English structure

A Noun is a name of a person, animal, place or things.

There are four kinds of nouns:

1. Common Nouns
2. Proper Nouns
3. Concrete Nouns
4. Abstract Nouns
5. Common Nouns

A common noun names a class of similar things (chair, box), and not an individual member of a specified group of people or things. We do not capitalize the first letter of a common noun unless it is the first word in a sentence.

Common nouns are names of people, things, animals and places, etc.

Examples:

• People – aunt, boy, butcher, carpenter, cousin
• Things – bicycle, book, car, computer, dress
• Animals – armadillo, baboon, bee, caterpillar
• Places – airport, beach, bullring, cemetery

1. Proper Nouns

A proper noun is a special name of a person, place, organization, etc. We spell a proper noun with a capital letter. Proper nouns also refer to times or to dates in the calendar.

We can use plurals for proper nouns in exceptional cases.

• There are three Johns in my class.

We can also use the, an, or a for a proper noun in special circumstances.

• This is no longer the London I used to live in.

Proper nouns are names of people, places, organization, etc.

Examples:

• People – Joke Thompson, Barack Obama
• Places –  Jump Street,  Museum of Modern Art
• Things – Financial Times, Eiffel Tower
• Organization – International Labour Organization, Red Cross
• Animals – King Kong, Lassie
• Times and dates – Sunday, April

1. Proper Nouns

One of the problem with proper nouns is to know whether or not you should use the (definite article) with them. Here are some guidelines:

Without THE – 

• Names of people (with or without title) – Paul, Chief Mrs Busola, Dr Sunday, Bobola
• geographical features such as continents, countries, states, regions, cities, islands, mountains, lakes – Nigeria, Oregun, Everest, London
• Days of the week, months, festivals – Thursday, Easter, April
• Schools, colleges, universities – Government college Ketu, University of Abuja

With THE –

• Groups of mountains or islands – the Himalayas
• Seas and Oceans – the Atlantic Ocean
• Descriptive titles – a) one in which only common nouns are used – the School of Agriculture. b) one that has a common noun preceding the particular name  the University of Lagos

1. Nouns: Concrete Noun

A concrete noun is something we see or touch. It is the opposite of an abstract noun. There are countable concrete nouns and uncountable concrete nouns

Countable and Uncountable

1. Common nouns are either Countable or Uncountable. Can you remember the rules for using each type? (Countable, but not uncountable nouns, (i) can be used in the plural as well as the singular, (ii) can be preceded  by the indefinite article a(n). In the following list of common nouns, which ones are examples of which type?

road, wood, village, question, cupboard, electricity, newspaper, fuel, windscreen, box, blame, information, appointment.

2. Uncountable nouns often name a substance or abstract quality which cannot easily be separated into different parts. If we want to speak of a part of it, we need to use a Unit word (which is itself countable), followed by of, followed by the uncountable noun.  For example: a cup of water, ten litres of kerosene, a bit of luck, a flash of lightning. Note that cigarette is countable, not uncountable, so it is wrong to say He was smoking a stick of cigarette; just say He was smoking a cigarette.

Assessment 1

Certain nouns are sometimes countable, sometimes uncountable; and there is some difference in meaning. For example, man when uncountable means human beings in general; when countable it means the male of the human species. Give a list of countable and uncountable nouns you know.

1. Abstract Nouns

An abstract noun is a quality or something that we can only think of rather than as something that we can see or touch, e.g. beauty, courage, friendship, intelligence, truth. We can form abstract nouns from common nouns (child – childhood); from verbs (know – knowledge); and from adjectives (happy – happiness).

 Collective Nouns

Collective Nouns are words to represent a group of people, animals, or things.  A collective noun is a name used for a number of people, animals or things that we group together and speak of as a whole

Common collective nouns

• An army of ants
• A flock of birds
• A flock of sheep
• A herd of deer
• A gang of thieves
• A pack of thieves
• A panel of experts

Collective nouns are are nouns that in the singular refer to a collection of items: e.g. furniture, cutlery, equipment, alphabet, vocabulary e.t.c The first three of these should never be used in the plural.

The last two can be used in plural only if we are considering different languages. Use one of these words to fill the gaps below

1. They have filled their new house with some very nice ____
2. English and arabic are languages that use different ____
3. We can not eat our food because we have no ____
4. Our company’s biggest problem is out of date ____
5. The English ____contains 26 letters

A collective noun can take a singular or a plural verb.

The following nouns can be singular or plural. Viewed as a single unit, the noun takes a singular verb; regarded as a group of separate members or parts, it becomes a plural noun used with a plural verb.

Examples:

• The new government has helped my community.
• The Government are determined to keep inflation in check.

A collective noun treated as singular uses a singular possessive pronoun; a plural collective noun takes a plural possessive pronoun.

Examples:

• Our team has won its first trophy. (The singular possessive pronoun is its. The singular possessive pronoun its agrees with the singular collective noun team.)
• Our team are deciding on the strategy for their next game. (Plural possessive pronoun: their)

Pronoun

A pronoun is a word we use to take the place of a noun, which can be a person, place or thing. We use it (pronoun) to avoid repeating a noun that had already been mentioned. A word (one of the traditional parts of speech) that takes the place of a noun, noun phrase, or noun clause. A pronoun can function as a subject, object, or complement in a sentence. Unlike nouns, pronouns rarely allow modification.

