Personal pronouns: subject and object

 

Personal pronouns are used like nouns. They show who we are talking about:

• This is Jane, she is a teacher.
• We like her classes.
• She is funny.

 

Personal pronouns can be subject pronouns or object pronouns.

 

Subject pronouns are used in place of the subject. We use them so we don’t repeat the noun:

• Tom is a student. He studies English.
• Mary lives in France. She likes it.
• Betty is hungry. She wants to eat.

 

Subject pronouns have different forms:

 

	Singular	Plural
1st person	I	We
2nd person	You	You
3rd person	He / She / It	They

• Hi, I am Timothy!
• He needs help.
• They want to go home.

 

Object pronouns are used in place of the object:

• Don’t tell them.
• Look at me.
• I can’t see you.

 

Object pronouns have different forms:

 

	Singular	Plural
1st person	I → Me	We → Us
2nd person	You → You	You → You
3rd person	He → Him She → Her It → It	They → Them

• Henry is chasing a cat. He can’t catch it.
• Where are my parents? Can you see them?
• Ryan is eating pizza. He likes it.

 

Nouns: countable and uncountable — negative and questions

 

Countable Nouns

 

In positive sentences, we use:

a / an + singular countable noun

some + plural countable noun

 

In negative sentences, we use:

a / an + singular countable noun

any + plural countable noun

 

To make pancakes…

• … you need a frying pan.
• … you don’t need an electric mixer.
• … you need some plates.  
• … you don’t need any chopsticks.

 

Uncountable Nouns

 

In positive sentences, we use:

some + uncountable noun

 

In negative sentences, we use:

any + uncountable noun

 

In addition…

• … you need some flour.
• … you need some milk.
• … you don’t need any rice.
• … you don’t need any bread.

 

Summary: Positive, Negative & Question Forms

 

type of noun	+	–	?
singular countable	a(n)	a(n)	a(n)
plural countable	some	any	any
uncountable	some	any	any

 

Note the verb forms:

• There is a frying pan.  (singular noun)
• There aren’t any eggs.  (plural noun)
• There is some milk. (uncountable noun)
• There isn’t any flour. (uncountable noun)

 

How much…? & How many…?

 

We use:

How many + plural countable noun

How much + uncountable noun

 

• How many eggs are there? – Six.
• How many plates are there? – Four.
• How much milk is there? – A litre.
• How much flour is there? – 500g.

Nouns: countable and uncountable

Nouns in English can be countable or uncountable.

 

Countable Nouns

 

We can count countable nouns:

• one car, two cars, three cars…

 

Examples of countable nouns include:

• accident, banana, couch, dream, neighbourhood.

 

We can use ‘a’ and ‘an’ with singular countable nouns:

• an accident, a banana, a couch, a dream, a neighbourhood.

 

They have singular and plural forms:

 

singular	plural
accident	accidents
banana	bananas
couch	couches
dream	dreams
neighbourhood	neighbourhoods

 

We can use ‘some’ with plural countable nouns:

• I’d like some bananas, please.

 

Uncountable Nouns

 

We can’t count uncountable nouns:

• one air, two airs, three airs…

 

Examples of uncountable nouns include:

• advice, information, money, music, water.

 

We can’t use ‘a’ and ‘an’ with  uncountable nouns:

• an advice, an information, a money, a music, a water.

 

Uncountable nouns are usually liquids, materials or abstract nouns.

 

They don’t usually have plural forms:

• advices, informations, moneys, musics, waters.

 

Other common uncountable nouns include:

Food and Drink

 

coffee	juice
tea	wine
bread	cheese
fruit	meat
pasta	rice

 

accommodation	furniture
homework	news
traffic	work

 

We can use ‘some’ with uncountable nouns:

• I’d like some water, please.

 

We can also use phrases like ‘a glass of’, ‘a bottle of’ or ‘a piece of’:

• I’d like a glass of water, please.
• We bought two bottles of wine.
• This is a beautiful piece of music.

 

Nouns: plural and singular

 

English nouns can be countable (we can say ‘two balls’) or uncountable (we can’t say ‘two milks’).

 

Countable nouns can have singular (street, book, dog) or plural (streets, books, dogs) forms.

 

Uncountable nouns don’t have plural forms.

• money
• water
• music
• information

 

We usually make plural nouns by adding ‘-s’ to the base form:

• One book → Polly has two books.
• One pencil → The teacher gave me three pencils.
• A cat → We saw two cats outside the house.
• A question  → Do you have any questions?

 

 But there are also some specific spelling rules for plurals.

1. For nouns ending in ‘-s’, ‘-ss’, ‘-sh’, ‘-ch’, ‘-x’ and ‘-z’, add ‘-es’:

• A bus → All the buses stop here.
• A glass → I had two glasses of wine last night.
• A brush → I prefer soft brushes for my hair.
• A peach → Sandy bought fresh peaches at the market.
• A box → There were boxes with presents under the Christmas tree.
• A quiz → I like taking fun quizzes*.

Note: When a word ends in a singular ‘z’, the ‘z’ is doubled and ‘-es’ is added.

 

2. For nouns ending in a consonant + ‘-y’, change the ‘-y’ to ‘-ies’:

• A city → I visited many cities.
• A story → My grandmother knows many interesting stories.
• A country → How many countries are there in the world?
• A family → Ten families moved into new houses last month.

 

3. For most nouns ending in ‘-o‘, add ‘-s‘ (kilos, photos, radios, etc). But there are several common nouns that need ‘-es‘ instead:

• Potato → Jane bought two kilos of potatoes at the market.
• Tomato → Tomatoes are good in any salad.
• Hero → Batman and Superman are my two favorite superheroes.
• Echo → Loud echoes could be heard in the woods.

 

4. For nouns ending in ‘-f‘ or ‘-fe‘, change ‘-f / -fe‘ to ‘-ves‘:

• A leaf → Many trees lose their leaves in Autumn.
• A wife → In some countries a man can have several wives.
• A knife → A good chef always takes care of his knives.

 

Some nouns in English have irregular plural forms. The most common are:
man – men woman – women child – children person – people foot  – feet	tooth – teeth fish – fish sheep – sheep mouse – mice penny – pence

 

 

 

Nouns: common and proper

 

Nouns are words which refer to people, places or things. We can divide them into two types – common nouns and proper nouns.

 

Examples of common nouns include:

• air, cat, happiness, music, newspaper.

 

We don’t usually write them with a capital letter, unless they come at the beginning of a sentence:

• I love music.

NOT: I love Music.

• Happiness is the most important thing.

 

Proper nouns are names of people, places or things and we always write them with a capital letter:

• My sister’s name is Sarah.
• The best day of the week is Friday.

 

Examples of proper nouns include:

• Australia, Monday, Rome, Russian, Sarah.

 

Proper nouns include:

 

a) The names of people, places or institutions:

• Sarah, Mr Stevens, the United States, Beijing, Cambridge University, the Hilton Hotel.

 

b) The names of the days of the week, months of the year and public holidays:

• Saturday, Thursday, June, September, Christmas, Thanksgiving.

(But not seasons: ‘summer’ not ‘Summer’.)

 

c) The names of nationalities and languages:

• Mexican, Swiss, English, Spanish.

 

d) The names of newspapers, magazines and the titles of books and movies:

• The Guardian, Vogue, Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick, Terminator, The Lord of the Rings.

 

Note: When the title has several words, we often write all the important words in capital letters. San Fransisco Three Men in a Boat

 

Take care with:

• I went for a walk in the park.
• I went for a walk in Central Park.

 

• I studied chemistry at university.
• I studied chemistry at London University.