Nouns & Pronouns
Every sentence is about someone or something. Learn to name them perfectly with nouns, and to replace them smartly with pronouns — without falling into a single olympiad trap.
1What is a noun? The five kinds
A noun is a naming word. It names a person, a place, an animal, a thing, a group, a material or an idea.
Aaradhya took her kitten to the park in Pune. — every word in italics is a noun.
| Kind | What it names | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Common noun | any person, place or thing of a kind (general name) | The girl lives in a city near a river. |
| Proper noun | one particular person, place or thing — always starts with a capital letter | Meera lives in Kolkata near the Hooghly. |
| Collective noun | a group of people, animals or things taken as one whole | A swarm of bees chased the team. |
| Material noun | a substance or material that things are made of | This ring is made of gold; that chair is made of wood. |
| Abstract noun | a quality, feeling, state or idea — cannot be seen or touched | Her honesty and courage filled us with pride. |
Making abstract nouns
Many abstract nouns are made from adjectives, verbs and common nouns. Spotting the ending (-ness, -hood, -ship, -dom, -ty, -th, -tion, -ment) is a quick clue.
| From an adjective | From a verb | From a common noun |
|---|---|---|
| kind → kindness | laugh → laughter | child → childhood |
| brave → bravery | obey → obedience | friend → friendship |
| honest → honesty | decide → decision | king → kingdom |
| wise → wisdom | move → movement | hero → heroism |
| long → length, strong → strength | know → knowledge | thief → theft |
Words that sound alike can be different kinds. In the options kitten, kindness, kitchen, king, only kindness is abstract — you can see a kitten, a kitchen and a king, but you cannot touch kindness. Ask: “Can I see, touch, hear, smell or taste it?” If not, it is abstract.
A proper noun is a special name. uncle, winter, city, month are common; Agra, January, Diwali, Mount Everest are proper. Days, months, festivals, cities, rivers, mountains and people's names are all proper nouns.
In the sentence “The flock of sheep crossed the Yamuna happily.”, which word is a collective noun?
2Countable and uncountable nouns
Countable nouns can be counted: one apple, two apples. They have a plural and can take a/an.
Uncountable nouns cannot be counted one by one: milk, water, rice, sugar, advice. They have no plural form and do not take a/an.
| Uncountable noun | ✗ Wrong | ✓ Right |
|---|---|---|
| advice | an advice, advices | some advice, a piece of advice |
| information | informations | some information, a piece of information |
| furniture | furnitures | some furniture, a piece of furniture |
| luggage / baggage | luggages | a lot of luggage, two pieces of luggage |
| news | a news, newses | some news, a piece of news |
| homework | homeworks | a lot of homework |
| bread / rice / water | breads, a rice | a loaf of bread, a bowl of rice, a glass of water |
| equipment, scenery, poetry, jewellery | sceneries, poetries | beautiful scenery, a poem, a piece of jewellery |
Use many / few / a number of with countable nouns (many books, few friends) and much / little / an amount of with uncountable nouns (much sugar, little time).
“She gave me some useful advices.” ✗ — advice never takes -s and never takes an. Correct: “She gave me some useful advice.” The same goes for information, furniture, luggage, news. (Note: advise with an s is the verb: “I advise you to rest.”)
Which sentence is correct?
3Gender of nouns
Nouns have four genders:
Masculine
male: boy, king, uncle, lion, nephew
Feminine
female: girl, queen, aunt, lioness, niece
Common
either male or female: child, teacher, doctor, friend, cousin, parent, baby
Neuter
neither — non-living things: table, book, pen, tree, house
Feminine forms are made in three ways: (1) a different word (uncle → aunt), (2) adding -ess / -ine / -ix (lion → lioness, hero → heroine), or (3) changing part of a compound word (grandfather → grandmother, peacock → peahen).
| Masculine | Feminine | Masculine | Feminine |
|---|---|---|---|
| nephew | niece | uncle | aunt |
| son | daughter | husband | wife |
| king | queen | monk | nun |
| gentleman | lady | sir | madam |
| wizard | witch | lad | lass |
| horse | mare | bull / ox | cow |
| cock | hen | drake | duck |
| gander | goose | fox | vixen |
| lion | lioness | tiger | tigress |
| host | hostess | actor | actress |
| prince | princess | emperor | empress |
| hero | heroine | headmaster | headmistress |
| peacock | peahen | landlord | landlady |
| grandfather | grandmother | milkman | milkmaid |
Don't invent words with -ess. There is no “nephewess”, “uncless” or “kingess”. The feminine of nephew is niece; of drake is duck; of gander is goose. And cousin is common gender — it has no separate feminine.
4Number: singular and plural
Singular = one (a book). Plural = more than one (books). Most nouns just add -s, but English has several spelling rules and some famous rule-breakers.
