English Grammar Shortcuts for Competitive Exams in 60 Days - Lesson 5

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Friends, this is the 5th Lesson of our English Grammar Shortcuts Lesson series for Competitive Exams. You can refer to our previous lessons from below links.

In this lesson, we are going to discuss the following topics

1. Kinds of Nouns 
2. Nouns - Gender

Kinds of Nouns

There are five kinds of Nouns in English .They are :

1. Proper Noun
2. Common Noun
3. Collective Noun
4. Material Noun
5. Abstract Noun

1. Proper Noun :

A proper Noun is the name of some particular person or place.

• Names of persons : Rama, Krishna, Hari, Sitha, etc.
• Names of places : Vijayawada, Bombay, New Delhi, etc.

2. Common Noun :

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

• Name of persons : boy, girl, child, man, woman, etc.
• Names of places : town, village, city, river, country, etc.
• Names of things : pen, pencil, book, chair, etc.

3. Collective Noun :

A Collective Noun is the name of a number or collection of persons or things taken together and spoken of as one whole. 

E.g : crowd, mob, team, fleet, army, jury, family, nation, parliament, committee, etc.

4. Material Noun :

A Material Noun is the name of some material or substance which is supposed to have no separate parts.

E.g :  Rice, sugar, salt, milk, sand, clay, iron, gold, silver, oil, etc.

5. Abstract Nouns

An Abstract Noun is the name of a quality, action or state.

• Quality : goodness, kindness, honesty, wisdom, bravery
• Action : theft, movement, judgement
• State : childhood, boyhood, youth, slavery, sleep, sickness, death, poverty.

Note : The names of arts and sciences are also Abstract Nouns.

E.g : Grammar, music, physics, chemistry, etc.

Concrete Nouns and Abstract Nouns

Nouns can also be classified as 1. Concrete Nouns 2. Abstract Nouns

1. Concrete Nouns :

Names of persons, places or things that we can see or touch are called Concrete Nouns.

E.g : Ravi, Mumbai, city, tree, table, water, gold

2. Abstract Nouns :

Names of things that we can only think of, but cannot touch or see are called Abstract Nouns.

E.g : Beauty, patience, youth, death, logic, astronomy, physics, politics, etc.

Countable and Uncountable Nouns :

Nouns also can be classified as 1. Countable Nouns and 2. Uncountable Nouns

1. Countable Nouns :

Names of things, places or persons that can be counted as 1, 2, 3,... are called Countable Nouns.

E.g : Pen - two pens, Box - two boxes, City - two cities.

2. Uncountable Nouns :

Names of things that cannot be counted as 1, 2, 3 etc. are called Uncountable Nouns.

E.g : Tea, coffee, milk, sugar, ink, rice, gold, air, etc.

Exercise 14 :

Pick out the nouns in the following sentences and say what kind of nouns they are. (i.e., Proper, Common, Collective, Material or Abstract)

1. Always speak the truth.
2. Ashoka was a great emperor. 
3. Soloman was famous for his wisdom. 
4. The elephant has great strength. 
5. Cows eat grass and give us milk. 
6. Vikramaditya, the king of Ujjain, was known for his wisdom and valour. 
7. Greed is the cause of all evils. 
8. Cleanliness is next to godliness.
9. The crows was very big.
10. The jury found the prisoner guilty.

(Answers will be disclosed in next Lesson)

Nouns : Gender

Gender is that form of noun which shows whether the Noun is male, female, either or neither.

Kinds of Gender

The Gender of a Noun is of four kinds. They are :

1. Masculine Gender :

A Noun that denotes a male is said to be in the Masculine Gender.

E.g : Boy, man, hero, lion, cock, sparrow, etc.

2. Feminine Gender :

A Noun that denotes a female is said to be of the Feminine Gender.

E.g : Girl, woman, heroine, lioness, hen, sparrow

3. Common Gender :

A Noun that denotes either a male or a female is said to be of the Common Gender.

E.g : Parent, child, friend, pupil, student, servant, thief, enemy, cousin, baby, infant, person, etc.

4. Neuter Gender :

A Noun that denotes neither a male nor a female (i.e., a thing without life) is said to be of the Neuter Gender.

E.g : Book, pen, room, pencil, etc.

Formation of Feminine Gender

There are six ways of forming the feminine of nouns.

1. By using an entirely different word :

	Maid, Spinster

2. By adding-ess to the Masculine : 

	Manageress
	Prophetess
	Stewardess
	Shepherdess
	Viscountess

3. By adding - ess after dropping the vowel of the masculine ending :

Benefactor	Benefactress
Instructor	Instructress
	Preceptress
	Conductress
	Enchantress
	Songstress
	Seamstress

4. By adding - ess to the masculine in an irregular way.

	Marchioness

5. Some Nouns take special endings to form the Feminine Gender.

	Bride Groom
Administrator	Administratix

6. By placing a word before or after.

Cock-sparrow	Hen-sparrow
Man-servant	Maid-servant
Grand-father	Grand-mother
Washer-man	Washer-woman

Note : The suffix - ess is the commonest suffix used to form the feminine of the masculine nouns, and is the only one which we now use in forming a new feminine noun.

