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Topic: Noun

Nouns are a very important word class, and are often (but not always) words for people, places and things. They can be marked as plural or possessive.

Nouning verbs

A quick activity looking at how some words can be both nouns and verbs

This is a simple starter activity that will help your students see how some words can function as both nouns and verbs. The activity is designed to be carried out in pairs around the class. One student be the noun and the other will be the verb. Each will need the same word list (which you can download and print below) or you can just use the word list on the screen.

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01: Nouns

Year 2 Guided Grammar Lessons #1

This is Lesson #1 of a unit of 10.

Go to the Start

Teacher Slide

Objective: grammar

To understand that nouns are words that represent people, places and things, to understand how they are formed, and to understand what some of their grammatical characteristics are.

Please read the lesson plan in the Manual before delivering this lesson.

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Antonymy 1

Plan

Activity 1

Explain to learners that antonyms are pairs of words that mean the opposite of each other. This is very common with adjectives. Show the three examples; then ask learners to come up with three more pairs themselves. Check to make sure they are using adjectives. 

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Antonymy 1

Lesson

Objective

To understand the meaning of antonyms and how they are formed.

Activity 1

In the lesson on synonyms, we saw how words can have similar meanings. They can also be related through opposite meanings. This is very common with adjectives: 

  • long - short
  • old - new 
  • quick - slow 

We call these pairs of words antonyms. Can you think of three other pairs of antonyms? 

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Collective Nouns

Plan

Activity 1

Ask learners to think of some nouns and make them singular and plural. Then, ask if they can think of any nouns which you cannot make plural. Show them the examples in the next slide and see if they can guess the words. 

Activity 2

Ask the learners to look at the table of collective nouns and organise them into two categories. Use the 'hint' button to help if your learners are stuck.

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Collective Nouns

Lesson

Objective

To understand diffferent types of collective nouns.

Usually, nouns can be singular or plural, like book or books.

What other examples can you think of? 

There are some nouns which only appear in the singular. Can you think of any? 

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Derived nouns and composition

In this activity we will look at suffixes that can change adjectives and verbs into nouns.

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Derived nouns and composition: Activity 1

Complete the examples with nouns which are derived from the highlighted adjectives. The first answer is provided for you.

Anna was late. It annoyed me. → Anna's lateness annoyed me.

Jeff is shy. I didn’t notice this until the party. → I didn’t notice Jeff’s ___ until the party. I didn’t notice Jeff’s shyness until the party.

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Derived nouns and composition: Activity 2

Complete the examples with nouns which are derived from the highlighted adjectives. The first answer is provided.

The peacekeeping forces withdrew. It led to civil war. → The withdrawal of the peacekeeping forces led to civil war.

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Gender in Nouns

Plan

Activity 1

Explain to the learners that nouns can refer to male or female people. In language, this difference is called gender. 

Ask learners to copy down the list and add the nouns of the oppsite gender. Show them the solutions and ask them what patterns they notice. Answer: some are completely different words while others use a suffix to change the meaning. 

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Gender in Nouns

Lesson

Objective

To explore the meaning of gender in nouns.

Activity 1

What's the difference between the words mother and father?

Nouns for people can refer to a man or a male such as father or to a woman or female such as mother .

In language, we call this difference gender.

For each noun, write the word that expresses the opposite gender: 

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Genre of Argument and Discussion 2

Lesson Plan

Goals:

  • Identify and analsye how nominalisations are used in essays
  • Identify and analsye how the passiv voice is used in essays
  • Apply these features in a writing task

Lesson Plan

This is Part 2 of the lesson on Argument and Discussion. 

Make sure you have the handout from Part 1. 

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Genre of Argument and Discussion 2

Activities

This is Part 2 of the lesson on Argument and Discussion. 

Make sure you have the handout from Part 1. 

In the first lesson, you looked at how information is organised through discourse structure. In this lesson, you will examine choices of language and register.  

Activity 1

Re-read paragraph 3. Can you find an example of the same word being used in different grammatical roles?

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Genre of Encyclopaedia Entries

Lesson Plan

Goals:

  • Identify the purpose and tone of encyclopaedia entries
  • Analyse the discourse structure and register features
  • Produce an encyclopaedia entry using the same techniques

Lesson Plan

Before this lesson, you may want to complete the lesson An Introduction to Genre, so that learners are familiar with the key terms discourse structure and register

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Genre of Encyclopaedia Entries

Activities

Warm up

What kind of text is an encyclopaedia?

What is its purpose?

What makes it different from other texts?

Activity 1

Read the Tiger encyclopaedia entry.

  1. What are three facts you learn about tigers?
  2. How is this text written? What is the tone? Why is it written in this way?

What three words best describe the tone and style of this text?

