Nouns
Nouns form the largest English word class. There are many common suffixes used to form nouns from other nouns or from other types of words, such as -age (as in shrinkage), -hood (as in sisterhood), and so on, although many nouns are base forms not containing any such suffix (such as cat, grass, France). Nouns are also often created by conversion of verbs or adjectives, as with the words talk and reading (a boring talk, the assigned reading).
Unlike in many related languages, English nouns do not have grammatical gender (although many nouns refer specifically to male or female persons or animals, like mother, father, bull, tigress; see Gender in English). Nouns are sometimes classified semantically (by their meanings) as proper nouns and common nouns (Cyrus, China vs. frog, milk) or as concrete nouns and abstract nouns(book, laptop vs. heat, prejudice). A grammatical distinction is often made between count (countable) nouns such as clock andcity, and non-count (uncountable) nouns such as milk and decor.[4] Some nouns can function to be either countable or uncountable such the word "wine" (This is a good wine, I prefer red wine).
Countable nouns generally have singular and plural forms. In most cases the plural is formed from the singular by adding -[e]s (as in dogs, bushes), although there are also irregular forms (woman/women, medium/media, etc.), including cases where the two forms are identical (sheep, series). For more details, see English plural.
Certain nouns can take plural verbs even though they are singular in form, as in The government were ... (where the government is considered to refer to the people constituting the government). This, a form of synesis, is more common in British than American English. See English plural: Singulars with collective meaning treated as plural.
English nouns are not marked for case as they are in some languages, but
they have possessive forms, formed by the addition of -'s(as in John's,
children's), or just an apostrophe (with no change in pronunciation) in the
case of -[e]s plurals and sometimes other words ending with -s (the dogs'
owners, Jesus' love). More generally, the ending can be applied to noun phrases
(as in the man you saw yesterday's sister); see below. The possessive form can
be used either as a determiner (John's cat) or as a noun phrase (John's is the
one next to Jane's). For details, see English possessive.
Noun phrases
Noun phrases are phrases that function grammatically as nouns within sentences, for example as the subject or object of a verb. Most noun phrases have a noun as their head.
An English noun phrase typically
takes the following form (not all elements need be present):
In this structure:
the determiner may be an article (the, a[n]) or other equivalent word, as described in the following section. In many contexts it is required for a noun phrase to include some determiner.
pre-modifiers include adjectives and some adjective phrases (such as
red, really lovely), and noun adjuncts (such as college in the phrase the
college student). Adjectival modifiers usually come before noun adjuncts.
a complement or postmodifier may be a prepositional phrase (... of London), a relative clause (like ...which we saw yesterday), certain adjective or participial phrases (... sitting on the beach), or a dependent clause or infinitive phrase appropriate to the noun (like ... that the world is round after a noun such as fact or statement, or ... to travel widely after a noun such as desire).
An example of a noun phrase that includes all of the above-mentioned elements is that rather attractive young college student to whom you were talking. Here that is the determiner, rather attractive and young are adjectival pre-modifiers, college is a noun adjunct,student is the noun serving as the head of the phrase, and to whom you were talking is a post-modifier (a relative clause in this case). Notice the order of the pre-modifiers; the determiner that must come first and the noun adjunct college must come after the adjectival modifiers.
Coordinating conjunctions such as and, or, and but can be used at various levels in noun phrases, as in John, Paul, and Mary; the matching green coat and hat; a dangerous but exciting ride; a person sitting down or standing up. See Conjunctions below for more explanation.
Noun phrases can also be placed in apposition (where two consecutive phrases refer to the same thing), as in that president, Abraham Lincoln, ... (where that president and Abraham Lincoln are in apposition). In some contexts the same can be expressed by a prepositional phrase, as in the twin curses of famine and pestilence (meaning "the twin curses" that are "famine and pestilence").
Particular forms of noun phrases include: phrases formed by the determiner the with an adjective, as in the homeless, the English (these are plural phrases referring to homeless people or English people in general); phrases with a pronoun rather than a noun as the head (see below); phrases consisting just of a possessive; infinitive and gerund phrases, in certain positions; certain clauses, such as that clauses and relative clauses like what he said, in certain positions.
Determiners
English determiners constitute a relatively small class of words. They include the articles the, a[n] (and in some contexts some), certain demonstrative and interrogative words such as this, that, and which, possessives such as my and whose (the role of determiner can also be played by noun possessive forms such as John's and the girl's), various quantifying words like all, many,various, and numerals (one, two, etc.). There are also many phrases (such as a couple of) that can play the role of determiners.
Determiners are used in the formation of noun phrases (see above). Many words that serve as determiners can also be used as pronouns (this, that, many, etc.)
Determiners can be used in certain combinations, such as all the water and the many problems.
In many contexts, it is required for a noun phrase to be completed with an article or some other determiner. It is not grammatical to say just cat sat on table; one must say my cat sat on the table. The most common situations in which a complete noun phrase can be formed without a determiner are when it refers generally to a whole class or concept (as in dogs are dangerous and beauty is subjective) and when it is a name (Jane, Spain, etc.) This is discussed in more detail at English articles and Zero article in English.
