Noun

Now we will discuss about noun. There are many nouns that we can find surrounding us easily such as table, chair, teacher, happiness and many others. However it is not just like this. There are many kinds of the noun. It can be concrete and it can also be abstract. Here we will discuss all about the noun.

In my previous posting about Part of Speech, I had posted about the function of it. It is to point thing or person. However, it is not just this. We can say ‘happiness, freedom, stupidity, and etc’ as nouns. So, can you identify what category words above? Are they things or persons? We need to pay much attention to the noun because some parts of speech can be changed into the noun. For instance; the adjective ‘stupid’ can be ‘stupidity’. The word ‘stupidity’ here is classified as the noun and it is abstract noun. But don’t worry, here I will explain all about this.

Kinds of noun

1.       Abstract and concrete noun

a.       A concrete noun

·   A concrete noun is a noun that we can see, touch, and taste by using our sense or in another word it a real thing.

·   A concrete noun is a word for a physic object that can be perceived by the sense.

Example

·         Chair              : My chair is very expensive. It is made in Indonesia.

·         Table             : There are twenty-five tables in our class. We always keep them clean.

·         Teacher        : An English teacher is really skillful. He can explain the English material well.

Can you see, touch and taste all those words above? To prove that you can go to your class room where you can find those words easily and practice what I told you.

b.      An abstract noun

·   An abstract noun is something that cannot be seen. It is just about our feeling. We are just able to feel it or in another word it is unreal thing. It usually comes from other parts of speech such as verb and adjective.

·   An abstract noun is a word for describing a concept and it is an idea that exists in our mind only

Example

·   Happiness.

It comes from an adjective ‘happy’. When it is changed into noun, it is added by suffix –ness and drop ‘y’ to be ‘i’ (happy = happiness)

~  My happiness is ending (correct)

~  My happy is ending (incorrect), because after possessive adjective ‘my’ should be a noun.

·   Stupidity (stupid +- ity = stupidity)

~  May peace and salutation always be with our prophet Muhammad SAW for guiding us from stupidity to cleverness.

·   Development.

It comes from a verb ‘develop’. To make it a noun, we just need to add suffix ‘-ment’ (develop = development)

2.       Common noun

A common noun is a noun that is known commonly or in another definition, it is a word for kind or class of noun.

Example

·   Book                  : How many books should the students have for preparing the exam?

·   Stone                                : There are many stones that we can find surrounding us easily.

·   Bread                                : What bread do you like best?

Those words are commonly known. We do not tell about certain book, stone, or bread but here we tell about the general things. Can you compare between an English book and just a book? Which one is specific noun and which one is common noun? Everyone knows what a book is but not all people know what an English book is. Therefore, a book here is a common thing.

3.       Proper noun

Proper noun is a word for all nouns that are preceded by capital letter such as a name of country, people’s name and so on.

Example

·   Pontianak              : Pontianak is bigger than Teluk Pakedai.

·   Herman                  : Herman is an English student. He studies everyday.

·   Jakarta                    : My father is going to Jakarta tomorrow. He has packed his clothes.

4.       Collective noun

Collective noun is a word for a group of people, animals or objects considered as a single unit.

Example

·   Family                   : I like to gather with my family.

·   Team                     : We are a team. We may not blame each other.

·   Audience             : The audience is listening to the speaker seriously.

5.       Material noun

Material noun is a word for a name of noun based on material

Example

·   Asphalt   : Our Street is made of asphalt but our bridge is made of wood.

·   Silver       : I like gold rather than silver.

·   Gold        : She found a gold ring when she was going to market a week ago.

6.       Countable and uncountable noun

a.       Countable noun

A countable noun is a noun that can be counted such as student, car, computer and so forth.

~  How many students are in your class?

~  The computer needs repairing.

~  There are a lot of cars that we can find on the street.

b.      Uncountable noun

An uncountable noun is a noun that cannot be counted such as money, water, salt and so on.

~  Money is needed by all people in this world. We have to spend it as well as possible.

~  How much salt is needed for your coffee?

~  Water is sometimes dangerous but it is sometimes helpful.

7.       Noun compound

Noun compound is a noun that consists of more than one noun.

Example

·   Noun + noun (bathroom, classmate)

~  Bathroom is used to take a bath.

~  I love my lovely bedroom.

~  She has more than five classmates.

·   Gerund + noun (dinning room, speaking class)

·   Verb + noun (pick pocket, dance team)

That’s all about the noun. To check your understanding about it, please do the following exercises!

a.       Find and correct the errors in the sentences below!

1.       John’s sad is solved by earning much money.

2.       The different between girls and boys is in how they speak.

3.       Every man likes her beautiful.

4.       We need some solves to solve those problems.

5.       I live in rasau jaya but my parents live in Pontianak.

b.      Identify the following nouns whether they are countable nouns or uncountable nouns.

1.       Sugar

2.       Deer

3.       Helmet

4.       Sand

5.       Stone

c.       Make a sentence from:

1.       Concrete and abstract noun

2.       Common noun

3.       Proper noun

4.       Material noun

5.       Collective noun

6.       Countable and uncountable noun

7.       Compound noun

d.      Mention at least 5 words of each kind of noun.

Good luck!