Nouns

Nouns

Nouns are naming word. A noun names something.

Classification of noun:

                                                                                            Noun

                Concrete Noun                                                                                         Abstract Noun

     Proper Noun                    Common Noun          Collective Noun          Material Noun

Proper Nouns:

A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place or thing.

         i.            Names of people: Keats, Shelly, Byron, Shakespeare, Nazrul Islam, Rahim, Asma, etc.

       ii.            Names of days, months and public holidays:

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, . . . . . . . .

January, February, March, . . . . . . . .

Eid-ul-Fitr, Christmas, Durga Puja , . . . . . .

But we usually do not use capital letter at the beginning of a season. So we normally write summer, winter, autumn, etc.

     iii.            Names of places: Dhaka, Bangladesh, London, England, India, etc.

     iv.            Names of stars and planets: Mercury, Venus,  Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

But we normally write the earth, the sun, the moon, etc.

       v.            Names of institutions and organizations: Dhaka University, Nazrul University, Rajshahi City Corporation, The United Nations, National Heart Foundation, Food and Agriculture Organization, etc.

     vi.            Peoples titles: Captain, Queen, Governor, Doctor, Major, King, Colonel, Mr, Lady, Emperor, Prince, Miss, Father, Professor, President, Justice, Saint, Princess, Sir, Engineer etc.

   vii.            Names of newspapers and magazines: The Daily Star, The Daily Independent, The Daily Economist, The New york Times, The Times of India etc.

 viii.            Names of books, ships and plays : Merchant of Venice, Gulliver’s Travels, Bisher Bashi, Arabian Nights, Titanic etc.

                                                                                  Exercise-3

1. Find out the proper nouns from the following sentences:

a) I live in Khulna b) Mars is a planet. c) I read the Daily Star every day. d) Shakespeare wrote Othello. e) We left Dhaka last December. f) Nazrul Islam is our national poet. g) Dr Zahid is a medicine specialist. h)  I shall go to  Chittagong on Friday. i) Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. j) Princess Diana died in an accident.

2. Correct the following sentences using capital letters where necessary:

a) Suman lives in chittagon b) dr rahman is a child specialist. c) king fahad is a kind ruler. d) I read shesher kabita. e) I read the daily prothom alo. f) I met with mr samol paul yesterday. g) Rabindranath tagore is my favourite poet. h) my sister reads at jahangir nagar university. i) The river meghna flows to the bay of Bengal. j) mount everest is the highest peak in the world.

Common Nouns:

The general name of every person or thing of the same class or kind is called a Common Noun.

Examples:

There is no king in Bangladesh.

I like flower very much.

Shakil is an intelligent boy.

Proper Noun	Common Noun
Nipa	a girl
Tipu	a boy
Dhaka	a city
Friday	a day
January	a month
The Jamuna	a river
Asia	a continent
Bangladesh	a country

N.B:  A proper noun begins with a capital letter but a common noun does not require capital letter. Moreover, a proper noun does not usually take a determiner before it while a common noun takes a determiner.

Exercise-4

1.     Pick out the common nouns from the following sentences:

a.       This ring is made of gold.

b.      That chair is made of wood.

c.       The cow is a useful animal.

d.      A tree bears fruits.

e.       Give me a pen.

f.        She gave me a glass of water.

g.       Put the book on the table.

h.      Children like to watch television.

i.         The man is going to buy a house.

j.         Without money we cannot buy something.

Collective Nouns:

Nouns which refer to a group of people or things are called collective nouns.

Examples:

He presented me a bunch of flowers.

A herd of cattle is grazing in the field.

A collecting noun can take either a singular or a plural verb according to its use in a sentence.

 The committee has made its report.

The committee have made their report.

The public is unhappy about the rising prices of essential items.

The public are unhappy about the rising prices of essential items.

The jury was unanimous in its opinions.

The jury were divided in their opinions.

Here is a list of common collective nouns:

class, crowd, committee, team, public, population, army, police, navy, mob, crew, family, audience, press, government, majority, minority, aristocracy, staff, audience, enemy, flock, community, group, council, jury, cabinet, company, brood, media, herd, bacteria, data, gang, opposition.

Police, people, cattle are always plural and they take plural verb after them.

The police have arrested the thief.

