The Abstract Noun






The Abstract Noun :

What is a noun?

A noun is a word used for naming anything Air, Book, Fish, Feeling, Gold. Hat, Man, Sea, Tea, Tree, Wind, Wood, Yacht, Youth.



A) The noun principally plays these roles.

- The role of subject

- The role of object

- The role of object of a preposition

- The role of noun in apposition

- The role of complement



B) Kinds of Nouns

1) The Proper Noun

A proper noun is a name for one particular person, place, thing or event, as distinct from every other.

Mohammad, Nadya, Egypt, England, Africa, Ahmad, Eyman, The Egyptian revolution... etc.



2) The Common Noun

A common noun is a name which is common to every and any person or thing of the kind.

Animal, Bird, Book, Car, Child, Man, Pen, River, Street, Theatre, Tree, Town.



3) The Material Noun

A material noun is the name of some particular kind of matter.

Copper, Fish, Gold, Iron, Milk, Salt, Water



4) The Collective Noun

A collective noun is the name of a group of persons or things taken as one complete undivided whole.

Army, Audience, Crew, Group, Herd, People, Police, Team... etc.



5) The Abstract Noun

An abstract noun does not denote objects of sense as it is the case with the first four kinds which arc all concrete.

Action, Attention, Beauty, Courage, Death, Fear, Grief, Happiness, Life, Love, Sweetness



C) The Genders of Nouns

There are four genders in English.

1) Masculine Gender for males

Boy, Brother, Cock, Father, Husband, Man, Uncle... etc.

2) Feminine Gender for females

Aunt, Daughter, Girl, Hen, Mother, Sister, Woman, etc.

3) Common Gender for either sex

Bird, Child, Cousin, Enemy, Friend, Parent, Teacher...etc.

4) Neuter Gender for lifeless things

Book, Box, Glass, House, Pen, Stone, Table...etc.

How can you form the feminine from the masculine?

1) By changing the ending

actor = actress

conductor = conductress

host = hostess

tiger = tigress

hero = heroine

author = authoress

director = directress

manager = manageress

waiter = waitress

2) By adding a feminine word instead of the masculine one

boy cousin = girl cousin

grand father = grand mother

manservant = womanscrvant

boy friend = girl friend

he-bear = she-bear

milkman = milkmaid

3) By changing the word

boy = girl

son = daughter

dog = bitch

king = queen

man = woman

sir = lady



D) The Gerund

Nouns can be formed from verbs by adding ING at the end of the verb.

Be = being

Come = coming

Love = loving

Play = playing

Read = reading

Sing = singing

Sleep = sleeping

Work = working



E) Forms of Nouns

There are three forms of nouns.

1. The Simple Noun

2. The Compound Noun

3. The Derivative Noun



1) The Simple Noun

Arm, Board, Ball, Bow, Chair, Fountain, Girl, Knife, Man, Pen, Rail, Rain, School, Snow, Song, Sound, Wind, Wing, etc….



2) The Compound Noun

arm + chair = armchair

black + board = blackboard

forget + me + not - forget-me-not

fountain + pen -tis = fountainpen

merry + go + round = merry-go-round

pen + knife = penknife

rail + way = railway

rail + way + man = railwayman

rain + bow = rainbow

school + girl = schoolgirl

snow + ball = snowball

snow + man = snowman

touch + me + not = touch-me-not

Note : That the first word in a compound noun is the qualifier and if the positions are reversed that may bring about a complete change of meaning.

Coffee-house….house-coffee

eye-glass….glass-eye

flower-garden….garden-flower

lamp-oil….oil-lamp

race-horse….horse-race

school-girl….girl-school



3) The Derivative Noun

to astonish + ment = astonishment

to build + ing = building

child + hood = childhood

todictate + ion = dictation

friend + ship = friendship

generous + ity = generosity

happy + ness = happiness

to sail + or = sailor

strong + th = strength

to write + er = writer



Note : If two vowels are met one at the end the other at the first of a noun one of them must be omitted.

write + er = writer



F) The Countable and Uncountable Nouns



Countable Nouns

one boy

two cats

three chairs

four eggs



Uncountable Nouns

ice

ink

salt

tea

2) The countable nouns have both singular and plural.

A pupil…..pupils

Chair…..chairs

This is a schoolboy.

These are schoolboys.

3) The uncountable nouns have only singular.

Salt is in the box.

Water is in the bottle.

Look! His face radiates happiness

4) But the uncountable nouns can be both countables and uncountables (singular and plural).

uncountables.....countables

ice......an ice

copper.......coppes

glass.......glasses

iron......an iron

tin......a tin

It’s easy to break glass.

I’ve already had three glasses of milk, but I want some more.



G) Partitive Nouns

When a noun refers to a part of something, it is called partitive noun.

A great number of people

A group of people

A handful of dust

A number of foreign stamp

A pair of shoes

A parcel of books

A piece of cheese

A sheet of paper







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