Definition of the word noun

A noun (from Latin nōmen ‘name’)^[1] is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.^{[2][note 1]}

Lexical categories (parts of speech) are defined in terms of the ways in which their members combine with other kinds of expressions. The syntactic rules for nouns differ between languages. In English, nouns are those words which can occur with articles and attributive adjectives and can function as the head of a noun phrase. «As far as we know, every language makes a grammatical distinction that looks like a noun verb distinction.»^[3]

History [edit]

Word classes (parts of speech) were described by Sanskrit grammarians from at least the 5th century BC. In Yāska’s Nirukta, the noun (nāma) is one of the four main categories of words defined.^[4]

The Ancient Greek equivalent was ónoma (ὄνομα), referred to by Plato in the Cratylus dialog, and later listed as one of the eight parts of speech in The Art of Grammar, attributed to Dionysius Thrax (2nd century BC). The term used in Latin grammar was nōmen. All of these terms for «noun» were also words meaning «name».^[5] The English word noun is derived from the Latin term, through the Anglo-Norman noun.

The word classes were defined partly by the grammatical forms that they take. In Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, for example, nouns are categorized by gender and inflected for case and number. Because adjectives share these three grammatical categories, adjectives are placed in the same class as nouns.

Similarly, the Latin nōmen includes both nouns (substantives) and adjectives, as originally did the English word noun, the two types being distinguished as nouns substantive and nouns adjective (or substantive nouns and adjective nouns, or short substantives and adjectives). (The word nominal is now sometimes used to denote a class that includes both nouns and adjectives.)

Many European languages use a cognate of the word substantive as the basic term for noun (for example, Spanish sustantivo, «noun»). Nouns in the dictionaries of such languages are demarked by the abbreviation s. or sb. instead of n., which may be used for proper nouns or neuter nouns instead. In English, some modern authors use the word substantive to refer to a class that includes both nouns (single words) and noun phrases (multiword units, also called noun equivalents).^[6] It can also be used as a counterpart to attributive when distinguishing between a noun being used as the head (main word) of a noun phrase and a noun being used as a noun adjunct. For example, the noun knee can be said to be used substantively in my knee hurts, but attributively in the patient needed knee replacement.

Examples[edit]

• The cat sat on the chair.
• Please hand in your assignments by the end of the week.
• Cleanliness is next to godliness.
• Plato was an influential philosopher in ancient Greece.
• Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit/The oldest sins the newest kind of ways? Henry IV Part 2, act 4 scene 5.

A noun can co-occur with an article or an attributive adjective. Verbs and adjectives cannot. In the following, an asterisk (*) in front of an example means that this example is ungrammatical.

• the name (name is a noun: can co-occur with a definite article the)
• *the baptise (baptise is a verb: cannot co-occur with a definite article)
• constant circulation (circulation is a noun: can co-occur with the attributive adjective constant)
• *constant circulate (circulate is a verb: cannot co-occur with the attributive adjective constant)
• a fright (fright is a noun: can co-occur with the indefinite article a)
• *an afraid (afraid is an adjective: cannot co-occur with the article a)
• terrible fright (the noun fright can co-occur with the adjective terrible)
• *terrible afraid (the adjective afraid cannot co-occur with the adjective terrible)

Definitions[edit]

Nouns have sometimes been defined in terms of the grammatical categories to which they are subject (classed by gender, inflected for case and number). Such definitions tend to be language-specific, since nouns do not have the same categories in all languages.

Nouns are frequently defined, particularly in informal contexts, in terms of their semantic properties (their meanings). Nouns are described as words that refer to a person, place, thing, event, substance, quality, quantity, etc. However, this type of definition has been criticized by contemporary linguists as being uninformative.^[7]

There are several instances of English-language nouns which do not have any reference: drought, enjoyment, finesse, behalf (as found in on behalf of), dint (in dint of), and sake (for the sake of).^[8][9][10] Moreover, there may be a relationship similar to reference in the case of other parts of speech: the verbs to rain or to mother; many adjectives, like red; and there is little difference between the adverb gleefully and the noun-based phrase with glee.^{[note 2]}

Linguists often prefer to define nouns (and other lexical categories) in terms of their formal properties. These include morphological information, such as what prefixes or suffixes they take, and also their syntax – how they combine with other words and expressions of particular types. Such definitions may nonetheless still be language-specific since syntax as well as morphology varies between languages. For example, in English, it might be noted that nouns are words that can co-occur with definite articles (as stated at the start of this article), but this would not apply in Russian, which has no definite articles.

