Nouns

A noun is the name of a person, place, an nimal or a thing.

Kinds of noun

1. Proper Nouns
2. Abstract Nouns
3. Common Nouns
4. Material Nouns
5. Collective Nouns

Proper Nouns

Proper nouns are the particular names given to persons, places, animals or things, e.g., Rahul, Mumbai, Sony, Monday, Ganga, Mahatma Gandhi, mr. Mamay, etc.

Common Nouns

Common Nouns are the names given to person, place, animal or thing generally, e.g., pen, house, boy, river, fruit, painter, doctor, ball, etc.

Collective Nouns

Collective Nouns are names of groups or collection of persons, places, animals or things.

Examples :

• an army of ants
• a family of otters
• a band of musicians
• a flock of sheep

• Collective means not single
• People, persons, players, etc, are not collective nouns but they are plural forms.

Abstract Nouns

Abstract Nouns express actions, feelings or qualities.

Examples :

• Actions, such as laughter, robbery, practice
• Feelings, such as sadness, joy, pride
• Qualities, such as bravery, beauty, honesty

• Abstract Nouns cannot be touched, smelt, heard, seen or tasted
• These do not have physical form.

Material Nouns

It is the name of a matter or substance of which things are made.

Examples :

• The ring is made of gold.
• The table is made of wood.
• Diamond is very costly.

Kinds of Gender

Masculine Gender : It indicates the male nouns, e.g., boy, father, king, bull, etc.

Feminine Gender : It denotes the female nouns, e.g.,girl, mother, queen, cow, etc.

Common Gender : It expresses the male and female nouns both. Such as, student, doctor, cousin, frined, teacher, etc.

Neuter Gender : It refers to non-living things, e.g., ball, book, car, shirt, etc.

Number of Nouns

Read these rules for changing the number of the nouns :

Rules	Examples
A plural noun is most commonly formed by adding -s to the existing noun.	girl-girls, boy-boys
Nouns ending in -s, -ss, -x, -o, -ch, -sh, form their plurals by adding -es.	bus-buses, class-classes, tax-taxes, buffalo-buffaloes, branch-branches, bush-bushes
Some nouns ending with -o only add -s in the plural form	photo-photos
Nouns ending with -y, with a consonant before it, take -i in place of -y and add -es in the plural form.	baby-babies, city-cities
Nouns ending with -f and -fe change to -v and then add -es.	knife-knives, thief-thieves
Some words ending in -f only add -s in the plural form.	chief-chiefs, proof-proofs
Some nouns are changed to their plural forms by adding -en.	ox-oxen
Some nouns chnage to the plural form by changing the vowel.	man-men, foor-feet
In compound words, -s is added to the main word, in the plural form.	mother-in-law-mothers in law, stepson-stepsons, passer-by-passers-by
Some nouns have the singular and plural alike	deer-deer, sheep-sheep, series-series, fish-fish
Some nouns are always in the plural because two parts form a pair	pair of scissors, pair of spectacles