THE WORK IS PROVIDED "AS IS." McGRAW-HILL AND ITS LICENSORS MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR WARRANTIES AS TO THE ACCURACY ADEQUACY OR COMPLETENESS OF OR RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED FROM USING THE WORK. INCLUDING ANY INFORMATION THAT CAN BE ACCESSED THROUGH THE WORK VIA HYPERLINK OR OTHERWISE. | Nouns 13 cheese noncount I love cheese. food cheese count The store sells a variety of cheeses. different kinds of cheese Some words can serve as either a noncount noun or a count noun with a slightly different meaning. For example the noncount noun chicken refers to chicken as a food. As such we cannot use it with number words or in the plural. However if we use the word chicken to refer to the living animal then it is a count noun. For example chicken noncount Chicken is a heart-healthy meat. food chicken count There were a dozen chickens in the yard. living animals Exercise All of the underlined nouns in the following sentences are in the plural. Some plurals are correctly used with count nouns. However many plurals are incorrectly used with noncount nouns. Draw a line through each incorrectly used noncount noun and write the corrected form above it. If the plural is used correctly with a count noun write OK above the noun. wood OK Please be careful of the woods on the desks. 1. The roads were closed because of the dense fogs. 2. We had to go shopping because we were out of milks again. 3. The team s disappointments at their losses was obvious. 4. During the operation the patient needed six pints of bloods. 5. The recent storms have caused us to lose powers for days on end. 6. Many household products are recycled especially papers and glasses. 7. You need to allow a lot of time so that the paints will dry between coats. 8. Most Americans eat pancakes and waffles with syrups. 9. Most people seem to have an inborn fears of snakes. 10. Many breads in the Middle East are made without yeasts. Possessive nouns Virtually all languages have some way of indicating that a noun is the owner or possessor of another noun. For example in the phrase John s book John is said to own or possess the book. 14 Noun Phrases Of course the possessive forms of nouns can signal many things besides ownership. Often we use the possessive form with inanimate nouns to indicate that .
