Nouns
A
noun is a word used to name places, things, and people, e.g. ‘house’, ‘tree’,
‘child’, ‘water’, ‘teacher’, etc.
Kinds of Nouns
Nouns
can be classified into following kinds.
1. Proper Nouns
Word
denoting to the names of particular places or people are called proper nouns.
These are the names of persons or things that their owners/guardians or people
have specified for their unique identity.
Examples:
The Indus is the largest river in Pakistan.
Akram went to US
last year.
2. Common Nouns
Words denoting to the persons or things of
the same kind or class are called common nouns. These nouns name the general
class of the things or person. They do not denote to a specific thing or
person.
Examples:
This chair is broken.
She silently
went into the room.
There are
five rivers in Pakistan.
Sometimes common nouns are further classified
into two categories, viz. concrete nouns and abstract nouns.
Concrete nouns
Words
that refer to the things that we can see, touch and feel are concrete nouns.
Example:
The girl sat on a bench reading a book.
Abstract nouns
Nouns
that refer to things that we cannot touch or see are abstract nouns. These
nouns also include names of a quality, state, or concept, e.g. ‘honesty’
(quality), ‘sickness’, ‘childhood’, ‘poverty’ (state), ‘thought’, and ‘love’
(concept).
Examples:
her affection for him did not wane through sickness and pain.
3. Collective Nouns
A
collection, group of people or things of the same kind are named using
collective nouns, e.g. ‘class’, ‘team’, ‘army’, ‘government’, ‘bunch’, etc.
Example:
The herd of cattle was chased by a pack of wolves.
4. Material Nouns
Names
of material or substances used for making things are called material nouns.
Example:
Buildings are made of steel, concrete, and wood.
Exercise-1
Identify
the nouns and say what kind they are.
1. Truthfulness
and honesty are essential requirements for a sound character.
2. Childhood is
a time of joy and freedom.
3. Mr. Akbar,
my neighbor, works in a factory.
4. Love for
humanity is the greatest religion of all.
5. A student
team will play a match against the staff.
Countable and Uncountable Nouns
Countable nouns are the
names of objects, people, etc. that we can count, e.g. ‘book’, ‘pen’, ‘girl’,
‘parent’. Countable nouns have plural forms.
Uncountable nouns are the names of things which we cannot
count rather we measure their quantity with some proper scale, e.g. ‘milk’,
‘sugar’, ‘time’, ‘gold’. They mainly denote substances and abstract things.
Uncountable nouns do not have plurals.
Exercise-2
Fill
in the blanks with the nouns formed from the words in brackets.
1. _____________demands
that you tender an___________ at once. (decent, apologize)
2. The army
plays a significant role in the ____________ and ______________ for our
motherland. (protect, defend)
3 .It is better
to display_____________ rather than______________ in most matters. (prudent,
ignorant)
4. The famine
led to widespread____________and _________________. (stave, die)
5. Abraham
Lincoln brought about freedom from _________and ______________. (bond, slave)