NOUNS

Nouns are the very basis of English; of any language for that matter.  So let us first try to define nouns and then we will move further to categorize them.

What exactly are nouns?

Nouns are simply the names we give to everything around us. They are often called ‘naming words’.  For example-

1.       Name of a person- Anita

2.       Name of a place- Bangalore

3.       Name of a thing- pencil

4.       Name of an animal- elephant

Let us categorize nouns-

Nouns can be further classified into four major sections-

1.    PROPER NOUNS-

NOUN	DEFINITION	EXAMPLES
PROPER NOUNS	Names of specific people and places. They are always capitalised as they need to be distinct from the other nouns.	1.       Names of religions (Islam, Christianity, Sikhism, etc.) 2.       Names of the days of a week (Monday, Sunday, etc.) 3.       Names of organisations (WHO, IIT, IIM, etc.) 4.       Names of people (Anita, Shubhi, Ruhi, etc.) 5.       Names of places (Switzerland, India, Andaman, etc.)

2.    COMMON NOUNS-

NOUN	DEFINITION	EXAMPLES
COMMON NOUNS	These are used to denote a general category/ class of people, places or things. They are capitalized only when they are at the beginning of a sentence	1.        She was buying coffee while talking on her phone. (Coffee and phone are general representatives of the drink and object). 2.       This neighbourhood is the best in this area. (neighbourhood and area are general words. They don’t specify any particular neighbourhood or area.)

COMMON NOUNS can be further classified into –

a)      COUNTABLE NOUNS-

NOUN	DEFINITION	EXAMPLES
COUNTABLE NOUNS	Nouns which have both singular and plural forms are called countable nouns. They can also be expressed in numerical terms.	1.       The boy has a toy. ( toy is a countable noun) 2.       I lost my three pens. ( pens are countable)

b)UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS-

NOUN	DEFINITON	EXAMPLES
UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS	These nouns do not have a plural form. They are always used as singular.	1.       Give me some sugar. (Sugar is an uncountable noun, hence no definite value/ quantity can be written with it.) 2.       The kids in the next room are making a lot of noise. ( Noise cannot be measured anyway, hence a lot id written.)

3.       ABSTRACT NOUNS-

NOUN	DEFINITION	EXAMPLES
ABSTRACT NOUNS	These nouns are the names of things that we cannot perceive through our five senses of touching, smelling, seeing, hearing and tasting. They are usually feelings, emotions, qualities or expressions. They may also talk of the state of mind of a person.	1.       She screamed with great delight. (Delight is an abstract noun here.) 2.       His bravery won him many awards. ( Bravery is the abstract noun in this sentence.)

4.       COLLECTIVE NOUNS-

NOUN	DEFINITION	EXAMPLES
COLLECTIVE NOUNS	Collective nouns are the name we give to a group of nouns to refer to them as one entity. The most common method of doing this is by using words like group or bunch that can be applicable to most of the nouns in the language today. But there are some specific names given for certain groups of nouns to make things more interesting and funny.	1.       A class of students. 2.       An army of soldiers. 3.       A flock of sheep. 4.       A bunch of flowers. 5.       A hive of bees. 6.       A string of pearls. 7.       A stack of wood.