A noun is the name of any person, place or thing. Nouns also name an emotion, a quality, an activity or a state.
Kavita went to the market. Put the chair in the balcony.
His bravery won him an honour.
Kinds of nouns:
1. proper nouns
2. common nouns
3. collective nouns
4. concrete nouns
5. abstract nouns
Nouns are also classified into countable and uncountable nouns.
Proper Nouns
A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place or thing. Remember, all proper nouns must be written beginning with a capital letter.
Neha, Lucknow, Ganga
Common Nouns
A common noun is the name given to every person or thing of the same kind. For example, the word man can be used for any man. It is a name common to all men.
Neha is a girl.
Mr Gupta is a painter.
The books are on the table
A Underline the nouns and write whether they are proper nouns or common nouns.
1. Sheela took the dog for a walk.
2. The crowd gathered to watch the match.
3. There are twenty apples in the basket.
4. The Ganga is considered to be a holy river by Hindus.
5. Karan loves to eat cake.
6. These pearls have a beautiful lustre.
7. I met the owner of America’s popular brand Coach.
8. She is planning a big party in December.
9. Riya bought those shoes for me from Paris.
10. We will vote Zoya as the president of our school’s literary club.
Collective Nouns
To speak of a collection or a number of persons or things as a whole or as one group, we use a collective noun.
a bundle of sticks a herd of cows
Our team won the match.
The crew looks after passengers during a flight.The words bundle, herd, team and crew are examples of collective nouns, and refer to a collection of people, animals or things.
Concrete Nouns
A noun referring to things that can be perceived or experienced through any of our five senses – which means that it can be seen, touched or felt, tasted, smelt or heard – is called a concrete noun.
Raman ate an apple.
The dog swam in the water. Put some sugar in the tea. In the sentences above, Raman, apple, dog, water, sugar and tea are all concrete nouns. Thus, concrete nouns can be common, proper or collective nouns.
Abstract Nouns
An abstract noun is usually the name for a state of being, a concept, a quality or an action that has no physical existence. Things named by abstract nouns cannot be seen, touched, tasted or smelt.
In his youth, Sami played cricket for his college. (a state of being)
Funny movies are popular because they have a lot of humour. (a quality)
Mahatma Gandhi preached peace and non-violence. (concepts)
Laughter is the best medicine. (action) Many abstract nouns are formed from
1. adjectives
— youth from young
— strength from strong
2. verbs
— laughter from laugh
— freedom from free
3. common nouns
— friendship from friend
— patriotism from patriot
The names of subjects like art, music, maths, biology, etc. are also abstract nouns because they are also concepts.
Nouns naming things that can be counted are called countable or count nouns. Nouns that name things that cannot be counted are called uncountable or non-count nouns.
Most common and collective nouns have a plural form and can be counted.
Examples of countable nouns are:
river ~ rivers, bunch ~ bunches
author ~ authors class~ classes
manager ~ managers pack ~ packs
Now look at these two sentences:
Get me a glass of water.
This doorknob is made of glass.
In the first sentence, glass is the name of an object. We can count the number of glasses. Therefore, it is a countable noun.
In the second sentence, however, glass refers to a material and it cannot be counted. It is therefore an uncountable noun.
Examples of uncountable nouns are names of materials, like gold, sugar, rice, water, oil, furniture, etc. Uncountable nouns cannot be
COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
Counted, but are measured in units. We cannot say one sugar but we can say one kilo of sugar.
a sheet of glass a jar of jam
five kilos of rice two pieces of furniture
In all these examples, the units of measurement are being counted and not the nouns themselves.
Abstract nouns or words like bravery, kindness, honour, etc. are mostly uncountable nouns. Many abstract nouns, however, have plural forms.
Decisions, vacancies and powers are some such nouns.
The child threw stones into the water. (countable noun) The wall was made of stone. (uncountable noun)
I heard a noise some time ago. (countable)
I can’t study when there is too much noise. (uncountable)
Expressions like a, a few, a lot of, many, one, two, etc. can be used with countable nouns. With uncountable nouns, we use some, a little, much, etc.
with countable nouns with | |
I have a few good books. | Can I have a little rice? |
How many toys did you get? | How much money do you want? |
We have many chairs. | We don’t need much furniture. |
There are two apples. | There is a little fruit. |
Can we buy some markers? | Please have some juice. |
We have lots of plates. | We have lots of paper. |
