Week 5 Seminar - Nouns Possessives Personal Pronouns Articles

Nouns

Types of Nouns

• Concrete Noun: Names anything perceived through physical senses.

  • Examples: book, singer, cat, house

• Abstract Noun: Names something that cannot be perceived with the senses.

  • Examples: story, daydream, honesty, responsibility

Common vs. Proper Nouns

• Common Noun: General person, place, or thing; capitalized only at the start of a sentence.

  • Examples: teacher, park, street, textbook, kilometer

• Proper Noun: Specific person, place, or thing; always capitalized.

  • Examples: Patrick, October, Nijmegen, Radboud University

  • Includes demonyms: Frenchman, Chicagoan, European

Countable vs. Uncountable Nouns

• Countable (Count) Noun: Can be counted; has singular and plural forms; can be preceded by "a/an."

  • Examples: a tree, the basketball, three windows

• Uncountable (Mass) Noun: Typically not counted; does not have a plural form; cannot be preceded by "a/an."

  • Examples: gravity, love, information, advice, music

  • Can be made countable with words like "piece" and "bit."

Collective Nouns

• Refers to a group of people, animals, or things.

  • Examples: family, couple, team, class, committee, the United Nations

• Usage of Verbs:

  • Treated as a singular entity: uses a singular verb.

    • Example: The couple has a monthly income of $2,000.

  • Treated as individuals: uses a plural verb.

    • Example: The couple are taking separate cars to work today.

Possessives

Double Possessive

• Used to indicate that the first noun means "one of several."

  • Structure: Noun + of + noun or noun + of + possessive pronoun

  • Examples: a friend of my sister’s, a friend of ours

Specifying Possessives

• Shows a specific relationship with a noun.

  • Example: The housekeeper washed the children’s clothes. (indicates belonging)

Classifying Possessives

• Indicates the kind/type of thing.

  • Example: The mother went shopping for children’s clothes. (type of clothes)

Personal Pronouns

Reflexive Pronouns

• Examples: myself, yourself/yourselves, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves

• Important to learn which verbs require reflexive pronouns, as this varies across languages.

Articles

• Indefinite Article (a/an): Introduces information not previously known to the listener/reader.

  • "a": before consonant sounds and vowels pronounced /j/

  • "an": before vowel sounds (including silent 'h')

• Definite Article (the): Refers to information known to the listener/reader or previously mentioned.