A functional approach defines a noun as a word that can be the head of a nominal phrase, i.e. a phrase with referential function, without needing to go through morphological transformation.^[11][12]

Classification[edit]

Nouns can have a number of different properties and are often sub-categorized based on various of these criteria, depending on their occurrence in a language.

Gender[edit]

In some languages, genders are assigned to nouns, such as masculine, feminine and neuter. The gender of a noun (as well as its number and case, where applicable) will often entail agreement in words that modify or are related to it. For example, in French, the singular form of the definite article is le for masculine nouns and la for feminine; adjectives and certain verb forms also change (with the addition of -e for feminine). Grammatical gender often correlates with the form of the noun and the inflection pattern it follows; for example, in both Italian and Russian most nouns ending -a are feminine. Gender can also correlate with the sex of the noun’s referent, particularly in the case of nouns denoting people (and sometimes animals). Nouns arguably do not have gender in Modern English, although many of them denote people or animals of a specific sex (or social gender), and pronouns that refer to nouns must take the appropriate gender for that noun. (The girl lost her spectacles.)

Proper and common nouns[edit]

A proper noun or proper name is a noun representing unique entities (such as India, Pegasus, Jupiter, Confucius, or Pequod), as distinguished from common nouns, which describe a class of entities (such as country, animal, planet, person or ship).^[13]

Countable nouns and mass nouns[edit]

Count nouns or countable nouns are common nouns that can take a plural, can combine with numerals or counting quantifiers (e.g., one, two, several, every, most), and can take an indefinite article such as a or an (in languages which have such articles). Examples of count nouns are chair, nose, and occasion.

Mass nouns or uncountable (or non-count) nouns differ from count nouns in precisely that respect: they cannot take plurals or combine with number words or the above type of quantifiers. For example, it is not possible to refer to a furniture or three furnitures. This is true even though the pieces of furniture comprising furniture could be counted. Thus the distinction between mass and count nouns should not be made in terms of what sorts of things the nouns refer to, but rather in terms of how the nouns present these entities.^[14][15]

Many nouns have both countable and uncountable uses; for example, soda is countable in «give me three sodas», but uncountable in «he likes soda».

Collective nouns[edit]

Collective nouns are nouns that – even when they are inflected for the singular – refer to groups consisting of more than one individual or entity. Examples include committee, government, and police. In English these nouns may be followed by a singular or a plural verb and referred to by a singular or plural pronoun, the singular being generally preferred when referring to the body as a unit and the plural often being preferred, especially in British English, when emphasizing the individual members.^[16] Examples of acceptable and unacceptable use given by Gowers in Plain Words include:^[16]

«A committee was appointed to consider this subject.» (singular)

«The committee were unable to agree.» (plural)

* «The committee were of one mind when I sat in on them.» (unacceptable use of plural)

Concrete nouns and abstract nouns[edit]

Concrete nouns refer to physical entities that can, in principle at least, be observed by at least one of the senses (for instance, chair, apple, Janet or atom). Different schools of philosophy and sciences may question the assumption, but, for the most part, people agree to the existence of something (e.g., a rock, a tree, universe). Abstract nouns, on the other hand, refer to abstract objects; that is, ideas or concepts (such as justice or hatred). While this distinction is sometimes exclusive, some nouns have multiple senses, including both concrete and abstract ones: for example, the noun art, which usually refers to a concept (e.g., Art is an important element of human culture.) but which can refer to a specific artwork in certain contexts (e.g., I put my daughter’s art up on the fridge.)

Some abstract nouns developed etymologically by figurative extension from literal roots. These include drawback, fraction, holdout and uptake. Similarly, some nouns have both abstract and concrete senses, with the latter having developed by figurative extension from the former. These include view, filter, structure and key.

In English, many abstract nouns are formed by adding a suffix (-ness, -ity, -ion) to adjectives or verbs. Examples are happiness (from the adjective happy), circulation (from the verb circulate) and serenity (from the adjective serene).

