Noun (Kinds & Functions)
Noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea. Nouns are usually the
first words that are being learned by the very early aged children. The highlighted words in the following
sentences are all nouns:
A noun can function in a sentence as:
1) The subject of a verb: Ali does his home work on time.
2) The complement the verbs (be, become, seem & etc.) John is an actor and Sara is an actress.
3) The object of a verb: I saw Ali writing letter to his friend.
4) The object of preposition: Today’s workshop is based on discussing about noun.
Singular & Plural Nouns
Singular Noun: A noun that denotes & refers to one person or thing is called singular noun.
Plural Noun: A noun that denotes more than one person or thing is called plural noun.
Formation of a plural noun from singular one: There are different methodologies while forming a plural
noun from a singular one. The following steps are fallowed for forming a plural noun.
A) The plural form of a noun is usually made by adding “s” to the singular form: day/days,
flower/flowers, house/houses, book/books & etc.
Pronunciation of “s”:
1)
The letter “s” is pronounced /s/ after p, k, and f sound. Otherwise it is pronounced /z/: (books,
cups, roofs, breaks, caps and etc)
2)
When “s” is placed after “ce, ge, se, ze” an extra syllable (/Iz/) is added to the spoken word:
sentences, oranges and
Kinds of Noun
There are many different types of nouns. As you know that we capitalize some nouns, such as
"Canada, America, Louise and etc." and do not capitalize others, such as "chair, pen, tree and etc."
unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence. In fact, grammarians have developed a whole series
of noun types, including the following nouns:
1)
Proper nouns: Monday, May, Abraham, Kabul, Changez Khan, Pakistan and etc.
2)
Common nouns: miles, cat, pen, teacher, garden, town, country, city, and etc.
3)
Concrete nouns: file, beach, waves, agent, judge, clerk & etc.
4)
Abstract nouns: poverty, beauty, naughty, honesty, and etc.
5)
Collective nouns: class, group, people, family and etc.
6)
Compound nouns: bus driver, living room, movie card and etc.
1) Proper Nouns:
The nouns that refer to the names of days of the week, months, historical documents, institutions,
organizations, religions, their holy texts and their adherents are proper nouns. Proper nouns are the
opposite of common nouns. Proper nouns begin with a capital letter, since the nouns represent the
name of a specific person, place, or thing. In each of the following sentences, the proper nouns are
highlighted:
2) Common Nouns:
Common nouns are the nouns that refer to a person, place, or thing in a general sense. We usually
begin them with a capital letter only when they begin a sentence. Common nouns are the opposite of
proper nouns. In each of the following sentences, the common nouns are highlighted:
led by the sight of three large moose crossing the road.
3) Concrete Nouns:
Concrete nouns are the nouns which name anything (or anyone) that you can perceive through your
physical senses: touch, sight, taste, hearing, or smell. Concrete nouns are the opposite of abstract
nouns. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all concrete nouns:
Whenever they take the dog to the beach, it spends hours chasing waves.
There is a book, the authors of which are A. J. Thomsom and A. V. Martinet.
4) Abstract Nouns:
Abstract nouns are the nouns that name anything which you can not perceive through your five
physical senses, and are the opposite of concrete nouns. The highlighted words in the following
sentences are all abstract nouns:
5) Collective Nouns:
Collective nouns are the nouns that are used to name a group of things, animals, or persons. We can
count the individual members of the group, but we usually think of the group as a whole & one unit. We
need to be able to recognize collective nouns in order to maintain subject-verb agreement. Collective
nouns are similar to mass nouns, and are roughly the opposite of countable nouns. In each of the
following sentences, the highlighted words are all collective nouns:
-out chicken tonight. In this example the collective noun "jury" is the subject
of the singular compound verb "is dining."
takes a singular verb, "meets."
ntence the word "class" is a collective noun
and takes the singular compound verb "was startled".
6) Compound Nouns:
Compound nouns are the nouns that are formed by the combination of two/more than two separate
nouns conveying particular meaning to one noun. Like: (police-station, bath-room, coal-mining and etc.
Formation of Compound nouns:
1)
Noun + Noun: hall door, kitchen table, winter cloth, petrol tank & etc.
2)
Noun + Gerund: fruit picking, weight lifting, lorry driving, & etc.
3)
Gerund + Noun: landing card, living room, driving licence and etc.
Adjective