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HASSAN II UNIVERSITY Modular Program : English Studies

FACULTY OF LETTERS Semester 3

AND HUMAN SCIENCES Grammar 3

CASABLANCA Pr. S. FATHI

MOHAMEDIA

Chapter 1: NOUNS, PRONOUNS & DETERMINERS

Introduction: Parts of Speech

Nouns (man, town, music), Pronouns (you, ours, some), Adjectives (a, the, 12, big), Verbs
(be, have, do, work), Adverbs (loudly, well, often), Prepositions (at, in, from, on),
Conjunctions (and, but, or, because, etc.), Interjections (Oh! My goodness! Alas!).

Noun: a word used to name a person, place, thing or idea. Nouns can be classified in three
ways: a- proper or common

b- abstract or concrete

c- collective

 A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place or thing. Proper nouns are
Capitalized, e.g. Michael, Tangiers, the Pentagon, Morocco (cf. morocco), Turkey (cf.
turkey), China (cf. china), Panama (cf. panama), etc.

 A common noun does not name a particular person, place or thing. Common nouns are
not capitalized, e.g. man, city, building, etc.

 An abstract noun names a quality, characteristic or idea, e.g. beauty, strength, hatred,
cowardice, etc.

 A concrete noun names an object that can be perceived by the senses, e.g. desk, book,
table, chair, etc.
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 A collective noun names a group and can be used with singular or plural verbs, e.g. crowd,
team, class, cattle, family, committee, crew, staff, etc.

Another type of nouns is the compound noun. It contains more than one word and can take
three forms: W W, W-W, WW, e.g. Attijariwafa Bank, Casablanca Technopark, mouse-
trap, toothbrush, Primary School, flower shop, bookstore, railway, headache, police
station, etc.

The following are some frequently used types of proper nouns:

1- Names of people: Thomas Jefferson

2- Titles of people: President Jefferson, Doctor Smith, Uncle Sam, Professor Allen
3- Days of the week: Sunday, Monday, etc.
4- Months of the year: January, February, etc.
 but not seasons: spring, summer, fall/autumn, winter
5- Geographical features: the Atlantic Ocean, Mount Everest
6- Countries, states and cities: England, Florida, Rabat
7- Nationalities: American, Polish
8- Languages: English, Thai, Arabic
9- Specific course names: History 104, Design Graphics, Grammar 3
 but not the field of study: history, grammar

10- Heavenly bodies; Mercury, the Earth

Nouns can be divided into Count or Mass nouns. For Count nouns, there are different
plural forms.

- regular; books, horses, calendars, etc.

- irregular: children feet, men teeth, women, etc.
- us/i: stimulus, radius fungus, alumnus (boy/man who was a pupil or student of a
school, college or university)
- a/ae: alumna (girl/woman who was a pupil or student of a school, college or
university)
- um/a: stratum, medium, curriculum
- is/es: thesis, analysis, axis, basis, hypothesis
- on/a: criterion, phenomenon
- ix, ex/ices: index, apex, appendix, matrix

Another problem in Count nouns is the Collective nouns. They refer to groups of people,
but are usually considered singular nouns. Plural forms are more common in British
English than in American English.
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Some English nouns are complex: they are a combination of nouns and adjectives or
preposition phrases. The plural (s) is put after the noun: son(s)-in-law, daughter(s)-in-
law, father(s)-in-law, mother(s)-in-law, brother(s)-in-law, sister(s)-in-law, postmaster(s)
general, attorney(s) general, Secretary General, notary public.

Typical noun endings are:

a- nouns indicating persons

-ar, -er, -or: beggar, liar, employer, driver, sailor

-ant: assistant, attendant, servant

-ist: chemist, scientist, pianist

b- abstract nouns derived from verbs

-age: breakage, linkage, leakage

-al: approval, arrival, refusal, denial

-ance: acceptance, appearance, performance

-ery: delivery, discovery, recovery

-ment: agreement, arrangement, employment

-sion: collision, decision, division

-ure: departure, failure, closure

c- abstract nouns derived from adjectives

-ance, -ence: importance, absence, presence

-ity: ability, activity, equality

-ness: darkness, happiness, kindness

-th: length, strength, truth

Many words are used either as nouns or verbs: aim, answer, cause, change, doubt, dream,
end, fall, guess, hope, influence, interest, joke, laugh, license (US), lock, move, note,
order, plan, play, practice (US), quarrel, result, smile, stop, talk, trouble, walk, work, etc.
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There are pairs of words in which nouns end in a voiceless consonant and verbs end in a
voiced consonant:

