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　　External Websites Ask the Chatbot a Question Written by Teagan Wolter Teagan Wolter is Associate Editor of Anthropology at Encyclopædia Britannica. Teagan Wolter Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Jan 7, 2025 • Article History Table of Contents Table of Contents Ask the Chatbot a Question { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type" : "Question", "name" : " What is a common noun? ", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "A common noun designates any one of a class of beings or things, such as cat, dog, and city. It contrasts with a proper noun, which designates particular beings or things." } } , { "@type" : "Question", "name" : " What is the difference between a countable and an uncountable noun? ", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "A countable noun describes discrete entities and can be numbered, while an uncountable noun describes things that cannot be divided into discrete entities." } } , { "@type" : "Question", "name" : " What is a compound noun? ", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "A compound noun is made by combining two or more words. A closed compound noun remains a single word, a hyphenated compound noun has a hyphen between words, and an open compound noun consists of more than one word, with spaces between each word." } } , { "@type" : "Question", "name" : " What is an irregular plural noun? ", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "An irregular plural noun is a noun that has been made plural in ways other than adding -s or -es." } } ] } Top Questions What is a common noun? A common noun designates any one of a class of beings or things, such as cat, dog, and city. It contrasts with a proper noun, which designates particular beings or things.

　　What is the difference between a countable and an uncountable noun? A countable noun describes discrete entities and can be numbered, while an uncountable noun describes things that cannot be divided into discrete entities.

　　What is a compound noun? A compound noun is made by combining two or more words. A closed compound noun remains a single word, a hyphenated compound noun has a hyphen between words, and an open compound noun consists of more than one word, with spaces between each word.

　　What is an irregular plural noun? An irregular plural noun is a noun that has been made plural in ways other than adding -s or -es.

　　noun, a word that designates a person, place, thing, or idea and that can act as the subject or object of a sentence’s verb. It is one of eight parts of speech in English grammar.

　　Nouns include people, animals, places, physical objects, and ideas. Common nouns are words that designate any one of a class of beings or things. They include words such as cat, dog, and city, which can be applied to any number of individual cats, dogs, or cities. Common nouns contrast with proper nouns, which designate particular beings or things. Proper nouns are also called proper names and are generally capitalized: for example, Felix, Pluto, and Edinburgh.

　　More From Britannica Slavic languages: Noun forms Some nouns describe discrete entities and are often called countable nouns, because they can be numbered. They include nouns such as apple, book, and chair. These nouns have plural forms (discussed below). Other nouns describe things that cannot be divided into discrete entities. These are called uncountable, or mass, nouns and are generally treated as singular. This category includes nouns such as knowledge, sugar, and water.

　　Compound nouns are nouns that are made by combining two or more words. Some, called closed compound nouns, remain a single word. These include words such as toothbrush, notebook, and sunflower. Hyphenated compound nouns have hyphens in them, as the name suggests. Some examples of hyphenated compound nouns are mother-in-law, passer-by, and merry-go-round. Finally, open compound nouns are those that consist of more than one word. Examples of open compound nouns include high school, ice cream, and post office.

　　The term case is used to describe the function of a noun within a sentence. Discussions of case are especially salient in languages in which nouns decline, or change their form in some way, based on their case. Nouns do not decline in English, but they are still discussed in terms of case. Noun cases in English include the subjective case, two objective cases (direct and indirect), and possessive.

　　The subject of a sentence is the person or thing that does the action of the verb. Nouns that are the subject of a sentence are said to be in the subjective, or nominative, case. The subject of each sentence is shown in italics in the examples below.

　　The car goes.The boy pets the cat.The girl throws the ball to the dog.The student shops for her family.The writer gives his friend the notebook. Objective cases The object case in English can be divided into three categories. The direct object (in the accusative case) of a sentence receives the action of the verb. It is acted upon by the subject of the sentence. Not all sentences have direct objects. The direct object of each sentence is shown in italics in the examples below.

　　The car goes. [no direct object]The boy pets the cat.The girl throws the ball to the dog.The student shops for her family. [no direct object]The writer gives his friend the notebook. The indirect object (in the dative case) of a sentence is indirectly impacted by the action of the verb. It is the person or thing that receives what is being given or done, or the person or thing for which or to which the subject performs an action. However, if that recipient follows a preposition, such as for or to, then it becomes an object of preposition (see below) instead of an indirect object. The indirect object of each sentence is shown in italics in the examples below.

