TYPES OF NOUN
DEFINITION: Noun is a word which is used to name something as a person, animal, thing and place. There are six kinds of noun in English.
1) Proper Noun
2) Common Noun
3) Abstractive Noun
4) Collective Noun
5) Compound Noun
6) Material Noun
1) PROPER NOUN
DEFINITION: Proper Noun is a name of particular thing, person, animal and place. On the other hand, proper noun is always written with a capital letter at the beginning of the word.
Example: Dara, New York, Cambodia, John, Angkor Wat…
2) COMMON NOUN
DEFINITION: Common Noun is a name which is given in common to everyone (person, thing, animal…..).
Example: Man, teacher, doctor, dog, cat, house, chair…
3) ABSTRACTIVE NOUN
DEFINITION: Abstractive Noun is the name of idea, quality and action that is the name of something we can’t touch, see, smell and taste.
Example:
- Idea: Advice, ambition, wish...
- Quality: Goodness, kindness, darkness...
- Action: Talking, movement, discussion..
NOTE: Some Abstractive Nouns can make from many kinds of adjective, verb and common noun.
a) Abstractive Noun makes from adjective.
|
Adjective |
Abstractive Noun |
|
dark poor wise honest |
darkness poverty wisdom honesty |
b) Abstractive Noun makes from verb.
|
Verb |
Abstractive Noun |
|
hope regret help promise |
hope regret help promise |
c) Abstractive Noun is quite different from verb.
|
Verb |
Abstractive Noun |
|
live die know advise |
life death knowledge advice |
Verb Abstractive Noun
d) Abstractive Noun makes from common noun.
|
Common Noun |
Abstractive Noun |
|
man friend hero infant |
manhood friendship heroism infancy |
4) COLLECTIVE NOUN
DEFINITION: Collective Noun is a name of number or collection of person, thing and animal taken together and spoken as a whole.
Example: Army, committee, family, nation, association, community…
5) COMPOUND NOUN
DEFINITION: Compound Nouns are the nouns that are combined between one word with another word and can make from many kinds of noun, adjective and verb.
|
Noun/ Adjective/verb |
Noun |
Common Noun |
|
sun strong walking |
light man stick |
sunlight strongman walking-stick |
6) MATERIAL NOUN
DEFINITION: Material Noun is the name of particular object.
Example: Chair, table, car, book, pen, house, radio…
PLURAL NOUNS
We can make singular nouns to plural nouns in many different ways by adding ‘s, es’, changing ‘y’ to ‘ies’ or ‘f, fe’ to ‘ves’ or same nouns show the change and some other nouns still keep the same form from singular to plural.
1- First Case
We make a singular noun to a plural noun by adding ‘s’ to singular noun.
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
book cat dog boat |
books cats dogs boats |
2- Second Case
For nouns consist of (o, x, s, ss, sh, ch, z) at the end; when we make plural form, we add ‘es’.
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
mango box bus glass brush watch quiz |
mangoes boxes buses glasses brushes watches quizzes |
NOTE 1: Some nouns consist of “O” at the end; but we don’t add “es”, we only add “s” to singular noun when we want to make plural form.
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
bamboo radio piano zoo photo |
bamboos radios pianos zoos photos |
NOTE 2: Some other nouns are finished by “O” at the end, and we can add “s/es” to singular nouns to make plural form.
|
Singular |
Plural |
Plural |
|
buffalo cargo mosquito volcano |
buffalos cargos mosquitos volcanos |
buffaloes cargoes mosquitoes volcanoes |
3- Third Case
For singular nouns that consist of “ y” at the end, when we want to make plural form; we change “y” to “ies”.
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
country fly candy library |
countries flies candies libraries |
NOTE: Some nouns consist of “y” at the end; but we don’t change “y” to “ies”, we only add “s” when we want to make plural form.
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
day toy monkey valley |
days toys monkeys valleys |
4- Fourth Case
For some other nouns that contain “f, fe” at the end; when we make plural form , we change “f, fe” to “ves”.
