PARTS OF SPEECH – 2 – NOUN (KINDS, GENDER, NUMBER
AND CASE)
Kinds of Noun
Nouns are divided into two classes – Concrete nouns
and Abstract nouns. Names of persons or
things that we can touch and see are concrete nouns.
(e.g.) Rahul, Table, Water, Crowd, Silver
The names of things that have no physical existence
are abstract nouns.
(e.g.) Kindness, Wisdom, Darkness (quality), Theft,
Laughter (action), Death, Poverty, Sleep (state)
Apart from these, nouns are also divided into two
other divisions. They are countable nouns and uncountable nouns.
Countable nouns are the names of the nouns that can
be counted
(e.g.) book, tree, river, house
The uncountable nouns are the names of nouns that
can't be counted.
(e.g.) music,news,milk,courage,meat,progress.
The uncountable nouns won't have ‘a’ or ‘an’
(articles) and 'one' in front of them. Similarly, they won't have plural forms
too.
Concrete
nouns are subdivided into four groups
1. Proper Noun is the name of a person, place or a
thing.
(e.g.) John, Chennai, Everest
2. Common Noun is the name of a class of persons,
places or things
(e.g.) King, City, Mountain
He is the Shakespeare of our time (a proper noun is used as a common noun)
3.
Collective noun
is the name of groups of persons or subjects of the same kind, considered as a
single whole.
(e.g.) a team
of players, a herd of cattle, an army of the Russians
4.
Material noun is
the name of a material or substance out of which things are made.
(e.g.) Gold, Silver, Stone, Clay, Iron,
Wool
GENDER
Majority
of the living beings are of either male or female sex. The nouns that denote male animals or persons
are considered to be in Masculine gender.
(e.g.)
boy, king, hero, father, lion, bull
The
nouns that denote female animals or persons are considered to be in feminine gender.
(e.g.)
girl, queen, heroine, mother, lioness, cow
The
noun that denotes both male and female animals or persons are considered to be
in Common Gender.
(e.g.)
child, student, friend, neighbor, servant
The nouns that denote the inanimate things
i.e. those that don’t have life likeanimals and human beings are considered to
be in Neuter Gender. (Abstract nouns and Collective nouns)
(e.g)
book, tree, stone, crowd, beauty, truth
Feminine Gender words are also formed by adding –ess to the masculine gender words
Lioness,
hostess, countess, poetess, actress, princess
Feminine gender words formed placing a word before or after
He-goat,
She-goat; Man-servant, Maid-servant; Jack-ass, Jenny-ass; Bull-calf, Cow-calf;
(before)
Grandfather,
Grandmother; Peacock, Peahen (after)
NUMBER
There
are two numbers in English. A noun that
denotes one person or thing is said to be in singular
number.
(e.g.) boy, girl, dog, bird, tree, book, car
A noun that denotes more than one person
or thing is said to be in plural number.
(e.g.) boys, girls, dogs, birds, trees, books, cars
·
Plural nouns are
generally formed by adding –s to the singular
(e.g.) book-books; pen-pens; photo-photos;
roof-roofs;
·
Nouns ending in
–s, -sh, -ch or –x Add –es to the singular to become plural
(e.g.) class-classes; branch-branches; box-boxes; dish-dishes
· Nouns ending in –y change –y into –i and add –es to it to become plural.
(e.g.) baby-babies; army-armies;
lady-ladies; city-cities;
·
Some nouns
ending in –o add –es to the singular to become plural.
(e.g.) hero-heroes; echo-echoes;
volcano-volcanoes; potato-potatoes;
·
Several nouns
ending in –f or –fe, change –f or –fe into ‘v’ and add –es to the singular to
become plural.
(e.g.) wife-wives; knife-knives;
shelf-shelves; thief-thieves;
·
Some nouns form
their plural by changing the inside vowel of the singular
(e.g.) man-men; tooth-teeth;
mouse-mice; foot-feet;
·
A few nouns have
the old English plural ending –en
(e.g.) ox-oxen; child-children;
·
Compound nouns
generally form plurals by using the plural of the principal word.
(e.g.) son-in-law, sons-in-law;
passer-by, passers-by; foot-man,foot-men; Major-general, Major-generals;
Governor-General, Governors-General
·
A few compound
words have double plural
(e.g.) man-servant, men-servants;
woman-student,women students;
FOREIGN
WORDS IN ENGLISH HAVE FOREIGN PLURALS
·
Words ending in
–a have a plural in –ae
(e.g.) formula-formulae;
larva-larvae;
·
Words ending in
–us have a plural in –i
(e.g.) stimulus-stimuli;
radius-radii; fungus-fungi;
·
Words ending in
–um, have plural in –a
(e.g.) medium-media;
bacterium-bacteria; datum-data; curriculum-curricula; memorandum-memoranda;
·
Words ending in
–ex, -ix, -is, have a plural in –es
(e.g.)
index-indexes; axis-axes; analysis-analyses; crisis-crises;
hypothesis-hypotheses; synopsis-synopses; oasis-oases; thesis-theses;
·
Words ending in
–on, have a plural ending in –a
(e.g.) criterion-criteria;
phenomenon-phenomena
·
There are a few
nouns ending in –ry. They are singular
nouns
(e.g.) imagery, scenery, poetry,
machinery, stationary
·
There are some
nouns that have the same form in the singular and plural
(e.g.) sheep, deer, trout,
salmon, means, innings, gallows
·
There are some
nouns those go in pairs. They should be used only as plural
Scissors, spectacles, trousers,
pants
·
There are some
words denoting subjects of study that are in plural form but have singular
meaning
Mathematics, Physics, Politics,
Economics, Civics
CASE
A
noun which is the subject of a verb is said to be in Nominative Case
(Subjective case)
John
(subject) met Mohan (object) in the office.
A
noun which is the object of a verb (whom did John meet? – Mohan) is said to be
in Accusative case (Objective case)
This
is John’s bicycle. (Whose bicycle?-John’s)
A
noun that shows the possession is said to be in possessive case.
Ø Come here, John
(vocative-nominative of address)
Friends, Romans,
countrymen, lend me your ears (nominative of address)
A noun (a person or a thing) that
is addressed is said to be in the vocative case (nominative of address)
Ways of forming
possessive case
·
‘s- is added to
the singular nouns.
King’s
death, Cow’s milk, Dog’s tail
·
‘s- is added to
the plural nouns that don’t end in ‘s’
Women’s college, Men’s hostel,
Children’s park
·
Apostrophe ‘ added to plural nouns ending in ‘-s’and singular
nouns those have two or more ‘hissing’ sound.
Students’
union, Moses’ laws, in Jesus’ name, Merchants’ association
Malayalam
தமிழ்
https://youtu.be/l3p1tjZd0d8
-----Thulasidharan V
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