Page 31 - DENG103_English - I

English–I

Notes Since “oxygen” is a non-countable noun, it takes the singular verb “is” rather than the plural
verb “are.”
We decided to sell the furniture rather than take it with us when we moved.
You cannot make the noun “furniture” plural.

The furniture is heaped in the middle of the room.
Since “furniture” is a non-countable noun, it takes a singular verb, “is heaped.”
The crew spread the gravel over the roadbed.
You cannot make the non-countable noun “gravel” plural.

Gravel is more expensive than I thought.
Since “gravel” is a non-countable noun, it takes the singular verb form “is.”

Collective nouns

A collective noun is a noun naming a group of things, animals, or persons. You could count
the individual members of the group, but you usually think of the group as a whole is
generally as one unit. You need to be able to recognise collective nouns in order to maintain
subject-verb agreement. A collective noun is similar to a non-countable noun, and is roughly
the opposite of a countable noun.
In each of the following sentences, the highlighted word is a collective noun:

The flock of geese spends most of its time in the pasture.
The collective noun “flock” takes the singular verb “spends.”
The jury is dining on take-out chicken tonight.
In this example the collective noun “jury” is the subject of the singular compound ”is dining.”

The steering committee meets every Wednesday afternoon.
Here the collective noun “committee” takes a singular verb, “meets.”
The class was startled by the bursting light bulb.
In this sentence the word “class” is a collective noun and takes the singular compound verb
“was startled.”

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. There are ......... types of parts of speech.

2. Engineer and teacher are ......... nouns.
3. The noun of the engine is ......... .
4. Committee is a ......... noun.

3.5 Pronoun

A pronoun can replace a noun or another pronoun. You use pronouns like “he,” “which,”
“none,” and “you” to make your sentences less cumbersome and less repetitive.

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