NOUNS AND TYPES OF NOUN
A: WHAT IS A NOUN?
In order to understand what a noun
is, the most simple explanation is that a noun is a word which is used to refer
to a person, item, thing or place. In every sentence in English, there must be
a subject and that subject will always be a noun. However, the noun can also
play other parts within a sentence such as the indirect or direct object,
object or subject complement, adjective or appositive. This means that every
sentence you create will feature a noun, making this one of the most important
aspects within English grammar.
Noun is described as words that refer
to a person, place, thing, event,
substance, quality, quantity.
Noun is a part of speech typically
denoting a person, place, thing, animal or idea.
There are many different types of
nouns in English, each designed to serve a different purpose in an English
sentence.
NOUNS CAN NAME ALL SORTS!
As we mentioned earlier, the noun can
be used to name a variety of different things. Let’s take a look a this.
1: NOUNS TO NAME A PERSON
The prime minister
My sister
A boy
Barack Obama
2: NOUNS TO NAME A PLACE
The beach
Mount Everest
My kitchen
Australia
3: NOUNS TO NAME A THING
An idea
The dog
My plate
The movie
TYPES OF NOUNS IN ENGLISH
Learn how to identify English nouns
and different types of nouns in English with examples to improve your English.
Nouns
are described as words that refer to a person, place, thing,
event, substance, quality, quantity.
1: CONCRETE
NOUNS
Concrete nouns are people, places, or things that we can experience with
our five senses (taste, touch, sight, hearing, or smell).
Concrete nouns can be divided into common nouns and proper
nouns.
2: COMMON NOUNS
A common noun is a noun that’s not the name of any particular
person, place, or thing (for instance, singer, river, and tablet).
3: PROPER NOUNS
A proper noun is a
noun that refers to a specific person, place, or thing (Lady Gaga, Monongahela
River, and iPad).
A proper noun or proper
name is a noun representing unique entities, as distinguished from common
nouns which describe a class of entities.
4: ABSTRACT
NOUNS
Abstract nouns, on the other hand, refer to
abstract objects; that is, ideas or concepts. While this distinction is
sometimes exclusive, some nouns have multiple senses, including both concrete
and abstract ones; consider, for example, the noun “art”, which
usually refers to a concept but which can refer to a specific artwork in
certain contexts.
Some abstract nouns developed
etymologically by figurative extension from literal roots. These include drawback,
fraction, holdout, and uptake. Similarly, some nouns have
both abstract and concrete senses, with the latter having developed by
figurative extension from the former. These include view, filter,
structure, and key.
In English, many abstract nouns are
formed by adding noun-forming suffixes to adjectives or verbs. Examples are happiness,
circulation and serenity.
5: COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
Countable and Uncountable nouns vary from language to language. In
some languages, there are no countable nouns. In addition, some nouns that are
uncountable in English may be countable in other languages.
Countable nouns are
common nouns that can take a plural, can combine with numerals or counting
quantifiers, and can take an indefinite article such as a or an. Examples of
count nouns are book, orange, cat, animal, man…
Uncountable nouns differ from count
nouns in precisely that respect: they cannot take plurals or combine with
number words or the above type of quantifiers.
For example, it is not possible to refer
to a furniture or three furnitures. This is true even though the
pieces of furniture comprising furniture could be counted. Thus the
distinction between count and non-count nouns should not be made in terms of
what sorts of things the nouns refer to, but rather in terms of how the nouns
present these entities.
Many nouns have both countable and
uncountable uses; for example, beer is countable in “He ordered a coffee.“,
but uncountable in “Would you like some coffee?”
6:
COLLECTIVE NOUNS
Collective nouns are nouns that refer to groups
consisting of more than one individual or entity, even when they are inflected
for the singular. Examples include flock, crowd, committee, choir, group,
team. These nouns have slightly different grammatical properties than other
nouns. For example, the noun phrases that they head can serve as the subject of
a collective predicate, even when they are inflected for.
7: COMPOUND
NOUNS
Most English compound nouns are noun
phrases that include a noun modified by adjectives or noun
adjuncts.
Most English compound nouns that
consist of more than two words can be constructed recursively by
combining two words at a time. Combining science and fiction,
and then combining the resulting compound with writer, for example, can
construct the compound science fiction writer. Some compounds, such
as salt and pepper or mother-of-pearl, cannot be constructed in
this way.
8:
POSSESSIVE NOUNS
A possessive noun is a noun that names who or what
owns or has possession of something.
In most cases, for singular nouns to
show that possession, we add an apostrophe + s. For plural nouns we simply an
apostrophe except for those few plural nouns that do not end in s.
9:
REGULAR PLURAL NOUNS
Learn how to form regular plural nouns in English with
examples.
Most singular nouns are made plural by adding -s to the end
of the singular form.
When a noun ends in a sibilant sound
– /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /Ê’/, /tʃ/ or /dÊ’/ – the plural is formed by adding -es, or -s
if the singular already ends in -e.
The plural form of some nouns that
end in ‘f’ or ‘fe’ is made by changing the ending to -V(es).
When a noun ends in “o” preceded by a
consonant, the plural in many cases is spelled by adding -es.
Nouns that end in ‘o’ preceded by a
vowel are made plural by adding -s.
When the ‘y’ follows a consonant,
changing ‘y’ to ‘i’ and adding -es.
When the ‘y’ follows a vowel, the
plural is formed by retaining the ‘y’ and adding -s.
10:
IRREGULAR PLURAL NOUNS
Learn the difference between plural and singular nouns; and
different ways to form Irregular Plural Nouns in English.
Hello, my name is Saren Chem. I'm a 40 years. I have been a teacher of English for nearly twenty years. Through my teaching, I discover that most of my students do not understand well about my English lesson because the time for them to study is very short. That is why I create this website for them to study more by themselves when they are free from school.
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