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
shelf sheaf life knife |
shelves sheaves lives knives |
NOTE: Some nouns end in “f, fe” at the end; but we don’t change “f, fe” to “ves” , we only add “s” to singular noun when we want to make plural form.
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
chief proof safe fife |
chiefs proofs safes fifes |
5- Regular Noun
Some nouns still keep the same form from singular to plural form. Those nouns are called “regular noun”.
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
Sheep Deer Fish Swine |
sheep deer fish swine |
6- Irregular Noun
There are some nouns which change their forms when we change from singular to plural form. Those kinds of noun are called irregular noun”.
|
Singular |
Plural |
|
child foot ox mouse louse |
children feet oxen mice lice |
GENDERS OF NOUN
There are four kinds of Gender of Noun in English. Those are:
1). Masculine Gender
2). Feminine Gender
3). Neuter Gender
4). Common Gender
1). MASCUINE GENDER
DEFINITION: Masculine Gender is a name that denotes a male person or animal.
Example: grandfather, father, uncle, brother, nephew, son, man…
2). FEMININE GENDER
DEFINITION: Feminine Gender is a name that expresses a female person or animal.
Example: grandmother, mother, aunt, sister, niece, daughter, woman…
3). NEUTER GENDER
DEFINITION: Neuter Gender is a name that shows a thing which is neither male nor female, especially with thing without life.
Example: table, book, car, train, pen, house, school, chair…
4). COMMON GENDER
DEFINITION: Common Gender is used to stand in stead of male or female nouns.
Example: grandparents, parents, guardian, child, student, friend, cousin, enemy…
FUNCTIONS OF NOUN
Nouns can be used as the subject, direct object, and indirect object of a verb; the object of a preposition; and an adverb of adjective. Nouns also can show possession.
Subject: The mailcarrier always rings twice. Tulips are early spring flowers. (Tells who or what does or is something.)
Direct object: I finally sold my car. (Tells what is sold.)
Indirect object: Harold gave the cat another olive. (Tells to whom he gave the olive.)
Object of preposition: She gave directions over the phone. (Tells what is the object of the preposition over.)
Adverb: The train leaves today. (Tells when.)
Adjective: The office building faces the zoo. (Tells what kind, which one.)
Possession: The movie’s plot fooled no one. (Shows ownership or possession.)
POSSESSIVE NOUNS
Possessive Nouns are used to indicate ownership or possession.
1) Singular Possessive
To form the possessive of singular nouns, add ( ‘s ) to all nouns.
|
Singular Nouns |
Singular Possessive |
|
boy storm |
the boy’s Sony radio the storm’s center |
2) Plural Possessive
To form the possessive of plural nouns that end in “s” or “es”, add an apostrophe ( ‘ ) to the end of the word.
|
Plural Nouns |
Plural Possessive |
|
candles ships |
the candles’ light the ships’ escorts |
For nouns that form the plural any other way, add ( ‘s ) to the end of the word.
|
Plural Nouns |
Plural Possessive |
|
children women men |
the children’s toys the women’s department the men’s club |
3) Singular or Plural?
To decide whether to place the apostrophe ( ‘ ) before or after the (s), follow this simple rule: Rephrase the sentence substituting an “of phrase” for the possessive noun to determine if the noun is singular or plural.
Example: The (team’s, teams’) colors were on display.
|
Of Phrase |
Possessive Form |
|
color of the team (singular) colors of the teams (plural) |
team’s colors teams’ colors |
4) Individual and Joint Ownership
To show individual ownership, make both nouns in the sentence possessive.
Individual ownership: Mark’s and Arlene’s cars were stolen. (Each person had a car that was stolen.)
To show joint ownership, make only the final noun possessive.
Joint ownership: Mark and Arlene’s car was stolen. (The car belonged to both Mark and Arlene.)
NOTE: Individual ownership, the noun following the possessive is generally plural (cars), while in joint ownership the noun is singular (car). Look for this clue when deciding whether to use joint or individual possessive forms.
