The Noun
A Noun is a word used as the name of a person, place, or thing (The word thing is used to mean anything that we can think of).
KINDS OF NOUNS
- Proper Noun: A Proper Noun is the name of some particular person or place (Proper Means one's own. Hence a Poper Name is a person's own name).
- Common Noun: A Common Noun is a name given in common to every person or thing of the same class or kind (Common here means shared by all).
Ex: Ashoka (Proper Noun) was a wise king (Common Noun).
Note 1: Proper Nouns are always written with a capital letter at the beginning.
Note 2: Proper Nouns are sometimes used as Common Nouns; as,
- He was the Lukman (the wisest man) of his age.
- Kalidas is often called the Shakespeare (the greatest dramatist) of India.
Common Nouns include what are called Collective Nouns and Abstract Nouns.
Collective Noun: A Collective Noun is the name of a number (or collection) of persons or things taken together and spoken of as one whole.
Ex: crowd, mob, team, flock, herd, army, fleet, jury, family, nation, parliament, committee, etc.,
Abstract Noun: An Abstract Noun is usually the name of a quality, action, or state considered apart from the object to which it belongs.
- Quality:- Goodness, kindness, whiteness, darkness, hardness, brightness, honesty, wisdom, bravery, etc.
- Action:- Laughter, theft, movement, judgment, hatred, etc.
- State:- Childhood, boyhood, youth, slavery, sleep, sickness, death, poverty, etc.
The name of the Arts and Science (ex., grammar, music chemistry, etc.) are also Abstract Nouns.
Abstract Nouns are formed:-
- From Adjectived: as, Kindness from kind. Honesty from honest.
- From Verbs: as, Obedience from the obey. Growth from the grow.
- From Common NounsL as, Childhood from the child. Slavery from the slave.
Another classification of nouns is whether they are "countable" or "uncountable".
Countable Nouns (or countable) are names of objects, people, etc. that we can count, ex., books, pens, apples, boys, sisters, doctor horses, etc.
Uncountable Nouns (or uncountable) are the names of things which we cannot count, ex., milk, oil, sugar, gold, honesty. They mainly denote substances and abstract things.
Countable nouns have plural forms while uncountable nouns do not.
THE NOUN: GENDER
Masculine Gender: A noun that denotes a male is said to be of the Masculine Gender. (Gender comes from Latin genus, kind, or sort.)
Feminine Gender: A noun that denotes a female is said to be of the Feminine Gender.
Common Gender: A noun that denotes either a male or a female is said to be of the Common Gender; as, parcel, child, friend, pupil, servant, thief, relation, enemy, cousin, person, orphan, student, baby, monarch, neighbor, infant, etc.
Neuter Gender: A noun that denotes a thing that is neither male nor female (i.e., things without life) is said to be the Neuter Gender; as, book, pen, room, tree, etc.
Ways of Forming the Feminine of Nouns
There are three ways of forming the Feminine of Nouns:-
By using an entirely different word; as
Masculine Feminine
Bachelor maid, spinster
Boy girl
Brother sister
Cock hen
Drone bee
Father mother
Gentleman lady
Husband wife
Horse mare
Nephew Niece
Sir madam
Monk nun
By adding a syllable (-ess) as
Masculine Feminine
Author authoress
Baron baroness
Giant giantess
Patron patroness
Poet poetess
Shepherd shepherdess
Jew Jewess
Lion lioness
In the following -ess is added after dropping the vowel of the masculine ending.
Masculine Feminine
Actor actress
Conductor conductress
Founder foundress
Emperor empress
Prince princess
Waiter waitress
Master mistress
By adding a syllable (-ine, -trix, -a) as
Masculine Feminine
Hero heroine
Testator testatrix
Czar czarina
Sultan sultana
Signor signora
Fox vixen
By placing a word as,
Masculine Feminine
Grandfather grandmother
Granduncle grandaunt
Manservant maidservant
Landlord landlady
Milkman milkwoman
Peacock peahen
Salesman saleswoman
Washerman washerwoman
