Concrete Noun, Collective Noun, Abstract Noun,Countable Noun and Uncountable Noun

Concrete Noun

A concrete noun is a noun that names anything (or any one) that you can perceive through your physical senses: touch, sight, taste, hearing, or smell.

Student

Book

Dog

Pencil

Computer

The high lighting words in the following sentences are all concrete nouns:

 a.     The student handed the books to the Liberian.

 b.    Whenever we take the dog to the doctor, we are made to wait in a close room with no ventilation.

Collective Noun

A collective noun is a noun naming a group of things, animals, or persons. We can count the individual members of the group as a whole. A collective noun is a noun that is singular in form but refers to a group of people, animals or things.

Jury, herd, pack, army, crowed, mob, fleet, committee, team, flock, bunch, group, family, board

Examples:

The pack of wolves in found in this part of the reverse.

The jury is split on the issue.

The family meets every year during the winters.

The class was surprised at the announcement made by teacher.

Abstract Noun

An abstract noun is a noun which names anything which you cannot perceive through sight or touch, rather it is an idea, state, experience or quality of a person or thing.

Quality: kindness, darkness, goodness, brightness, softness, peacefulness, etc.

Action: movement, compromise, judgement, coordination, laugher, etc.

State: sleep, poverty, slavery, youth, childhood, etc.

Names of arts and science are also abstract nouns: biology, grammar, music, etc.

Countable Noun

Countable noun are object, people, places, etc. that can be count.

Bird, cat, pencils, Russians, pictures, boys, cars, men.

A countable noun can be singular-a bird, a box-or plural-cars, men.

 1.     We placed the pens, books, on the table.

 2.     Saroj found ten silver coins in a little pot buried in her garden.

 3.     The floods washed away the houses, cattle and tree.

 4.     This book contains plays, poems and stories.

Uncountable Noun

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts, etc. that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot “count” them. For example, we cannot count “milk”. But we cannot count “milk” itself.

Here some uncountable nouns:

Information, water, milk, understating, wood, cheese, justice

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Noun in English Grammer

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kitten’s bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens brown paper packages tied up with strings these are few of my favorite things.

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels door bells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings these are a few my favorite things.

Girls in white dresses with blue stain sashes snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes silver white winters that melt into springs these are a few of my favorite things.

The highlighted words in this song from the sound of music are nouns.

Nouns are commonly thought of as “naming” words, and especially as the names we use for people, places, animals, things, qualities, measures and so on.

A noun answers the questions: what is it? And who is it? Nouns are usually the first words that we learn a children.

Dog   ball   man   girl    beauty    truth      world

Types of Noun:

A noun may belongs to more than one type: it may be proper or common, abstract or concrete, and countable or non-countable or collective.

The different type’s nouns are:

Common noun

Proper noun

Concrete noun

Collective noun

Abstract noun

Countable noun (also called the count noun)

Non-countable noun (also called the mass noun)

Kinds of nouns

Noun are divided into two main classes called common nouns and proper noun.

Common noun:

A common noun is a noun that to a person, place, or thing in a general sense—usually, we write with a capital letter only when it beings a sentences.

Boy    girl        city         river    country

In each of the following sentence, the common nouns are highlighting:

 1.     The nearest service station is 10 kilometers away.

 2.     All the parks in the neighborhood are maintained by the girders employed  by the municipal council.

 3.     In the most schools, teachers are underpaid.

Proper noun

Proper noun response the names of a specific person, place, animal or thing. You always write a proper noun with a capital letter. The names of days of the weeks, months, historical places, schools, institutes, organizations. Religions their holy taxis and their adherents are proper nouns.

     Shaheed     aditi     Colombo     godvart    japan

     In each of the following sentences, the proper nouns are highlighting:

 1.     The Tamils migrate to srilanka from the southern state of Tamil nada in  India.

 2.     The names of Moses appears in the bible as well as the Quran.

 3.     India is home to Hindu, Muslim, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhist, Jains

and parses.