Many people were present in the meeting.

The cattle are grazing in the field.

                                                                                 Exercise-5

1.      Pick out the collective nouns from the following sentences:

a.       Our class consists of thirty students.

b.       A committee of three was appointed.

c.       The crowd was very big.

d.       I bought a bunch of grapes.

e.       Our team won the match.

f.        The jury has returned a verdict of guilty.

g.       A herd of sheep is passing.

h.       The U.S.  army has invaded Iraq.

i.         A feet of ships has arrived at the port.

j.         The government has cut on taxes on many things.

2.       Fill in the gaps with right form of verbs given in the brackets.

a.       There – a large audience in the concert. (be)

b.       The audience –requested to keep silent. (be)

c.       The jury – ordered the hang the murderer. (have)

d.       The jury –divided in their opinions. (be)

Material Noun:

A material noun usually refers to the matter or substance of which the things are made.

e.g. brick, cement, rod, gold, wood, water, milk, iron, coal, salt etc.

Material noun does not take any article but when it is specified it takes the definite article ‘the’.

Coal is black.

The coal of Bogra is of good quality.

                                                                           Exercise-6

1.      Pick the material noun from the following sentences:

a.       Glass is transparent.

b.       Iron is the most useful metal.

c.       This table is made of ply wood.

d.       I prefer mutton to beef.

e.       She takes a glass of milk at night.

f.        Mango is my favorite fruit.

g.       Honey is sweeter than milk.

h.       Water has no color.

i.         He does not take sugar with tea.

j.         Ice floats on water.

Abstract Noun:

Abstract noun refers to the quality or states of a person or thing.

e.g. happiness, kindness, beauty, punctuality etc.

One kind of noun used as another:

a.       Proper used as common: If there are many persons of the same name.

e.g. There are three Sakirs in our class.

b.       Common used as Abstract: Means quality instead of a person.

 The mother (motherly affection) in the woman rose.

c.       Collective used as common: If collective noun used as plural.

There are five classes in our school.

Compound nouns:

A compound noun is a noun that is made up of two or more words to work as a single noun.

Forms of compound Nouns:

o   Open form: post office, dining room, swimming pool, police officer, high school, curriculum vitae, distance learning, middle class, heart attack, seat belt, tea cup, rest room etc.

o   Hyphenated: mother-in-law, father-in-law, commander-in-chief, fund-raiser, multi-storied, etc.

o   Closed form: breakthrough, dishwasher, notebook, birthday, birdwatcher, stepmother, bathroom, armchair, playground, chairperson, flashlight, football, hardware, newspaper, keyboard, airport, wallpaper, etc.

Open and closed form compound nouns form plural adding s/es after them but Hyphenated compound nouns form plural adding s/es after the first word. E.g. dinning rooms, mothers-in-law, notebooks etc.

Countable and Uncountable Nouns:

According to their usage  we group nouns into two-1. Countable nouns and 2. Uncountable nouns/Mass nouns

Countable nouns: Countable nouns are those that we can count in number. Such as a boy, two boys; a day, three days; a week, four weeks; a year, ten years, an idea, a problem, a suggestion, a journey, a newspaper etc.Proper nouns, Common nouns and Collective nouns are Countable nouns.

Some common countable nouns:

accident, account, actor, address, adult, animal, answer, apartment, article, artist, baby, bag, bank, battle, beach, bed, bell, bird, boat, book, bottle, box, boy, bridge, brother, bus, bush, camp, captain, car, card, case, castle, cat, chair, chapter, chest, child, city, class, club, coat, college, computer, corner, country, crowd, cup, daughter, day, doctor, dog, door, dream, driver, dress, ear, edge, effect, egg, election, engine, eye, face, farm, father, field, finger, foot, friend, game, garden, gate, girl, group, gun, hall etc.

Uncountable nouns/Mass nouns: Uncountable nouns are those that we cannot count. Water, bread, chalk, salt, honesty, beauty etc.

Abstract nouns and Material nouns are uncountable nouns.

To make uncountable nouns countable we use : measure word+of + uncountable noun

Examples:

a piece of information, a litre of milk, a jar of jelly, a glass of water, a bottle of honey, a bit of luck, a slice of bread, a plate of rice, a tube of toothpaste, a cake of soap,  a packet of washing powder, two acres of land, a piece of paper, a pinch of salt etc.

