VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR ACQUISITION
Definition of noun
Nouns the most important words in English language- without them, cannot speaking and writing about anything. Nouns are divided into five different kinds:
kinds of noun in English
There are four kinds of noun in English:
Common nouns:[1] man, cat
Proper nouns: Celine, France
Abstract nouns: beauty, fear
Collective nouns: team, group
Material nouns: Iron, wood, gold
Plurals of noun
A/- The plural of a noun is usually made by adding s to the singular:
E.g: Day-days house-houses
B/- Nouns ending in o or ch, sh, ss or x forms their plural by adding es:
E.g. tomato→tomatoes church→ churchebrush→ brushes kiss→ kisses
box→boxes
But words of foreign origin or abbreviated words ending in o add s only:
E.g.photo→photospiano→ pianos kilo→ kilos
C/- Nouns ending in y following a consonant form their plural by dropping the y and addingies:
E.g: country-countries lady-ladies
D/- Twelve (12) nouns ending in f or fedrop the f or feand add ves. These nouns are:calf,half, knife, leaf, life, loaf, self, sheaf, shelf, thief, wife, wolf.
E.g. life→ lives wife→ wives
E/- A few nouns form their plural by a vowel change:
E.g. foot→ feet man→ men tooth→ teeth woman→ women louse→ lice
*The plurals of child and ox are children and oxen.
F/- Collective nouns, crew, family, team etc. can take a singular or plural verb; singular if weconsider the word to mean a single group or unit: e.g. our team is the best.
orplural if we take it to mean a number of individuals: e.g. our team are wearing their new jerseys.
G/- Compound nouns:
1-Normally the last word is made plural: e.g. boy-friend→ boy-friends
2- The first word is made plural with compounds formed of noun+preposition+noun.
e.g. Sisters- in law
COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES
Adjectives with two syllables can form the comparative either by adding -er or by preceeding the adjective with more. These adjectives form the superlative either by adding -est or by preceeding the adjective with most
Comparatives
Comparative adjectives enable us to express the difference between two people or things. In order to say that someone or something has a superior quality, size, or characteristic, you need touche ‘more'. Instead, when you want to say that someone or something has an inferior quality,size, or characteristic, you must use ‘less' .
More for long adjectives
If an adjective has two or more syllables, we add the word ‘more' in front to create the comparative form.
For example:
- This hotel is more expensive than the last hotel we stayed at.
- Reading is more interesting than watching television.
- The sea here is more beautiful than the sea in my country.
er for short adjectives
If an adjective has one syllable, or two syllables with -y as the second syllable, we add -er to
create the comparative.
For example:
- Your house is bigger than mine.
- Taking the bus is cheaper than taking the car.
Note :
As you can see in the first example, if an adjective ends in a vowel and consonant (e.g. big) youneed to double the final consonant.
For example:bigger, fatter, and thinner
Irregular comparatives
as is often the case in English, there are some adjectives that are irregular and do not follow these rules. Here are the irregular comparatives:
Good | Better |
Bad | Worse |
Far | Further(U.K) / farther (U.S) |
Fun | Fun |
Example :
- Your cooking is better than my cooking.
- Arriving late is worse than arriving early.
- Their house is further from here than our house.
- Going out is more fun than staying at home.
Superlative
We use superlatives to compare one person or thing to several others.
For example:
- Paris is the most beautiful city I've ever seen.
This means that I've seen several cities and I consider Paris as the number one in terms of being beautiful.
In a similar way to comparatives, there are two ways to use superlatives. When you want to say that one person or thing is superior to all others in that group, you need to use ‘the most'. When you want to say that one person or thing is inferior to all others in that group, you need to use ‘the least'.
The most
similarly to comparatives, we use ‘the most' in different ways according to the length of the adjectives:
1) -the most for long adjectives.
If an adjective has two or more syllables, we add ‘the most' in front to create the superlative
For example:
- She is the most determined candidate we've seen today.
- It is the most difficult part of my job.
est for short adjectives:
If an adjective has one syllable, or two syllables with -y as the second syllable, we add -est to
create the superlative.
For example:
- It's the shortest route to the stadium.
- What's the longest flight you've ever taken?
- He's the nicest guy I've met here.
As with comparatives, if an adjective ends in a vowel and consonant (e.g. sad) you need to double the final consonant.
For example: saddest, fittest, hottest.
Irregular superlatives
The same adjectives that are irregular for comparatives are also irregular for the superlative form:
good | Best |
bad | Worst |
far | Furthest/farthest |
fun | Fun |
Here are some examples:
- Is this the best place to eat in town?
- Yesterday's performance was my worst ever.
- Alaska is the furthest state from Florida.
- That was the most fun I've had in a long time