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THE MAIN CLASSES OF WORDS IN ENGLISH GRAMMER

The words in the English language are put into nine main classes. It is important to be able to recognize and identify the different types of words in English, so that you can understand grammar explanations and use the right word form in the right place.

These classes (except the article) are called the parts of speech.

Noun

Adjective

Pronoun

Verb

Preposition

Conjunction

Interjection

Article

Each parts of speech explains not what the word is, but how the words is used. In fact, the same words can be a noun is one sentence and a verb or adjective in the next.

NOUN

·       a person , place, thing / idea, quality, emotion

·       always a “subject” or “object”

·       forms plurals (usually with –s or –es)

·       often preceded by adjectives like good, clever and soft (also articles “the” and “a”)

Examples:

1.   mother Teresa

2.   Kolkata

3.   Table

4.   Knowledge

5.   Bravery

6.   Kindness

PRONOUN

A word that takes the place of a noun. Its antecedent is a noun.

Example: the man ran. He was being chased.

(Man is the accident of he)

Types of pronouns:

Personal: I / me, you, she/her, he him, it, we/ us, they/them (subj./ob.)

Demonstrative: this/that, these/those

Relative: who which that (act as conjunctions)

Intensive: I myself wrote this latter.

Reflexive: he told himself to slow down

Indefinite: either/any/anyone/someone/everybody/both/each/one etc.

Interrogative: who/whom/whose which (when ask a questions)

VERB

Shows action (except the verb to be)

Always forms a tense (past-present-future)

Always has a subject

ADJECTRIVE

Modifies, (i.e. describes or limits) a noun.

Example:

The big bus is moving.

ADVERB

Modifies a verb by showing the manner, time or place of the verbs actin, asking how-when-where.

Example:

She sang sweetly at the concert.

PREPOSITION

A word which shows a relation between a noun (or pronoun) that always follows it, and b) some other noun or verb in the sentence.

CONJUNCTION

Conjunctions joins elements within a sentence. These elements may be words, or group of words.

Coordinate- and/ but/ or/ for

INTERJECTION

A word that is interjected (i.e. thrown in) to a sentence without any connection to the test of the words. It is often used for emphasis and so may be accompanied by an exclamation mark.

Example:

Hye! Did you here that?

Well, I’ll think of something.

ARTICLES

A words that combines with a noun to indicate the type of references being made by the noun. The three main articles are the, an and a.

English has two types of articles:

Definite (the)

Indefinite (a, an)

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Phrases and Clauses in English Grammer

Both clauses and phrases are clusters of words.

A phrase is a group of words that has neither subject nor predicate. A phrase cannot stand alone as a sentence, but is used in sentences as single parts of speech.

The door (no subject)

The man at the gate (no predicate)

Across the road (a modifier-neither subject nor predicate)

There are several types of phrases:

Prepositional phrases (most common type phrase)

They function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. These act mostly as adverbs, sometimes as adjectives or nouns. Begging with a preposition they end with a noun or pronoun.

Example:

She walked to the station. (Adverb)

With a straight face he told a lie. (Adjective)

After sunset is a good time to go jogging. (Noun)

Absolute phrases

(Noun or pronoun and a participial with modifiers)

An absolute phrase has no grammatical connection to any part a speech, instead modifier the whole of rest of the sentence.

An uncertain future looming, I resigned from the present job.

Positive phrases

David, a technically correct batsman, can also be very aggressive.

Verbal phrase:

Infinite phrases:  act as nouns.

She wanted to sing.

Participle phrase: act as adjective.

Climbing to the top of the building. He treated a jump down.

Getting admission into a business school is my goal.

Clauses

A clause is a group of words containing both a subject and a predicate.

There are two types of clauses:

 1.   An independent clause, which functions alone and is not dependent on another clause for context or function.

 2.   A dependent clause, which cannot function, is independently.

It is dependent on another clause for context or function.

