English Grammar: Study of the Noun

English Grammar >> Noun

Noun : A Noun is a word used as the name of a person, place, or thing. Here the word thing includes all objects that we can see, hear, taste, touch, or smell; and something that we can think of, but cannot perceive by the senses.

Kinds of Nouns :

# Proper Noun – The name of some particular person or place; as – Ram, New Delhi, India.

# Common Noun – A name given in common to every person or thing of the same class or kind; as – boy, girl, goat.

Common Nouns include Collective Nouns and Abstract Nouns.

# Collective Noun – The name of a number (or collection) of persons or things taken together and spoken of as one whole; as – crowd, mob, team, flock, herd, army, fleet, jury, family, nation, parliament, committee.

# Abstract Noun – The name of a quality, action, or state; as – goodness, kindness, honesty, laughter, judgement, poverty, boyhood, slavery.

We can also classified nouns whether they are –

# Countable Nouns – The names of objects, people, etc. that we can count, e. g., apple, book, sister, horse.

# Uncountable Nouns – The names of things which we cannot count, e. g., milk, gold, honesty.

Some Important and Interesting Facts/Examples of Nouns 

• Nouns as Common Gender (either a male or a female) – Parent, child, friend, servant, thief, baby, pupil, enemy, cousin, person, orphan, student, monarch, neighbor, infant.
• Nouns as Neuter Gender (neither male nor female) – Book, pen, room, tree, table, chair.
• Personified Objects as Males – The Sun, Summer, Winter, Time, Death.
• Personified Objects as Females – The Moon, the Earth, Spring, Nature, Autumn, Liberty.
• Nouns as the Singular and the Plural alike – Swine, public, innings, brace, yoke, deer, sheep, cod, fish, hour, trout, salmon, aircraft, spacecraft, series, species, pair, dozen, score, gross, kilogram, pound, hundred, thousand.
• Nouns used only in the Plural – Bellows, gallows, scissors, tongs, pincers, spectacles, trousers, drawers, breeches, jeans, tights, shorts, pyjamas, thanks, fangs, goggles, amends, arrears, ashes, athletics, annals, proceeds, tidings, environs, nuptials, assets, chattels, obsequies, alms, riches, eaves, lodgings, odds, outskirts, particulars, regards, remains, shears, troops, vegetables, wages, works, earnings.
• Nouns look Plural but Singular in use – Mathematics, physics, electronics, news, measles, mumps, rickets, billiards, draughts, politics, ethics, mechanics, innings
• Collective Nouns Singular in Form, always used as Plurals – Poultry, peasantry, cavalry, clergy, infantry, nobility, children, admiralty, yeomantry, cattle, vermin, people, gentry.
• Nouns taken from foreign languages keep their Original Plural Form –

Singular	Plural
Index	Indices
Radius	Radii
Formula	Formulae/Formulas
Memorandum	Memoranda
Terminus	Termini/Terminuses
Axis	Axes
Crisis	Crises
Basis	Bases
Analysis	Analyses
Parenthesis	Parentheses
Hypothesis	Hypotheses
Phenomenon	Phenomena
Criterion	Criteria
Madame/Madam	Mesdames
Cherub	Cherubim/Cherubs

>>Common Errors in the Use of Nouns>>

Improve Your English Grammar