THE NOUN
A Noun is the name of person, place or a thing.
For eg : – Ashok went to the market.
Reena is a clever girl.
Note: – It should be noted that when we say noun is a name of a thing, it means any object or an abstract idea we can think of for eg: –
Honesty or childhood
KINDS OF NOUNS
There are five different kinds of nouns.
- Proper Nouns
- Common Nouns
- Collective Nouns
- Material Nouns
- Abstract Nouns
PROPER NOUNS
A proper noun is the name of some particular person or place.
Proper nouns are always written in capital letters.
For eg:- 1. Shobha lives in Mumbai.
2. Rama was the son of Dasharatha.
COMMON NOUNS
A common noun is a noun who is common to any and every person or thing of the same kind for eg:-
The boy lives in a village.
The girl went to meet her friend.
COLLECTIVE NOUNS
A collective noun is the name of a collection of persons or things spoken as a whole for eg: – crowd, army, class etc.
- The jury found the prisoner guilty.
- The committee had a meeting on Monday.
- The herd of elephants become wild.
Note : – A distinction is generally made between a Collective Noun and a Noun of Multitude.
For eg :- When we say ‘ the Committee consists of twelve members’ here the collective noun ‘committee’ denotes one ‘ individual’ whole and hence the verb is singular but if we say ; “The Committee are quarrelling among themselves” here the Noun of Multitude denotes the individuals of the group and hence the verb is plural, although the noun is singular.
MATERIAL NOUN
A noun of material denotes to matter or substance of which things are made of : as gold, silver, iron, glass, stone, cotton.
For eg:- 1. Ornaments are made of gold and silver.
2. Clothes are made of cotton.
ABSTRACT NOUN
An Abstract noun is usually the name of a quality, action or state considered apart from the things to which it belongs.
Quality – kindness, wisdom, honesty, cleverness
State – childhood, youth, death, sickness, poverty.
Action – laughter, theft, flight etc.
Note: – The names of Arts and Sciences (eg: – grammar, music, biology etc) are also abstract noun.
Abstract noun is the noun of something that we can only think of as- hope doubt, greed, misery etc.
- Elephant has great strength.
- Â Never tell a lie.
- Health is wealth.
- Wisdom is a great virtue.
Here the words strength, lie, health, wisdom, virtue are abstract nouns.
Another classification of Nouns is
- Countable nouns
- Uncountable nouns
Countable Nouns are the names of objects, people etc. that we can count.
For eg:- books, pens, cars, horse etc.
Uncountable Nouns are the names of things which we cannot count.
For eg:- milk, water, ink, honesty, gold etc.
Note: – Countable Nouns have plural forms like
Book – Books
Leaf – Leaves
While Uncountable Nouns do not have plural form like
Milk cannot be said as milks.