Nouns are used to name people, places, things or concepts, for example Cicero, Italy, tree, happiness. Most nouns can be singular or plural, for example tree, trees. They each belong to a certain gender, masculine, feminine or neuter (from Latin neuter, neither). In English, nouns have natural gender; for example, boatsman is masculine, woman is feminine, student is of common gender (either masculine or feminine), and university and building are neuter. Latin, like English, Greek and German, also has three genders, but while nouns denoting people have natural gender, most nouns are of grammatical gender, as is the case in other European languages (for example ignis, fire, is masculine and corona, a garland, is feminine, while periculum, danger, is neuter). However, neuter nouns in Latin are almost always naturally neuter.
In Latin, nouns are usually subject to inflexions: their endings change. This is sometimes so in English too, as we saw above with woman, women, woman's, and women's.
Identify the nouns in this passage from The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were – Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter. They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big fir-tree.
‘Now, my dears,’ said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, ‘you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.’
(Beatrix Potter, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, pp. 7–11)
Nouns:
time, Rabbits, names, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, Peter, Mother, sand-bank, root, fir-tree, dears, Rabbit, morning, fields, lane, McGregor's, garden, Father, accident, pie, McGregor.
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