Definition
10 Apr 2022

The definition of Noun could be seen as:

• Noun is the name of a person, Place or a thing (emotions/feelings)
• Noun is a naming word
• Whatever we can observe by our 5 senses that is known as noun

 Thus, noun is basically the name of anything around us.

The different kinds of noun could be seen as:

Noun
Kinds	Number	Gender	Case	Noun in Apposition
Proper Common Collective Material Abstract	Singular Plural   Countable Uncountable	Masculine Feminine Common Neutral	Position: Subjective Objective Possessive	Reference

 

Proper Noun

It denotes the name of a person, place or thing.

Examples:

Name of a person: Ramesh. Suresh, Narendra Modi, Bala, and others.

Name of a place: Delhi, India, Haryana, United States, Badlapur, London and others.

Name of a thing: Pen, Paper, Scissors, Rock, Car, Television and others.

 

Common Noun

It denotes the name of the people, places, animals or things. It is not the actual name of the people, place or thing.

Thus common noun is used to identify the things whereas proper noun is the actual name of the people, place or thing.

Examples:

People:  Child, Boy, Altruist, Philanthropist, Chauffer, etc.

Animals: Dog, Cat, Mouse, alligator, wolf etc.

Things: Table, Book, Pencil, Books etc.

Places: City, State, Park, etc

 

Collective Noun

Collective noun denotes the collection of person, animal or things.

Class --- Students

Army --- Ants

Trail --- Ants (moving)

Quiver --- Arrows

Volley ---Arrows, Stone, Bullets, Abuse, Questions, etc

Flock --- Animal (milk); Birds

Herd --- Wild animals

Flight --- Birds (Flying)

Boquete --- Group of flowers

Garland --- Group of flowers on a string

Flotilla --- Boats

Armada --- Ships (War)

Fleet --- Ships (War + Traveller)

Galaxy --- Stars + Planets

Constellation --- Group of stars

Congress --- Delegates

Syndicate --- Merchants

Swarm --- Insects/Fish/Bees

Shoal --- Fish

Mob --- Angry people

Crowd --- People

Note

• In case of division in the group – plural verb and plural possessive pronoun is used.

Example: Jury has given its verdict

• In case there is no division (group as a whole) – singular verb and singular possessive pronoun is used.

Jury have given their verdicts.

Material Noun

The basic features of Material Noun are:

• It denotes the base quality of a metal
• We never use ‘a/an’ before it.
• We never make plural of material noun.

Note: If we make plural of material noun it changes its meaning. For example:

          Fruit – Eatables; Fruits – Result

          Water --- Waters: River/Fountain

          Sand --- Sands: Desert

          Air --- Airs: Bad behaviour

          Powder --- Powders: Medicine

          Physic --- Physics: Subject

          Wood --- Woods: Forest

           Iron --- Irons: Fetters

           Silver --- Silvers (Jewellery)

           Gold --- Golds (Jewellery)

           Tin à Tins: Boxes

           Ash --- Ashes: Remains of mortal

           Alphabet – collection of all English letters;

           Alphabets – Language.

Material Noun used in some sentences as example:

          I work in a rubber factory.

          My boyfriend gifted me a fake diamond ring.

          Rita's hair are sleak and shiny.

Thus, material noun are usually found in nature and then used by humans to make various things of necessity.

They are uncountable and usually in concrete form.

Abstract Noun

The word abstract means something existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence.

Abstract Noun denotes the feeling and emotions (mental state) i.e. something that our five senses cannot feel.

Ideas, Theories, Experiences, feelings and qualities are expressed by abstract nouns.

Trick to find Abstract Nouns: Word ends in: -ness, -ment, -hood, -ity, -tion, -ship

 

Some examples of the Abstract Nouns are:

 

Misery, Reality, Energy, intelligence, truth, happiness, curiosity, bravery, loyalty, amity, enmity, satisfaction, foolishness, adulthood, parenthood, relation and many others.

 

Use of Abstract Noun in a sentence:

Failure usually leads to success.

Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder.

One cannot doubt the loyalty of dogs towards their owners.

Patience is key to crack government exams.

Honesty is the best policy.

 

Abstract Nouns are opposite of Material Noun as they are not in concrete form.

Abstract Noun

The word abstract means something existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical or concrete existence.

Abstract Noun denotes the feeling and emotions (mental state) i.e. something that our five senses cannot feel.

Ideas, Theories, Experiences, feelings and qualities are expressed by abstract nouns.