Some words can be used in two different ways: one countable; one uncountable.

Example:

Countable                                                                                               Uncountable/Mass nouns

There is a hair in your soap.                                                                    She has beautiful hair.     

What a lovely colour!                                                                            Films are very dull without colour.

The boy threw a stone at the window.                                            This building is made of stone.      

Isn’t she a beauty?                                                                                 The beauty of a mother’s love is matchless.

I have a light on my table.                                                                      The sun gives us light.

I have an iron for my clothes.                                                        Iron is a useful metal.              

We were still in British waters.                                                    Water is essential for life.

Mineral salts are essential for our body.                                   Salt is obtained from mine.

Football is a sport.                                                                           Do you like sport?

That’s is a nice painting.                                                                 Rina is good in painting.

I heard a harsh noise.                                                                      Noise can make us ill.

Nazrul had an interesting life.                                                      Life is short but art is long.

She baked a cake.                                                                             Have some cake.

Liquids are normally considered as mass noun, for example tea & coffee. But when these are used as  drinks and there is given order for these drinks then these are considered as Count nouns. Such we can say a cup of tea/coffee.  

Two teas/coffees, please.

Do you like coffee? (Here, coffee is a uncountable noun.)

We asked for two coffees. (Countable)

Some common uncountable nouns:

a)      Whole groups made of similar items:

bagging, clothing, equipment, furniture, garbage, jewellery, luggage, machinery, money, scenery, traffic

b)     Fluids:

Water, tea, coffee, milk, soup, petrol, blood, etc.

c)      Solids:

Ice, bread, butter, cheese, meat, gold, iron, silver, paper, wood, cotton, wool, etc.

d)     Gases:

Steam, air, oxygen, nitrogen, smoke, fog, pollution, etc.

e)      Particles:

Rice, corn, dirt, dust, flour, grass, hair, salt, sugar, wheat, etc.

f)       Abstractions:

Beauty, confidence, courage, education, enjoyment, fun, happiness, health, honesty, hospitality, intelligence, justice, knowledge, laughter, luck, music, patience, peace, progress, recreation, significance, sleep, truth, violence, advice, information, news, evidence, ----time, space, energy, homework.

g)      Languages:

Bangle, Arabic, Chinese, English, Urdu, etc.

h)     Academic disciplines:

Chemistry, engineering, history, literature, mathematics, psychology, etc.

i)       Recreations:

Football, cricket, chess, bridge, etc.

j)       Natural phenomena:

weather, dew, fog, heat, storm, lighting, snow, thunder, darkness, sunshine, electricity, fire, etc.

k)     Activities:

driving, swimming, walking, running, jumping, etc.

Uncountable nouns are always singular and Countable nouns can be either singular or plural.

Pair nouns:

Pair nouns are those that consists of two same parts. Such as trousers, pants, shorts, pyjamas, spectacles, glasses, scissors, shoes, binoculars etc. Pair nouns are always plural.

Example:

My trousers are dirty.

These scissors are not sharp.

These glasses are very expensive.

‘Pair’ can be used before these nouns.

Example:

I bought a pair of shorts.

She bought a pair of tights.

Singular and plural nouns:

Rules of making plural from singular-

a.      Nouns ending in s, ss, sh, x, z, ch are made plural by adding es.

Bus-buses, bush-bushes, box-boxes, watch-watches, brush-brushes, fox-foxes

o   If ch is pronounced as ‘ka’ then only s is added.

Monarch-monarchs, stomach-stomachs, etc.

b.      If singular nouns end in ‘o’ and there is a consonant before ‘o’ then they are made plural by adding es.

potato-potatoes, echo-echoes, tomato-tomatoes, hero-heroes, buffalo-buffaloes, mango-mangoes, cargo-cargoes, volcano-volcanoes, Negro-Negroes, hero-heroes etc.

c.       If singular nouns end in ‘o’ and there is a vowel before ‘o’ then they are made plural by adding s.

Bamboo-bamboos, radio-radios, cuckoo-cuckoos, studio-studios etc.

d.      If singular nouns end in ‘y’ and there is a consonant before ‘y’ then they are made plural by replacing ‘y’ with ‘i’ and adding es.

