NOUN
Noun is a naming word which is used as the name of a person, place, thing, feeling, action, quality, state.
Examples :
person : Arjun
place : Delhi
thing : Chariot
feeling : Love
action : Rule
quality : Truth
state : Awake
Let us identify a Noun in a given sentence?
To identify a noun in each sentence we always need to focus on following three question words:
Who/What/Whom
Now any word which can answer the questions starting from the above mentioned three words will be considered as a noun.
First Example:
Vikramaditya was a great king.
Now in the above statement we can frame a question that is “who was a great king ? ” and the answer we get Vikramaditya, hence it’s a noun. Also, another question can be framed as ” Who was Vikramaditya ?” and the answer is “king” and hence the word “king” will be the second noun in the same statement.
Second Example:
The man purchased a scooter.
In above statement two questions can be asked,
- a) Who purchased a scooter ?
- b) What did the man purchase ?
and answers to “who” and “what” are “man” and “scooter” and hence we have two nouns in the given sentence.
How many types of nouns are there?
Based on usage there are five different types of nouns :
1. Proper Noun
* Proper name – Proper noun is a particular name given to a person, place or thing
* Uppercase – The initial letter of a proper noun always starts with a capital letter
* Zero article – No article is placed prior to a proper noun
Example :
1. Haryana is a state in India
( Haryana is the name of a particular state and India is the name of a particular country )
2. Sita has two brothers
(Sita is the name of a particular girl)
3. Mohan was born on Tuesday
(Mohan is the name of a particular boy and Tuesday is the name of a particular day)
2. Common Noun
* General name – Common noun is a name that represents a category or a class
* Lowercase – The initial letter of a common noun always starts with a small letter ( except in the beginning of a sentence)
* Article – a/an/the articles can be used prior to a common noun
Example:
- Girls walk in the garden
- I have a grey umbrella
- Mohan has written many novels
3. Material Noun
* Substance name – Material noun is a name that represents a substance or material
* Article – No articles are placed in front of a material noun
Example:
- Gold is a costly element
- Milk is white in color
4. Collective Noun
* Collective noun is the name given to a group of similar things or to the objects belonging to the same category
Example:
- Class
- Family
- Fleet (a collection of ships or vessels)
- Army (a group of soldiers)
- Bevy (a collection of girls) ( बैवि)
- Herd (a group of cattle) (हर्ड)
- Shoal (a collection of fish) (शौल)
- Jury (a collection of judges) (जूरी)
- Flock (a collection of birds)
* Collective nouns can further be divided into two parts:
a). Compact collective nouns:
These are the nouns which are self-sufficient in their meaning
Crowd – it is easily understood as a group of people and is self-sufficient in their meaning
b). Non-Compact collective nouns:
These are the nouns which are not self-sufficient in their meaning
We need to add an adjunct – preposition to explain its meaning and to specify plural
Herd (a group of cattle) – A herd of cattle is drinking water ( herd : non compact collective noun, -of : adjunct preposition )
5. Abstract Noun
* FAQS – Abstract noun is the name given to a Feeling, Action, Quality, State
- Hatred (Feeling)
- Movement (Action)
- Honesty (Quality)
- Sickness (State)
* These are nouns formed after adding (affixes – prefix/suffix) to common nouns, verbs and adjectives
Happiness – Happy ( adjective ) + ness (suffix)
Growth – Grow (verb) + th (suffix)
Childhood – Child (common) + hood (suffix)
Note :
* To make an abstract noun, we do not add -er/or as a suffix to a verb because it gets converted into a common noun.
Sing + er = singer (common)
* To make a noun we do not add -ly (suffix) to any word as by doing so it will either make an adverb or an adjective.
What is the modern classification of nouns?
According to modern theory nouns can be classified into two categories :
1. Countable Noun
* Proper and Common nouns can come under countable category
* Plural form – countable nouns can be converted into their plural forms by adding -s/es (suffix) to the root common noun
- Rupee – can be converted to its plural form as rupees
- Litre – can be converted to its plural form as litres
* Compact collective nouns are also treated as countable nouns
Family, Class
2. Uncountable Noun
* Only material or abstract nouns come under uncountable category
* No Plural form – uncountable category cannot be converted into their plural forms by adding -s/es (suffix)
- Sugar
- Acceptance – it’s in uncountable category made from abstract noun by adding accept (verb) and -ance (suffix), cannot be counted and cannot have a plural by adding -s/es (suffix)
* Non compact collective nouns are also treated as uncountable nouns
Fleet, jury, herd, pride
Gender Of Noun
There are four types of noun gender:
1). Masculine Gender:
A name representing a male entity has Masculine gender
Example:
Boy, Dog, Buck, Hero, Bridegroom
2). Feminine Gender:
Naming word that represents a female entity has a Feminine gender
Example:
Girl, Bitch, Doe, Heroine, Bride
3). Common Gender:
Name of a word that represents either a male or a female entity has a Common gender
Example:
Servant, Student, Teacher, Thief, Infant, Child
4). Neuter Gender:
Those naming words that represent a non-living object that is neither a male nor a female has a Neuter gender
Example:
Book, Chair, Room, Tree, Pen
What are the noun cases?
Four different types of noun cases are:
1). Subjective or Nominative Case:
When a name is used as a subject in a sentence, it is said to have a subjective case
Example:
Rohit went to Shimla – Rohit used as a subject
2). Objective or Accusative Case:
In an objective case a name is used as an Object
Example:
Sohan met Muskan – Muskan used as an object
3). Vocative Case:
In some sentences a name is used to address someone that means we use the name of the person in the same sentence where we address them
Example:
Parul, you can drink the tea
4). Possessive or Genitive Case:
A possessive case is used to show the sense of ownership or “- belongs to ” where it also answers the question ” whose “?
Example:
This is Mohan’s car means the car belongs to Mohan
Possessive case of noun
There are various methods that we can use to form possessive case of a noun:
Rules:
1). When a name is singular/plural and does not end with -s or sound of s we add apostrophe s (‘s) to it
Example:
Victor’s car, Children’s book, Men’s toys
Note : Usage of (‘s)
* For idioms :
in the eye’s wink
* Name of a place
Mumbai’s traffic – Mumbai’s (name of the place) + traffic (possession)
* In case of heavenly/celestial bodies
Moon’s rays
* Names used for telling time
Two day’s trip
* Personification : When a non-living thing is described as living
Court’s order – here court is an inanimate object but represented as an animate object
2). When the naming word is singular/plural ending with -s or sound of s we add only apostrophe (‘) to it without any “-s”
Example :
Justice’ sake, horses’ stable, Girls’ college
3). In case of a compound noun ( made up of two names) we add apostrophe s (‘s) at the end of the word
Example:
Parul, you can drink the tea
4). Possessive case is used to tell the possession of a living being
“Noun + ‘s + Possession”
Example:
Victor’s Car
5). Possessive case is used for explaining the possession of non-living objects
“Possession + Of + Noun”
Example:
Hand of watch
6). Possessive words already have a meaning of possession and hence we do not add ” ‘s ” or ” ‘ ” to them
Their, Her, His, Our, Your, Its, My
Your faithfully is correct where as your’s/ yours’/yours’ faithfully are incorrect
