I. PARTS OF SPEECH: NOUN

A few months ago, I attended a workshop at UPM and met two wonderful professors during a workshop on thesis writing. I found their patience and guidance extraordinarily helpful. During the next couple of weeks, I hope to share some of what I learnt with you by using a book by professor Margaret as a guide. Research based on information from the Internet, which I found useful have also been added to lend a more comprehensive helping hand to students like myself who need a quick reference guide or useful tips as and when the need arises.

During the course of this endeavour, I only hope you benefit from the work here, in your own works, and subsequently, whenever you have a thought anout any of the pieces here, please feel free to share your comments.

Ready? Let's get back on topic, then.

So what's a noun?
A noun is a word or word group which:
1. is a unit of meaning which follows an article (a, an or the) e.g. a song;
2. can form a plural e.g. songs;
3. needs a capital whenever it occurs in a sentence e.g. I saw Ryan in the library.

Exceptions
2 other groups also have capitals whenever they occur in a sentence:

a. The pronoun I, and the pronouns He and Him when referring to God e.g. He is my saviour.

b. Adjectives formed using nouns, which take a capital letter e.g. Cantonese from Canton.

If you see these endings (suffixes) on a word, then you know it is a noun:
-dom at the end of a word means state or condition; domain, position or rank; a group with position, office or rank, e.g. wisdom i.e. wise + dom means the state of understanding what is good, right and lasting; kingdom i.e. king + dom means the domain or area belonging to a king.

-ity at the end of a word means condition or quality of ‘X’ (a specific subject) e.g. capability i.e. capable + ity means the condition of being capable; flexibility i.e. flexible + ity means the quality of being flexible.

-ment at the end of a word means act of ‘X’; state of ‘X’; result of ‘X’ e.g. contentment i.e. content + ment means the state of being satisfied or content.

-sion / -tion at the end of a word means act of ‘X’; state of ‘X’ e.g. celebration i.e. celebrate + tion means the act of celebrating.

-ness at the end of a word means state of ‘X’ e.g. kindness i.e. kind + ness means the state of being kind.

-ance / -ence at the end of a word means act of ‘X’; state of ‘X’; quality of ‘X’ e.g. assistance i.e. assist + ance means act of giving help; eminence i.e. eminent + ence means quality of being eminent or distinguished.

-er / -or at the end of a word means one who ‘X’; that which ‘X’ e.g. fighter i.e. fight + er means one who fights; actor i.e. act + or means one who acts.

-ist at the end of a word also means one who ‘X’; that which ‘X’ e.g. pianist i.e. piano + ist means one who plays the piano.

-ism at the end of a word means an ‘X’ approach or style e.g. naturalism i.e. natural + ism means an artistic or literary approach or style, or an exponent of naturalism.