mary
 Common gender indicates uncertainty of sex which is either male or female.
Example; teacher, parent, horse, cat, child
 Neuter gender indicates that an object is without sex.
Example; rock, leaf, sea, mountain, hill, paper
4. CASE show the relation of a noun to other words in the sentence or phrase.
 Nominative case indicates that a noun is doing or being something in the sentence.
A noun in the nominative case can be either a subject or predicate but not both in
the sentence.
 Objective case indicates that a person or thing is being acted upon. A noun in the
object of the verb or object of the preposition.
 Possessive case indicates that a person or a thing owns something. The possessive
form of a noun is usually formed by adding an apostrophe (‘) or an apostrophe s (‘s)