Noun

 

Nouns

Nouns are naming words. Every language has its own set of nouns and the list is open-ended i.e. newer nouns one added to the older ones with the changing times.

Definition of Nouns

A Nouns is the name of a person place or thing. A thing includes a quality (fear) a material (gold), a collection (herd, army), a state (adherence) and an action (cheat, mock, movement)

 

Noun and Noun Phrase

A noun is often called a' noun phrase. A noun phrase can be a single-word noun:

Teachers love their pupils. (noun phrase: teacher)

But a noun phrase is usually longer than a single word because it consists of an adjective or a determiner plus a noun.

A good teacher loves his pupils. (noun phrase: a good teacher)

 

Kinds of Nouns

Nouns can be classified into five kinds:

1. Proper nouns

2. Common nouns

3. Collective nouns

4. Material nouns

5. Abstract nouns

 

Proper nouns

A proper noun is the name of a particular person or thing, i.e. a name used for an individual person or place, river, or mountain etc.:

Mary, Rahul, Godavari, India, Everest

 

Common nouns

A common noun refers to any and every person or thing of the same kind or class, not to a particular person or thing:

cow, dog, girl, boy, man, woman

Common nouns                 Proper nouns

Girl                               Latha

Dog                              Rover

man                              Aslam

 

Collective nouns

A collective noun is the name of a collection, group of people, or things of the same kind:

class, team, government jury, federation

 

Material nouns

A material noun is the name of a material, substance, or ingredient things are made of. They can be articles of food or drink as well:

iron, copper, steel, gold, coal, silver, rice, wheat, milk, water, tea, sugar

Note: A material noun is a type of common noun but a distinction is made between the two. A common noun is usually a countable noun but a material noun is an uncountable noun. The cow gives us milk. Cow is a common noun (countable), but milk is a material noun (uncountable).

 

Abstract nouns

An abstract noun is the name of a quality, state, or concept:

beauty, sweetness, childhood, love

4 Note: Concrete nouns are names of material things, i.e. things having a material form, shape or size. Abstract nouns are the names of qualities found in various kinds of objects. Since they have no material form, they cannot be seen or touched. We can know of them only through our mind:

Concrete nouns             Abstract nouns

Sugar                                       sweetness

book                                        beauty

milk                                         hatred

Patna                                        fear

We can see sugar but cannot see sweetness, so sugar is a concrete noun and sweetness an abstract noun. In short, concrete nouns refer to physical properties and abstract nouns to mental properties.

 

Nouns: Countability

Nouns are of two kinds from the viewpoint of countability:

a) Countable nouns b) Uncountable nouns

Countable nouns

Nouns that can be counted are called countable nouns:

a book              one book                      two books

an egg               one egg                         two eggs

Generally, a noun used in answer to the question how many? is a countable noun:

How many films did you watch?

I watched six films.

How many flights are there from here to Delhi?

There are only two flights.

Note: Common nouns and collective nouns are by and large countable.

 

Uncountable nouns

Nouns that cannot be counted are called uncountable nouns:

milk, water, ink, sugar, butter

(not a milk, one water, two sugar)

A noun used in answer to the question how much? is an uncountable noun.

When we want to refer to the quantity of these items we use values of measurement which are countable:

How much milk do you need?

We need a litre of milk.

Note:

a) Material nouns and abstract nouns are uncountable. So are proper nouns, though they can be used as countable nouns in special situations: There are two Indias, the rural and the urban.

b) Certain nouns can be used both as countable and uncountable depending on the context.

Uncountable                             Countable

I prefer chicken to fish.             These chickens are lovely.

Petrol catches fire easily.           Shall we make a fire out here?  

 

Nouns: Gender

Gender is of four kinds:

Masculine (denotes male)

Feminine (denotes female)

Common (denotes both male and female)

Neuter (denotes neither male nor female)

 

Masculine                    Feminine                      Common                      Neuter

boy                              girl                               student                        gold

man                              woman                         teacher             rice

brother             sister                            doctor                          flower

uncle                            aunt                              child                             river  

bull                              cow                              diplomat                       table

 

Note: The words masculine and feminine can be used as adjectives to describe the looks or qualities of human beings. In this sense masculine means: having the characteristics of a man, so it can be used of a woman or girl as well.

The lady standing in the center has masculine looks.

Similarly, with feminine. Notice that in this sense masculine/feminine indicates characteristics or attributes, not sex.

 

Masculine and feminine forms

The feminine of nouns is formed in two ways:

i)                    by adding ess to the masculine form

ii)                  ii) by adding she/girl/woman to the masculine form

i)                    By adding ess to the masculine form

actor                                   Actress

baron                                 Baroness

count/earl                           Countess

duke                                   Duchess

god                                     Goddess

heir                                    heiress

Note: a) English has only a small number of feminine forms (noun + ess). Professional activities are often referred to in the common gender.

The feminine forms authoress, poetess, directress, inspectress are no longer in use.

She is the director of this institute. (not, directress)

She is an inspector of police. (not, inspectress)

b) The feminine form of hero is heroine.

ii) By adding she/girl/woman

he-goat             she-goat

boy-friend                    girl-friend

student             woman student

businessman                 businesswoman

policeman                    policewoman

sportsman                     sportswoman

salesman                      saleswoman

statesman                     stateswoman

But in many cases, the feminine form is not derived from the masculine form. In the examples listed below, the feminine form is a totally new word, not related to the masculine form phonetically.

bachelor           -           maid/spinster                            gander              -          goose

boar                 -           sow                                          gentleman        -           lady

boy                  -          girl                                          hart                 -          roe      

brother             -          sister                                        horse                -           mare

buck                 -           doe                                           husband           -           wife

bull/ox             -          cow                                         lord                  -           lady

 

Common/dual gender

1)      Nouns denoting profession

Most of the nouns denoting profession/occupation are in the common gender:

 

Ambassador                doctor              minister             pupil

Artisan                         editor              monarch            reader

artist                             enemy              monitor            relation

artiste                           engineer           musician          scientist

author                          fool                  neighbor           secretary

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