Trick to find Abstract Nouns: Word ends in: -ness, -ment, -hood, -ity, -tion, -ship

 

Some examples of the Abstract Nouns are:

 

Misery, Reality, Energy, intelligence, truth, happiness, curiosity, bravery, loyalty, amity, enmity, satisfaction, foolishness, adulthood, parenthood, relation and many others.

 

Use of Abstract Noun in a sentence:

Failure usually leads to success.

Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder.

One cannot doubt the loyalty of dogs towards their owners.

Patience is key to crack government exams.

Honesty is the best policy.

 

Abstract Nouns are opposite of Material Noun as they are not in concrete form.

Uncountable Nouns

---

The basic features of basic nouns are:

• We never use ‘a/an’ before it.
• The nouns referring to the things that we cannot count are called Uncountable Nouns.
• We never make plural of it by adding ‘s/es’. Thus, only singular verbs are used with uncountable nouns.

Examples of uncountable nouns:

Advice, Abuse, Abundance, Baggage, Luggage, Bread, Butter, Chalk, Crockery, Drainage, Evidence, Equipment, Electricity, Health, Food, Fuel, Nature, Knowledge, Science, Justice, Furniture, Hair, Traffic, Scenery, Prose, Poetry, Information, Machinery, Work, Cost, etc.

Uncountable nouns have more general meaning (rather than countable nouns that have more particular meaning)

Determiners – Some, less, lesser, much, etc – are used for uncountable nouns.

For example:

            Please give me some rice.

            How much money does this dress cost?

            There was less traffic on road today.

            I don’t want any chocolate.

 

Note:

A number of/the number of – requires a plural noun after it, therefore uncountable noun is never placed after it.

A number of – take Plural verb

The number of - take Singular verb

Plural or Singular Nouns

List of nouns that look plural but they have singular verbs:

Phonetics, Measles, Humanities, Politics, Mathematics, Statistics, etc.

Note: if we use article ‘the’ before mathematics, politics and statistics we always use plural verbs.

Example:

Teacher said that the mathematics of your son were not excellent.

List of few nouns that look plural and they have plural verbs:

Jeans, Trousers, Pants, Leggings, Capris, Boxers, Spectacles, Goggles, Sun Glasses, Shoes, Socks, Compasses, Forceps, Tongs, Pluckers, Divides, Pilers, Pincers, Tweezers, Binoculars, Scissors, Annals, Archives, Assets, ruins, repairs, works, eatables, orders, contents, dues, etc.

Example:

Scissors are lying on the table.

List of Nouns that always have plural verbs:

Police, People, Poultry, Cattle, Peasantry, Gentry, Vermin, Excreta, Folk, Majority, Clergy, etc.

• No ‘a/an’ before them
• No ‘s/es’ after them

Example:

Police are running after gambler.

List of nouns that have either singular or plural verb without changing their forms:

Sheep, Swine, Series, Species, Fish, Offspring, Mischief, Innings, etc.

Example:

Sheep are used for wool (right) (note: not sheeps)

Sheep is used for wool (right)

Compound Noun

The nouns that consists of two words is called compound noun. These two words are used to denote single meaning.

Generally, there are, Common Word + Root Word.  Here, we make plural of Root Word.

For example:

 

Singular	Plural
Mother-in-law	Mothers in law
Brother-in-law	Brothers in law
Step son	Step sons
Step father	Step Fathers
Commander-in-chief	Commanders in chief
Pick Pocket	Pick pockets
Pick Purse	Pick purses
Major General	Major Generals
Passer by	Passers by
Shop Lifter	Shop lifters
Looker on	Lookers on
Hanger on	Hangers on
Woman eater	Woman eaters
Man hater	Man haters
Woman lover	Woman lovers
Touch-me-not (plant)	Touch-me-nots
Forget-me-not	Forget-me-nots
Have not	Have nots

 

Plural form of Some Nouns

Plural of nouns ending in ‘Rium’

• It changes into ‘Ria’

Singular	Plural
Aquarium	Aquaria
Herbarium	Herbaria
Vivarium	Vivaria
Honorarium	Honoraria
Dolphinarium	Dolphinaria
Bacterium	Bacteria

 

Plural of nouns ending in ‘Um’

• It changes into ‘a’

Singular	Plural
Stadium	Stadia
Erratum	Errata
Stratum	Strata
Dictum	Dicta
Datum	Data

 

Plural of some special nouns

 

Singular	Plural
Phenomenon	Phenomena
Criterion	Criteria

 

Plural of nouns ending in – ‘sis/xis’

• It changes into ‘ses/xes’

Singular	Plural
Axis	Axes
Thesis	Theses
Synopsis	Synopses
Analysis	Analyses
Metamorphosis	Metamorphoses