Alienable vs. inalienable nouns[edit]

Some languages, such as the Awa language spoken in Papua New Guinea,^[17] refer to nouns differently, depending on how ownership is being given for the given noun. This can be broken into two categories: alienable possession and inalienable possession. An alienably possessed noun is something that can exist independent of a possessor: for example ‘tree’ can be possessed (‘Lucy’s tree’) but need not be (‘the tree’), and likewise for ‘shirt’ (‘Mike’s shirt’, ‘that shirt’) and ‘roads’ (‘London’s roads’, ‘those roads’) . Inalienablly possessed nouns, on the other hand, refer to something that does not exist independently of a possessor; this includes kin terms such as ‘father’, body-part nouns such as ‘shadow’ or ‘hair’, and part-whole nouns such as ‘top’ and ‘bottom’.

Noun phrases[edit]

A noun phrase is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like words (nominal) optionally accompanied by modifiers such as determiners and adjectives. A noun phrase functions within a clause or sentence in a role such as that of subject, object, or complement of a verb or preposition. For example, in the sentence «The black cat sat on a dear friend of mine», the noun phrase the black cat serves as the subject, and the noun phrase a dear friend of mine serves as the complement of the preposition on.

Nouns in relation to other word classes[edit]

Pronouns[edit]

Nouns and noun phrases can typically be replaced by pronouns, such as he, it, she, they, these which, and those, in order to avoid repetition or explicit identification, or for other reasons. For example, in the sentence Gareth thought that he was weird, the word «he» is a pronoun standing in place of the person’s name. The word one can replace parts of noun phrases, and it sometimes stands in for a noun. An example is given below:

John’s car is newer than the one that Bill has.

But one can also stand in for larger parts of a noun phrase. For example, in the following example, one can stand in for new car.

This new car is cheaper than that one.

Nominalization[edit]

Nominalization is a process whereby a word that belongs to another part of speech comes to be used as a noun. This can be a way to create new nouns, or to use other words in ways that resemble nouns. In French and Spanish, for example, adjectives frequently act as nouns referring to people who have the characteristics denoted by the adjective. This sometimes happens in English as well, as in the following examples:

This legislation will have the most impact on the poor.

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the powerful.

The Socialist International is a worldwide association of political parties.

See also[edit]

• Description
• Grammatical case
• Phi features
• Punctuation
• Reference

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

• Lester, Mark; Beason, Larry (2005). The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-144133-6.
• Borer, Hagit (2005). In Name Only. Structuring Sense. Vol. I. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Gowers, Ernest (2014). Gowers, Rebecca (ed.). Plain Words. Particular. ISBN 978-0-141-97553-5.

Further reading[edit]

• Laycock, Henry (2005). «Mass nouns, Count nouns and Non-count nouns», Draft version of entry in Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics Oxford: Elsevier.

For definitions of nouns based on the concept of «identity criteria»:

• Geach, Peter. 1962. Reference and Generality. Cornell University Press.

For more on identity criteria:

• Gupta, Anil. 1980, The logic of common nouns. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

For the concept that nouns are «prototypically referential»:

• Croft, William. 1993. «A noun is a noun is a noun — or is it? Some reflections on the universality of semantics». Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, ed. Joshua S. Guenter, Barbara A. Kaiser and Cheryl C. Zoll, 369–80. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society.

For an attempt to relate the concepts of identity criteria and prototypical referentiality:

• Baker, Mark. 2003, Lexical Categories: verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

External links[edit]

• Nouns – Nouns described by The Idioms Dictionary.

Nouns make up the largest class of words in most languages, including English. A noun is a word that refers to a thing (book), a person (Noah Webster), an animal (cat), a place (Omaha), a quality (softness), an idea (justice), or an action (yodeling). It’s usually a single word, but not always: cake, shoes, school bus, and time and a half are all nouns.

There are a number of different categories of nouns.

There are common nouns and proper nouns. A common noun refers to a person, place, or thing but is not the name of a particular person, place, or thing. Examples are animal, sunlight, and happiness. A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place, or thing; it usually begins with a capital letter: Abraham Lincoln, Argentina, and World War I are all proper nouns.

A collective noun is a noun that names a group of people or things, such as flock or squad. It’s sometimes unclear whether the verb for a collective noun should be singular or plural. In the United States, such nouns as company, team, herd, public, and class, as well as the names of companies, teams, etc., are treated as singular, but in the United Kingdom they are often treated as plural: (US) «The team has been doing well this season.» vs. (British) «The team have been doing well this season.»

