Noun and Its Types with Examples | Noun Rules with Examples PDF

Noun is the name of a person,animal, place, thing, animal, or idea. Example : Ram, Happiness, Chain, etc.

In a sentence, noun can play the role of subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object complement, appositive, or adjective.

Table of Contents

Noun form a large proportion of English vocabulary and they come in a wide variety of types.

Noun can name a person:

⊃ Aryabhatta

⊃ the prime Minister

⊃ my father

⊃ a boy

Noun can also name a place:

⊃ Vrindavan

⊃ Mathura

⊃ my bedroom

Noun can also name things, although sometimes they might be intangible things, such as concepts, activities, or processes. Some might even be hypothetical or imaginary things.

⊃ shoe

⊃ freedom

⊃ The Elder Wand

⊃ Racket

⊃ faucet

Types of Nouns

There are several different types of noun, as follows :

Proper Noun : A proper noun is a name that identifies a particular person, place, or thing, e.g. Steven, Africa, London, Monday. In written English, proper nouns begin with capital letters.
Common Noun : A common noun is a noun that refers to people or things in general, e.g. boy, country, bridge, city, birth, day, happiness.
Collective Noun : Collective Noun denotes a group or collection of similar individuals considered as one complete whole. Example :

A band of Musicians
A board of directors, etc.
A bevy of girls, women, officers etc.
A bunch of grapes, keys etc.
A bundle of sticks and hay.
A caravan of merchants, pilgrims, travellers.
A chain/range of mountains or hills.
A choir of singers.
A class of students.
A retinue of servents.

Material Noun : Material Noun denotes matter or substance of which things is made, e.g. Iron, Silver, Gold, Milk etc.
Abstract Noun : An Abstract Noun is usually the name of a quality, action or state considered apart from the object to which it belongs. For Example :

Quality	Action	State
Goodness	Laughter	Childhood
Kindness	Theft	Boyhood
Whiteness	Movement	Youth
Darkness	Judgement	Slavery
Hardness	Hatred	Sleep
Brightness	Heroism	Sickness

Concrete Noun : A concrete noun is a noun which refers to people and to things that exist physically and can be seen, touched, smelled, heard, or tasted. Examples include dog, building, coffee, tree, rain, beach, tune.
Count and Mass Noun : Nouns can be either countable or uncountable. Countable nouns (or count nouns) are those that refer to something that can be counted. Uncountable nouns (or mass nouns) do not typically refer to things that can be counted and so they do not regularly have a plural form.

Number of a Noun

Singular – Plural

Gender of a Noun

Masculine – Feminine – Neuter

Case of a Noun

For example
(i) Raman is my friend.

(ii) Who bought this book?

(iii) She is Raman’s wife.

(iv) Help me, Raman.

Case in Application

Raman, the Captain pf our team, has been rewarded.

Apposition means a placing near just ‘as captain’ is placed after ‘Raman’. It is a kind of descriptive expression not joined by any conjunction.

Rules of Noun

Rule I

(A) (a). Uncountable Nouns are used in the singular forms only.

(b). Indefinite article is not used before them.

(c). They are not used with plural verbs.

(d). ‘Much’ or ‘Some’ are used in place of ‘Many’ for denoting plurality.

Some of the important Nouns of this kind are

‘Advice, information, hair, luggage, business, work, word (in the sense of promise, message, discussion) mischief, bread, scenery, abuse, vacation, evidence, employment, alphabet, poetry, food, furniture, baggage, fuel, paper, equipment, machinery, material etc’. For example

(i). He gave me an information. (Omit ‘an’)
(ii).You should be true to your words. (Use ‘word’ in place of ‘words’)

(iii). He was punished for committing many mischiefs. (Use ‘much mischief’ in place of ‘many mischief’)

(iv). Young persons dislike the advices of the elderly people. (Use ‘advice’ in place of ‘advices’)

(B) These nouns may be used to denote singularity as follows

(i). a piece/ a word of advice

(ii). a word of abuse

(iii). an act of mischief

(iv). a piece of work

(v). a piece/ loaf of bread

(vi). an article of luggage

(C) These nouns may be used to denote plurality as follows

(i). much/ some advice
(ii). a lot of/ many words/ many pieces of advice

(iii). two pieces/ loaves of bread

(iv). words of abuse

Rule II

There are some of the collective nouns which are used with plural verbs. For example

(a) ‘cattle, gentry, peasantry, poultry, clergy, people, majority, folk.‘

(b) The nouns ‘committee, jury, house, ministry, family, mob, crowd, audience, police, team, number, board, staff, public’ are used with singular verbs when they are used as a body or group and not as members.

