The Noun Phrase

The Noun Phrase

Nouns

Nouns are naming words. Everything we can see or talk about is represented by a word which names it - that naming word is called a noun.

Sometimes a noun will be the name for something we can touch (e.g., lion, cake, computer), and sometimes a noun will be the name for something we cannot touch (e.g., bravery, mile, joy). Everything is represented by a word that lets us talk about it. That includes people (e.g., man, scientist), animals (e.g., dog, lizard), places (e.g., town, street), objects (e.g., vase, pencil), substances (e.g., copper, glass), qualities (e.g., heroism, sorrow), actions (e.g., swimming, dancing), and measures (e.g., inch, ounce)

Common Nouns

A common noun is the word used for a class of person, place or thing.

Examples:

• Car
  
• Man
  
• Bridge
  

Common nouns are further classified into:

• Abstract nouns – things you cannot see or touch (e.g., bravery, joy)
  
• Collective nouns – words to describe groups (e.g., team, choir)
  
• Compound nouns – nouns made up of more than one word (e.g., court-martial, pickpocket, water bottle)
  

Proper Nouns

A proper noun is the name of a person, place or thing (i.e., its own name). A proper noun always starts with a capital letter.

Collective Nouns

A collective noun is the word used for a group of people or things.

Examples:

• Choir
  
• Team
  
• Jury
  

The big question with collective nouns is whether they should be treated as singular or plural. The answer is: They can be treated as singular or plural depending on the sense of your sentence. This is covered in more depth in the lesson Collective Nouns – Singular or Plural? and in the Beware section on the right of this page.

Pronouns

A pronoun is a word used to replace a noun.

Pronouns are one of the eight parts of speech which are: adjectives, adverbs
conjunctions, interjections, nouns, prepositions, pronouns and verbs.

Verbal Nouns

Verbal nouns (also called gerunds) are formed from verbs. They end -ing. They are a type of common noun.

• I love swimming. (swimming – the name of an activity; it is formed from the verb to swim.)
  
• Lateral thinking is required to solve this problem. (thinking – the name of an activity; it is formed from the verb to think.)
  

Compound Nouns

Compound nouns are nouns made up of two or more words. Some compound nouns are hyphenated. Some are not, and some combine their words to form a single word. (This is covered in the lesson Hyphens in Compound Nouns.)

Examples:

• Mother-in-law
  
• Board of members
  
• Court-martial
  

Article + Noun
a. Indifinite Article + Noun
For Example : a girl an apple a university
b. Difinite Article + Noun
For Example : the house the book the boys the pens

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

The major division of English nouns is into "countable" and "uncountable".

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: "pen". We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens. Here are some more countable nouns:

• dog, cat, animal, man, person
  
• bottle, box, litre
  
• coin, note, dollar
  
• cup, plate, fork
  
• table, chair, suitcase, bag
  

Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

• My dog is playing.
  
• My dogs are hungry.
  

We can use the indefinite article a/an with countable nouns:

• A dog is an animal.
  

When a countable noun is singular, we must use a word like a/the/my/this with it:

• I want an orange. (not I want orange.)
  
• Where is my bottle? (not Where is bottle?)
  

We can use some and any with countable nouns:

• I've got some dollars.
  
• Have you got any pens?
  

We can use a few and many with countable nouns:

• I've got a few dollars.
  
• I haven't got many pens.
  

"People" is countable. "People" is the plural of "person". We can count people:

• There is one person here.
  
• There are three people here.
  

Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself. Here are some more uncountable nouns:

• music, art, love, happiness
  
• advice, information, news
  
• furniture, luggage
  
• rice, sugar, butter, water
  
• electricity, gas, power
  
• money, currency
  

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example:

• This news is very important.
  
• Your luggage looks heavy.
  

We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with uncountable nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can say a something of:

• a piece of news
  
• a bottle of water
  
• a grain of rice
  

We can use a little and much with uncountable nouns:

• I've got a little money.
  
• I haven't got much rice.
  

Uncountable nouns are also called "mass nouns"



Another Examples for Countable and Uncountable Noun :

• Don't forget to buy a bag of rice when you go shopping.
  
• Can I have one cup of coffee and two cups of tea.
  
• The police found some items of clothing scattered around the floor.
  
• I need a truck that will take at least three pieces of furniture.
  
• You'd think a tablespoon of honey would be more than enough.
  

Sumber :

- http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/nouns_different_types.htm

- http://www.really-learn-english.com/english-noun-phrases.html

- http://www.wordsmile.com/noun-phrase-introduction

- http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-un-countable_2.html

- http://dindarifiyani.blogspot.com/2012/11/about-noun-phrase.html

Shendie Yarry

4EA15

Ekonomi Manajemen