NOUNS & ARTICLES | A2-B1 English Course | Lesson # 1/12

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Hello and welcome everyone to today's lesson, which  is all about nouns. Let me share my screen with you  

and share the lesson. Okay. So, nouns are divided  into several categories. We have common and proper  

nouns. We have singular and plural nouns. We also  have countable and uncountable nouns. So, let's have  

a look at what we mean by common or proper nouns. Common nouns are words for types of things, 

people, and places. For example: company, founder,  country. These are what we call common nouns.  

A common noun is not capitalized. You don't start  a common noun with a capital letter, only a small  

letter. And in a sentence, a common noun usually  comes after an article 'a' and/or 'the', or another  

determiner. What is a proper noun? A proper noun  is the name of specific things, people, and places.  

For example: company is the common noun, and the  specific noun in this context would be Apple.

Founder is a common noun, and the specific example  for this common noun is Steve Jobs. And the common  

noun is country, and the specific proper noun  is America. Basically, it's the name of someone  

or something. Right. Now, a proper noun is always  capitalized. So, you must always start your proper  

noun with a capital letter, but it does not come  after an article or a determiner. So, our example  

sentence is: Steve Jobs was the founder of a  company called Apple. I think this distinction  

is very clear for you. And a small common mistake  that I sometimes see is adding a determiner or  

an article to a proper noun. Make sure you avoid  that. So, we never hear things like 'the Steve' or 'an  

America'. These are names. They stand alone. Right. But, an important exception is that some countries and  

organizations have the word 'the' as part of their  name. But 'the' is not here a separate article  

or determiner; it's part of the name, like the United  States, the Netherlands, the United Nations, or the  

BBC. Okay. I think that's quite easy to categorize  the difference between common and proper. Now under  

common nouns, we come to two other categories. One  is plural and singular nouns. So obviously you  

understand that a common noun can be just one:  singular, or more than one: plural. Let's look at  

singular common nouns first. When they are singular,  they must have an article or a determiner before  

them. This is the most common mistake I hear. So  if your noun is one of many, then it needs  

an indefinite article; that's 'a' or 'an'. For example:  Bob is an IT specialist and works in a bank. Now  

if this noun - common noun - is specific, then it needs  the definite article 'the' or another determiner, for  

example 'our' or' that'. So example: Bob is the - the only  one - the IT manager at our bank - a specific bank. So,   

how do we uh ... what are the common mistakes that  can happen here, and they are common, is saying  

things like: Janet is manager. Manager is a singular  common noun. There must be something before it. So,  

you can say: Janet is a manager, is our manager,  is the manager, but not on its own. Another  

example of a mistake is saying: There is apple in  bag. We can't say that. You need something before  

a common, a singular common, noun: There is an apple  - indefinite article - in the bag, or in my bag, or in  

that bag. So, as you can see, there are two indefinite articles: a or an. How do we choose  

which one? And I think you all know this. When  a singular noun starts with a vowel sound - sound -  

we use the indefinite article 'an' instead of 'a'. So,  we have an apple, an egg, an ice cream, an orange, an  

umbrella, an hour - Because the h is not pronounced  here; it's a mute h - So hour: an hour. And also be  

very careful. Sometimes, we see a consonant  letter like X. But if you think about it, X begins  

with the sound E So: an X-ray, NOT a X-ray. Or M: an  MBA degree. Right. So, always think of the sound not  

necessarily the letter. A very important  note here is that when you see sometimes the  

vowel letters O and particularly U or sometimes  EU, sometimes they don't have a consonant sound.  

They have a semi-vowel sound, in which case you  must use 'a'. So, it's: a university and a one-way trip.  

