Types of Nouns

There are two ways in which nouns can be classified.

Traditional Classification
Modern Classification

Traditional Classification

Proper Noun

Proper Noun - the name of some particular person, place, thing or animal.

Examples: - The Red fort, Delhi, Duster, Tigger

Shiva is my friend.
I live in Greater Noida.

Proper Nouns are always written with a capital letter at the beginning.
We use zero article before a proper noun.

Common Noun

Common Noun - a name given in common to every person, thing, place or animal of the same class, category or kind.

Examples: - Boy, girl, dog, country, capital, etc.

Asoka was a great king. (Ashoka – proper noun; king – common noun)
Kangna is a very intelligent girl. (Kangna – proper noun; girl – common noun)

Unlike proper noun, common nouns are always written with a lowercase letter at the beginning.
Unlike proper noun, we compulsorily use some article before a common noun.

Proper Nouns can sometimes be used as Common Nouns:
Tesla was the Lukman of his age.
Kalidas is often called the Shakespeare of India, but rather it should be the other way round.

Collective Noun

Collective Noun - the name of a collection of similar persons, things or animals taken together and spoken of as one whole.
E.g. Crowd, mob, team, flock, herd, army, fleet, jury, family, nation, parliament, committee.

The jury found Ted Bundy guilty of serial killings.
The cops dispersed the crowd.
The German army was defeated in France.

Note: Try to learn the most common collective nouns. It makes your writing and speech look stylish.
In case you forget them, then you can use words like a group of, a bunch of.
E.g. A bunch of bananas.
You can say a group of criminals instead of a gang of criminals.

Verbs and Pronouns to be used with collective nouns

Usually collective noun is used as singular (when it shows one collection).
Here, verb – singular; pronoun – singular (E.g. it, its, itself)

Examples:
The crowd was surging. It was swelling too. (was – singular verb; It – singular pronoun)
The board has decided to elect its chairman. (has - singular verb; its - singular pronoun)
The jury is unanimous in its decision. (is - singular verb; its - singular pronoun)

Note: we never use he / she / him / her etc for collective names.
The government is doing her work. (incorrect)
The government is doing its work. (correct)

Collective nouns can be used as plural too (When talking about more than one collections or one collection with a case of division or when talking about the individual members of a collection).
Here, Verb – plural; Pronoun – plural (they, them, their, themselves etc.)

They can be used as plural if:

when we talk about two or more collections
The crowds at two places were surging. They were swelling too. (were – plural verb; they – plural pronoun)
there is a division among the members of the collective noun
The jury were divided in their opinions. (were – plural verb; their – plural pronoun)
the individual members are being talked about.
The team have to get their uniforms altered. (have - plural verb; their – plural pronoun)

Note that some collective nouns are always used as plural, as they are always seen as individual members forming that group, e.g. Police.
Police have registered the case. (have – plural verb)

Abstract Noun

An Abstract Noun is usually the name of a feeling, quality, action, or state considered apart from the object to which it belongs. It has no physical existence. E.g. :

Feelings – love, sadness, happiness.
Action - laughter, theft, movement, judgment, hatred.
Quality - goodness, kindness, whiteness, darkness, hardness, brightness, honesty, wisdom, bravery.
State - childhood, boyhood, youth, slavery, sleep, sickness, death, poverty.

The names of the Arts and Science (e.g. grammar, music, chemistry, etc.) are also Abstract Nouns.

Formation of Abstract Nouns

Abstract Nouns are formed:

From Adjectives:
Kindness (from kind); honesty (from honest).
[Most abstract nouns are formed this way.]
From Verbs:
Obedience (from obey); growth (from grow).
From Common Nouns:
Childhood (from child); slavery (from slave).

Can Abstract Nouns be Plural?

Abstract noun is uncountable in general (with some exceptions). So, generally we use it in singular. E.g. time, beauty, death, music etc.

Some exceptions:
demand, demands; life, lives; death, deaths; time, times

life:
It is uncountable when it implies the phenomena of life (so we cannot say lives).
lives are beautiful. (incorrect)
life is beautiful. (correct)

However, it is countable when it implies a person.
Every life is precious. (correct)
All lives are precious. (correct)

death:
It is uncountable when it implies the phenomenon of death (so we cannot say deaths).

However, it is countable when it implies a person.
Many deaths have occurred in China due to coronavirus. (correct)

Material Noun

It is the name of a substance/matter.
E.g. Cotton, Gold, Milk

Can Material Nouns be Plural?

Material noun is singular. We can’t use s/es to make it plural.
E.g. Silver is white.

However, if there are more than one material which have not been mixed, then we can use plural:
E.g. Iron and gold have been kept separately.

If they are mixed then we have to use singular:
The required mixture of iron and silver has been made.

Modern Classification

Countable nouns

Definition:
Countable nouns (or countables) - the names of objects, people, etc. that we can count.
E.g. book, dog, apple, girl, engineer.

A noun which can be made plural is called countable Noun.

Only Common nouns (and Compact Collective nouns) can be countable nouns.

Uncountable nouns

Definition:
Uncountable nouns (or uncountables) - the names of things which we cannot count (mainly substances and abstract things).
E.g., milk, oil, air, sugar, salt, gold, love, honesty.

A noun which can’t be made plural is called uncountable noun.

Only Material or Abstract nouns (and also Non-compact Collective nouns) can become uncountable nouns.

Countable nouns have Plural forms

Countable nouns have plural forms while uncountable nouns do not.
For example:
Books (correct)
Milks (incorrect)

So, with uncountable nouns we always use singular verb and singular pronoun.

Use of Articles with Countable nouns

We can use a/an before countable nouns.
We’ve got a dog. (dog – countable noun)

Uncountable nouns are not used with a/an.
It’s healthy to breathe some fresh air in the morning. (air – uncountable noun)

Extra Books and Tools

If you prefer to learn via books, or want some good English Grammar books for reference purposes, you may read this article which enlists some of the books recommended by us.

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Last updated on Apr 8, 2023