Campus Recruitment – Verbal Ability – Noun
NOUN
Nouns are commonly called naming words, i.e. names of persons, places, things, quality and material.
Nouns are of five kinds:
- Proper nouns are names of persons, places, rivers and mountains.
E.g: Ravi, India, Hyderabad, Godavari, Himalayas. These always start with a capital letter. - Common nouns are names given commonly for places, persons, animals, things etc.
E.g: village, town, boy, girl, dog, pen, pencil, trees, etc - Collective noun is the name given to a group of animals, things and people.
E.g: a staff of teachers, a school of fish, a flock of birds, a bunch of grapes etc. - Abstract noun is the name given to things which cannot be seen or felt, but thought of.happiness, wisdom, intelligence, patience etc.
- Material nouns refer to the names of material of which products are made.
E.g: wood, leather, silk etc.
Apart from this, nouns are also classified according to number and gender.
Number:
- All nouns which can be counted are called countable.
E.g: books, girls, pens, rooms, villages etc. - Nouns which cannot be countable are called uncountable.
E.g: milk, oil, hair, stars, news, advice, information etc.
- Countable nouns can be either singular or plural. Singular denotes one and plural denotes more than one. Plurals are formed by adding- ‘s’, ‘es’ or ‘ies’.
E.g: Girl – Girls, Church – Churches, Lily – Lilies. - Words ending in’/ and ‘fe’ change into ‘ves’.
E.g: Life – Lives, Wife – Wives. - Plurals are also formed by changing the middle vowel,
E.g: Man – Men, Foot – Feet, Mouse – Mice - Words ending in ‘y’ preceded by a consonant change into ‘ies’ to form plurals.
E.g:Story – Stories, Baby – Babies, Lady – Ladies. - Words of foreign origin form their plurals in a different way.
E.g: Alumnus – Alumni, Curriculum – Curricula, Medium – Media.
There are certain exceptions to these rules which have to be memorized.
E.g: Ox – Oxen, Roof – Roofs, Safe – Safes. - Some nouns do not have a plural form and are always used with a singular verb.
E.g: advice, news, furniture.
The news is good.
Wooden furniture is expensive.
Your advice has been taken. - Units of counting hundred, thousand, pair, dozen, score etc, retain their singular
form when used after numbers.
E.g:
She bought two score papers for her project.(not two scores)
I need three dozen eggs.
Four hundred chairs were ordered for this hall. - Some nouns are used only in the plural:
- Names of certain instruments which are used as a
pair: scissors, pincers, pliers, tongs, spectacles. - Names of certain articles of dress: trousers, pants, shorts.
- Names of certain diseases: mumps, measles.
- Names of certain games: billiards, draughts,
E.g:His new spectacles are very expensive.
These tongs are damaged.
His trousers are short.
Billiards is an interesting game.
- Names of certain instruments which are used as a
Gender:
There are four types of genders.
- Masculine gender refers to males.
E.g: man, boy, lion, conductor. - Feminine gender refers to females.
E.g: woman, girl, lioness, conductress. - Common gender refers to both males and females.
E.g: child, teacher, engineer, servant. - Neuter gender refers to lifeless or inanimate objects.
E.g: table, book, chair etc.
Troublesome Rules and Confusing Areas
- Failure in identifying nouns leads to common mistakes. Nouns generally end in:
-ness – kindness, sadness, happiness -tion – nation, ration, action -ssion – commission,omission, permission, mission -er – player, driver, scavenger -ice – justice, practice -sion – division -ance – finance -ment – government, increment -hood – neighborhood, childhood -dom – freedom, kingdom, martyrdom -cy – hesitancy, piracy, conspiracy -ist – florist, chemist, dentist -ity – charity, enmity, locality -ship – friendship, workmanship - Plurals of possessive nouns, which end in the letter ‘s’, are formed by adding an apostrophe after the word,
E.g: Srinivas’ desk, students’ notebooks, girls’ hostel. - In case of joint possession, only the last word shows possession.
E.g: Rani and Raju’s dog. - In compound nouns only the last word shows possession.
E.g:Father-in-law’s house, Editor-in-chief’s office. - Material nouns are not used in plural numbers,
E.g:This furniture is made of wood, (not woods) - A collective noun usually takes a singular verb and is substituted by a singular pronoun.
E.g: The team has performed well. It has scored the highest number of runs in this series.
But, if the members of the group act as individuals, not as a group, then the collective noun takes a plural verb and is substituted by a plural pronoun,
E.g: The council has submitted its report.
(Here, the council is used as singular. So, singular verb, has is used)
The council are divided on the outcome of the issue.
(Here, the council is used as plural. So, plural verb, are is used).
Correction of Sentences
- The crowd were very big. (was)
- The chair is made of woods.(no plural for material nouns)
- My spectacles is broken.
(spectacles is always plural so verb should be ‘are’. Spectacle also means scene). - The Indian Army are helping the people of Nepal affected by earthquake, (is)
- Sachin Tendulkar scored more than twenty thousands runs in test cricket.
(thousand – units of counting retain singular form). - His trouser is new. (trousers – always plural)
His trousers are new – Correct. - He has a lot of properties, (property – abstract nouns not used in the plural)
- He has bought new furnitures, (furniture-no plural)
- She has got her hairs cut. (hair – not countable)
- You must brush your teeths regularly.(teeth itself is the plural form)
- The childrens of this school have performed well in the public examination.
(Children – itself is the plural form) - His wives purse was stolen, (wife’s)
- I am visiting the New Delhi.(no article needed for proper names)
- He ate two breads for breakfast.(two slices of bread, bread in not countable)
- Ten miles are a long distance, (is)-a unit of distance so used as a singular.
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