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Genre of Recipes

Lesson Plan

Goals: 

  • Compare the discourse structure and register features of two recipes
  • Identify which grammatical features can be omitted for effect 
  • Analyse why recipes follow a predictable structure and set of features

Lesson Plan

Before this lesson, you may want to complete the lesson An Introduction to Genre, so that learners are familiar with the key terms discourse structure and register

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Genre of Recipes

Activities

Warmer 

Discuss with a partner: 

  • What's your favourite meal? 
  • What recipes can you cook? 
  • What kind of information do recipes normally include?

Activity 1 

In pairs or small groups, read recipes A and B. Take turns describing each recipe, and then discuss with your partner: 

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Homonyms

Plan

Please note: there are two pages of activities for this lesson.

Activity 1

Show the learners the two example words. Ask them to discuss with a partner how many different meanings they can think of. In the next two slides, show possible solutions. 

Next, explain that words with multiple unrelated meanings are called homonyms. Ask learners to identify the word class of the two example words.  

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Homonyms 1

Lesson

Objective

To identify the different meanings of homonyms of various word classes. 

Activity 1

Look at these two words. How many meanings can you think of for each? 

  • bank 
  • pupil

  • bank 
    1. an organization or a building that handles money and provides financial services. 
    2. the land on the side of a river or a lake

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    Homonyms 2

    Lesson

    Activity 3

    This lesson continues our look at homonyms. 

    Take for example the word fast

    How many different meanings and word classes can you think of?

    Look at these two sentences: 

    1. Katie works very fast
    2. Katie is a fast worker.

    They have very similar meanings, but in one sentence fast is an adverb and in the other an adjective.

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    Hyponymy

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Show the learners the list of three nouns. Ask them to discuss the questions in pairs or small groups. 

    After a couple of minutes, reveal the focus of the lesson in the next slide: how nouns can relate to each other by being more general or specific. Use the example to demonstrate. Ask learners if they can think of any other examples. Don't worry if they struggle at this point, as they will see more throughout the lesson. 

    Ask learners to make notes on the new terminology, beacuse they will need it for the other activities. 

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    Hyponymy

    Lesson

    Activity 1

    Look at these three nouns.

    What is the relationship between them? Can they be arranged into a logical order? 

    • dog
    • poodle
    • animal

    We can label nouns as general or specific. The specific noun is included in the general noun.

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    Metaphor

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Check your learners' prior knowledge by asking them to discuss the meaning of the term metaphor and to give examples. This can be done individually, and then check in small groups and/or whole class.

    Use the next slide to confirm the learners' answers. Next, ask if the learners can think of any other animal metaphors such as sly fox. Ask learners to share their ideas with each other and the whole class.

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    Metaphor

    Lesson

    Activity 1

    What does the term metaphor mean?

    Can you think of an example? 

    A metaphor is when a word or phrase is used to suggest a resemblance to a another thing or action. 

    A metaphor uses language in a figurative - not literal - sense. 

    When we call someone a sly fox we are implying that their behaviour is similar to a fox i.e. sneaky or crafty. 

    What other animal metaphors can you think of? 

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    Noun endings

    Exploring suffixes and how they affect word class

    In this activity we will look at suffixes which change verbs and adjectives into nouns. This process is a part of derivational morphology. 

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    Noun identification

    In this activity, students work through the criteria for identifying nouns.

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    Noun identification: Activity 1

    Which words do you think are nouns?

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    Noun identification: Activity 2

    I'll see you on Thursday.

    Is Thursday a noun?

    • Does it represent a person, place, thing or idea?
    • Can it be singular or plural? Can you say one ___ and two ___s?
    • Can it be possessive? Can you add 's or ' at the end?
    • Can it follow the or a?
    • Can it be replaced with a pronoun like it, he, she, or they?

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    Noun phrase generator

    Try this noun phrase generator in class. Your students will enjoy creating weird and funny noun phrases using the interactive whiteboard.

    Goals

    • Create some new noun phrases.
    • Examine what can and can't happen in noun phrases.
    • Evaluate example noun phrases, looking at why they do or don't work.

    Lesson Plan

    The teacher explains that today, we will be generating noun phrases. 

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    Noun phrase generator: Activity

    Use the interactive whiteboard to generate weird and wonderful noun phrases. 

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    Nouns and only nouns

    Students are asked to communicate using a bank of nouns - and nothing else.

    Goals

    • Communicate with a partner using only nouns.
    • Discuss what can and can't be easily expressed using only nouns.
    • Determine which other types of words are useful for expressing complex ideas.

    Lesson Plan

    The teacher explains that this activity will involve you trying to express progressively more complicated concepts and actions to a partner using only these words, your own body language and imagination.

