This lesson is dedicated to anybody who is an immigrant to the USA, to anybody who is the child of an immigrant, and to anybody who is an ancestor of an immigrant, and that probably includes most of us.
Islands, Oceans, and Walls
Nouns and Pronouns: Part Two
Each noun and each pronoun has inflection; this means that it is either singular or plural. This is reflected in the noun or pronoun’s form, which indicates that there is either one (singular) or two or more (plural) of that item.
Nouns The noun course in the sentence “Then I started building a golf course” is singular, whereas the noun courses in the sentence “Then I started building golf courses” is plural.
Pronouns The pronouns he, she and it are singular, whereas we and they are plural. The pronoun you can be either singular or plural, depending on its context.
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| For Starters 2 Beneath each noun in the sentences below, write N and beneath each pronoun write P. If the noun is singular, write S and if it is plural, write #. |
| A lot of my friends are gardeners. I never understood it. Then I started building golf courses—it’s gardening on a big scale. |
The oranges of the investigation
Countable Nouns
We can categorize nouns into two types: countable and noncountable. A countable noun is a noun that can be counted. Most common nouns are countable. For example, the word hotel is countable because you can count one hotel, two hotels, three hotels, and so on. You can see that countable nouns have a singular form (for example, hotel) and a plural form (for example, hotels).
Use the singular form when you are referring to one of that item. Use the plural form whether you are referring to two units of that item or to billions and billions of units.
Singular Countable Nouns
In each example below, the noun is countable and the writer is referring to one unit so the noun form must be singular. Notice that each singular countable noun has an article (a, an, the) preceding it in the noun determiner position.
· This is an island sitting in the middle of an ocean.
· It’s a big ocean.
· The wall will happen very soon.
· I’m not a globalist. I’m a nationalist.
