Noun Meaning and Examples

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In the previous tutorial, we learned the basics of parts of speech. Now in this tutorial, we will discuss What is Noun in detail. Following topics will be covered.

Let us recall the definition of a noun. “A noun is the name of person, place, thing or an idea.” In simple words, a name is always a noun. The word by which we call something or someone is called a noun.

Noun Examples in Sentences

In the following sentences, the green words are nouns.

  1. I have a Ferrari (though I don’t have one ?) – thing
  2. Salman Khan is my friend. (O really?) -person
  3. I am going to Mars. -place
  4. I often climb walls. -thing
  5. I respect honesty. -idea

Now that we have understood the noun, let us move to the types of noun. 

 

  • Proper Noun and Common Noun

As the word suggests, proper noun refers proper or particular names that are unique. On the other hand, a common noun refers to the common or general names. Look at the following sentence:

Anil Ambani is a rich man.

Here we have two nouns- Anil Ambani and man. We can see that Anil Ambani is a particular name of a particular person whereas man is a general name that can be applied to all the men. Got it? 

Proper Noun and Common Noun Examples in Sentences

Look at the following examples to understand the difference between Proper Noun and Common Noun. (Blue words are Proper Nouns and Pink words are Common Nouns).

Rules for Proper Noun and Common Noun

  1. A Proper Noun always begins with a capital letter though it may be in the middle of a sentence. A common noun, on the other hand, does not begin with a capital letter if it is in the middle of a sentence.
  2. A common noun (singular) always begins with A or An whereas a proper noun begins with The.
  3. A proper noun has no plural form whereas a common noun can have plural forms.

 

  • Countable and Uncountable Nouns

These nouns are quite easy to understand. Countable nouns are those nouns which can be counted. e.g. Pen (two pens, three pens, four pens), man (10 men, 20 men) and so on.

On the other hand, Uncountable nouns are those which cannot be counted. 

Can you count milk? Water? Honesty? We cannot have six honesties or 11 waters! Right? So these are the uncountable nouns. I am not sure about stars because we have tried to count them once in our life. Remember that?

The countable nouns can be either singular or plural. Singular means single or one and Plural means more than one (two, three, four etc.) 

Singular and Plural Examples

Got it? Start memorizing them!

 

  • Masculine and Feminine Nouns

We have mother, father, brother, sister, nephews, nieces and so on. They are also nouns. In this world, there are mainly two genders-masculine and feminine. Our fathers, brothers, nephews, grandfathers, uncles etc are all masculine. On the other hand, our mothers, sisters, nieces, grandmothers, aunts etc are all feminine.

Gender Nouns Examples

Let us understand Gender nouns with some examples.

  • Collective Nouns Definition

Have you seen Bakarwals (nomads) with sheep? We call the group of sheep as a herd. Right? So a collective noun is the name of a group of persons or things taken as a whole.

Collective Noun List

  • Material Noun

You would have burnt wood in winters or might have seen the metallic body of Apple iPhone 4. These are called material things. Thus material noun is the name of metal or substance of which the things are made up of. e.g. silver, iron, gold, glass.

Material nouns are uncountable.

 

  • Abstract Noun

You might often have heard your mother saying “Always speak the truth” Have you ever touched or saw the truth? No, right? Thus truth is an idea that can neither be seen nor be touched or felt or heard.

An abstract noun is thus the name of quality, action, state or idea. e.g. honesty, policy, justice, law, fairness, truth, lie etc. 

 

  • Noun Rules

Now that we have understood the types of nouns, let us read some rules for the nouns.

In the next unit, we will discuss pronoun in detail.