Noun

Noun

A noun is the name of any human, object, place, or action.

Name of Human:                    Rahim, Jerry, Karim, Tom etc

Name of Object:                     Book, Calculator, Pen, etc

Name of Place:                        America, Canada, Bangladesh, Dhaka, New York etc

Name of Action:                     Hesitation, Purification, Function, etc

Name of Idea:                         Love, Inspiration, Courage, Anxiety, etc

Classification of Nouns: on basis of two views we will try to classify the nouns.

(a)    According to the condition of the noun.

(b)   According to countability of the noun.

With the first view noun classified into two types are – (1) Concrete Noun and (2) Abstract Noun. And again the concrete noun classified into four types are given below.

(1)   Proper Noun

(2)   Common Noun

(3)   Collective Noun

(4)   Material Noun

And secondly according to the view of (b) noun classified to two types are –

(1)   Countable Noun

(2)   Uncountable Noun

Discussion in Details:

(a)(1) Concrete Noun: A concrete noun is the name of something which has external physical existence and can be perceived through senses, that means, it can be seen, smelt, touched, or tasted.

Examples: Cow, Book, Silver, Building, Cloth etc

(a)(2) Proper Noun: A proper noun is the name of a particular person, thing, place, or any other thing.

Examples: Name of Person:                Joe, Ronney, Kabita etc

                  Name of Things:               Friday, Titanic, Bible etc

                  Name of Place:                  India, Bangladesh, Bangalore, Down Town etc

Some Important Notes:

Note-1: Proper noun always starts with capital letter – William Shakespeare, Bible, Lord, God etc.

Note-2: It’s not necessary to capitalize “Earth, Sun, Moon” but you must write “the” before them. 

(a)(3) Common Noun: A common noun is one which is common to each member of a class of persons or things. In this sentence “common” is very significant word for understanding. See the table of difference between common noun and proper noun. It would help you to know common noun more interestingly.

Proper Noun	Common Noun
Rose William Shakespeare Rehana	Flower Poet Girl

Interesting Point: The word “river” sometimes denotes many rivers but sometimes it does not. Such as – I have seen many rivers (many rivers)

                                The Padma is a river.

(a)(4) Collective Noun: A collective noun is the name of a group or collection of persons or things of the same kind thought of as one undivided whole.

Examples: flock, band, cavalry, crowd, gang, navy, group, infantry, audience, committee etc.

Rule – 1: If the collective noun is used as subject of the sentence, verb must be singular; it’s meant that “es” or “s” must be used with the verb. See below –

A flock of birds is flying in the sky. (Do not use “are”)

A gang of robbers has come here. (Do not use “have”)

A team of player goes (Do not use “go”)

Rule – 2: If the collective noun denotes each thing or person separately is called noun of multitude. For the noun of multitude verb must follow plural number and there is no need of using “s” or “es” after the verb. In place of them, you have to use “have”, “are”, “were”. See the example below –

The class are divided into two divisions.

(a)(5) Material Noun: A material noun is a name of which indicates a matter or substance as a mass and does not indicate any part or number of it.

Examples: plate, water, gold, iron, etc

Note: After material noun verb follows singular verb such as “water is essential to life”

(a)(6) Abstract Noun: Abstract noun is that noun which indicates some abstract idea or quality which has no physical existence and cannot be touched, smelt, heard, or perceived through the sense; but can only be imagined.

Examples: honesty, boyhood, justice, heroism etc.

(b)(1) Countable Noun: A countable noun is the name of anything which can be counted by number.

Examples: flower, child, book, pen, star etc

(b)(2) Uncountable Noun: An uncountable noun is the name of anything that cannot be counted by number and may be measured by some other units only.

Examples: water, salt, virtue, honesty etc.