Gerunds are nouns that are identical to the present participle (-ing form) of a verb, as in «I enjoy swimming more than running.«

An attributive noun is a noun that modifies another noun that immediately follows it, such as business in business meeting. These nouns look like adjectives but they’re not.

For learners of English, the most important feature of a noun is whether it can be counted. A count noun is a noun that can be used after a or an or after a number (or another word that means «more than one»). Count nouns have both singular and plural forms and can be used with both singular and plural verb forms, as with the word letter in «A letter for you is on the table. Letters for you arrive regularly.» Sometimes the plural form of a count noun is the same as its singular form, as in «I saw a deer in my yard yesterday. There are a lot of deer in the woods near my house.»

A mass noun (or noncount noun) refers to something that cannot be counted. Mass nouns are normally not used after the words a or an or after a number. They have only one form and are used with singular verb forms, as in «Portuguese is one of the languages they speak,» and «The information was unclear.»

Some nouns are not count or mass nouns. Nouns which only ever refer to one thing are called singular nouns: «Saturn is the sixth planet from the sun,» «We heard a terrible din in the alley.» And a plural noun refers to more than one person or thing, or sometimes to something that has two main parts. Plural nouns have only one form and are used with plural verb forms: «Townspeople are invited to a forum on the project,» «These scissors are dull.»

A particular noun can have any or all of these kinds of uses.

(count) I’ve read that book several times.

(mass) Time seemed to stop when I saw him for the first time.

(singular) The time is 3:22.

(plural) Fuel costs three times as much as it did five years ago.

Definition of Noun

A noun is a part of speech, which is used to identify a thing, person, idea, or place. It originated from a Latin word nomen, which means “a name.” In fact, everything people talk about needs a name, such as people (man, artist), places (street, town), objects (pencil, vase), qualities (sorrow, heroism), substances (glass, copper), measures (ounce, inch), and actions (dancing, swimming); and this naming word is called a noun.

Sometimes a noun is in a material or tangible shape, such as cake, lion, or computer; while at other times it is an abstract thing, such as joy, bravery, and smile.

Types of Noun

1. Common Noun – A common noun names general people, ideas, things, and places, such as president, teacher, and brother.
2. Proper Noun – A proper noun names specific people, ideas, things, and places, such as Donald Trump, Mr. Smith, and Joe.
3. Collective Noun – Collective nouns denote groups, such as team, pack, and choir. These nouns can be singular or plural, depending upon the sense of the sentence. For instance, in the sentence, “Your team is supposed to arrive at 6 o’clock,” the word team is a collective noun.
4. Compound Noun – Compound nouns are a combination of more than one word. such as pickpocket, court-martial, and water bottle. Some of these nouns combine and form a single word, while others are hyphenated.
5. Concrete Noun – Concrete nouns are, in fact, things that are tangible – things that can be seen or touched – such as a hammer, clouds, or a tree.
6. Uncountable Noun – These nouns are things that are not countable, such as music, food, and water.
7. Gender-Specific Noun – Gender-specific nouns are specific to gender, whether male or female, such as a vixen, an actress, an actor, a queen, and a king.
8. Verbal Noun – Verbal nouns originate from verbs, but they do not have any verb-like qualities. For instance, in the phrase, “a good drawing,” the verbal noun “drawing” appears with the adjective “good,” which differentiates this noun from the gerund form (adverbs modify gerunds not adjectives).
9. Gerund – Gerund is a noun that ends with -ing, and represents an action. It has verb-like qualities, such as in the phrase, “happily building a house,” the gerund “building” is modified by the adverb “happily.”

Examples of Nouns in Literature

Example #1: Waiting for Godot (by Samuel Beckett)

“VLADIMIR:
There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet. (He takes off his hat again, peers inside it, feels about inside it, knocks on the crown, blows into it, puts it on again) …

It’s a reasonable percentage. (Pause.) Gogo.”

Here, the underlined words are items identified by the nouns “boots,” and “feet.” There is also a proper noun, “Gogo,” which is the character’s name.

Example #2: Ode to Autumn (by John Keats)

“Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, Where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, — …

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, …

Among the river sallows, borne aloft.”

In this stanza, Keats has used the uncountable noun “music,” and the concrete nouns “clouds,” and “river.” However, the word “songs” is both countable, and non-tangible.

Example #3: Great Expectations (by Charles Dickens)

“At such a time I found out for certain that this bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard… and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias, and Roger, infant children of the aforesaid, were also dead and buried.”

