There are 9 parts of speech or word classes in English language:
– nouns
– pronouns
– determiners
– verbs
– prepositions
– adjectives
– adverbs
– conjunctions
– interjections

Nouns are a group of words that we use to name:
– people: man, woman, teacher, John, Mary
– animals: cat, rabbit, horse, elephant
– plants: palm tree, coconut trees, grass, wheat, corn
– places: home, office, town, village, England
– concrete objects: chair, table, ball, water, money, sugar
– abstract objects: truth, lies, happiness, sorrow, time, friendship

A noun functions as a subject or an object in a sentence.

Subject:
– John likes coffee.
(‘John’ is a noun.)
– Diamonds are expensive.
(‘Diamonds’ is a noun.)
– Cats are cute.
(‘Cats’ is a noun.)

Object:
– John likes coffee.
(‘Coffee’ is a noun.)
– Jane bought a table.
(‘Table’ is a noun.)
– Tom is a teacher.
(‘Teacher’ is a noun.)

There are 2 types of nouns:

1. Countable nouns (you can count the object individually)
– people
– book
– table
– building
– cat

You can count 1 book, 2 books, 10 books, etc.
You can count 1 person, 2 people, 10 people, etc.

2. Uncountable nouns (you cannot count the object individually)
– sugar
– salt
– water
– friendship
– health

You CANNOT count 1 sugar, 2 sugar, 10 sugar, etc.
You CANNOT count 1 water, 2 water, 10 water, etc.

Collective nouns are nouns that represent a group of nouns.

a team
= a group of players or athletes

a band
= a group of musicians

a family
= a group that consists of a father, a mother and a child or children

Examples of Collective Nouns

a board of directors
a choir of singers
a class of students
a crowd of people
a gang of thieves
a pack of thieves
a panel of experts
a committee of experts

Collective nouns can also be used to represent animals:
a herd of cows
a flock of sheep
a pride of lions
a school of fish
a herd of elephants
a pack of dogs

Collective nouns can also be used to represent a group of objects:
a fleet of ships
a convoy of trucks
a galaxy of stars
a pack of cards
a bowl of cereal
a box of chocolate

Singular and Plural Forms of Collective Nouns

Collective nouns can be in singular forms or plural forms.

one family (singular)
two families (plural)

one team (singular)
two teams (plural)

A collective noun can be considered singular or plural depending on the context.

– American English:
1 collective noun = singular
My family is in Los Angeles now.
My family comes from Indonesia originally.

– British English:
1 collective noun = plural
My family are in London now.
My family come from Indonesia originally.

– American English:
1 collective noun = singular
Our team is winning.
Our team plays very well every season

– British English:
1 collective noun = plural
Our team are winning.
Our team play very well every season

– American English:
1 collective noun = singular
The chess club meets on Mondays after school
Manchester United is expected to sign that player

– British English:
1 collective noun = plural
The chess club meet on Mondays after school
Manchester United are expected to sign that player

Police in American English and British English are always in plural form.

The police are investigating the case.
The police is investigating the case. (wrong)

The police have issued their report.
The police has issued their report. (wrong)

For members of police force, we use:
– a police officer
– two police officers
– a policeman
– two policemen
– a policewoman
– two policewomen