Noun
A noun is a word for a person, place, or thing. (You might like to think of nouns as "naming" words.) Everything we can see or talk about is represented by a word that names it. That "naming" word is called a noun.
Often a noun will be the name for something we can touch (e.g., lion, cake, computer), but sometimes a noun will be the name for something we cannot touch (e.g., bravery, mile, joy).
Everything is represented by a word that lets us talk about it. This includes people (e.g., man, scientist), animals (e.g., dog, lizard), places (e.g., town, street), objects (e.g., vase, pencil), substances (e.g., copper, glass), qualities (e.g., heroism, sorrow), actions (e.g., swimming, dancing), and measures (e.g., inch, ounce).
Kinds of Nouns
1. Common Nouns name people, places, or things that are not specific.
- man, mountain, state, ocean, country, building, cat, airline
2. Proper Nouns name specific people, places or things.
- Walt Disney, Mount Kilimanjaro, Minnesota, Atlantic Ocean, Australia, Empire State Building, Fluffy, Sun Country
3. Compound Nouns are made up of two or more words.
- tablecloth, eyeglasses, New York, photograph, daughter-in-law, pigtails, sunlight, snowflake
4. Collective Nouns refer to things or people as a unit.
- bunch, audience, flock, team, group, family, band, village
5. Singular Nouns name one person, place, thing, or idea.
- cat, sock, ship, hero, monkey, baby, match
6. Plural Nouns name more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
- cats, socks, ships, heroes, monkeys, babies, matches
7. Possessive Nouns show ownership.
- Mom's car, Beth's cat, the student's book
8. Abstract Nouns are things you cannot see or touch.
- love, wealth, happiness, pride, fear, religion, belief, history, communication
9. Collective Nouns are words that denote groups.
- bunch, audience, flock, team, group, family, band, village
10. Concrete Nouns are things you can see or touch.
- house, ocean, Uncle Mike, bird, photograph, banana, eyes, light, sun, dog, suitcase, flowers
11. Countable Nouns name nouns that you can count.
- bed, cat, movie, train, country, book, phone, match, speaker, clock, pen, David, violin
12. Non-Countable Nouns are things you cannot count.
-milk, rice, snow, rain, water, food, music
13. Verbal Nouns are nouns derived from verbs. (Verbal nouns have no verb-like properties.
- a good building, a fine drawing, an effective attack
14. Gerunds are nouns that end-ING and that represent actions (Gerunds have verb-like properties).
-happily building a tower, quickly drawing the scene, suddenly attacking the enemy
15. Gender-Specific Nouns are nouns that are definitely male or female.
- king, vixen, actress
Gender of Nouns
Grammatical gender is a system of classification. A common gender classification includes masculine and feminine categories. Masculine nouns are words for men, boys and male animals. Feminine nouns are words for women, girls and female animals.
1. Masculine - actor, bachelor, brother, conductor, daddy
2. Feminine - actress, spinster, sister, conductress, mummy
Common gender nouns are used for both males and females. - - - baby,cousin, dancer,parent, passenger
Animals there is one general word for the animal. However, many species of animals, particularly those domesticated, have been given specific names for the male and the female. - tiger(M), tigress(F), lion(M), lioness(F)
Inflection is the name for the extra letter or letters added to nouns, verbs and adjectives in their different grammatical forms. Nouns are inflected in the plural, verbs are inflected in the various tenses, and adjectives are inflected in the comparative/superlative.
* Words ending with a sibilant: -s/-ss/-sh/-ch/x.
* Add -es in the plural noun or 3rd person singular verb. e.g. bus → buses (n) / busses (v), miss → misses, wish → wishes, watch → watches, fox → foxes, potato → potatoes
* Words ending with the letter -o. do → does
* Words ending consonant - y.
* Change the -y to ie before the ending -s. e.g. party → parties, study → studies, cry → cries
* Words ending consonant - y.
* Change the -y to i before the endings -ed/-er/-est/-ly. e.g. try → tried, happy → happier, easy → easiest
* Words ending consonant - y.
* Do NOT change the -y before the ending -ing. e.g. carry → carrying, try → trying
* Words ending vowel - y.
* Do NOT change the -y. e.g. buy → buys, play → played
* Words ending with the letters -ie.
* Change the -ie to a - y before the ending -ing. e.g. die → dying, lie → lying
* Verbs ending consonant -e.
* Omit the -e before the ending -ing. e.g. ride → riding, love → loving, write → writing, provide → providing
* One-syllable words ending consonant-vowel-consonant.
* Double the last consonant before the endings -ing/-ed/-er/-est. e.g. hit → hitting, stop → stopped, wet → wetter, fat → fattest, begin → beginning
* Two or more syllable words ending consonant-vowel-consonant that are stressed on the last syllable. e.g. prefer → preferred
* Two or more syllable words ending consonant-vowel-consonant that are stressed on the first syllable.
* Do NOT double the last consonant before the endings -ing/-ed/-er/-est. e.g. happen → happening, visit → visited
Cases of Nouns
1. Nominative Case - A noun or a pronoun, when it is used as the subject of the verb it is said to be in the Nominative Case.
e.g. He bought a book.
In the given example 'He' is the subject. It is the answer to the question who bought the book? "Bought the book?" is the Predicate and it contains the Verb 'Bought'. So the noun 'He' is said to be in the Nominative Case.
NOTE: To find the Nominative Case ask the question WHO or WHAT to the verb.
2. Objective or Accusative Case - A noun or a pronoun, when it is used as the object of a verb it is said to be in the OBJECTIVE CASE.
e.g. John killed a dog.
In the given example 'A dog' is the answer to the question 'What did John kill'? Therefore the noun 'dog' is called the OBJECT and it is said in the Objective Case.
Note : To find the Objective or Accusative Case put WHOM or WHAT before the verb and its object.
3. Possessive or Genitive Case - A noun or a pronoun, when it is used to show ownership or possession, authority, origin, kind etc., It is said to be in the Possessive or Genitive Case.
e.g. This is John's bike.
When the noun is Singular, the Possessive Case is formed by adding 'S' (apostrophe S) to the noun and when it is 'S' ending Plural by adding an apostrophe after the 'S' (S')
4. Vocative Case or Nominative Case - When the noun is the name of a person SPOKEN TO or ADDRESSED, it is said to be in the Vocative case or we call its case, the Nominative of address
e.g. Sit down, Peter
Note : Here Peter is addressed.
5. Dative Case - When a noun indicates the indirect object of the verb - generally, 'GIVE' it is said to be in the Dative Case.
e.g. David gave Mirza a pen.
In the above sentence David was the person to whom Mirza gave a pen. The Indirect object of a verb denotes the person to whom something is given or for whom something is done.