Lesson 2 Parts of Speech: Nouns

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1 Lesson 2 Parts of Speech: Nouns Words that stand for a person, a place, an idea, or a thing are called nouns. Here are some examples of common nouns: industry markup compiler fitness administration downtown A word preceded by a, an, or the in a sentence is usually a noun; so is a word that ends in ation, ism, ity, ment, or ness. Nouns may be used in sentences as subjects or objects. That is, the person, place, idea, or thing that is being or doing (subject) is represented by a noun. So is the person, place, idea, or thing that is being acted on (object). In the following sentence, the nouns are underlined: The secretary keyboarded the report. The secretary (subject) is acting in a way that affects the report (object). In this more complicated sentence, installer is used as a subject, and carpeting and customer are used as objects: The installer delivered the carpeting to the customer. Notice that carpeting is the object of the main part of the sentence (is acted on by the installer), whereas customer is the object of the phrase to the customer. Nevertheless, both carpeting and customer are objects. In the following exercises, underline the subjects and circle the objects: 1. The technician has already repaired the machine for the client. 2. An attorney will talk to the group about incorporation. 3. After her vacation, the buyer prepared a third-quarter budget. 4. The new laserwriters are serving our department very well. 5. Accuracy overrides speed in importance. Some nouns are actually composed of two or more words. Work load, for example, is considered a single noun; in fact, you may see it spelled as one word in some places. Here are a few of the many other nouns that combine two or more words: vice president coffee maker profit-and-loss statement attorney general administrative assistant hanger-on 167

2 168 English Essentials The way to tell whether word groups like these should be considered single nouns is to try separating the parts. Can the parts be used alone, or do you need both parts to talk about the same thing? Is the word group used as a single unit to mean something distinct? For example, a coffee maker is never called just a maker, not can it correctly be called a coffee pot. So far, all the examples have been common nouns that is, they refer to general classes of things. In business, however, you will often need to refer to specific examples of buildings, companies, people, and so on. Thus you will often need to use proper nouns, which are always capitalized: Confederation Life Ellen Wood Tuesday Sky Dome Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier Red Rose (tea) Underline the common and proper nouns in the following exercises: 6. Perhaps the client will provide more time. 7. Has the messenger delivered a package without a label? 8. Give the balance sheet to Melissa. 9. The climate for investment might improve. 10. With a wink and a nod, the assistant ushered the visitor into the office. 11. The clerks gave up their break so they could discuss the new policies with the manager. 12. We'd like to order more satchels for Craigmont Stores. 13. Tarnower Corporation donates a portion of its profits to charity every year. 14. Which aluminum bolts are packaged? 15. Please send a dozen of the following: stopwatches, canteens, headbands, wristbands, and white shoelaces. When you refer to more than one person, place, idea, or thing of a certain class, you must use the plural form of the noun. Most plurals are formed by adding s to the end of the singular form, as in pencils and special offers. Many nouns, however, are irregular and therefore form the plural in a different way. For example, when a word gains an extra syllable by being made plural, you should add an es instead of just an s: boss/bosses batch/batches Harris/Harrises Words ending in ay, ey; oy, or uy form the plural by adding s, but words ending in a consonant and a y form the plural by changing the y to i and adding es except when the word is a proper name: day/days party/parties Henry/Henry's Similarly, nouns that end in ao, eo, io, oo, and uo form the plural by adding s: Video/videos duo/duos tattoo/tattoos

3 Lesson 2: Parts of Speech: Nouns 169 Some nouns that end in a consonant and o form the plural by adding s, others by adding es: veto/vetoes tomato/tomatoes memo/memos But some words ending in a consonant and o may form the plural by adding either s or es, like zeros and zeroes. Because of all this variation, you should consult a dictionary whenever you are in doubt about forming the plural of any word that ends in a consonant and an o. Most words that end in a single f form the plural by changing the f to a v and adding es: shelf/shelves loaf/loaves wharf/wharves Then there are the words that form the plural by changing radically: man/men foot/feet salesperson/salespeople Some words derived from Greek and Latin roots form the plural by changing an/s ending to es: analysis/analyses crisis/crises diagnosis/diagnoses But other frequently used foreign plurals are treated more like English words in business writing. For example, instead of using appendices or maxima, you may use appendixes or maximums. Finally, some words are the same in both singular and plural form: trousers series deer headquarters The only way to tell whether these words are singular or plural is to study the rest of the sentence. When trying to make a plural out of a noun that is actually a combination of words, you must figure out which word in the group is most important. Then you can make a plural out of that word and leave the other in its singular form: editors-in-chief vice presidents attorneys general These are just a few examples. You can save yourself the embarrassment of using the wrong plural form by consulting a dictionary whenever you have any doubts. If it says nothing about the plural of the word, just add an s. Otherwise, use the form specified in the dictionary. Supply the plural form of each of the nouns in the following exercises: 16. copy 17. bonus 18. son-in-law 19. folio 20. Amy 21. sheaf

THERE ARE SEVERAL KINDS OF PRONOUNS:

THERE ARE SEVERAL KINDS OF PRONOUNS: PRONOUNS WHAT IS A PRONOUN? A Pronoun is a word used in place of a noun or of more than one noun. Example: The high school graduate accepted the diploma proudly. She had worked hard for it. The pronoun