Army-armies, baby-babies, city-cities, duty-duties, lady-ladies, fly-flies, story-stories, family-families, country-countries etc.

e.      If singular nouns end in ‘y’ and there is a consonant before ‘y’ then they are made plural by adding s.

Boy-boys, day-days, play-plays, ray-rays, way-ways, toy-toys, monkey-monkeys, donkey-donkeys, key-keys, bay-bays etc.

f.        If singular nouns end in ‘f/fe’ then ‘f/fe’ then they are made plural by replacing ‘f/fe’ with ‘v’ and adding es.

Calf-calves, wife-wives

Exceptions:

Roof-roofs, hoof-hoofs, proof-proofs, chief-chiefs, dwarf-dwarfs, cliff-cliffs, gulf-gulfs, strife-strifes, safe-safes, scarf-scarfs/scarves

g.      Maximum singular nouns are made plural by adding s.

Book-books, ball-balls, bag-bags, cat-cats, dog-dogs, stick-sticks, cow-cows, girl-girls, pen-pens, table-tables, chair-chairs, ship-ships, etc.

h.      Letter, Number and Acronyms are made plural by adding apostrophe and s ( ’s).

t-t’s, i-i’s, B.A-B.A’s, 4-4’s

i.         Open and closed form compound nouns form plural adding s/es after them but Hyphenated compound nouns form plural adding s/es after the first word. E.g. dinning rooms, mothers-in-law, notebooks etc.

Some compound singular nouns form plural by making plural of both parts.

Men-servants, women-servants, lords-justices etc.

j.        Some singular nouns make multiple plurals and their meanings are different from each other.

Brother-brothers (own brothers)

                Brethren (brothers in society)

Cloth-     cloths (parts of cloths)

                 Clothes (dress)

Fish-        fish(many fishes of same kinds)

                Fishes (different kinds of fish)

k.      Some nouns are always singular.

Gallows, mathematics, economics, species, etc.

l.        Some nouns are always  plural.

Cattle, gentry, mankind, peasantry, people, public, police etc.

m.    Some nouns are same in singular and plural.

An apparatus-many apparatus, a deer- many deer, a cannon-many cannon, a sheep- many sheep, a swine-many swine

Identification of Noun:

age-marriage
al-arrival
ry-bribery
ist-typist
ance-importance
ence-intelligence
tion-prevention
sion-division
ure-failure
y-honesty
ty-safety
ity-ability
ness-illness
th-depth
or-visitor

er-teacher
ment-arrangement
ism-socialism
ship-friendship
hood-childhood
ief-belief
ice-advice
oof-proof
dom-wisdom

V+al=N ;  arrive+al=arrival N+al=adj ;nation+al=national

 

               

Position of Noun:

1.N+V         2.V+N      3.Linking verb +N     4.preposition+ N

5.Possessive +N  6.Headwordwn‡m‡e7.adj+ Noun.

1.N+V :Poverty Is a curse.

2.V+N:   They wanted help.

3.Linking verb +N : The main cause of air pollution is smoke.

4.preposition+ N:  He could not come here because of Illness.

5.Possessive +N: Because of Samira’s honesty her teacher love her.

6.Headword wn‡m‡e: The rich man came here.

7.adj+ Noun: The wonderful invention of modern science is computer.

Linking verb:   am, is, are, was, were, become, get, feel, seem, appear, look, test, smell.

Exercise-7

1.      Make the following sentences plural.

a.       This is a green leaf.

b.       I am a student.

c.       The girl has a clean tooth.

d.       A sentence has a verb.

e.       Every man is not happy.

f.        Every swine is a dirty beast.

g.       An elephant is a useful animal.

h.       A nurse has an apron.

i.         A bug is an insect.

j.         A building has a window.

k.       That is a foot of an animal.

l.         This book belongs to me.

m.    A building has a roof.

n.       Every girl has a handkerchief.

2.      Make the following sentences singular.

a.       Men have teeth.

b.       Cows are useful animals.

c.       Eagles are birds.

d.       They are engineers.

e.       Elephants are animals.

f.        Those girls have notebooks.

g.       They are not thieves.

h.       All cows have calves.

i.         We are unique men.

j.         These are ink-pots.