Charles Dickens has mentioned a number of proper nouns in a row: “Alexander,” “Bartholomew,” “Abraham,” “Tobias,” and “Roger.”

Example #4: The Doll’s House (by Henrik Ibsen)

“Nora (drops her cloak). Someone is coming now! (Goes to the door and listens.) Of course, no one will come today, Christmas Day – nor tomorrow either. But, perhaps – (opens the door and looks out). No, nothing in the letterbox; it is quite empty.”

Here, “Nora” and “Christmas Day” are proper nouns, which are names of a specific person, and a specific day. However, “letterbox” is a common noun.

Function of Noun

The basic function of a noun is to identify people, ideas, things, and places, and name them. A noun performs many other functions, as it may serve as a subject, a direct object, an indirect object, an object of preposition, a predicate nominative, and an object complement. A noun also serves as a subject in a sentence, showing that it is a doer, actor, or a performer that is responsible to carry out an action. In addition, a noun works as a noun phrase head too. The use of nouns makes a text relevant, interesting, and easy to read.

What is a noun?

Noun Definition | Meaning

A noun is a naming word. It can be the name of a thing, place, person, animal or feeling.

Examples of Noun

Naming People
It could be a name of any person, for example: John, Fatima, Singh, Michael, Tom and so on.

Naming Places
It could be a name of any place, for example: America, China, Church, Taj Mahal, Paris and so on.

Naming Things
Naming things are like Car, Hat, Bottle, Table, Chair, Ball and so on.

Naming Animals
Dog, Rabbit, Elephant, Chicken, Horse.

Naming Feeling/Qualities/Ideas
Joy, Fear, Beauty, Strength, Anger.

Example Sentences

1. I live in Australia.
2. Jenny is my sister.
3. I love to play with my dog.
4. The name of this monkey is Boo.
5. Pacific Ocean is very vast.

All the things in the world of nouns fall into two classes:

1. Concrete Noun (or Material Noun)
2. Abstract Noun

All Types of Nouns

• Proper Noun
• Common Noun
• Collective Noun
• Concrete Noun (or Material Noun)
• Abstract Noun
• Possessive Noun
• Number Noun
• Compound Noun
• Countable Noun
• Uncountable Noun (or Mass Noun)
• Masculine Noun
• Feminine Noun

Proper Noun

Names of people or places such as your name, your friend’s name, your parents’ name or the name of your town and country are special naming words. These words are called proper nouns. Special naming words or proper nouns always  always begin with a capital letter.

Example Sentences of Proper Noun

1. My name is Mark.
2. Her name is Sofie.
3. Come Tom, let us go for a walk.
4. Hello Jack! Will you play with me?
5. My cousin lives in Norway.
6. These bears are from China.
7. Albert Einstein was born in Germany.
8. I visited the Taj Mahal in India.
9. Fio and Laa are close friends.

Understanding Proper Nouns

The days of the week and the months of the year are proper nouns.

Example Sentences

1. Every Sunday Mike visits the church.
2. Christmas comes in the month of December.
3. My sister was born in March month.
4. Sam goes for swimming classes every Friday.

The names of festivals and some special days are proper nouns.

Example Sentences

1. Christmas is my favourite festival.
2. My mother likes Mother’s Day.
3. We will celebrate New Year’s Eve.

The names of buildings, mountains, rivers and seas are also proper nouns.

Example Sentences

1. I have seen the Great Wall of China.
2. Last year we visited the Niagara Falls.
3. Many people  have climber the Mount Everest.
4. River Nile is very long.

Common Noun

Common nouns are naming words that are common to people, places, things and animals etc. Common nouns do not define any particular person, place or thing. They are general names. So, they are not capitalized unless they begin a sentence. For example boy, girl, doctor, town, city, dog, car and so on.

Example Sentences of Common Noun

1. Teachers teach in school.
2. Birds live on trees.
3. I love to read storybooks.
4. Sally’s mother is a doctor.
5. These chocolates and cakes are so delicious.

Identify and learn about proper nouns and common nouns in the list of sentences below.

1. Sony produces cameras too.
2. Alicia and Cathy were playing with a doll.
3. Sandy is joining school today.
4. Hens have laid eggs at Todd‘s farm.
5. The postman Mr. Robert was carrying postcards.

