ACCRA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

ENGL 101: English Composition,

Writing and Communication Skills I
 Lecture 2
• In this lecture we shall do,
1. Introductions
2. A discussion of the previous session
3. Focus on Nouns
 Nouns
• By the end of this lecture, the learner will be
able to:
• Identify nouns and types of nouns
• Identify the functions of nouns in a sentence
• State the singular and plural forms of some
nouns
 Definition
• - a word that names a
 Person: Olumide, Ama, driver, nurse
 Place: Oshodi, Accra, town, roof
 Animal: cat, vulture, salmon
 Things: pen, laptop, fan
 Idea: honesty, democracy, wisdom
 Action: jumping, writing, swimming
 Emotion: love, hatred, envy
 Types
• Generally, there are two kinds:

Proper Nouns Common Nouns

i. It names particular person, place or i. It names any person, place etc
etc
ii. Generality
ii. It deals with specificity
iii. Begins with small letter …
iii. It begins with capital letter
whenever it occurs in a sentence
 Types of common nouns
Abstract Concrete Collective
i. Names intangibles i. Names tangible things i. Names a group of
people/tangibles/intan
ii. Referents can’t be ii. Referents can be seen gibles
seen or touched or touched
ii. Referents can or not
iii. Generally preceded by iii. Are usually preceded be or seen and or
the definite article by “a”, “an” or “the” touched
“the”
iii. May be preceded by
“a”, “an” or “the”

Examples: power, courage, Car, table, door, man, chair, Shoal, gang, audience,
loyalty, faith, intelligence ball, phone, tv herd, class, army, bevy
 Countable and Uncountable
• Another classification of nouns; common
nouns
Countable nouns Un/Non- Countable nouns

-nouns we can count -nouns cannot be counted

Baby, bird, book, box, child, Air, furniture, health, honesty,

day, dog, friend, son, village water, power, sand, zeal
 Functions of nouns
• Can occur at the beginning, middle or end of a sentence. Its
position determines its functions. Based on its position, a noun
may be:
• Subject (grammatical and logical)
• Direct object
• Indirect object
• Complement of a verb
i. Subject complement
ii. Object complement
• Object of a preposition
• Apposition
 Noun as subject
• A subject is the noun or pronoun that performs an action in a
sentence or that exists in a particular way

• The goat ate the cassava peel.

• Pawpaws are fruits.
• Some little cows kicked the young boy
• Some guys were here to look for you.

* ‘are’ and ‘were’ are stative verbs and do not express any action
 Kinds of Subjects
• Simple subject: a single noun/pronoun
• Complete subject: a noun and all words that relate
to it
• Compound subjects: two or more nouns of the
same verb

E.g. SS= The girl is brilliant.

Ct.S= The cute girl is brilliant.
CS= Zinzin and Dondon are brilliant too.
 Noun as Object
• An object of a verb is either a noun or a pronoun
that receives or suffers an action directly or
indirectly from the subject.

• If the noun/pronoun receives the action from the

subject directly, then it is a direct object.

• If noun/pronoun receives the action indirectly, it

is an indirect object.
 Examples
• John slapped Luke.
Direct Obj.

• Daniel awarded Lucy a trophy.

Ind. Obj. Direct Obj

• Anna awarded a trophy to Mark.

Direct Obj Ind. Obj.
 Noun as Complement
• Generally, a complement is a noun, pronoun, adjective, adverb that completes
the meaning initiated by the subject and its verb.
• Subj. complement refers to the subject, explains it further, and can replace it.
Eg. Professor Sampson is a lawyer
Subj. Complement
Luke is my name
Subj. Complement

• Object complement has direct relationship with the object

Eg. They always make her the secretary.
Subj Obj Complement
The judge declared Daniel the loser.
Subj Obj Complement
 Noun as Obj. of Preposition
• A noun phrase, a noun, pronoun or a gerund that complements the meaning initiated by
the preposition

Eg. 1. They went to the stream.

prep noun phrase (obj)

2. Present the cup to John.

prep noun

3. Mark gave the cup to him.

prep pronoun

4. He embraced the idea with understanding.

prep gerund
 Noun as Apposition
• An apposition or appositive= noun or group of words that act as a
noun and means the same as the preceding noun and explains it

Eg. Tony, my best friend, is brilliant.

Apposition

Bobo, the first leader of Ghana, died in 2015.

Apposition

Amma’s dream, to visit the Bahamas, finally came true.

