The Noun

The Noun

The noun denotes objects, substances, living beings (people and animals), abstract notions, different phenomena.

The semantic classification of nouns is based on their meaning, according to which they fall into different groups .

A common noun is the general name of an object, a place, a person, an idea (a computer, a city, a student, love, life).

A proper noun is the name of a particular person or of a geographical place (Mr. Mary, London, the Alps)

A common noun may be: Concrete/Abstract/Collective

A Concrete noun : names an object that occupies space and can be seen and touched (a flower, a CD, a banana).

Concrete noun fall into class and material:

A class noun refers an object to the same class or things (a book, a room, a man)

A material noun denotes substance and is generally uncountable (bread, juice, glass, coal, chalk)

An abstract noun names an idea, some quality or a characteristic ( freedom, happiness, competence, power)

A collective noun names a group of people or things ( a government, a family, people, clothes

Proper noun

Proper nouns may become common if:

1) the name of a painter, writer, inventor, designer, a firm is used to denote some work

2) they denote characteristic qualities of the bearer of the name ( but not the person himself)

Proper names: the city, parliament, congress, the tube, the tower, the channel , the globe, the (виды) sea

Collective Nouns

Collective nouns denote:

1) Groups of people (team, cast, family, company…)

2) Names of multitude ( police, people…)

3) Nouns which occur only in the plural form and require the verb in the plural ( clothes, goods, customs, arms, binoculars, glasses, trousers…)

a) The contents of smth ( a bottle, a bag, a room, a book) are everything that is contained in it

b) The contents of a speech, a television programme , an essay is its subject matter and the ideas that are in it, in contrast to such things as its form or style.

4) Nouns which are always singular in form (except the word "news") and take the verb in the singular. Here belong:

a) abstract nouns: advice, news, money, information, weather, rubbish, work, knowledge, progress, traffic, accommodation.

b) material nouns: baggage, luggage, jewellery, furniture, equipment, (bed)linen, clutter, litter, garbage, rubbish..)

c) names of diseases: measles, mumps, diabetes, shingles, hepatitis.

Classification of nouns

Countable: it can agree with the verb in the singular and in the plural; it can also take the indefinite ar- ticle. The indefinite pronouns (not) many or (a) few are used with it.

Uncountable: it agrees with the verb only in the singular; it can’t take the indefinite article. (not) much / (a) little are used with it.