VERBS NOUNS VERBS NOUNS

abuse abuse advise advice

believe belief breathe breath

choose choice clothe cloth

devise device excuse excuse

halve half house house

live life prove proof

relieve relief shelve shelf

use use

Both “practise” / “license” (verb) and “practice” /”licence” (noun) end in /s/. In American
English, “practice” and “license” are used both as a verb and a noun. In British English,
“licence” can be used as a verb and a noun.

Nouns may be used alone or preceded by determiners. Determiners are either identifiers
or quantifiers.

 Identifiers include:

a- articles: a, an, the

b- demonstratives: this, that, these, those
c- possessive forms of pronouns (adj.): my, your, his, her, its, our, their, one’s

 Quantifiers include numerals

A pronoun is a word used instead of one or more nouns; sometimes, a pronoun replaces
another pronoun

 One of the players of the National Team is missing. He is believed to have fled to an
unknown destination. (the pronoun “he” refers to the antecedent “one”)
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Pronouns can be personal (subjective, objective, possessive), reflexive, intensive,

relative, interrogative, demonstrative and indefinite.

Personal pronouns can be subjective: I, you, he, she, it, we, they; objective: me, you,
him, her, it, us, them; or possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, and theirs.

 Possessive adjectives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.

Reflexive pronouns are used to reflect on the same noun: myself, yourself, himself,
herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves. They can also be used as intensive
pronouns for emphasis.

 I can do it all by myself (i.e. without any help)

 Did you hurt yourself?

 George himself was not hurt in the accident.

Relative pronouns are used to introduce a subordinate adjective clause and are related to a
noun or pronoun already mentioned or understood: who, whom, which, whose, that, but
not what.

 The people who live there are on vacation.

 The book that I read is from the library.

 Do you know that woman whose car was stolen?

Interrogative pronouns are sued in questions: who, whom, what, whose, which, but not
that.

 Who lives in that house now?

 Whom did you meet in the party?

 What was the name of the book?

 Whose glasses were stolen?

 Which course did you attend?

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Demonstrative pronouns are used to point out persons or things: this, that, these, those.

 That is the one.

 This seems to be my lucky day.

Notice that when a demonstrative is used as a determiner, it is used with a noun and
when it is used as a pronoun, it is used instead of a noun.

Indefinite pronouns are in fact indefinite quantifiers: anybody, anyone, everybody,

everyone, nobody, none, one, no one, somebody, someone, others.

Notice that quantifiers can also be used as adjectives before nouns: all, another, any,
both, each, either, (a) few, (a) little, many, most, neither, other, several, some.

Nouns vs. Gerunds vs. Participles

When used in conjunction with BE to express the progressive aspect (e.g., we’re waiting),
the –ing form has a verbal function and is traditionally a participle. It is also a participle
in commonly-used constructions like:

 Let’s go swimming.

 Come dancing with us.

When it functions as noun, it is called a gerund:

 I like swimming/chocolate.

 Standing here all day, I see some very strange people. (participle)

 Standing here all day makes me very tired. (gerund)

 This kind of work makes me tired.

The participle is also used as an adjective: boiling water, sliding doors, living room,
moving staircase, or as “full” adjective, i.e., it can be modified by adverbs of degree like
very, too, more:

 That is a (very/more) (interesting/exciting/amusing/entertaining) story.

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Like nouns, gerunds (but not participles) can be preceded by articles or possessive
adjectives:

 Every morning, the singing of birds wakes me up.

 I can hear a singing in my ears.

 I’ll never forget George’s/his imitating the headmaster.

 I’ll never forget George/him imitating the headmaster

(imitating: participle; cf. ……..George when he is imitating…………..)

Like nouns, gerunds can be used as subject, object of verb/preposition and complement:

 Swimming is my favourite sport.

 My favourite sport is swimming.

I like swimming.

 I’m fond of singing./ Thank you for calling.