We can write or say, “Bobs has a bicycle. Bobs rides his bicycle every day.” But there’s a better way of putting it using pronouns: Bobs has a bicycle. He rides it every day. The words he and it are pronouns used to replace the nounsBobs and bicycle.

Examples of pronoun are I, you, he, she, it, we, they, anyone, everyone,himself, myself, nobody, yourself, who.

Other examples include this, that, all, any, each, none, some, that, what,which, etc. These pronouns can also be determiners, so how can we tell whether they are pronouns or determiners. It all depends on how they are used. As pronouns, they are used independently, that is without a noun following them.

• This is a green apple. (This is a pronoun as it occurs independently.)
• This apple is green. (This comes after the noun apple, so it is not a pronoun.)

Here, this is a determiner. A determiner modifies a noun, which a pronoun does not do.

• Some of the goats were rather skinny. (Pronoun)
• Some goats were rather skinny. (Determiner).

Types of Pronouns

1. Personal Pronouns
2. Relative Pronouns
3. Possessive Pronouns
4. Demonstrative Pronouns
5. Indefinite Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns take the place of nouns that refer to people, but not all personal pronouns refer to people. The third person pronoun it refers to animals and things.

Personal pronouns have number, person, and gender. The Personal Pronoun must be of the same number, gender, and person as the noun for which it represents.

Number:

The pronoun must agree with the noun it represents in number.

• Singular: The boy is playing with his ball. He has a blue ball.
• Plural: The boys are playing with their balls. They have balls of different sizes.

Person:

• First person: I hate eating rice.
• Second person: You should not have done it.
• Third person: It is a rare species of fish.

Gender:

The pronoun must agree with the noun it represents in gender.

• Masculine: Jill has a boyfriend. He comes across as a bit of a bore to her.
• Feminine: Jeff’s sister loves to eat pizza. She eats it almost every day.
• Neuter: We have an old kitchen table. It has a broken leg.

Relative Pronouns

A relative pronoun comes at the beginning of a relative clause. A relative clause is a subordinate clause that tells us more about the noun in the main clause. The relative clause comes immediately after the noun. Relative pronouns are that, which, who, whom, whose, whatever, whichever, whoever, whomever, etc. That and which refer to animals and things. Thatmay also refer to people. We use the relative pronouns who and whom for people, and whosefor people and things.

• I know the dog that ate my bone.

In the above sentence, the relative pronoun is that and it introduces the relative clause (in bold). ‘I know the dog’ is the main clause. The relative clause that ate my bone tells us something about the noun dog.

Possessive Pronouns

The possessive pronouns are the possessive forms of personal pronouns. We use the personal pronouns in the possessive case to express possession. A possessive pronoun is able to stand on its own as subject, object, etc.A pronoun that can take the place of a noun phrase to show ownership (as in “This phone is mine“).

Possessive pronouns examples:

• This puppy is mine. That kitten is yours.
• I think the puppy that wandered into our house is theirs.
• Your bicycle is much bigger than ours.

The weak possessives (also called possessive determiners) function as adjectives in front of nouns. The weak possessives are my, your, his, her, its, our, and their.

In contrast, the strong (or absolute) possessive pronouns stand on their own: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and theirs. A possessive pronoun never takes an apostrophe.

Examples: We were both work-study kids with University jobs. Hers was in the library; mine was in the cafeteria, Mine is a long and sad tale.

1. Composition: Narrative Essay

What is a Narrative?

A narrative or a narrative essay can be defined as an account of an individual experience. This explains a personal experience that had a significant impact on the individual’s life. It can be of a journey, a special day such as the first day in school, one’s marriage, an unforgettable day, etc. This highlights that through a narrative the individual can express and share something special with the reader. A narrative entails a sequence of events that are often related in chronological order. A narrative can be presented in the first person narration that uses words such as I, myself, me, etc. However, a narrative can be in the third person as well when relating stories. This will have various characters and a specific plot surrounding that story will be built.

A narrative allows the reader to comprehend the point of view, attitudes, perspectives and construction of reality of the narrator. It allows the reader not only to be a part of the experience but also understand the personality of the narrator. In Social Sciences, narratives are usually used as empirical evidence for research purposes as they allow the researcher to understand the subjective experiences of people and also their interpretations of events.

Assessment on Narrative Essay – Topic: My Experience in my Former School

Outline

• Start by introducing the topic; tell us you felt about your former school
• The body of the message; tell us about your experience in paragraphs(not more than four)
• The conclusion or the conclusive paragraph; now you can summarize your introduction, tell us your feeling about the experience so far

1. What is a Monophthong?

A monophthong is simply a vowel. Derived from the old Greek language (with Mono meaning one/single and the -phthong meaning sound/tone and  the basic word phthalein which means to speak/create sound with the voice), the word monophthong  shows that a vowel is spoken with exactly one tone and one mouth position. Take for example when you say “teeth”; while you are creating the sound of the “ee”, nothing changes for that sound.

A monophthong can be a lexeme of a language and as such it can as well be a syllable. There is no shorter syllable than a single monophthong.

Assessment

1. What is a noun?
2. List and discuss the different noun forms and their functions.
3. What do you understand by the word monophthong? Discuss.