What is noun?
Noun is one of the important concept of grammar. Noun is a naming word. It is a name of the person, place or thing. A thing includes any quality i.e. fear, it may be a material eg, gold.
Similarly a thing may refer to a collection, for example herd, army, a state i.e. adherence and last but not least it is an action i.e. cheat, mock, movement etc.
Noun in English language can be categorized into different types:
Types of Noun
Singular Vs. Plural
One Vs Many (eg. a
star/ single star / A single star)
Group of objects
We may refer to objects as belonging to a group or set, as
follows:
1. Group Nouns
A group of start a
small group of star a large group of
stars
— Noun
are like group, set and class which refer to a set of objects, are called group
nouns
One group
of stars three groups
of starts
a set
of tools two
sets of tools
a class
of insects several
classes of insects
Note: Special group nouns go with special terminologies.
For example.
An army of soldiers
A crowd of people
A herd of cattle
A flock of sheep
— Group
nouns share the common features and characteristic with each other.
For example.
Committee, club, audience, tribe, family, government,
administration, team etc.
— Group
nouns can be used as singular and plural.
For example
The newly appointed committee has lost sight of its stated
aims.
The newly appointed committee have lost sight of their stated aims.
Nouns can be categorized in terms of its part and whole.
For example
Part Nouns: half, a quarter, two thirds of cake etc.
Whole Nouns: the whole of cake (the entire thing, entity)
— Mass
nouns are also called non-count or uncountable nouns. They typically refer to
substances
For example
Solid: butter, wood, rock, iron, glass
Liquid: water, milk, oil, blood
Gas: oxygen, smoke, air
Part Nouns are also associated with unit nouns also.
Some more examples of part nouns are as follows:
- Part
of the butter has melted.
- Piece
of bread
- Bit of
air
- Bit of
food
- Piece
of land
Note: Some unit nouns which typically go with particular
mass nouns. For example
a block of ice, a sheet of paper, a pile of rubbish
— Mass
nouns are uncountable but in some context they are countable.
For example
There is no milk in the refrigerator.
We had two cartons of oil to cook with.
But Not:
*There are some milks in the refrigerator.
*We had two milks to cook with.
— Species
nouns refer to the particular type or kind.
For example. Type, kind, sort, species, class, variety etc
1. A tiger is a species of mammal.
2. These kind of dogs are easy to train.
Note: Nouns which can be both count and mass
For example
- There
was a huge cake in the dining room. [count]
- Let
them eat the cake. [mass]
- Would
you like a meal? [count]
- Would
you like some more food? [mass]
Concrete and Abstract Nouns
Concrete=the physical entity/things which can be seen/touch.
Abstract=the psychological/feeling/concept
For example
- I
have a pen/book/bread/river/college. [concrete]
- We
have difficulty to contact him/ experience/work/love/hate [abstract]
- Amount
or Quantity Nouns [amount words like all, some and none are used with both
count and mass nouns]
- For
example
- With
singular like cake: all of the cake/some of the cake/none of the cake
- With
plural like stars: all of the stars/some of the stars/none of the stars
- With
mass nouns
- For
example: all of the land/some of the land/none of the land
- Note:
Quantity is used as
- A
large quantity/A small quantity/Not a large quantity
- A
large number of people have recently joined the party.
- The
quantity is referred with the quantifiers like: many/much/a lot of/ lots
of etc.
- Fro
example
All of them
Most of them
A lot of them
Half of them
Several of them
A few of them
Non of them
A lot of it
A little of it
None of it
Nouns in terms of general or inclusive meaning.
For example
All, both, every, each and any are amount words of general
or inclusive meaning.
The difference between each/every and all
She praised each/every member of the wining team
She praised all (the) members of the wining team.
Note: The first example shows that she treated each person
of the team separately but the second example suggests in general to all.
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