Nouns: Common English Grammatical Errors

Incorrect English: Is Ram still in the hospital?

Correct English: Is Ram still in hospital?

Incorrect English: We visit Ram in hospital.

Correct English: We visit Ram in the hospital.

Some nouns such as school, hospital, prison can refer to a particular place or a type of place. When they refer to a type of place, they are considered to be uncountable and do not need a determiner.

But when they refer to a particular place, they are countable and need a determiner if in the singular form.

In the first example mentioned above, the noun hospital is denoting a type of place; whereas in the second example, the noun hospital is denoting a particular place.

Some of these nouns are university, college, class, church, home, bed, hospital, jail, prison, sea, work.

Note: However, in American English, such type of nouns referring to a type of place use ‘the’ as a determiner.

E.g. Is Ram still in the hospital?

Nouns: Common grammatical errors

GRAMMAR INCORRECT TO CORRECT:

Incorrect: There are sheeps grazing peacefully in the field.

Correct: There are sheep grazing peacefully in the field.

GRAMMAR:

• The plural form of most nouns is made by adding -s, -es or -ies but some nouns have irregular plural forms.
• Some of these plural forms are oxen, children, brethren.The -en ending for plurals is based on Old English form spoken between the mid-5th and mid-12th centuries.
• Some other plural forms are feet, geese, lice.
• There is one more type of plural noun. These nouns have same singular and plural forms, for example, sheep, deer, fish, moose and swine.

III. Countable and Uncountable Nouns: Common grammatical errors

GRAMMAR INCORRECT TO CORRECT:

Incorrect: I want plate to serve her food.

Correct: I want a/the plate to serve her food.

GRAMMAR:

• Countable singular nouns must have a determiner like definite/indefinte articles (the,a/an).
• Countable singular nouns can also stand with other determiners like this, that, my, your, one, two, etc.
• With Countable singular noun, use "the", if you are speaking about a definite thing different from other things.
• With Countable singular noun, use "a", if it is used in general sense or when it is not distinguished from other things.

II. Countable and Uncountable Nouns: Common grammatical errors

GRAMMAR INCORRECT TO CORRECT:

Incorrect: My furnitures are too old.

Correct: My furniture is too old.

GRAMMAR:

• Furniture is an uncountable noun and uncountable noun is always singular.
• Furniture is itself a plural form.

I. Countable and Uncountable Nouns: Common grammatical errors

GRAMMAR INCORRECT TO CORRECT:

Incorrect: There is always a heavy traffic during office hours.

Correct: There is always heavy traffic during office hours.

GRAMMAR:

Traffic is an uncountable noun and cannot be used with a/an. It will always take a singular verb.


-The meaning of a noun generally indicates whether it belongs to countable noun or uncountable noun.

Meanings which are normally uncountable are:
• Anything perceived as a mass: traffic, hair, equipment, grass.
• Materials: wood, cotton, plastic, rubber, cardboard.
• Liquids and gases: water, milk, oil, air, oxygen.
• Food: bread, cheese, rice, meat.
• Concepts: knowledge, health, time, energy, noise, travel.
• Activities: reading, swimming, dancing, shopping.
• Sports and games: chess, tennis.
• Languages: English, Chinese, Hindi, French.

The name of anything which we can count is likely to be a countable noun.
E.g. a toothbrush, two tables, a plate.