Right. So, this is all to do with phonetics, not  so much grammar. And while we're on the subject  

of phonetics and pronunciation, let's also look  at the pronunciation of the definite article  

'the'. The definite article is always 'the', whether  your word begins with a vowel or a consonant  

sound. But, the pronunciation is different. So, before a vowel sound like the letter O sounding  

like 'o': orange, it's 'thee'. Your pronunciation of the  letter, the definite article, is 'thee': thee orange, thee  

umbrellas, thee MBA degrees. But if it's  before a semi-vowel or a consonant sound, it's  

not pronounced 'thee' but it's pronounced 'the'. So: the  one-way trip, the university, the managers. Right. So,  

this was a little aside just for the pronunciation  of definite and indefinite articles. Okay. The next  

point to do with singular and plural nouns  is that we have some irregular plurals as well. You  

have to be aware of them. Now, most singular nouns  become plural when we add an 's' to them. You know  

that: an apple - two apples, a manager - many managers.  But, as you all know, there are also a few irregular  

plurals that are not formed with the letter 's'.  I have listed the most common ones here for you:  

a person - two people, a child - many children, a man  several men, a woman - some women, a foot - both feet,  

a tooth - a lot of teeth, a mouse - three mice, and an  analysis - a few analyses. There are a few more, but  

these are the common ones that you need to know.  So where do we go from here? When the common noun  

is plural, now there are two possibilities: Your  plural common noun can refer to that noun in  

general, in which case you don't need an article  or a determiner. For example: I love flowers. I  

love children. So when it's plural and your noun -  your common noun - is plural you don't necessarily  

need an article. When you don't have an article  you're talking about all, everything, in that  

group: I love flowers in general. I love children in  general. But, if your plural common noun refers to  

a specific group of that noun, then again you must  have a determiner before it. So, for example: I love  

the flowers in your garden. I love these flowers,   a specific group. I love her children, or I love those  

children. So another important message, point, here  is that you must not add an 's' to an adjective even  

when it describes a plural noun. So obviously: a  pink flower, but not some pinks flowers. Adjectives  

do not become plural. Remember that because in  some languages they do, and I sometimes hear this  

mistake. So: an important analysis - a few important  analyses. No 's' on an adjective. Right. That's all for  

singular, plural nouns - common nouns. Let's finish  with the next category, the final category, which  

is countable and uncountable nouns. So, most common  nouns are countable. That means they have a plural  

form. We have just looked at some regular and some  irregular ones: a manager - many managers with 's' -  

that's a regular plural. A person - two people -  irregular plural. That's 99% of nouns; they're countable.  

But, there are a few also common nouns that do  not have a plural form. They're always singular,  

and we call these 'uncountable nouns'. And some  examples are: milk, bread, rice, flour - things like  

that - furniture, equipment, traffic, snow, fog, and  some abstract ones that I often hear mistakes  

with are: knowledge, wisdom, advice, important ones:  news, information, and feedback. So what are the  

common mistakes made in terms of this group? There are  two common mistakes that I hear. The first one  

is obviously counting these nouns, adding 'a' or 'an'  or 's' to them, saying things like: I need an advice.  

or I need advices. Avoid! Avoid completely! You have  to say: I need advice. Right? No 'a' or 'an' no 's'. If you  

want to add a determiner before, you can use 'some'  or 'your': I need some advice. I need your advice. If  

you absolutely want to count these nouns that are uncountable grammatically, you need  

to bring in a noun that counts them for you. For  example, for advice, the noun - a countable noun - that  

you can bring in is 'piece'. Now you can say: I need a  piece of advice. It has become countable. So, be very  

careful with these nouns. You need to more or less  memorize the list of these nouns. I have given you  

in the previous slide the most common ones to make  sure at least you know those. And finally, common  

mistake number 2 that happens a lot with these  countable and uncountable nouns is not respecting  

subject-verb agreement. A mistake - very common mistake -  is: Many people was surprised. because you don't  

see the 's', you think 'Oh, people: singular.' 'people'  is an irregular plural, so it's: Many people were  

surprised. Or if you think 'feedback' - a lot of  you think 'feedback' is countable - in your mind  

it's countable, and although you haven't put  the 's' - you've remembered it's not 'feedbacks', it's  

'feedback', but your mind goes towards plural. And I  often hear this mistake: His feedback were helpful.  

No! feedback is an uncountable noun. Therefore, it  needs a singular verb: His feedback was helpful.  

Right that's the end of this review session,  review lesson on nouns. I hope it has clarified  

the differences between proper and common nouns,  singular and plural nouns, especially reminding  

you that there are some irregular plurals, and  finally countable and uncountable nouns. I hope  

you've enjoyed this lesson. For more on this topic,  click here. Remember to also check out my complete  

online course, and don't forget to like and  subscribe. Thank you for watching and happy studies!