Nouns (名词)

Nouns

A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, or idea.

名词表示人、地方、事物或概念

• person: teacher, boy
• place: school, park
• thing: book, apple
• idea: love, time

Plural Nouns

A plural noun means more than one.

复数名词表示不止一个。

Regular Plurals

Most nouns add -s to the end of the word to form the plural.

大多数名词加 -s。

• cat → cats
• book → books
• car → cars

If a noun ends in -s, -sh, -ch, -x, -o, we usually add -es to the end of the word.

如果名词以 -s, -sh, -ch, -x, -o 结尾，一般加 -es。

• box → boxes
• bus → buses
• potato → potatoes

Irregular Plurals

Some nouns do not follow the regular rules. These are irregular plurals, and they need to be memorized.

有些名词不按规则变化，需要记住。

例子

Singular	Plural
sky	skies	天空
child	children	儿童
man	men	男子
woman	women	女人
mouse	mice	鼠标
foot	feet	脚
tooth	teeth	牙齿
fish	fish	鱼

Articles

The Definite Article: the

We use the when we talk about one specific thing. We can use the with singular and plural nouns.

the 用来指特定的人或事物。 the 可以用于单数和复数名词。

• the dog (a specific dog)
• the apples (specific apples)

The Indefinite Articles: a and an

We use a and an when we talk about any one thing, not a specific one. Use a when the next word starts with a consonant and an when the following word starts with a vowel.

a / an 用来指任意一个，不是特定的。

• a + consonant sound
  • a cat
  • a book
• an + vowel sound (a, e, i, o, u)
  • an apple
  • an orange

We do not use a or an with plural nouns.

复数名词前不能用 a 或 an。

• cats (not a cats)
• apples (not an apples)