English for Business Life Elementary

10 NOUNS
10.1 Plurals o f nouns
most nouns simply
add -5:
nouns ending in
consonant + -y:
nouns ending in
-ch, -sh, -s or -x:
some nouns ending
in -/and -fe:
some nouns ending
in -/and -fe:
manager
name
secretary
company
box
address
self
shelf
wife
life
half
knife
safe
cliff
roof
handkerchief
radio
photo
managers
names
secretaries
companies
boxes
addresses
selves
shelves
wives
lives
halves
knives
safes
cliffs
roofs
handkerchiefs
radios
photos
most nouns ending
in -o:
irregulars: child —►children
man
woman
potato
tomato
tooth
fish
men
-► women
potatoes
tomatoes
—►teeth
—►fish
10.2 Countable and uncountable nouns
Countable nouns are the names of things that you can count.
We can use atari with countable nouns. Countable nouns
have plurals:
e.g. a letter, one problem, two telephones,
six hundred dollars.
Uncountable nouns are the names of things that you can't
count. Normally, we can't use alan with uncountable nouns,
and they have no plurals:
e.g. milk, sugar, fruit juice.
Compare:
countable - Would you like a sandwich?
uncountable - Would you like some milk? (not a milk)
countable - There's a woman at the reception desk,
uncountable - There's some sugar on the table, (not a sugar)
a/an and some/any
We normally only use a/an with singular countable nouns.
With uncountable nouns, a/an is not possible. We can use
some and any with both countable and uncountable nouns
(see section 13.1 on quantifiers).
Countable - There's a w om an at the reception desk.
Uncountable - I have som e free tim e next week.
(not a free time)
Countable - There are som e books on the table.
Uncountable - There's som e n e w inform ation.
(not a new information)
Countable - Do you have any stam ps?
Uncountable - Do you have any new s?
U ncountables
The following words are uncountable. We do not use them
with alan, and they have no plurals:
- advice, information, news, weather
e.g. I'd like to give you som e advice, (not an advice)
Could you give me som e inform ation?
(not an information’, not informations)
Here is the n ew s, (not a news)
We're having terrible w eather, (not a terrible weather)
- English (and the names of other languages)
e.g. She speaks very good English, (not a very good English)
- medicine, flu, toothache (but headache, cold, cough, etc. are
countable)
e.g. I've got toothache.
I've got flu.
(but I've got a headache.)
Words like euro, dollar, pound, yen, peso and franc are
countable, but the word money is uncountable,
e.g. It cost eight euros.
It cost a lot of m oney, (not a lot of moneys)
10.3 Com pound (tw o-w ord) nouns
Some compound (two-word) nouns are one word.
e.g. bathroom, bedroom, headache
Some compound nouns can be hyphenated.
e.g. sitting-room, dining-room
Some compound nouns are written as two words.
e.g. hotel booking, plane ticket, car park
10.4 Possessive nouns
We usually use -5 (singular -'s, plural -s') for animate/living
things.
e.g. Sam is Mr Veen's assistant, (not the assistant of Mr Veen)
John's surname is Smith, (not surname's John)
That is my boss's office.
The directors' salaries are very high.
104 REFERENCE SECTION