Nouns and Articles
Nouns are words that are names of people, places, things, concepts,…. In sentences, nouns are subjects of verbs, objects of verbs, subject complements, and objects of prepositions. Nouns are often preceded by determiners (see det in Correction Symbols Two). The articles (a, an, the) are important determiners.
Note the noun teacher in the following sentences:
The teacher is talking to the class. (subject of verb)
The students are watching the teacher. (object of verb)
John is a teacher. (subject complement)
George gave his essay to the teacher. (object of preposition)


A. There are two types of nouns.
1. Proper nouns include names of particular people, countries, states, cities, schools, rivers, lakes, mountains, oceans, languages, months, days,…. They always begin with capital letters. Here are some examples:
John Fleming
English
De Anza College
Cupertino
California
United States
Tuesday
July
2. All others are common nouns. Here are some examples:
man
language
school
city
state
country
day
month


B. There are two types of common nouns.
1. Count nouns have plural forms. Most count nouns have both singular and plural forms, but a few have plural forms only:
people
police
clothes
2. Noncount nouns have singular forms only:
advice
furniture
information
3. Note that many noncount nouns are often used as count nouns. This is especially true of nouns that refer to things we eat and drink:
coffee
food
fruit
meat
When a noncount noun is used as a plural count noun, it usually means one of the following:
a. Containers
two coffees, for example, can mean two cups of coffee
b. Kinds
several fruits, for example, can mean several kinds of fruit
4. Here are some common noncount nouns:
FOOD, DRINKS: beer, bread, butter, cereal, cheese, coffee, corn, cream, flour, food, fruit, honey, ice cream, juice, margarine, meat, milk, pasta, pepper, rice, salt, spaghetti, sugar, tea, vinegar, water, wheat ABSTRACT NOUNS, EMOTIONS: advice, beauty, behavior, crime, equality, experience, freedom, fun, happiness, hate, health, help, homework, honesty, ignorance, information, insanity, insurance, love, news, patience, peace, permission, progress, unemployment, work LANGUAGES, FIELDS OF STUDY: accounting, biology, Chinese, engineering, English, geography, history, Indonesian, linguistics, literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, physics, psychology, Russian, Spanish, Turkish CATEGORIES: baggage, cloth, clothing, equipment, food, fruit, furniture, homework, jewelry, junk, luggage, machinery, mail, money, stuff, transportation, trash WEATHER, NATURAL PHENOMENA: cold, darkness, electricity, fire, fog, hail, heat, humidity, ice, lightning, rain, sleet, snow, sunshine, thunder, weather, wind SOLIDS, LIQUIDS, GASES, POWDERS, GRAINS, CLOTH: air, beer, blood, cereal, chalk, coal, copper, corn, cotton, cream, detergent, dust, flour, fog, gasoline, glass, honey, hydrogen, ice, iron, juice, leather, lotion, milk, nylon, oil, oxygen, pepper, pollution , polyester, rice, rope, salt, shampoo, silk, smog, smoke, soap, steam, string, sugar, thread, vinegar, water, wheat, wine, wood, wool


C. Nouns can have three kinds of meaning.
1. Definite. A noun is definite when the writer and reader share information about the noun. Nouns can be definite for the following reasons:
The noun has been mentioned before:
An old man lived in a big house. The old man had three grandchildren who came to the big house every Saturday morning.
A noun can be followed by a phrase or clause that makes it definite:
the president of De Anza College
the book that I bought yesterday
The noun refers to something unique:
the sun
the moon
The noun is definite because of its setting. In a classroom, for example, everyone will understand the same meaning for these nouns:
the blackboard
the teacher
the clock
Nouns can be definite for members of groups. A group of classmates will understand the same meaning for the following nouns:
the teacher
the exam
the textbook
The noun phrase includes a superlative or ordinal number:
the slowest writer
the most difficult assignment
the first page
2. Indefinite. A noun is indefinite when the writer and reader don’t share information about the noun.
3. Generic. A noun is generic when it represents a whole class (not an individual