Part Of Speech Notes Noun

Definition: A noun is a word that identifies a person, animal, place, thing, or idea. Example: Ram, Book, Kanpur, Dog etc.


Example -: 1.Shakespeare was an influential English philosopher.
2.Monkeys are very jolly in nature.
3..Harvard and Cambridge are famous universities.
4.The lampsits on tablenext to the sofa.

The important functions of Nouns:

  • As direct objects. These nouns receive action from verbs. John swung the baseball bat.
  • As indirect objects. These nouns receive the direct object. Brad threw John the ball.
  • As predicate nominatives. These nouns follow linking verbs and rename the subject. John is a baseball player.
  • As object complements. These nouns complete the direct object. They named their dog Max

Classifications of Nouns

Proper Nouns

Proper nouns are nouns that refer to specific entities. Proper nouns like NebraskaSteveHarvard, or White House are capitalized to show their distinction from common nouns, such as “man” or “building.”

Common Nouns

Common nouns refer to general, unspecific categories of entities. So, while Nebraska is a proper noun because it names a specific state, state is a common noun because it can refer to any state. While Harvard refers to a particular institution of higher learning, the common noun university can refer to any such institution.

Material Nouns

Material nouns refer to materials or substances from which things are made. Let’s take cotton, for example. Cotton is an adjective when used in cotton dress. However, cotton is a material noun when used to describe the crop. For example: We use cotton from a local farm in our t-shirts.

Compound Nouns

A compound noun contains two or more words that join together to make a single noun. Compound nouns can be two words written as one (closed form) such as softball and toothpaste, words that are hyphenated (hyphenated form) such as six-packand son-in-law, or separate words (open form) such as post office and upper class that go together by meaning.

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns can occur in both single and plural forms, can be modified by numerals, and can co-occur with quantifying determiners such as many, most, more, several, etc.

For example, the noun bike is a countable noun.

  • There is a bike in that garage.

In this example, the word bike is singular because it refers to one bike that is sitting in a particular garage.

However, bike can also occur in the plural form.

  • There are six bikes in that garage.

In this example, the plural noun bikes refers to more than one bike because it is being modified by the numeral six.

In addition, countable nouns can co-occur with quantifying determiners like “several,” rather than a numeral.

  • In that garage, several bikes are broken.

Uncountable Nouns

Conversely, some nouns are not countable. They’re called uncountable nouns or mass nouns. For example, the word clutter is an uncountable noun.

  • The garage is full of clutter.

This sentence makes grammatical sense. However, the following example does not.

  • That garage is full of clutters.

Uncountable nouns usually cannot take plural forms. Therefore, clutters isn’t grammatical.

Substances, liquids, and powders are entities that are often signified by mass nouns such as milkricewoodsandwater, and flour. Other more abstract examples that cannot be counted would be airfreedom, or intelligence.

Collective Nouns

Collective nouns are nouns that refer to a group of something in particular. Often, collective nouns are used to refer to groups of animals. Consider the following sentences.

  • Look at that gaggle of geese.
  • There used to be herds of wild buffalo on the prairie.
  • bevy of swans is swimming in the pond.
  • colony of ants live in the anthill.

Concrete Nouns

Concrete nouns are nouns that refer to things that exist physically and can be touched, seen, smelled, felt, or tasted. Here are some examples:

  • Can I pet your dog?
  • Please pass the salt.
  • Your sweater is made of such soft wool.

Concrete nouns can be perceived by at least one of our senses.

Abstract Nouns

More ethereal, theoretical concepts use abstract nouns to refer to them. Ideas, qualities or conditions like love, hate, power, and time are all examples of abstract nouns.

  • All you need is love.
  • hate my new school.
  • We must use this time wisely.

In these sentences, the abstract nouns refer to concept or entities that cannot be perceived concretely or touched physically.

Possessive Nouns

Possessive nouns demonstrate ownership over something else. The best way to spot them is to look for an apostrophe. Here are some examples:

  • Melissa’s imagination ran wild as she daydreamed about her trip to Ireland.
  • Ireland’s landscape is truly breathtaking.
  • The puppy’s favorite toy is the squeaky newspaper.

These nouns are demonstrating ownership, but they’re also still persons, places, or things.

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