Language acquisition – English nouns
Language acquisition – English nouns

Summary/Abstract: In every language, nouns represent the most important grammatical category. In English, nouns form the biggest category of words from the English vocabulary. In fact, English nouns represent the most frequent lexical word class. This means that in English, every fourth word that is being used is a noun. The acquisition of as many English nouns as possible is essential for those who desire to learn English. English nouns are as important as English verbs. Nouns are used in the construction of sentences and phrases; nouns offer us a clear view of the performer of a certain action. The performer – the noun stands for: a person, an animal, a place, an object, an idea or an event. In fact, according to many linguists, identifying and retaining English nouns does not create problems to English learners. Nevertheless, “… learning how to use nouns with other words (especially determiners) in noun phrases is an important source of difficulty. Learners of English need to recognize nouns and to know what other words they go with, e.g. they need to know they can say this pen and not this write. “(Kennedy, Graeme, 2003:142) English nouns can be analyzed from a semantic, grammatical and phonological point of view. In English we can distinguish the following categories: common, proper, collective and abstract nouns. Moreover, English nouns are also divided in countable and uncountable nouns. This article will offer a detailed description of the English nouns.

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