Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

count nouns

non-count nouns

a dog – dogs

butter, oil, advice, furniture, belongings, trousers

church – churches

For some nouns the singular and plural forms are the same (e.g. sheep, series, deer).

Nouns: syntactic characteristics

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Nouns can be recognised by the following syntactic characteristics:

● They may be preceded by determiners:

the young 

boy

my two

cats

● They may be modified by adjectives:

a 

large

pizza

those 

lovely

flowers

● They may be premodified by other nouns:

a 

university

degree

a 

computer

programmer

When a noun is head of a subject noun phrase, it agrees in person and number

with the tensed verb of the clause:

My 

throat

is sore.

(agreement between singular noun and the present tense of be)

Their 

apologies

were accepted.

(agreement between plural noun and the past tense of be)