Grammar: Articles and Nouns

A: Nouns is a naming word. There are various types of nouns as: Common, Proper, Abstract, Material, Count and Uncount. All but Uncounts are used with articles. Articles are A, AN, THE which generalise or particularise nouns. AN is used before a noun starting a vowel sound and A before a consonant sound. Look at the paragraph below and note that most nouns have been highlighted.

Francis Macomber had, half an hour before, been carried to his tent from the edge of the camp in triumph on the arms and shoulders of the cook, the personal boys, the skinner and the porters. The gun-bearers had taken no part in the demonstration. When the native boys put him down at the door of his tent, he had shaken all their hands, received their congratulations, and then gone into the tent and sat on the bed until his wife came in. She did not speak to him when she came in and he left the tent at once to wash his face and hands in the portable brick wash basin outside and go over to the dining tent to sit in a comfortable canvas chair in the breeze and the shade eating bread.
By Earnest Hemingway

B: Defining nouns.

1. A noun that is the name of a particular person, place or time and starts with a capital letter e.g. John, London, Monday is called a PROPER NOUN.
2. A noun that describes an entity or feeling that cannot be seen or touched such as Beauty, Honesty, Idea is called ABSTRACT NOUN.
3. A noun that describes a thing that can be seen or touched such as Iron, Wood, Steel is called a MATERIAL NOUN.
4. A noun that is not a separate entity e.g. furniture, wealth, rice. It is not used in the plural or with a/an is called an UNCOUNT NOUN.
5. A noun which consists of two or more words used together e.g. a teapot, a boarding school is called a COMPOUND NOUN.
6. A noun formed from a verb by adding ing' to the stem. e.g. 'Typing is fun' is called GERUND NOUN.
7. The majority of nouns. All nouns that are not the name of a particular person, place, day etc. and do not start with a capital letter such as Pen, Town, Chair are called COMMON NOUNS.
8. A separate noun which can be counted, add plural s', and be used with a/an e.g. car is called a COUNT NOUN.

B: THE particularises nouns and A, AN generalise nouns. THE is not used before Proper and Abstract nouns. A, AN are not used before Uncount nouns. Articles are connected to nouns as fingers to the palm. Articles have no part except with nouns. Read the explanation below why the article is/isn’t used.

There was an old man [An Old man = introducing the old man, mentioned first time] who had a small shack [A small shack = introducing the shack, mentioned first time]. One day, the old man [The old man already introduced, mentioned second time] called Tom went to have a walk. He had eaten bread and drunk some juice. But still Tom was hungry. He went to the river [The river = nearest river or the river that he always goes to] and caught a fish [A fish = any fish, not particular] which he ate raw. Tom felt easy.

NeoTip
In the above example, the correct sentence is B because we can say The University but An university is incorrect. 'University' does not start with a vowel sound so the correct expressions is 'A university'.

Exercises