This text explains different types of nouns, including collective, abstract, concrete, proper, compound, count, and mass nouns. Examples and definitions are provided for each type.
A noun is an important part of speech and its usage varies according to the language spoken. Some of the different types include collective, abstract, and concrete. Also, these words can be own, compound or counted. You usually don’t need to know the name of a particular type to use it correctly, but it can help.
Collective nouns are a category that represents a group of things, such as the word “group.” While this word is trivial, there are many specific collective nouns. For example, a group of ferrets may be referred to as “busy” and a group of hounds may be referred to as “crying.”
An abstract noun represents immaterial or abstract ideas. For example, “talent” is abstract because it refers to a person’s concept of ability. Other examples include words that represent feelings, such as “helplessness.”
Concrete nouns are essentially the opposite of abstract ones. While abstract words represent ideas and feelings, concrete ones represent things generally understood by the human senses. For example, a “person” is concrete because people can be seen, heard, and smelled.
A proper noun is the name of a person, place, or thing. “John Smith” falls into this category because it is a person’s name. Also, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a place name. Proper nouns are almost always capitalized in the English language, but the words “of” and “and” are conjunctions that shouldn’t be capitalized in this situation.
Compound nouns consist of two words, both a noun. For example, toothpaste, chewing gum and calcium are compounds. Blackboard no, because black describes an object, and therefore is an adjective. A compound word that includes an adjective is not included in this category.
A count noun is something that a person can count. Computers, fingers and websites are included in this type, while oxygen and cranberry juice are not, as they cannot be counted. If there can be more than one of something rather than just more then it falls into this group.
To understand a mass name, it’s best to know what a count name is. Mass names are things that cannot be counted, like oxygen, history and poetry. A person can have more oxygen and know more about history or poetry, but he cannot have two oxygens.
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