One of the basic grammar chapters that kids have to learn is nouns. Children must have seen that one of the primary chapters that are taught to them learning English grammar for the first time is the nuns. Knowing what a noun is or the types of nouns are is important for students.
Nouns are one of the primary chapters, and students who have their basics clear go on to have a strong foundation in grammatical concepts later. This article will talk about all the important things that students need to know about nouns. After reading this article, they will have a basic as well as a clear understanding of nouns and their types.
Table of Contents
What are Nouns?
In simple terms, nouns are words that name something, i.e., nouns are those words which denote the name of a person, place, animal or thing. Names of qualities, ideas or actions are also known as nouns. It is very important that children have their understanding of nouns clear. BYJU’S has various exercises related to nouns that are completely free, and students can download and practise them anytime.
How Many Types of Nouns are There?
Knowing about nouns isn’t enough. One has to know about the different types of nouns. Identifying the different types of nouns is a common topic from which questions are often asked. Many don’t know, but nouns can be classified into different categories depending on the number, gender and types. Knowing the different types of nouns will help students easily identify when asked in the exams. Let’s go through the types of nouns.
- Proper nouns – Nouns that denote/refer to the particular/specific names of persons, places, animals/birds, or things are known as proper nouns. For example, “Emily lives in Paris.” Here, ‘Emily’ is the name of the person, and ‘Paris’ is the name of a place; thus, both are proper nouns.
- Common nouns – Nouns that denote/refer to the names of persons, places, animals/birds, or things in general, i.e., there’s no specific/particular name given to it is, known as common nouns. For example, “The baby is drinking milk.” Here, the baby (person) and milk (thing) are examples of common nouns.
- Collective nouns – When nouns are used to talk about a collection or number or group of people, places, animals/birds or things as one unit, then it is known as collective nouns. For example, “The shepherd took the herd of cattle to graze the meadows.” Here, ‘herd’ refers to a large group of hoofed animals and is an example of collective nouns.
- Material nouns – Nouns that are used to refer to substances/matter, out of which things/products are made known as material nouns or mass nouns. For example, “The saree is made of silk.” Here, ‘silk’ is the material noun as it’s the matter/substance used to make the saree.
Nouns on the Basis of Their Tangibility
- Concrete nouns – Nouns that refer to persons or things that have physical existence/structure and can be perceived by all the five senses are known as concrete nouns. For example, “This is my book.” Here, the ‘book’ is a concrete noun as it has a physical presence and can be touched.
- Abstract nouns – Nouns that refer to can’t be perceived physically, i.e., are abstract in nature, are known as Abstract Nouns. These types of nouns refer to ideas, concepts, emotions, state, quality and feelings. For example, “There is great love between the sisters.” Here, ‘love’ is an example of an abstract noun.
What are Countable and Uncountable Nouns?
Apart from classifying the nouns into six major categories, nouns can be further divided into two groups, i.e., countable and uncountable nouns, depending on whether they can be counted or not. Let’s have a look at them.
- Countable nouns – In simple terms, countable nouns refer to those nouns that can be counted. Countable nouns can have plural forms and singular forms. In the case of singular countable nouns, indefinite articles (a/an) are used with it. For example, “a man”, “an honourable man”, etc.
- Uncountable nouns – Uncountable nouns are those nouns that, though they cannot be counted but can be measured. These nouns don’t have plural forms and don’t use indefinite articles. Words like much, little, a few etc., are used to measure/denote the quantity/amount. For example, “There is little water in the tank.” Here ‘water’ is an uncountable noun but can be measured as it’s preceded by the word ‘little’.
