Nouns are the words we use to name all the things we know about, have, see, hear, taste, smell, or feel. This includes words for people, such as man, teacher, and friend. It includes words for places, such as city, kitchen, and street. It includes words for things, such as ball, tree, and computer. And it includes words for things we know exist but can’t touch, such as idea, air, pollution, and strength.
Many nouns can be counted—one friend, two friends, for example. These nouns have plural forms, which in English usually means they have an -s added to the end, according to certain set spelling and pronunciation patterns. A few nouns have “irregular” plurals—instead of ending in -s, they have forms that have survived from earlier forms of English or were adapted from other languages. Examples of these include women, men, children, media, and phenomena.
Other nouns cannot be counted—air, wind, and pollution, for example. They have no plural forms, are used with singular verbs, and are called “noncount” nouns. But noncount nouns can also be things that we can count! First, there are those that it would take a lifetime to count, so we call them by a more general noncount noun, such as hair, sugar, or flour. And then there are those that we categorize in general groups that are named by noncount nouns, such as furniture, mail, silverware, and china. Of course we can count chairs, tables, or beds, but the general category furniture is never made plural. The noncount noun mail includes the letters and cards that we can count. English has a lot of these words.
One thing that singular, plural, and noncount nouns have in common is that they can all, in certain situations, be preceded by the article the. The before a noun indicates that both the speaker and the hearer know exactly which one of the nouns is being referred to. “The groceries are in the car,” for example, informs the hearer that “the groceries that we just bought” are in “the car that we have.”
When you know the patterns for using nouns, you can add new ones to your vocabulary every day and know you are using them correctly. Have fun with nouns!