Exercise 15

Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with the feminine forms of the nouns in the brackets. 

1. She is the ___________ of the story (hero)
2. He married an _________ (heir)
3. I want to meet the _______________ (head master)
4. The new _______________ has performed very well (actor)
5. My father's _____________ is a doctor (nephew)
6. The _________ is dressed in a yellow sari (bride groom)
7. The _____________ gave birth to two cubs (Lion)
8. She is a ________________ (Washer man)
9. I met her ____________ in the school (uncle)
10. The farmer has a couple of ____________ (bulls)

That's all for today friends. In our next lesson we shall discuss about Noun : Number and Formation of Plurals. Happy Reading :)

Answers to Exercise 8

1.  
   • Subject : The earth
   • Predicate : revolves round the sun
2.  
   • Subject : Bad habits 
   • Predicate : grow unconsciously 
3.  
   • Subject : That he will succeed 
   • Predicate : is certain 
4.  
   • Subject : Nature
   • Predicate : is the best physician
5.  
   • Subject : Borrowed garments 
   • Predicate : Never fit well
6.  
   • Subject : New brooms 
   • Predicate : Sweep clean
7.  
   • Subject : Barking dogs 
   • Predicate : Seldom bite 
8.  
   • Subject : Ravi's father 
   • Predicate : is a doctor 
9.  
   • Subject : We
   • Predicate : Profit by the experience 
10.  
    • Subject : A guilty conscience 
    • Predicate : Needs no excuse 

Answers to Exercise 9

1. A burnt child - Complete subject (C.S0, child - Subject Word  (S.W), A burnt - Subject Attributes (S.A)
2. Barking dogs - (C.S), dogs - (S.W), barking - (S.A)
3. Birds of a feather - (C.S), Birds - (S.W), of a feather - (S.A)
4. The boy, anxious to learn - (C.S), boy - (S.W), the , anxious to learn - (S.A)
5. The man carrying a hoe - (C.S), boy - (S.W), The, carrying a hoe - (S.A)
6. The days of our youth - (C.S), days - (S.W), the, of our youth - (S.A)
7. A house divided against itself - (C.S), house (S.W), A, divided against itself - (S.A0
8. Ill habits - (C.S), habits - (S.W), ill - (S.A)
9. One man's meat - (C.S), meat - (S.W.),. one, man's - (S.A.).
10. His back - (C.S) bark - (S.W), His - (S.A)

Answers to Exercise10

1.  
   • spoke distinctly - Predicate (P)
   • spoke - verb (V)
   • distinctly - adverbial qualification (A.Q)
2.  
   • Is printed in clear type - p
   • is printed - V
   • in clear type - A.Q
3.  
   • recognized your voice at once - P
4.  
   • did his work efficiently - P
   • did - V
   • his work efficiently - A.Q
5.  
   •  Went home - P
   • went - V
   • home - A.Q
6.  
   • gets his living by painting - P
   • gets - V
   • his living by painting - P
7.   
   • turned to go - P
   • turned - V
   • to go - A. Q
8.  
   • called them one by one - P
   • called - V
   • them one by one - A. Q
9.  
   • made his money by trade - P
   • made - V
   • his money by trade - A. Q
10.  
    • spring advancing, disappear - P
    • disappear - V
    • spring advancing - A. Q

 Answers to Exercise11

1.   
   1. His master's confidence - complete object - (C.O)
   2. confidence - object word (O.W)
   3. his master's - object attributes (O.A) 
2.  
   1. your voice - (C.O)
   2. voice - (O.W)
   3. your - (O.A)
3.  
   1. a big panther - (C.O)
   2. panther - (O.W)
   3. a, big - (O.A)
4.  
   1. a quiet holiday - (C.O)
   2. holiday - (O.W)
   3. a quiet - (O.A)
5.  
   1.  his younger brother's son - (C.O)
   2. son - (O.W)
   3. his younger brother's - (O.A)
6.  
   1. Mr. Ravi, an actor - (C.O) 
   2. Ravi - (O.W)
   3. Mr. , an, actor - (O.A) 
7.  
   1. the baby - (C.O)
   2. baby - (O.W)
   3. the - (O.A)
8.  
   1. to sing - (C.O) & (O.W)
9.  
   1. a man, bent down with age - (C.O)
   2. man - (O.W)
   3. a, bent down with age - (O.A) 
10.  
    1. much work - (C.O)
    2. work - (O.W)
    3. much - (O.A)

Answers to Exercise 12

1. a doctor
2. round
3. sweet
4. dead
5. cold 
6. unconscious
7. healthy 
8. full to the brim 
9. in good spirits 
10. about 

Answers to Exercise13

1. Captain 
2. waiting
3. guilty 
4. Ravi
5. repent 
6. with terror 
7. approaching 
8. in suspence 
9. trustworthy 
10. happy

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