Apposition
 EXERCISE
INDICATE THE NOUNS IN THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES
AND STATE THEIR FUNCTIONS AS WELL.
1. Mr. Ram leads the team
2. The monkeys destroyed the garden.
3. I saw him in his office.
4. The girl returns from school.
5. The prefect, John, is very hard working.
6. Rita, my sister, lives in Accra
7. Agya koo is a comedian.
8. Simon has certainly taken my book.
9. The spectators watched the match.
10.They sent an invitation to the young woman.
 Plural forms of Nouns
• Rule 1. add ‘s’. The ‘s’ is pronounced as ‘s’ or
‘z’ depending on whether the letter it follows
is voiced or voiceless.
Examples:
Voiceless consonant Voiced consonant Examples
p b Cups /kaps/, bulbs /bulbz/
t d Belts /belts/, toads /toadz/
k g Books /books/, dogs /dogz/
f v Beliefs /beliefs/, loaves /loavz/
• Rule 2. The ‘es’.

• Singular nouns that end in ‘s’, ‘x’, ‘z’, ‘ch’, ‘sh’, take ‘es’ as plural marker

Examples: Bus- buses; box-boxes, church-churches etc

(Some) singular nouns that end in ‘o’, take ‘es’

Examples: echo-echoes, hero-heroes etc.

Some singular nouns ending in ‘o’ may take ‘s’ or ‘es’ as plural markers

Examples: buffalo-buffalos/es, flamingo-flamingos/es, volcano-

volcanos/es, commando-commandos/es
• Rule 3. ‘-ies’

Singular nouns that end in ‘y’ take away ‘y’ and replace it with ‘ies’
Examples: baby-babies, lady-ladies, city-cities

Exceptions
-Proper nouns/geographical locations maintain the ‘s’. Eg. The Obamas, the
two Germanys etc.

-When ‘y’ follows a vowel, it maintains the ‘s’

Eg. Days, boys, journeys etc

-Numerals. Eg. In the 1970s, the 1970’s

-Abbreviations. Eg. Two MPs, two MP’s etc

• Rule 4. ‘ves’.
Singular nouns that end in ‘f’ or ‘fe’ change
endings to ‘ves’
Examples: calf-calves, wolf-wolves etc.

Exceptions
-Some maintain ‘s’. Eg. Cliffs, beliefs etc.
-Some take ‘s’ or ‘ves’ Eg. hoofs/ves, scarfs/ves
etc.
• Rule 5. ‘en’
-Occurs in 3 main areas eg. Brother- brethren, child-children, ox-oxen

• Rule 6. Mutation Plurals: these are formed through change of

vowels in the singular noun to form plurals
Eg. Foot-feet, louse-lice, die-dice etc.

• Rule 7: nouns that always end in ‘s’

Summation plurals: tools, articles or dresses consisting of two equal
parts. We use countability by means of “a pair of”
Eg. a pair of scissors, a pair of tongs, a pair of shorts

Note: three pairs of trousers

• Others that take just ‘s’

-edibles: oats, grapes

-collective elements: barracks, goods
-some proper nouns: Netherlands, West Indies
-some games: cards, draughts
-sicknesses: measles, rickets
-nouns relating to money: savings, stocks
-subject names that end in ‘ics’: classics, linguistics,
mathematics, phonetics etc
• Rule 8: Zero plural marker: don’t take ‘s’ plural marker at all

Examples
-some species of animals without ‘s’: deer, sheep
-some species of animals with or without ‘s’: antelope,
reindeer, herring
-those that are completely zero: salmon, grouse
-nouns of nationalities in ‘ese’: Chinese, Portuguese

*used more in the context of hunting, but when they are

used to refer to denote individuals or species, they take ‘s’
eg. Fishes (salmon, tuna, tilapia etc.)
• Rule 9: nouns with a sense of collectivity: don’t take plural
marker ‘s’.
Eg. Intelligence, information, equipment

• Rule 10. Nouns ending in ‘s’ with singular verbs e.g. news,
Wales, the United States

• Rule 11. nouns in singular form but followed by plural

verbs. Eg. People, police

• Rule 12. nouns ending in ‘s’ taking either singular or plural

verbs. Eg. Series, species
• Rule 13. initials, letters or numbers taking ‘s’
Eg. Initials: D.Js (Disc Jockeys)
Letters: the three Rs (R’s)
Numbers: the 60s

• Rule 14. invariable words (adjectives, conjunctions, pronouns)

taking ‘s’. eg. Ups, downs, ifs, buts

• Rule 15. nouns that only occur in their plural forms. Eg. Auspices,
customs, the commons

• Rule 16. nouns ending ‘us’ take ‘es’. Eg. Bonus-bonuses, choruses

• Rule 17. add ‘es’ or ‘i’ to the following nouns ending in ‘us’
Cactus, focus, syllabus, fungus, nucleus, terminus
 EXERCISE
• PUT THE FOLLOWING NOUNS INTO THEIR
PLURAL FORMS
The End of lecture 1.
• Questions