Words ending in -o
| Add -es | Add only -s |
|---|---|
| potato → potatoes | photo → photos |
| tomato → tomatoes | piano → pianos |
| hero → heroes | radio → radios (vowel before -o) |
| echo → echoes | video → videos, zoo → zoos, bamboo → bamboos |
| mosquito → mosquitoes | kilo → kilos, logo → logos, studio → studios |
Irregular plurals (learn by heart)
| Singular | Plural | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| man | men | woman | women |
| child | children | ox | oxen |
| foot | feet | tooth | teeth |
| goose | geese | mouse | mice |
| louse | lice | person | people |
| wife | wives | thief | thieves |
| half | halves | loaf | loaves |
| son-in-law | sons-in-law | passer-by | passers-by |
Same in singular and plural: sheep, deer, fish, aircraft, series, species — one sheep, ten sheep.
Tricky number words
Always plural
Things with two joined parts: scissors, trousers, jeans, shorts, spectacles, pliers, tongs, binoculars, pyjamas. “My scissors are sharp.” — but with a pair of, the verb follows pair: “A pair of scissors is on the table.”
Look plural, are singular
news, mathematics, physics, economics, measles. “Mathematics is my favourite subject.” “The news is good.”
Look singular, are plural
cattle, people, police, poultry take a plural verb: “The cattle are grazing.” “The police have come.”
Child is already irregular: its plural is children. So “childs” and “childrens” are both wrong — you never add another -s to children, men, women or people.
Which plural is spelt correctly?
5Possessive nouns: ’s and s’
A possessive noun shows that something belongs to someone. We show it with an apostrophe (’).
- the boy’s book = the book of one boy. the boys’ books = the books of many boys.
- Names ending in -s: James’s book (also written James’ book) — both are accepted.
- For non-living things, we usually use of: the leg of the table (not “the table’s leg”), the roof of the house. But time words take ’s: today’s newspaper, a week’s holiday.
- Joint ownership: Rohan and Riya’s mother (one mother shared by both).
“All the children of our colony play in the childrens’ park.” ✗ Children is plural but does not end in -s, so we add ’s: the children’s park ✓. Likewise women’s, men’s, people’s. Never write “childrens” in any form.
Fill in the blank: The ______ nests were high up in the banyan tree. (many birds)
6Collective nouns you must know
Collective nouns are an olympiad favourite. Learn them in groups — animals, people and things.
| Animals | People | Things |
|---|---|---|
| a herd of cattle / cows / elephants / deer | a team of players | a fleet of ships / cars |
| a flock of sheep / birds / goats | an army of soldiers | a bunch of grapes / keys / bananas |
| a pride of lions | a crew of sailors | a bouquet of flowers |
| a pack of wolves / dogs | a crowd of people | a pack of cards |
| a swarm of bees / locusts | a class of students | a bundle of sticks |
| a school / shoal of fish | a gang of thieves / robbers | a range / chain of mountains |
| a troop of monkeys | a band of musicians | a galaxy / cluster of stars |
| a litter of puppies / kittens | a choir of singers | a flight of steps / stairs |
| a colony of ants | a bench of judges | a string of pearls |
| a brood of chickens | a panel of experts | a library of books |
| a gaggle of geese | a staff of teachers | a pair of shoes |
Fill in the blank: A ______ of wolves howled in the forest.
7Personal pronouns: I or me? we or us?
A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, so we don't repeat it. “Riya is tall. Riya plays basketball.” → “Riya is tall. She plays basketball.”
Personal pronouns change form depending on their job: the subject form does the action (before the verb); the object form receives the action (after the verb or after a preposition like to, for, with, between).
- “Mother gave Rohan and ___ a sweet each.” Cover up “Rohan and”.
- Read it alone: “Mother gave ___ a sweet.” You would say “gave me”, never “gave I”.
- So the answer is me: “Mother gave Rohan and me a sweet each.”
- Now try: “Meena and I went to the market. ___ bought vegetables.” Meena + I = we (the subject), so “We bought vegetables.”
- Politeness order: put yourself last — “Rohan and I”, not “I and Rohan”.
- After prepositions use object forms: between you and me (not “between you and I”), with him, for us.
- After than, think of the missing verb: “She is taller than I (am).”
Choose the correct sentence.
8Possessive, reflexive, demonstrative, interrogative & relative pronouns
Possessive pronouns (show ownership)
| Possessive adjective (needs a noun after it) | Possessive pronoun (stands alone) | Example |
|---|---|---|
| my | mine | This is my bag. This bag is mine. |
| your | yours | Is this your pen? Is it yours? |
| his | his | That is his cap. The cap is his. |
| her | hers | It is her book. The book is hers. |
| our | ours | This is our house. It is ours. |
| their | theirs | That is their car. The car is theirs. |
| its | — | The dog wagged its tail. |
Possessive pronouns never take an apostrophe: yours, hers, ours, theirs, its — never “your’s”, “her’s” or “their’s”. And it’s means it is: “It’s raining.” vs “The cat licked its paw.”