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    Nouns and Vocabulary

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Show the leaners the the list of nouns. After hearing their ideas, explain what concrete nouns are, and ask leaners if they can see or find any other examples in the classroom. Explain what abstract nouns are and ask for any other examples. 

    Next, ask the learners to work in pairs and small groups. Copy down the table and decide which nouns are concrete or abstract. Check the answers as a whole class. 

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    Nouns and vocabulary

    Lesson

    Objective

    To explore the meaning of simple, everyday nouns, and how they relate to your experience of the world.

    Activity 1

    Look at this list of nouns: chair, fork, dog, house, person, football player

    What do they all have in common?

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    Part and Whole

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Ask the learners to read the five sentences. In small groups, ask them to discuss what the words in blue have in common. Guide the discussion towards: 

    • They are nouns.
    • They refer to different animals.
    • They describe parts of animals.

    After the discussion, show the learners the solution in the next slide to check their answers. 

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    Part and whole

    Lesson

    Objective

    To explore the way that nouns can point to parts and wholes of things.

    Activity 1

    Read the five sentences below: what do the words in blue have in common?

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    Synonymy

    Plan

    Please note: there are two pages of activities for this lesson.

    Activity 1

    Start by explaining the meaning of the term synonym. For an example, ask learners to think of some synonyms for the word 'argument'. 

    In the next slide, show the two possible examples. Ask learners if these two words have the exact same meaning or if there are any subtle differences. Try asking learners in what situations they would/would not use each word.

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    Synonymy 1

    Lesson

    Activity 1

    A synonym is a words that has the same, or a very similar, meaning to another. 

    Take for example the word argument.

    How many words can you think of that have the same or a very similar meaning? 

    For the word argument, some synonyms are quarrel or row.

    The words quarrel and row have the same general meaning.

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    Synonymy 2

    Lesson

    Activity 5

    Just like with nouns, there are also many synonyms which are adjectives. These have the same, or very similar, meanings to each other, and are used in different contexts.

    What does the term adjective mean? What examples can you think of? Can you think of any synonyms?

    Find the synonymous adjective in these two sentences:

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    Verb endings

    In this activity we will look at suffixes which change adjectives and nouns into verbs. This process is a part of derivational morphology. 

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    Words

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Show learners the image in the first slide. Ask them to work with a partner and write down as many words as they can see. Share back with the whole class and accept any valid answers. 

    Activity 2

    Show learners the list of actions. Ask them to put the letters a-f in the appropriate order. Circulate and accept any reasonable answers. On the next slide, disucss possible solutions as a whole class. 

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    Words

    Lesson

    Objective

    To explore the meaning of simple, everyday words and how they relate to your experience of the world.

    Activity 1

    There are many kinds of words.

    Do you know the words for what you see in the picture? Talk to a partner and write down as many words as you can.

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    Identify the nouns

    Click on the words that you think are nouns. You can deselect them by clicking on them again.

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    Y2 GPaS Test: Identify the noun phrase

    Find the noun phrase in a range of examples

    Identify the noun phrase, consisting of several words, in each of the following clauses.

    Click on the words that comprise the noun phrase to select or deselect them.

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    Y6 GPaS Test: Identify the nouns

    Find the nouns in a range of examples

    Identify the nouns in each of the following examples. Click on the word (or words) to select or deselect them.

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    Y6 GPaS Test: Noun or pronoun?

    Work out whether the highlighted word is a noun or a pronoun

    In each of the following examples, indicate whether the highlighted word is a noun or a pronoun:

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    Y6 GPaS Test: Noun or verb?

    In each of the following examples, indicate whether the highlighted word is a noun or a verb:

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    Nouns

    In terms of meaning, nouns are sometimes described as ‘naming words’ – words for people, animals and things. The noun class does include many words of this kind: brother, baby, rabbit, horse, handbag, chair. These all refer to physical beings or objects – they are concrete nouns. But there are also many abstract nouns – nouns with abstract (non-material) meanings, like pleasure, sight, kindness.

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    Nouns: Concrete and abstract

    Strictly speaking, the distinction between concrete noun and abstract noun is not really a matter of grammar, but of semantics. In other words, the decision to label a noun as concrete or abstract is more to do with the word’s meaning than its grammatical form or function.

    There is very little, if any, grammatical difference between the ways in which abstract and concrete nouns operate.

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    Nouns: Count and non-count

    Common nouns are either count or non-count. Count nouns can be ‘counted’, as follows:

    one pen, two pens, three pens, four pens...

    Non-count nouns, on the other hand, cannot be counted in this way:

    *one software, *two softwares, *three softwares, *four softwares...

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    Nouns, adjectives and determiners

    This short film introduces some basic ideas of grammar that everyone should know.

    In this film Professor Bas Aarts introduces three basic categories: nouns, adjectives and determiners.

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