Material nouns refer to substances and are uncountable, concrete, and usually common. They cannot be pluralized and are always countless. They are further divided into concrete and abstract nouns and are mostly common names, but some are brand names.
A material noun is a word that refers to a type of substance, rather than individual particles of that substance. In grammatical terms, a material noun is uncountable, concrete, and usually common. It is called “material” because many nouns in this class are the materials that other objects are made of, such as cloth, metal, grain, etc., although there are some exceptions, such as rain or soap. Since most material names are substances, most are common names rather than proper names.
One way grammarians classify nouns is by counting versus no-counting nouns. In English, a quick check to find out whether something is a count or non-count noun is to put the word “a” in front of it; if it makes sense with the “a”, then it’s a count noun. A material noun is always countless, in the sense that it cannot be pluralized. Since, for example, “two muds” or “five tars” would not be referred to these are nouns with no count. Some material nouns, however, can be used as count nouns, such as “wine.” One could speak of “three different wines”, but in that case “wine” means “type of wine” rather than the substance of the wine itself, so it is no longer a material noun in that usage.
Nouns without a count can be further divided into concrete or abstract. Concrete nouns refer to objects that can be observed with the senses, such as zebras or coffee. Abstract nouns refer to intangible concepts, such as love or existentialism. Material names are concrete by definition since they refer to a substance. Even the noun “air,” which looks like an abstract material noun because it usually cannot be seen, is actually concrete because it can be felt. For example, you can feel the difference between hot and cold air.
One of the most basic distinctions grammarians make between types of nouns is common versus proper. Proper nouns are capitalized and refer to specific people or places, such as George Washington or Uganda, or even to brand names. Most material names are common names, as they are substances rather than people or places, but some are brand names, such as Lycra® or Spandex®.
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