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Basic Sentence Pattern in English Grammer

A sentences must have three features:

A subject: about what or whom we are talking about.

A verb: tells what the subject is or is doing, and

And it must standalone or can make sense on its own.

Hecalled.    This is a sentence and it stands alone.

He                  is the subject.

Called            is the verb.

The following are not sentences, even though each has a subject and verb:

Because he called

When he called

He calling

These donotstandalone.

Of course, most sentences we speak or write have more than just a subject and verb, but to be complete, a sentence must have at least asubject and averb and be able to stand alone.

Sentences that are not complete are called sentencesfragments. Or fragmentssentences, or just fragments.

Reads the following examples carefully:

 1.  Subject + verb

We laughed.

The lion roared.

 2.   Subject + verb + direct object

Dickens wrote David Copperfield.

She narrated the story.

 3.  Subject + verb + subject complement

The judgment seemed fair.

Our house was large and airy.

He looked good.

 4.  Subject + verb+ direct object+ object complement

He named his son Amit.

Savita called nargis the flowers.

 5.  Subject + verb + indirect object + direct object

Aslam gave Savita the flowers.

 6.  Review and practice

Find the subject, verb, direct speech in the following sentences.

 1.  Here is my wallet!

 2.   The little boy helped the girl.

 3.   You seem sad today.

 4.   The sticker scored a goal.

 5.   The prisoner later became a priest.

 6.   The old man helped the little boy.

 7.   The boy ran to the market.

 8.   The woman narrated the horrific accident.

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Who and Whom Part 2

RULE 201:   keeping comparison parallel

Comparison must be logically parallel. That is, they must compare similar things.

Farhans build brother, is broad and muscular.

What two things are being compared? As written, the sentences are comparing farhans build directly to his brother. This is not a logical comparison: someone’s build is not in the same class of things as someone’s brother. In order to correct this error, we need to change the comparison.

Right: farhan’s build, LIKE his broad and muscular.

We do not need to repeat the world after brother’s it is implied.

Right: farhan’s build, LIKE that of the brother, is broad and muscular.

We can also use the word that to stand for build. If noun were plural, we would use those instead: farhan’s toes, LIKE THOSE of his brother, are short and hairy.

Right: farhan’s LIKE his brother has a broad and muscular build.

Example 18:

To go skateboarding is no longer popular as hockey. No error

The climate of Ranchi is better than Gaya (incorrect)

The climate of Ranchi is better than that of Gaya (correct)

Correct:   his drawing is as perfect his instructor’s.

[Instructor’s = instructor’s drawing]                               

Incorrect: the salary of a professor is higher than that of a secretary.

[That of = the salary of]

Incorrect: the duties of a police are more dangerous than a teacher.

[This sentence compares duties with teacher]

Correct: the duties of a policeman are more dangerous than those of a teacher.

[Those of = the duties of]

Finally, we can change the first term and rephrase the sentences accordingly.

Example 19:

The novel pride and prejudice by June Austen was once more widely read and was more popular in high schools in the United States than charlotte Bronte. No error

RULE 22:     Comparative and superlative forms

When comparing more than two things, use the superlative form of an adjective or adverb.

Regular form:

Comparative: she is SHORTER than her sister. [ADD-ER]

Superlative: she is the SHORTEST of her five siblings. [ADD-est]

Comparative: you are MORE INTERESTING than he. [add the word more]

Superlative: you are the MOST INTERESTING PERSON HERE. [ADD THE WORD MOST]

                                                            

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Who and Whom Part 5

RULE 27:  REDUNDANCY

A sentence in which some information is unnecessarily repeated is called reluctant.  Given here are some words combinations that are always redundant, and thus should never be used.