Reflexive pronouns (-self / -selves)
Used when the doer and the receiver are the same person: “The little boy hurt himself.” They can also add emphasis: “The Principal herself gave the prizes.”
| Singular | Plural |
|---|---|
| myself | ourselves |
| yourself | yourselves |
| himself · herself · itself | themselves |
✗ hisself, theirselves, themself, ourself are all wrong. ✓ himself, themselves, ourselves.
Demonstrative pronouns (point at things)
| Near | Far | |
|---|---|---|
| Singular | this — This is my school. | that — That is a temple. |
| Plural | these — These are mangoes. | those — Those are hills. |
If a noun follows the word, it is working as an adjective instead: “This is sweet” (pronoun) vs “This mango is sweet” (adjective).
Interrogative pronouns (ask questions)
- Who — asks about a person (subject): Who broke the vase?
- Whom — asks about a person (object): Whom did you meet?
- Whose — asks about the owner: Whose umbrella is this?
- Which — asks for a choice from a small, known set: Which of these two pens is yours?
- What — asks about things in general (open choice): What is your name?
Relative pronouns (join and describe)
A relative pronoun joins a describing part to a noun that came just before it.
| Relative pronoun | Used for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| who | people (as subject) | This is the girl who won the quiz. |
| whom | people (as object) | The man whom we met is a pilot. |
| whose | ownership | That is the boy whose kite flew away. |
| which | animals and things | The book which I lost was new. |
| that | people, animals or things | The dog that barks is ours. |
Fill in the blank: We enjoyed ______ at the fair.
Fill in the blank: This is the tiger ______ escaped from the zoo.
9Spot the error: common mistakes
Cover the right-hand column and try to correct each sentence yourself first.
| ✗ Wrong | ✓ Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| I live in delhi. | I live in Delhi. | Proper nouns take a capital letter. |
| He gave me an advice. | He gave me some advice. | Advice is uncountable. |
| The childrens are playing. | The children are playing. | Children is already plural. |
| I saw ten sheeps. | I saw ten sheep. | Sheep is the same in both numbers. |
| The news are good. | The news is good. | News is singular. |
| My trouser is torn. | My trousers are torn. | Trousers is always plural. |
| This is Ravi pencil. | This is Ravi’s pencil. | Ownership needs ’s. |
| Me and my sister sing. | My sister and I sing. | Subject form; put yourself last. |
| This book is your’s. | This book is yours. | No apostrophe in possessive pronouns. |
| He hurt hisself. | He hurt himself. | “Hisself” is not a word. |
| The man which came is my uncle. | The man who came is my uncle. | Who for people. |
Watch and explore
- 📖What is a pronoun?bbc.co.uk/bitesize · short lesson with examples and a quiz
- 🎮Parts of speech: the nounkhanacademy.org · videos and practice on plurals and nouns
- 🎮Parts of speech: the pronounkhanacademy.org · practise personal, possessive and reflexive pronouns
- 📖Collective nounsimple.wikipedia.org · more group words to explore
- 📖Nounsimple.wikipedia.org · an easy-English overview of nouns
10Quick recap
- A noun is a naming word: common, proper (capital letter), collective, material or abstract.
- Abstract nouns name ideas and feelings you cannot touch — kindness, honesty, childhood.
- Uncountable nouns (advice, information, furniture, luggage, news) have no plural and take no a/an.
- Four genders: masculine, feminine, common (child, teacher, cousin) and neuter (table).
- Plurals: +s; +es after s/sh/ch/x/z; consonant+y → ies; f/fe → ves; consonant+o → es (potatoes) but photos, pianos, radios.
- Irregular plurals: children, men, women, feet, teeth, geese, mice, oxen, people; same form: sheep, deer, fish.
- Scissors, trousers, spectacles are always plural — but “a pair of scissors is”. News and mathematics are singular.
- Possessive: singular + ’s (girl’s); plural in -s + ’ (girls’); plural not in -s + ’s (children’s).
- Collective nouns: herd of cattle, flock of sheep, pride of lions, pack of wolves, swarm of bees, fleet of ships.
- Subject pronouns (I, we, he, she, they) before the verb; object pronouns (me, us, him, her, them) after verbs and prepositions.
- Cover-up trick: remove the other person to test “and I” vs “and me”.
- Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, hers, ours, theirs, its) never take an apostrophe.
- Reflexive: myself, himself, themselves — never hisself or theirselves.
- Relative: who (people), which (animals/things), whose (owner), that (any); interrogative which = choice from a known set.