Nouns In English: Definition, Function, and Type of noun

Definition Of Noun: 

What is a Noun?

The simplest definition of a noun is a thing and nouns are the basic building blocks of sentences. These things can represent a person, animal, place, idea, emotion – almost any thing that you can think of. Dog, Sam, love, phone, Chicago, courage and spaceship are all nouns. The more nouns you know in a language, the better you will be able to communicate your ideas. Here, we’ll take a closer look at what makes a noun, and we’ll provide some examples of how nouns are used.

Noun examples: respect, faith, apple, seashore, peanut, motorcycle

Noun examples in the following sentences are in bold for easy identification.

1. The boy and girl were holding hands as they crossed the bridge on the way to town.
2. John loves watching the cat playing with the pink yarn.
3. Visiting Big Ben was a highlight of the trip to England.

 

The Function of Noun

1.      Noun as a Subject

noun can be used as a subject paired with a verb. For example, "Aisya eats an instant noodles" Aisya’s name here is a noun as a subject followed by verb, eat.

2.      Nouns as Objects

In addition to being a subject, the noun function can also be an object. For example, "Aisya eats an instant noodles" The noodles in that sentence belong to the noun.

 

3.      Nouns as a Complement

It's not just a subject or an object. You can even use the noun function as a complement to sentences. For example, "Aisya is a teacher". the word “teacher” here as a complement

 

Type of Noun:

1.      Countable : It's important to know if a noun is countable or uncountable, because this is going to tell us if we use words, like: "a" in front of the word, and it will also tell us which words we cannot use with these words. So... And whether or not we need to add an "s" to the end of the noun if there's more than one. the first thing you need to know with a countable noun is when we have a countable noun, we need to put an "a" or an "an" in front of it. So, for example: "I have a dog. I have a computer. I have a lamp. I have a chair." So, notice I'm putting "a" in front of all of these. If the noun starts with a vowel sound, so for example: "a" is a vowel, "e", "i", "o", "u" - these are all vowels. And if it starts with a vowel sound, then we use "an". "I have an apple. I have an egg. I have an ant." We use this if the first sound of the word is a vowel. So, the second thing you need to know is that with countable nouns a lot of the time we can count them. A countable noun is something you can count, or... Usually it's something, or an animal, or, you know, a place - it's something you can count. So, for example: "I have a book." This is one book. "I have two books.", "I have three books." So, this... You can count books and it's a countable noun. "I have two chairs. I have five dresses." These are all countable nouns. When we have more than one countable noun, so for example, here we have one, here we have two. If we have more than one-so two, three, four, five, six-we need to add an "s". This shows us that there is more than one. And also notice that we don't need this in front of the noun anymore. So, we cannot say: "a books", because the "s" means there's more than one, so this would not match. Okay. What else do we need? So, we need an "s" or an "es" if we have more than one of this type of object or noun. Here's another example: "I have one sister.", "I have three sisters." So, notice here, you can count the number of sisters I have, and so I've added an "s". Now, we have some exceptions. For example, the word "moose". You can count the number of moose, but we never add an "s". It's... It's a strange exception. In English, you'll notice we have a lot of exceptions. We break rules a lot of times in English. It's the same with "fish". You can count the number of fish, but we don't... You change this word if there's more than one. I can't say: "I have five fishes." Okay? I would say: "I have five fish." So, sometimes there are exceptions with count nouns or countable nouns.

 

