Noun

A. Read the following sentences :

• We live in Bangladesh.
  
• It is a beautiful country.
  
• Our mother language is Bangla.
  
• We love our country and our language.
  

Count the number of words in each of these sentences. Each word in a sentence is a part of speech. There are eight parts of speech in English.

They are :

1. Noun
   
2. Pronoun
   
3. Adjective
   
4. Verb
   
5. Adverb
   
6. Preposition
   
7. Conjunction
   
8. Interjection.
   

B. Read the following passage and look at the underlined words.

Shanta lives in Rajshahi with her parents. She is a student of class six. She goes to school regularly. She loves to read books. She also loves music. All her friends are fond of her.

These are all naming words. They are called nouns. Nouns are a large number of things. Here are some categories.

• Names of people :
• Names of countries :
• Names of cities:
• Names of foods:
• Names of fruits:
• Names of flowers:
• Names of animals:
• Names of qualities
• Names of institutions:
• Names of relations:

In fact, there is no end to this list. You can add many other things like these.

• Supply four nouns for each of the above categories. Also refer to the above passage and
  
• Say which of the underlined words refers to what category of names.
  

C. Look at the underlined words in the following sentences:

I saw the boy sitting in the field. Some girls were also with him. They were discussing their problems of living in the school hostel.

Now say which of these words mean one person/thing and which ones mean more than one person/thing.

When a noun refers to one person or thing, its form is singular. On the other hand, when a noun refers to more than one person or thing, its form is plural. Look at the following examples:

Notice 's', 'es' and 'ies' have been used to form plurals in the above examples.

These are called plural markers. 'The words ending with 's', 'x' and 'ch' have taken 'es' and the words ending with 'y' have taken 'ies' to form plurals.

But some plurals are irregular in their forms. For example:

Notice how the plurals are formed in the above examples.

Note : In English plurals are usually formed by adding s, es or ies to the singular form.

D. Read the following passage and identify the nouns in it:

Mr. Habib is now a happy man for several reasons. Firstly, he has recently made a lot of money from his business. Secondly, he has bought two flats in Dhaka. Thirdly, his wife has recovered from her long illness. Fourthly, he has married of all his daughters. Finally, his son has got a good job. These are the causes of his present happiness.

Now say which of these nouns are singular and which of them are plural? Make sentences of your own with two singular nouns and two plural nouns.

E. Fill in the blanks in the following passage with appropriate singular and plural nouns :

Salam is a ______ of class 6. He has some very good ______. They go to _______ together.
They also sit together in the ______ All ______ love them.

F. Write a sentence with each of the following nouns :

reasons, business, illness, marriage, happiness