　　The child writes her sister a letter.The teacher hands the student a marker.The writer gives his friend the notebook.The car goes. [no indirect object]The boy pets the cat. [no indirect object]The girl throws the ball to the dog. [no indirect object] Objects of prepositions follow a preposition and are parts of prepositional phrases. Objects of prepositions are shown in italics in the examples below.

　　The car goes. [no object of a preposition]The boy pets the cat. [no object of a preposition]The girl throws the ball to the dog.The student shops for her family.The writer gives his friend the notebook. [no object of a preposition] Possessive case Nouns in the possessive, or genitive, case possess or own other nouns. This is marked by -’s for singular nouns and irregular plural nouns (discussed below). Nouns that have regular plurals show possession with the addition of an apostrophe after the plural -s, thus ending in -s’. For singular nouns that end in -s, both adding -’ and -’s are acceptable as possessives.

　　Plurality Regular plurals The plural of most nouns is made by adding -s to the end of the singular. The singular cat thus becomes cats, and likewise dog becomes dogs. When a word ends in -ch, -s, -sh, -x, or -z, then -es is added instead of simply -s. Thus, box has the plural boxes, and peach has the plural peaches.

　　In most nouns ending in -y, the final -y becomes -ie when the plural -s is added. Baby thus becomes babies, and family becomes families. However, if a vowel comes before the final -y, such as in the word monkey, the -y is retained in the plural. Thus, the plural of monkey is not monkies, but monkeys. Some exceptions to these rules exist. For example the word money has accepted plural spellings moneys and monies.

　　Nouns ending in a consonant followed by the letter -o generally take -es in their plural forms. That is, the plural of potato is potatoes, and the plural of hero is heroes. However, both piano and photo take only -s in their plural forms (that is, pianos and photos). Words that end in a vowel followed by an -o add only an -s in their plural forms. Thus, zoo becomes zoos, and video becomes videos.

　　In most nouns ending in -f or -fe tend to see those change to -v and -ve in their plural form. For example the plural of knife is knives, and the plural of leaf is leaves. There are some exceptions, as with roof and cliff, which have the plurals roofs and cliffs, respectively. Some nouns that end in -f allow for the plural to be made with or without the change to -v. The word dwarf, for example, has both the plural form dwarfs (as seen in the title of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and dwarves (the preferred spelling of fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien).

　　Many plural nouns in English are constructed in ways other than adding -s or -es. Such plurals are called irregular plurals. They often reflect older ways of constructing plurals. For example the words children and oxen are derived from child and ox by adding an -en, which is a variation on a common Old English plural ending -an. Similarly, nouns that change vowel sounds in the plural—such as foot (feet), mouse (mice), and goose (geese)—and those that show no change in the plural, such as moose or sheep, reflect earlier English plurals.

　　Other irregular plurals are found on loanwords. Loaned nouns are borrowed from foreign languages, notably Latin and Greek, and many keep their original plural form. Rules for these plurals are not rigid—many speakers use regular plurals for a number of these loanwords, for example—and there is occasionally overlap between loanwords in these two languages. However, common ways of making these foreign plurals are noteworthy. The rules for the plurals of Latin loanwords are:

　　Nouns ending in -us take -i as their plural. For example, focus becomes foci, and fungus becomes fungi (although the regular plurals focuses and funguses are also acceptable).In nouns ending in -is, the ending changes to -es in the plural. Thus axis becomes axes, and crisis becomes crises.In nouns ending in -ex or -ix, endings change to -ces or -xes in the plural. For example, index becomes indices, and appendix becomes appendices (although appendixes is the preferred plural in medical contexts).Nouns ending in -um take -a as their plural. Thus, datum becomes data, and bacterium becomes bacteria.Nouns ending in -a take -ae as their plural. For example, larva becomes larvae, and vertebra becomes vertebrae. Nouns borrowed from Greek that end in -on take -a as their plural. Thus, the plural of phenomenon is phenomena, and the plural of criterion is criteria. Other Greek loanwords tend to have regular plurals. However, some that end in -s have widely used Latin-based plurals. For example the words octopus and platypus are loanwords from Greek, but they look like Latin-based words that end in -us. Because of this, English-speakers derived the pseudo-Latin plurals octopi and platypi for them, even though the rules for Greek loanwords favor the regular plurals octopuses and platypuses. In Greek these words have plural forms octopodes and platypodes, which are rarely used in English.