2.      Uncountable: An uncountable noun is a noun where you do not use "a" or "an" in front of it. Okay? So, for example, an uncountable noun is "happiness". I do not say: "a happiness". Okay, so that's no. So, we do not use "a" or "an". We also don't add "s" or "es". Okay? And the reason we don't add "s" or "es" is because the idea of uncountable is you can't count it. Now, there are many exceptions to this, but in general, an uncountable noun is something you can't really count. So I want you to think, for example, of happiness. Can you count happiness? Can you say: "One happiness, two happiness; my friend has five happiness"? You can't really count it. It's the same with words, like: "sadness" or with, you know, "stress". These are things that are abstract and they're things you can't really count. Okay? So, because of that, we do not add "s" or "es" to uncountable words. Another thing you'll find with uncountable words, and this is where it kind of gets a bit tricky, is a lot of uncountable nouns are actually categories. So, for example: "furniture" is an uncountable noun. In English, you don't count furniture. So, you would... You would not add an "s" to the word "furniture"; it's always the same. "I have furniture at my house." I do not say: "I have a furniture." No. In English, you can't do that. You say: "I have furniture." There is no "a" or "an". It's the same with the word "clothes". "Clothes" never changes; it always stays the same. I cannot say: "I have a clothes." I cannot say: "I have four clothes." Okay? In English, we can't do this, and this is because these are categories. It's the same with "money". And a lot of students get really frustrated with this, because in their language, you can count these things. So, I understand that and I understand, you know, languages are very different, but in English you cannot count these things in the same way. They're considered categories. So, in English, I cannot say: "I have five money." And I also don't add an "s" to "money". It always stays the same. I can say: "I have a lot of money" or "I have no money", but I can't actually put a number in front of money. So, what can you do is... We're looking at categories, there, but within each category there are things you can count. So, for example: "furniture" is uncountable, but tables, chairs, desks, refrigerators, ovens - these are all things we can count. So, "furniture" does not have an "s", but these other words do within the category. "Clothes", again, we never change it; it always is the same, but types of clothes we can have as countable. So, we can have five dresses, you know, 10 socks. So, you can count a lot of clothes. With "money", we don't... Like I said, we don't add an "s", but we can count coins. Okay? So we can count coins. "I have five coins. I have seven bills." So, within the category, you can count, but the category itself we cannot put an "s" on that because it is an uncountable noun. A lot of the times different types of food and different types of drinks are also uncountable. So, for example: "milk". We do not count milk. In English, we can't say: "I have one milk. I have six milk." What we can do is we can add a container to this word or we can add an amount, so that's okay. So, what we can say is: "I have a glass of milk." Okay? Or: "I have five glasses of milk.", "I have two cups of milk." So, "milk" itself never changes, but the quantity or the amount can. It's the same with, for example, "juice". "I have eight cups of juice", but "juice" itself... The word "juice", we can never say "juices". Okay? So that... It doesn't change because it's an uncountable noun. And we'll look at more examples of this in full sentences in a moment. "Mustard" or "ketchup", these are more examples. We do not say: "I have 10 or 20 mustards." No. We can't count this, so we always keep it the same; or we can add a container or a quantity. "I have five bottles of mustard." Okay? So... And it's the same with these words, too. "I have 10 pieces of furniture." So, we can put a quantity in front, but the actual word itself is an uncountable noun.

 

3.      Conrete: Concrete nouns are people places or things, including animals. That you can see, that you can smell, or taste, or hear, or touch. So you can basically use your five senses. Let me give you a few examples. If we talk about people, you could say, a man or a teacher, or me, Fanny. Or Mr. Smith. If we talk about places, you could say, a house, a school. You could name a city like London. Very nice city. Or a beach. And if you talk about things, you could say a shoe, you could say a marker, you could talk about a dog or food like a pizza. These are concrete nouns.

 

 

4.      Abstrak: Abstrak noun are ideas, concepts, emotions. And you can't see an idea. You can't smell a concept. You can't taste an emotion. Or hear it. Or touch it. So they are nouns. They are things that exist, but you cannot see them, or taste them. You can't use your five sense. To give you a few examples, we could talk about love, or time, or religion, rules. These are all words that represent ideas, concepts

 

5.      Common and Proper: the difference between common nouns and proper nouns which are very important in English. So common nouns and proper nouns refer to people, places, things, ideas. Let's see a few examples. We could talk about people for example. A woman. That's a common noun. But if we talk about a specific woman, for example, me, Fanny. That becomes a proper noun with a capital 'F'. because, and you should know this, proper nouns are always capitalized. You could talk about places. A city. That's a common noun. But then you can name a specific city. Let's take a great city, London, of course. With a capital 'L'. Remember proper nouns - always capitalized. We can talk about things for example. An animal. Let's take a dog. A dog. That's a common noun. But if we take a specific dog, like Snoopy - capital 'S', that's the proper noun. If we talk about things again, but for example, a car, that's a common noun. But if we name the brand, the specific brand of the car like Honda, that's a proper noun. And it takes a capital 'H'.

 

 

6.      Collective: it refers to a group of people. For example audience, actress, army and commite. collective nouns can be used as singular nouns or plural nouns.