What is a noun?
This article would provide you with the detailed explanation of what is a noun with examples. It also explains the types and classification of nouns. Each type of noun is explained with an example.
What is a noun?
If you might have noticed, nouns are typically the first words that any child learns.
The proper definition is :
A noun is the name of a person, an animal, a place or a thing.
It can also be an abstract idea.
Examples:
The words in italics below are nouns.
1.We bought a goat yesterday.
2.My name is Anisha.
3.My mother's name is Geeta
4.We went to Singapore last year
We can also say that the words which can occur as the main word in sentence.Types of Nouns
Nouns can be classified as:
1.Proper Noun and Common Noun
2.Countable Noun and Uncountable Noun
3.Concrete and Abstract Noun
4.Collective Noun
Proper Noun
A noun which specifies a unique identity are called Proper noun.
E.g.
1.We went to London in 1992.
2.My name is Radha.
Note: Proper nouns should always start with capital letter.
Common Noun
Common noun is the name of a class of objects or persons.
Say for e.g.
1.We bought a car yesterday.
2.He is a nice person.
Countable Noun
Countable nouns are common nouns which can be counted. They can be combined to numerals or can be made plurals of a common noun.
For e.g. chair, occasion, ear etc.
1. I have 5 chairs.
2. He wears the same suit on most occasions.
Uncountable Noun
These are those common nouns which cannot be counted i.e. they cannot be expressed as plurals or cannot be combined with numbers.
e.g. laughter, furniture.We cannot say that we have 2 furnitures.
Concrete Nouns
Concrete nouns are the entities that are physically sensed by any of the 5 sense organs of a human body.
e.g. table, chair, mango etc.
Abstract Nouns
These are the nouns which are in the form of ideas or concepts. They are not physically sensible.
e.g. love, hatred, laugh, cry etc.
Note:We also have words which can act as both concrete and abstract nouns depending on the usage.
For e.g. art. The word art can be used as a concept e.g. Art is the most important aspect in the human culture.
and also it can be used as a concrete noun e.g. I have kept my son's art on the high self in the drawing room.
Collective Noun
Collective nouns are the ones that represent the name of groups of two or more entities.
e.g.
1. I saw a herd of flocks in the village.
2. The investigation committee is one of the best in the town.