Advance forward    advance, proceed, and progress all mean “to Proceed forward      move in a forward direction”; thus, the word Progress forward     forward is not necessary Return back              return and revert mean “to go back or to send Revert back              back” so back is not necessary Sufficient enough    these words are identical; one or the other should be used Compete together     compete means “to take part in a contest against other” Reason…because      these words indicate the same thing; the pattern is reason..that Join together            join means “to bring together.” To put together” or “to become a pat or         Member of.” “to take place among” Repeat again           repeat means :to stay again”  (re-usually means “again” New innovation       innovation means “a new idea” Some identical        these words are identical Two twins               twins means  “two brothers are sisters” The time when         the time and when indicate the same thing; one or the other should be used The place where      the place and where indicate the same thing; one or the should be used

SUBJECT AREA REVIEWS

Examples of correct sentences

The army advance after the big battle.

OR

The army moved forward after the big battle.

OR

The peace talks advanced.

OR

The peace talks progressed.

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Who and Whom Part 4

RULE 26:  ILLOGICAL PARTICIPIAL MODIFIER                                                  (DANGLING MODIFIER)

A practical phrase (one containing a [verb + ing] without auxiliaries) can be used to join two sentences with a common subject. When the two phrases do not share common subject,we all the participle phrases an illogical modifier. Actually, the subject of the particle phrase is understood rather than explicit. Consider the following sentences.     

Incorrect:  after jumping out of the boat, the shark bit the man. (we understand that the actual subject of the verb jumping is the man; therefore, immediately after the common, we must mention the man.)

Correct: after jumping out of the boat, the man was bitten by shark.

For clarity, introductory participial phrase must be followed immediately by the noun which is logically responsible for the action of participle. There is no written subject in the participle phrase is preceded by the preposition. The following preposition commonly precede participial phrase.

By        upon       before      after     while

After preparing the dinner, Michelle will read a book.

By working a ten-hour day for four days, we can have a long weekend.

While receiving for the test, Marcia realized that she had forgotten to study the use of participle phrase.

Illogical: attacked by an angry mob, the gashes in the boy’s throat were life-threading.

(Note that attacking means the same as having been attacked.

The actual subject of the verb attacked in the boy: therefore references to him must appear immediately after the comma.)

Correct: Attacked by an angry mob, the boy suffered life-threatening gashing in his throat.

Observe the corrected form of the following illogical participial modifier. Remember that the noun appearing after the comma must be the logical subject of the participial modifier.

Illogical: having apprehended the hijackers, they were whisked off to FBI headquarter.

Correct:  having appended the hijackers, the security guards whisked them off to FBI headquarter. (After the guards had apprehended the hijackers, the guard’s whished.)

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Who and Whom Part 3

RULE 23:     Double comparative and double superlatives must not be
                      Used.

He is more wiser than his brother (incorrect)

He is wiser than his brother (correct)

RULE 24:  When comparative degree is used in superlative sense, it is Followed by ‘any other’

Umer Gul is better than any bowler (incorrect)

Umer Gul is better than any other bowler (correct)

Example 21:

1:  this flower is more beautiful than any flower in this garden. No error

2: this house is bigger than any other house in this street. No error

RULE 25:   pronoun in comparison

To find the correct pronoun in a comparison, as in “Jahangir runs faster than (him, he),” first complete the comparison with the verb that would follow naturally. That will tell you which pronoun to use.

Jahangir runs faster than he runs.

My brother has bigger feet than I do.

Because you would never say “Jahangir runs faster than him runs” or “my brother has bigger feet than me do,” the correct pronoun is she and I:

Jahangir runs faster than he runs.

My brother has bigger feet than I

Apply the same principle to comparison using as.

Kashif as tough as he is.

He is twice as fast as they are.

The department could use a stronger leader such as she is.

A man such as I am could solve the problem.           

Example 22:

Bilal admitted that he has less money than I.

1: Bilal admitted that he has less money than I.

2: Bilal admitted that he has fewer money than I

3: Bilal admitted that he has less money than me.

4: Bilal admitted that he has less money than I

4: Bilal admitted that he has fewer money than me.

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