Noun is one of the basic part of speech and it refers to a person, animal, place, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea.
Nouns answer the questions "What is it?" and "Who is it?"
Proper nouns, which name specific people, places, or things (Mary, Queen Elizabeth, Asia, Moscow, China, God, German, Christianity, the Labour Party), are almost always capitalized.
Common nouns name everything else, things that usually are not capitalized.
Compound nouns are nouns that are made with two or more words.
There are three forms for compound nouns:
open or spaced - space between words (bus stop, full moon, swimming pool)
hyphenated - hyphen between words (daughter-in-law, half-moon, check-out)
closed or solid - no space or hyphen between words (haircut, blackboard, football)

Singular and Plural Nouns

Nouns can be singular and plural.
Most singular nouns form the plural by adding -s. They are Regular Nouns.
Dog – dogs. Town – towns. Plane – planes. Winter – winters.


Singular nouns ending in s, x, z, ch, sh make the plural by adding-es.
Bush – bushes. Box – boxes. Dress – dresses. Bench – benches. Peach – peaches.


Singular nouns ending in a consonant and then “y” make the plural by dropping the “y” and adding-ies.
Baby – babies. Story – stories. Lady – ladies. Cherry – cherries.


Irregular nouns

Singular Plural
analysis analyses
cactus cacti
child children
crisis crises
criterion criteria
datum data
diagnosis diagnoses
elf elves
focus  foci
foot feet
fungus fungi
goose geese
half halves
knife knives
leaf leaves
life  lives
loaf  loaves
man men
mouse mice
nucleus nuclei
oasis oases
phenomenon phenomena
person people
potato potatoes
syllabus syllabi/syllabuses
thesis theses
tomato tomatoes
tooth teeth
wife wives
woman women





Some nouns have the same form in the singular and the plural

Singular Plural
aircraft aircraft
deer deer
fish fish
means means
salmon salmon
series series
sheep sheep
species species
spacecraft  spacecraft 
squid squid



Some nouns have a plural form but take a singular verb
Athletics
Billiards
Cards
Darts
Dominoes
Economics Eg. Economics is the study of the production and consumption of goods and the transfer of wealth to produce and obtain those goods
Ethics
Gymnastics
Linguistics
Measles
News   Eg.The news is at six
Physics
Politics
Rabies


Some nouns have a fixed plural form and take a plural verb. They are not used in the singular, or they have a different meaning in the singular.
Congratulations
Customs  Eg. The customs officers at the airport insisted on knowing what was in my bag. compare  He left the house at nine exactly, as is his custom.
Glasses
Goods
Jeans
Nail clippers
Outskirts
Pants
Savings
Scissors
Shorts  Eg. I like shorts, they are comfortable and easy to wear!
Spectacles
Stairs
Steps
Thanks
Tropics
Trousers
Wages
Wits


Some nouns have an identical form for singular and plural that both end with "s".
Barracks
Crossroads Eg. She's at a crossroads in her career.
Headquarters
Means  Eg. What means of transport is she using?

 

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

Some nouns (countable) refer to things which are treated as separate items which can be counted.
Countable nouns can be singular or plural. They can be used with a/an and with numbers and many other determiners (the, my, some, this, these, a few).

Some things are seen as a whole or mass. These are called uncountable nouns, because they cannot be separated or counted.


Accommodation 
Advice   Eg. Let me give you some advice.
Cement
Equipment
Fun
Furniture
Gold
Homework
Information
Knowledge
Lightning
Luck
Luggage/Baggage
Milk
Money
News
Permission
Progress
Rain
Research
Rice
Rubbish
Snow
Thunder
Traffic
Travel
Water
Weather     Eg. He walked for five miles in bad weather.
Work


Uncountable nouns cannot be used with a/an or numbers and are not used in the plural.
They are used with quantity expressions - a bit/a litre/piece/ a lot of, (a) little and with certain determiners - my, her, some, any, no, the, this, that.
Eg. He bought a very expensive piece of furniture for his new apartment.
There’s a glass of milk and a bar of chocolate in the fridge for you.
I found out an interesting piece of information.


Some nouns can be used either countably or uncountably, but with different meanings.
Eg. I bought a new iron and an ironing board. compare:  Iron rusts easily.
She poured some milk into a glass.   compare:  The table was made of hardened glass.
Would you like a chocolate?   compare:   Would you like some chocolate?


Sometimes uncountable nouns are used countably, to mean "a measure of something" or "a type or example of something":
Eg. Can I have two teas and one coffee, please? (two cups of tea and one cup of coffee …?)