What Are Nouns?
Nouns are the names of people, places or things. There are different kinds of nouns.
- Proper nouns (India, Kerala, Hindi, Arabic, China, Amazon)
- Common noun (nations, country, student, book, mother, father, boy, girl, dog, cat)
- Collective noun (team, army, jury, choir, troop)
- Abstract noun (beauty, honesty, kindness, generosity)
Proper nouns always begin with capital letters. They are not normally used with articles.
Common nouns tend to have singular and plural forms.
Nouns have three properties – gender, number and case
Gender
The gender of a noun indicates the sex or absence of sex. The four genders are:
- Masculine gender
- Feminine gender
- Common gender
- Neuter gender
Masculine gender
The masculine gender denotes the male sex. Examples are: dog, boy, man, cock, bull, tiger etc.
Feminine gender
The feminine gender denotes the female sex. Examples are: bitch, girl, woman, hen, cow, tigress etc.
Common gender
The common gender denotes a noun that can be either a male or a female. Examples are: child, baby, student, pupil, animal, cousin, soldier, doctor, teacher, writer, friend, partner etc.
Neuter gender
The neuter gender indicates a lifeless object. Examples are: book, pen, paper, house, table, computer, phone, vessel etc.
Number
There are two numbers in English – singular number and plural number
A noun that denotes only one person or thing is said to be of the singular number. Examples are: girl, child, country, book, flower etc.
A noun that denotes more than one person or thing is said to be of the plural number. Examples are: girls, children, countries, books, flowers etc.
Case
The case of a noun can be classified into five,
- Nominative case
- Objective / Accusative case
- Possessive case
- Vocative case
- Dative case
Nominative case
When a noun or pronoun is used as the subject of a verb, it is said to be in the nominative case. To identify the noun used in the nominative case, ask the question Who or What to the verb.
Objective case
When a noun or pronoun is used as the object of a verb, it is said to be in the objective case. To identify the noun used in the objective case, ask the question Whom or What to the verb.
Possessive case
When a noun or pronoun is used in such a way that it shows ideas such as possession, ownership or authority, it is said to be in the possessive case. We usually form the possessive case of nouns by adding ‘s to the noun. Examples are: John’s, Rahul’s, India’s etc.
Vocative case
When a noun is the name of the person spoken to, it is said to in the vocative case. The vocative case is also called the Nominative of address.
- Wake up, Shyam. (Here the noun Shyam is in the vocative case.)
- Come here, Peter.
Dative case
When a noun or pronoun is used as the indirect object of the verb, it is said to be in the dative case.
- They gave him a warning. (Here the pronoun him is the indirect object of the verb gave. Hence, it is in the dative case.)
See also