(i). Cattles are grazing in the field. (Use ‘Cattle’ in place of ‘Cattles’)

(ii). Majority is in favour of this proposal. (Use ‘are’ in place of ‘is’)

(iii). The committee is unanimous on this issue. (Correct)

(iv). The committee are divided and there is bitterness among the members. (Correct)

(v). The peoples of all the countries should work for peace. (Correct)
(vi). The average Hindu family in India consists of four members. (Correct)

(vii). His family are not agreed on this point. (Correct)

(viii). The audience was spell bound. (Correct)

(ix). The audience were forbidden to occupy chairs. (Correct)

(x). The Police has become insensitive. (Correct)

(xi). The Police were posted all over the route. (Correct)

(xii). The team are full of high spirits. (Correct)

(xiii). The team is at the top in this competition. (Correct)

Note : ‘Peoples’ is used when we talk of the people of different countries.

Rule III

‘Offspring, deer, fish, sheep‘ are expressed as singular or plural only by the use of verb. Both in singular and the plural they have the same form.

(i). Sheeps are economically useful. (Use ‘Sheep’ in place of ‘Sheep’)

(ii). A sheep is grazing in the field. (Correct)

Note : ‘Fishes’ may be used in the sense of different number and kind.

Rule IV

Some of the nouns (ending in ‘s’ or ‘es’) are used with singular verb.

(A) Branches of learning. For example

Mathematics, Physics, Mechanics, Politics, Statistics, Statics, Economics.

Note : Statistics as subject is used with singular verb. Statistics when taken as a collection of data is used with plural verb.

(B) Diseases. For example

Mumps, Measles, Rickets etc.

(C) Games and sports. For example

Billiards, Aquatics, Gymnastics, Athletics etc.

(D) Titles of books. For example

Three Musketeer, Gulliver’s Travel, Arabian Nights, War and Piece, Tales from Shakespeare

(E) Descriptive names of the countries. For example

United States, United Arab Emirates etc.

(F) Some other nouns are

Innings, Series, News, Summons. For example

(i). The measles have broken out in the town. (Use ‘has’ in place of ‘have’)

(ii). Politics are a dirty game. (Use ‘is’ in place of ‘are’)
(iii). These news are disappointing. (say ‘this news is’)

(iv). A/ The summons has been served on him. (Correct)

(v). A series of matches are being played. (Use ‘is’ in place of ‘are’)

(vi). Two series of matches was played last year. (Use ‘were’ in place of ‘was’)

Rule V

Study the uses of Nouns as singular and plural in forms.

Noun	Used as	Noun	Used as
Wood	Material	Woods	Forest
Water	Material	Waters	Sea
Asset	Quality	Assets	Property
Sand	Material	Sands	Land
Iron	Material	Irons	Chains
Cloth	Material	Clothes	Dress
Abuse	Indecent Words	Abuses	Misuses
Work	Labour	Works	Literary writings
Air	Element	Airs	Behaviour
Advice	Suggestion	Advices	Bills
Custom	Habit	Customs	Tax
Effect	Result	Effects	Goods
Colour	Material	Colours	Flag
Fruit	Edible thing	Fruits	Results
Wit	Ability to talk	Wits	Intelligence
Arm	Organ	Arms	Weapons
Good	Advantage/ Use	Goods	Articles

Rule VI

Some of the nouns are generally used in the plural form with plural verb.

(a) Articles of dress

‘Trousers, Breeches, Jeans’

(b) Name of the instruments
‘Scissors, spectacles, shears, scales’

‘Alms, thanks, proceeds, riches, contents, credentials, order refreshments, requirements, customs, rations, archives, annals, ashes, arrears, assets, stairs, spirits, statistics (data), quarters, earnings, manners, outskirts, savings, auspices (support), surroundings. For example.

