Common Nouns

Objective: Use common nouns in sentences. In the last lesson we said that nouns are naming words. Nouns can be broken into two groups: proper nouns and common nouns. We saw that proper nouns name specific people and places. We saw that the things we named were not specific. Nouns that name things in a general way are called common nouns. Is it possible to name people in a general way? Look at the words boy, girl, man, woman, etc. These nouns name people in a general way. Nouns that name people in a general way are common nouns. The things we find around us are normally named in a general way. If you make a list of all the things you use in school, it will look like this: pen, pencil, book, ruler, eraser, bag etc. All these items are general names. They do not name a specific thing. They are common nouns. Common nouns are further divided into count and mass nouns. All the nouns we have listed so far are count nouns. Count nouns can form plurals: boy – boys, girl – girls, man –men, pen –pens etc. Count nouns in the singular take “a” or “the “before them: a boy, a girl, a pen, the boy, the girl, the pen etc. In the plural they take “some” or “the” before them: some boys, some girls, some pens, the boys, the girls, the pens etc. We shall now write sentences in the singular and plural. We shall use the Noun+ verb with –s pattern. a) A boy watches movies. b) A boy washes clothes. c) A boy dries dishes. d) A boy makes toys. Great! You can now make more sentences using the nouns and verbs we had identified. Take note that movies, clothes, dishes and toys are common nouns. Look for more appropriate nouns to use after the verbs. We shall now use Noun + verb without –s pattern. a) Some boys watch movies. b) The boys wash clothes. c) Some boys dry dishes. d) The boys make toys. Make your own sentences following this pattern. Now let us look at mass nouns. These do not have plural forms. We do not use “a” before them. Examples of mass nouns include ink, sugar, salt, sand. They can take “the” or “some” before them: the ink, some ink, the salt, some salt, the sand, some sand. A man bought some ink. A man bought some salt. A man bought some sand. Now make as many sentences using this pattern. In the next post we shall look at other proper nouns.