Rosemarie S. VinluanBSSW 1-AEng 100 / English PlusMr. Lorenzo Ruiz C. Costo

Noun

Anoun(Latinnomen,name) is usually defined as a word denoting a thing, place, person, quality, or action and functioning in a sentence as the subject or object of action expressed by a verb or as the object of a preposition. In modern English, proper nouns, which are always capitalized and denote individuals and personifications, are distinguished from common nouns.Nounsandverbsmaysometimes take the same form, as in Polynesian languages. Verbal nouns, or gerunds, combine features of both parts of speech. They occur in the Semitic and Indo-European languages and in English most commonly with words ending in -ing.Compound NounsIt is a word made up of other words: a word that is formed from two or more identifiable words.Simple NounsThe term 'simple noun' is sometimes used to describe the nouns used to make a compound noun

Noun Classes Common and Proper NounStudents of English grammar classes are often confused by the difference between acommonandproper noun. Simply stated, a propernounis capitalized, whereas a common noun is not. Any grammar teacher, however, will tell you that the difference goes deeper than that: there are special rules for identifying and creating proper nouns, and these might take special studying to understand completely.The English language is unique in what it considers to be proper nouns and what it considers to be common nouns. Read on to learn more about the difference between a common and proper noun, how to use them correctly in sentences, and how to come up with your own examples of each. Defining a Common NounA common noun is any generic uncapitalizednoun. Most of the time, these nouns end in s to indicate plurality.A common noun is only capitalized when it is at the beginning of a sentence.A basic definition of a common noun is a person, place thing or idea that is not specific to a certain, particular, or named person, place, thing, or idea.

Defining a Proper NounIn truth, a proper noun functions exactly the same way a common noun does, in that it is a person, place, thing, or idea. However, this proper noun is capitalized. You use them the same way in a sentence as a common noun, but it retains its capitalization whether or not it is at the beginning of a sentence.Proper nouns include the days of the week, the months of the year, towns, cities, streets, states, countries, and brands. Names are all proper nouns, too! Notice how your own first, middle, and last name are all capitalized: they are proper nouns because they indicate a specific, particular person you! Concrete NounsPeople, places, and things are all concrete nouns. Theyre things you can see or touch such as kittens and puppies, trees and flowers, sticks and stones, and cities and countries. Abstract NounsPeople often find abstract nouns more confusing. Theyre things such as concepts, feelings, ideas, states of mind, and attributes. For example,honor,loyalty,courage, truth, andfreedomare all abstract nouns.If you have an abstract word like those, and you want to test whether its really a noun, one way to do it is to see if you can replace the word with one that is more recognizable to you as a nouna concrete noun. Countnouns refer to things that can be divided up into smaller units which are separate and distinct from one another. They usually refer to what can individually be seen or heard: Noncountnouns refer to things that cannot be counted because they are regarded as wholes which cannot be divided into parts. They often refer to abstractions and occasionally have a collective meaning Collective NounA collective noun refers to a group of people, animals or objects as a group; family, company, etc. When a collective noun is used in thesingular, theverbcan be eitherSingularorPlural.

Noun Forms

Number (Singular & Plural)

Singular grammarnot plural: referring to one person or thing.

Plural

referring to more than one: having a grammatical form that refers to more than one person or thing.

Gender (Masculine, Feminine, Indefinite, and Neuter)

Masculine NounsMost masculine nouns end in -o. Ending in an -o can indicate that a person or animal is male, or just an object, idea, etc. that is grammatically masculine. Feminine NounsMost feminine nouns end in -a. Ending in an -a indicates that a person or animal is feminine or that an object, idea, etc. is grammatically feminine. Indefinite NounsAn indefinitenounis a type of noun that is not specific in its reference. In general, indefinite parts of speech are words that dont reference a given instance, but to a generic or open instance of a word. Observing the difference between definite and indefinitenounscan help language beginners understand more about a language.Experts describe an indefinite noun as a noun that doesnt refer to something that is known or familiar, but to something that is theoretical or random. For instance, an English speaker who refers to "a dog" or "a cat" is using indefinite nouns to refer to any dog or cat. The same speaker referring to the dog, or saying a particular dogs name, is talking about a definite dog. Likewise, talking about the cat, or referring to the cat by name replaces an indefinite noun with a definite one. Neutergrammarin some languages: of or belonging to the class of words (called a gender) that ordinarily includes most of the words referring to things that are neither masculine nor feminine.Case Nominative CaseThenominative case(abbreviatednom) is one of thegrammatical casesof anounor other part of speech, which generally marks thesubjectof averbor thepredicatenoun or predicate adjective, as opposed to itsobjector otherverb arguments. Generally, the noun "that is doing something" is in the nominative, and the nominative is the dictionary form of the noun.

Objective CaseThe objective case is used fornounsandpronounswhich function asobjects. There are three types of object: adirect object, anindirect object, and anobject of a preposition. Possessive CaseThepossessive caseof a noun is used to show ownership (Jordan's car, my sister's house) or other close relationship (the president's friends, the university's position).Identifying Nouns In SentencesNounsmaybeinflected to indicate gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), number, and case. In modern English, however, gender has been eliminated, and only two forms, singular and plural, indicate number (how many perform or receive an action). Some languages have three numbers: a singular form (indicating, for example, one book), a plural form (indicating three or more books), and a dual form (indicating, specifically, two books). English has three cases of nouns: nominative (subject), genitive (possessive), and objective (indicating the relationship between the noun and other words).

.