In above examples the words in purple colour are proper noun whereas words in green colour are common nouns.

Collective Noun

Collective nouns are used to name a group of persons, places, animals or things. A collective noun represents a complete whole. For examples: a library of books, a team of players and a family of four.

Some collective nouns are used to name a group of animals and birds.

1. A flock of sheep.
2. A herd of cattle.
3. A stud of horses.
4. A gaggle of geese.
5. A litter of cubs.
6. A flock of birds.
7. A shoal of fish.
8. A pack of wolves.
9. A swarm of bees.

Some collective nouns define a group of people.

1. A crew of sailors.
2. An army of soldiers.
3. A band of musicians.
4. A class of pupils.
5. A troupe of actors.
6. A panel of judges.
7. A gang of robbers.

There are some collective nouns that stand for a group of things.

1. A bunch of keys.
2. A pile of clothes.
3. A collection of books.
4. A string of pearls.
5. A set of stamps.
6. A galaxy of stars.
7. A pack of cards.
8. An atlas of maps.
9. A bouquet of flowers.
10. A bunch of grapes.

Example Sentences of Collective Noun

1. My maternal aunt bought me a pair of tennis shoes.
2. At the playground, you get to observe a colony of ants.
3. A pile of clothes was kept on the bed.
4. I need to finish an agenda of tasks before I leave.
5. There is a network of computers in Joseph’s office.

Concrete Noun

Things that have material bodies are called “concrete nouns.” In other words, a concrete noun represents a material object rather than an abstract quality, state, or action, for example, a building, tree, or dog.

Example Sentences of Concrete Noun

1. The dog is a faithful animal.
2. She gave me a bouquet of flowers.
3. He bought a new pack of playing cards.
4. I cannot go outside because of the rain.
5. The scent of the perfume is delightful.

Abstract Noun

These are the nouns that name feelings, qualities, actions, ideas, states, and other things that one cannot touch or see but feel or experience. They are called abstract nouns. In other words, things that have no material bodies are known as abstract nouns.

Example Sentences of Abstract Noun

1. We should always speak the truth.
2. The audience burst into peals of laughter.
3. Theidioms.com gives us a lot of knowledge.
4. Treat animals with kindness.
5. In his excitement, he dropped his glass.

Possessive Noun

A possessive noun is a word that names who or what has or owns something. We add an apostrophe and s (‘s) to form the possessive of most singular nouns.

Example Sentences of Possessive Noun

1. This is Bob’s skateboard. (Means – The skateboard belongs to Bob)
2. This is Ian’s Coat. (Means – The coat belongs to Ian)
3. Papa bought a new frame for grandpa’s spectacles.
4. Ted’s dream for a bicycle came true on his birthday.
5. Julia’s homework was not checked.

Sometimes we need to show possession for plural nouns or where the owners are more than one. In such cases we add an apostrophe at the end.

1. A girls’ school is located near my house.
2. We should not harm the birds’ nests.

Number Noun

Number nouns denote one or many. There are two kinds of number nouns:

1. Singular number noun – It stands for one person, animal, thing or place.
2. Plural number noun – It stands for more than one person, animal, thing or place.

For example: One toy, three balls, two dogs, five cars, nine planets and so on.

Generally, by adding a ‘s’ at the end, we can change a singular noun to a plural noun.

There are different rules we follow to change a singular noun to a plural noun.

Rule 1

When a singular noun ends with a ‘y’ after a consonant, we remove the ‘y’ and add ‘ies’.
For example:

• City – Cities
• Lady – Ladies
• Story – Stories

Consonants are all other letters except vowels (a, e, i, o, u).

Rule 2

If there is vowel before ‘y’ just add s to form its plural.
For example:

• Boy – Boys
• Day – Days
• Trolley – Trolleys
• Toy – Toys

Rule 3

When a singular noun ends with ‘o’ after a vowel, add ‘s’ to make it a plural noun.
For example:

• Bamboo – Bamboos
• Radio – Radios
• Video – Videos

Rule 4

When a singular noun ends with ‘o’ after a consonant, we add ‘es’ to make it a plural noun.
For example:

• Tomato – Tomatoes
• Volcano – Volcanoes
• Hero – Heroes

It is also possible that for few nouns ending with ‘o’ preceded by a consonant, we add the letter ‘s’ to form their plurals.
For example:

