NOUNS

1.    Singular countable nouns

·         Do not take –s/-es ending (a car not a cars; one bus not one buses)

·         Are use after a/an, one, this, that, a single, another, each and every

·         Use the article a/an when referring to nonspecific things (a book – any book; a house – any house;)

·         Use the article the when referring to thing in general or to represent a class (the rose – rose in general; the whale – whales in general)

·         Use the article the when referring to specific things (the book – a specific book; the house – a specific house; the sun; the Atlantic; the Sahara; the northern hemisphere)

2.    Plural countable nouns

·         Do not take the article a/an (students not a student; boxes not a boxes; owls not an owls)

·         May come after the following words

all                                these                          dozens of

some                          those                          hundreds of

some (of the)             every one of              thousands of

a few                          each one of               a number of

many                          each of                       the number of

a lot of                        one of                         a couple of

lots of                         both                            several (of the)

various                       other                           etc.

·         May also take irregular form (babies not babys; knives not knifes, women not womans; data not datums; shee for both plural and singular form)

3.    Uncountable nouns

·         Generally do not take plural form (sugar not sugars; blood not bloods;rice not rices)

·         May have –s endings but they take singular verbs (mathematics, news,measles. Mumps, aerobics, billiards, etc)

·         May come after the following words

much                          all*

little                             some*

a little                          a lots of*

an amount of               lots of*

                                    plenty of*

·         Are not use with the following words

a/an                a few (of)                   dozens of

another          many (of)                   hundreds of

one                 every one of              thousands of

a single          each one of               a number of

each               each (of)                    the number of

every              one of                         a couple of

these              both                            several

those

            Notes on articles

When using nouns, pay attention to the use of the articles a/an and the. The following are points concerning articles:

1.    The article a is used for nouns starting with consonant sounds, while an is use with vowel sounds. (a unit of time, a university student, an avid reader, an SMA student)

2.    The articles the used

·         With adjectives to denote a group of people having the condition describe by the adjectives (the rich, the poor, the deaf)

·         With superlatives (the highest degree, the most important)

·         With words such as first, next, last, same, and only (the last meeting, the same reason, the only child, etc.)

  

(Purwokerto, 18 April 2013)