Noun - Parts Of Speech | Breif Overview

1. Types Of Noun

Anu_Jain 01 Jan 1970

Types of Noun as parts of speech:

• • Proper Noun: It refers to specific entities. It can be the name of specific person, place or thing. Example - Priya, Delhi.


• • Common Noun: Common nouns refer to general & unspecific categories of entities. They can be the name of common things or class of objects. Example - men, chair, girls.


• • Collective Noun: They are nouns that refer to a group of something in a specific manner or the collection of some persons or things and represented as a singular noun. Example - jury, herd, flock.


• • Abstract Noun: Denotes something that cannot be seen, touched, etc. and signifies a quality. More ethereal, theoretical concepts use abstract nouns to refer to them. Example - manners, promise, fear, energy, love.


• • Materialistic Noun: Material nouns refer to materials or substances from which things are made. Example - cotton, rice, paper.

2. Nouns as Part of Speech - Further Classification and rules to use them:

Anu_Jain 01 Jan 1970

Nouns as Part of Speech - Further Classification and rules to use them:

• 1. Countable nouns- These are the nouns that can be counted are considered as individual and separable items. To the linguists, these countable nouns can occur in both single and plural forms. They can be modified by numerals and can co-occur with quantificational determiners like many, most, more, several, etc.
  Example - Pens, tables
  ⇒ We can use countable nouns with the indefinite articles a and an, which indicate one person or thing.
  Example - a notebook, an apple
  ⇒ We can also use countable nouns with the plural form of the noun. Example - three men, several mangoes, 12 apples


• 2. Uncountable nouns- Nouns which cannot be segregated, measured and counted as individual units or elements. E.G. water, information, money
  • Uncountable nouns cannot take an indefinite article (a/an), nor can they be made plural. They are also called as Mass Nouns.
  Examples are as follows:
  
  1. Incorrect - Would you like a coffee?
     Correct - Would you like coffee?
  
  
  2. Incorrect I have an information.
     Correct I have some information.


• 3. There are also other kinds of nouns which can be classified as –
  
  • Masculine - Ramesh, tiger
  • Feminine - Nisha, cow
  • Neuter - table, mansion

3. Noun as Part of Speech Functions As:

Anu_Jain 01 Jan 1970

Noun as Part of Speech Functions As:

• 1. The subject of a clause or sentence - The subject in a sentence or clause is the person or thing doing, performing the action of the verb.
  i) The dog ran after the scooter.
  Here, the noun ‘dog’ is performing the action of the verb ‘run’.
  ii) Manisha skips lunch every day.
  Here the proper noun ‘Manisha’ is performing the action of the verb ‘skip’.


• 2. An object of a verb Objects -Objects in grammar have three grammatical roles as follows:
  ⇒ the direct object of a verb
  ⇒ the indirect object of a verb
  ⇒ the object of a preposition.
  


• 3. Direct objects- Those objects which receive the action of the verb in a sentence or clause.
  (i) The dog ran after the scooter. Here the noun ‘scooter’ is receiving the action of the verb ‘run’.
  (ii) Manisha skips lunch every day. Here the noun ‘lunch’ is receiving the action of the verb ‘skip’.


• 4. Indirect objects- An indirect object is a person or thing that receives the direct object of the verb.
  (i) Kindly give Aasha the documents. Here, the proper noun ‘Aasha’ is receiving the direct object ‘documents’, which receives the action of the verb ‘give’.


• 5. An object of a preposition- Nouns are also used after prepositions to create prepositional phrases. When a noun is a part of a prepositional phrase, it is known as the object of the preposition.
  (i) Your laptop is on the table. Here the noun ‘table’ is the object of the preposition ‘on’, which creates the prepositional phrase ‘on the table’.

4. Additional information about Nouns as Parts of Speech

Anu_Jain 01 Jan 1970

Some Additional information about Nouns as Parts of Speech

1. There are some nouns which seem to be plural but are singular, such as Mathematics, physics, gymnastics, series, news.
   Example - A four-match series is being played between England and India in the Lord’s stadium.


2. There are some nouns which seem to be singular but exist in plural, therefore plural verbs are used with them. For instance, children, cattle, people, police, infantry.
   Example –
   Incorrect The police has arrived at the crime scene.
   Correct The police have arrived at the crime scene.


3. There are some nouns which are plural and exist in form but cannot be converted into the singular form. Note- Always use the singular verb with them until numbers are specified.
   Consider the following examples:
   • A pair of scissors have been misplaced by Rahul.
     Correct A pair of scissors has been misplaced by Rahul.
   • The contents of the agreement is unclear.
     Correct The content of the agreement is unclear.
   • All the evidences found against him were baseless.
     Correct All the evidence found against him was baseless.


4. When in a sentence there is a numerical adjective with a noun, we cannot use the plural of that noun if there is another noun after it.
   Example - She is a three years old toddler. Here, the plural of ‘year’ cannot be used as there is another noun (toddler) after it.
   Correct She is a three year old toddler.
   Alternatively, the following is also correct The toddler is three years old.


5. After the phrase, some of/each of/either of/neither/any of/none of, a plural form of the noun is used.
   Example –
   • i) Neither of the boys is rich.
   • ii) Mumbai is one of the biggest cities in India.


6. There are some nouns which exist both in singular and plural form. The nature of verb depends upon the sense of sentence and noun.
   i) The audience are humbly requested to be seated in their seats. Here, individual members of the audience are being talked about.
   ii) The audience is quiet. Here, the audience has been treated as a single unit.


7. The ‘apostrophe’ and ‘s’ (‘s) cannot be used with non- living things to show possession. Example –
   Incorrect The chair’s arms were broken.
   Correct The arms of the chair were broken.