(i). My scissor is not sharp. (Use ‘are’ in place of ‘is’)

(ii). My spectacles is very costly. (Use ‘are’ in place of ‘is’)

(iii). A pair of spectacles has been brought by me. (Correct)

(iv). Order for his transfer has been issued. (Use ‘have’ in place of ‘has’)

Rule VII

A compound noun (numerical + noun) is not used in plural if a noun does the work of an adjective. For example.

(i). Ten-day tour

(ii). A ten-mile race

(iii). A ten-year old boy

(iv). He is ten years old. (Correct)

(v). A five-rupee note

(vi). Five-foot long room

Rule VIII

Nouns expressing number are used in singular with numerical adjectives. ‘Two hundred, two thousand, five dozen, two score, two million, three lakh’. For example

(i). I gave him two hundreds rupees. (Omit ‘s’ in ‘hundreds’)

(ii). I gave him five dozens pencils. (Omit ‘s’ in dozens)

(iii). There are hundreds of partially built houses. (Correct)

Rule IX

Use of apostrophe with ‘s’

(A) The use of apostrophe with ‘s’ is not correct in the case of non-living things. It is restricted only to living things, time, weight, distance, amount or personified nouns.

(i). The table’s wood. (Incorrect)

(ii). Boy’s hand.

(iii). Time’s march

(iv). A one-kilometre’s journey

(v). A rupee’s worth

(vi). A night’s journey

(vii). A metre’s length

(viii). Nature’s laws

(ix). A week’s holiday

(B) Two nouns in the possessive case denote plural form. When apostrophe with ‘s’ is used with one noun. It expresses singular form. For example

(i). Sheela and Rohit’s father. (the father of both Sheela and Rohit)

(ii). Sheela and Rohit’s fathers are meeting today. (fathers of sheela and Rohit)

(C) With compound nouns apostrophe with ‘s’ should be added only with the last word.

(i). Mother-in-law’s behaviour

(ii). Maid-servant’s absence

(D). Pronouns are written by omitting apostrophe but ‘s’ is added. For example.

(i). Yours truly

(ii). Its colour

(iii). Hers

(iv). It’s (It is)

(E). Possessive case is indicated by apostrophe without ‘s’ after plural nouns or words ending with ‘s’.

(i). John Keats’ poems

(ii). Girls’ Hostels

(iii). Dickens’ novels

(iv). Jesus’ sake

(v). Kalidas’ work

(F). (a). ‘Else’ combined with indefinite pronouns (somebody, any body, nobody etc) is expressed in possessive case as somebody else’s in place of somebody’s else.

(b). The correct expression ‘whose else’ should be used in place of the wrong expression ‘who else’s’. However, ‘who else’ is correct.

(i). This is not my book. This is somebody’s else.(say somebody else’s)

(ii). Who else is coming? (correct)

(iii). Who else’s book is this? (Use ‘whose else’ in place of ‘who else’s’)

Note : ‘Who’ should be converted into possessive ‘whose’. So ‘whose else’ is correct.

Rule X

Tow adjectives denoting different meanings and qualifying the same noun are considered plural and are used with plural verbs. For example

(i). Cultural and social life in India are changing.
(ii). Summer and Winter vacation are compulsory in our schools.

Rule XI

Noun after preposition is repeated in singular form. For example

(i). Word for word.

(ii). Hour after hour.

(iii) Door to door

Rule XII

The use of fractions.

(i). One and a half years are wasted.

(ii). One and a half hours are wasted.

(iii). A year and a half is wasted.

(iv). An hour and a half is wasted.

Rule XIII

A student is required to study the plural forms of certain nouns carefully. Such nouns along with their plural forms are given below.

Singular Form	Plural Form
Commander-in-chief	Commanders-in-chief
Major General	Major Generals
Maid servant	Maid servants
Looker-on	Lookers-on
Passer by	Passers by
Mother-in-law	Mother-in-law
Man servant	Men servants
Woman servant	Women servants
M.A.	M.A.’s
Mouse	Mice
Ox	Oxen
Datum	Data
Medium	Media
Forum	Forums, Fora
Stadium	Stadia
Criterion	Criteria
Phenomenon	Phenomena
Formula	Formulae
Oasis	Oases
Lacuna	Lacunae
Erratum	Erata
Memorandum	Memoranda
Alumunus	Alumini
Syllabus	Syllabi
Addendum	Addends

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Noun and Its Types with Examples | Noun Rules with Examples PDF