• Piano – Pianos
• Photo – Photos

Rule 5

If a singular noun ends with a sound like ‘s’ such as ‘ss’, ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘x’, ‘z’, ‘tch’, we add ‘es’ to make it plural.
For example:

• Box – Boxes
• Watch – Watches
• Dress – Dresses
• Quiz – Quizzes

Rule 6

If a singular noun ends with ‘f’ or ‘fe’, change the ‘f’ into ‘v’ and add ‘es’ to make it plural.
For example:

• Life – Lives
• Calf – Calves
• Loaf – Loaves
• Knife – Knives

Irregular Plural

Plurals of some nouns remains the same.
For example:

• Fish – Fish
• Deer – Deer
• Cattle – Cattle
• Sheep – Sheep
• Bison – Bison

Plural of some nouns are totally different from their singular form.
For example:

• Mouse – Mice
• Ox – Oxen
• Cactus – Cacti
• Child – Children
• Man – Men

Some nouns are always plural like pants, jeans, shorts, tongs, scissors, hair and sunglasses.

Compound Noun

Compound nouns are formed by joining two nouns together. There are three different ways to form compound nouns:

1. The closed form, like notebook, firefly and keyboard.
2. The hyphenated form, like x-ray, co-pilot and mother-in-law.
3. The open form, like post office, history book, mineral water.

Example Sentences of Compound Noun

1. Ian looked at his timetable.
2. It was going to be lunchtime.
3. The basketball match was scheduled in the afternoon.
4. Just after the breakfast, Matt rushed to his tracksuit.
5. X-rays were discovered by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen.

Countable Noun

Nouns that can be counted are called countable nouns. Most of the nouns come in the category of countable nouns rather than uncountable nouns because they refer to things, people or animals that can be counted.

Example Sentences of Countable Noun

1. I saw two owls sitting on the tree.
2. There are four milk bottles in the fridge.
3. My father has two cars.
4. I need an umbrella to get out in the rain.
5. To make this cake we need an egg.

Note: We use ‘the’ for some singular nouns which are unique (one of their kind). For example: The Earth, The Sun, The Moon etc.

Uncountable Noun

Nouns that cannot be counted are called uncountable nouns. Uncountable nouns also known as ‘mass noun.’

We cannot count certain things in numbers such as milk, rain, sugar, water, jam. We have to use words like – a glass of milk, a jar of sugar, a jug of water or a bottle of jam. We can use terms like – a little, plenty or a bowl of with uncountable nouns. Though these nouns can be measured, they cannot be counted. Such nouns do not have a singular or plural form.

The Noun: Gender

Noun words can be divided into masculine and feminine.

Masculine Nouns

Masculine nouns represent males: Boys, men and male animals. For example: Prince, man, king, boy, cock, lion etc.

Feminine Nouns

Feminine nouns represent females: Girls, women and female animals. For example: Princess, woman, queen, girl, hen, lioness, etc.

But there are some nouns that represent both males and females. For example: Children, artists, principals, teachers, singers, lawyers, etc.

noun

Nouns are words that indicate a person, place, or thing.

In a sentence, nouns can function as the subject or the object of a verb. Nouns can also follow linking verbs to rename or re-identify the subject of a sentence or clause; these are known as predicate nouns.

Continue reading…

noun

 (noun)

n. Abbr. n.

1. The part of speech that is used to name a person, place, thing, quality, or action and can function as the subject or object of a verb, the object of a preposition, or an appositive.

2. Any of the words belonging to this part of speech, such as neighbor, window, happiness, or negotiation.

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[Middle English, name, noun, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin nōmen (translation of Greek onoma, name, noun); see nō̆-men- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

noun

(naʊn)

n

(Grammar)

a. a word or group of words that refers to a person, place, or thing or any syntactically similar word

b. (as modifier): a noun phrase.

[C14: via Anglo-French from Latin nōmen name]

ˈnounal adj

ˈnounally adv

ˈnounless adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

noun

(naʊn)

n.

a member of a class of words that can function as the subject or object in a construction, are often formally distinguished, as by taking the plural and possessive endings, and typically refer to persons, places, animals, things, states, or qualities, as cat, desk, Ohio, darkness.

[1350–1400; Middle English nowne < Anglo-French noun < Latin nōmen name]

Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

noun

A word that gives a name to a thing or person and can be the subject or object of a verb.

Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group Copyright © 2008 by Diagram Visual Information Limited

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