Lesson No. 188.

Nouns
• This is the first lesson on this new year’s day.
• This year, I propose to make 2 videos every week; (1) For beginners and the English
learners at the first stage of intermediate level and (2) For the other intermediate and
advanced-level English learners.
• This lesson is meant for beginners and the first stage of intermediate level English
learners.
• Any language is spoken or written in sentences.
• Sentences are formed by words.
• Words are arranged in order to make meaningful sentences.
• We have to learn many words.
• We have to learn them in proper order so that we can remember to use them.
• Sentences contain many words. They are mainly called Parts of speech. The first of
them is Noun. (There are 8 parts).
• Noun is a naming word. Everything in this world or the universe has a name. And
that is a noun.
Example:
1. A ball, a chair, a table, a pen, car. These are the names of things.
2. A boy, girl, teacher, police officer. These are names of different people.
3. Tiger, dog, parrot, a spider.These are names of animals.
4. Park, school. These are names of places.
All these are nouns.
• Not only people, places and things but also everything.
• There are things we don’t see
For example:
1. Love, health, happiness.
Just remember everything has a name. And that name is a noun.

• Nouns are persons, places, things, ideas/ feelings. directly.

• In this lesson we’ll learn about the different kinds of nouns.
• The following are the different kinds/ types of nouns:
1. Concrete, abstract.கான்கிரீட், சுருக்கம் .
2. Common, proper ப ாதுவானது, சரியானது
3. Collective (group) கூட்டு (குழு)
4. Countable, uncountable கணக்கிட முடிந்த கணக்கிட முடியாத.

Concrete, abstract noun:

• Persons, places and things are concrete nouns. You can see them; touch them. They
have shape and size. They have real physical existence.
• Abstract nouns don’t have physical existence.That means we cannot touch them or
see them. We can only feel or understand them. They are the names given to ideas
or feelings. Examples abstract nouns: love, friendship, childhood, knowledge, joy,
happiness, health, pain, fear, birth, beauty,
1. Honesty is the best policy. Honesty and policy are abstract nouns.
நநர்மமநய சிறந்த பகாள் மக.
2. The love and affection a mother has for her children is immeasurable.
ஒரு தாய் தன் பிள் மளகளிடம் மவத்திருக்கும் அன்பும் ாசமும்
அளவிட முடியாதது.
3. The pain is unbearable.
வலி தாங் க முடியவில் மல.
4. The friendship between us is very strong.
எங் களுக்கிமடயில் நட்பு மிகவும் வலுவானது.
 5. You have to do your duty without fear or favour.
உங் கள் கடமமமய யநமா தயநவா இல் லாமல் பசய் ய
நவண்டும் .

Common, proper nouns:

Common noun is a general noun.
Proper noun is the name given to a specific individual. It is a special name given to a
particular individual.
Common nouns Proper nouns. Common nouns Proper nouns

man Raja Gopal. month December

boy Vikram day Tuesday

woman Vasantha bank Bank of Baroda

country India university The university of Madras.

city Chennai religion Christinanity.

company Microsoft, Google Mountain Mount Everest.

language Tamil river Kavery

Man is common. It can mean any man. But Raja Gopal is the name of a particular person.
The first letter of a Proper noun is in capital letters. Example: bank and Bank of Baroda: In
“bank” the letters are in lowercase. In Bank of Baroda, both “Bank” and “Baroda”, the first
letter in both the proper noun is a capital letter.
Collective nouns:
This is a name given to a group of people, places or things.

A group of... Collective noun

players team ships fleet

soldiers army flowers bunch

onlookers crowd bees swarm

employees staff birds flock

elephants herd The boys and the girls in the school students.
A team of players; a flock of birds, a herd of elephants, a fleet of ships, a bunch of flowers,

Suppose you don’t remember the collective noun word, you can use the word like, “group of
employees” “bunch of things” “ a lot of (quantity expression)”

Countable and uncountable nouns:

If you can count something it is countable.

Countable nouns Uncountable nouns

Table, chair, shop, apartments, pen, pencil Water, coffee, salt, Sugar, furniture, rain, love,
advice, information, air, music, sand
 These can be expressed in plural. These cannot be expressed in plural.
• Tables, chairs. You just have to add “s” to
the end of the word to make it plural.
• With some nouns you have to add “es”
Boxes, buses, matches,
• In some the plural words are different.
Man - men; child - children; tooth - teeth;
foot - feet.
• Some have the same word in plural form
too.
Sheep - sheep; fish -fish;

Expressions/ words used with these nouns:

Countable Common for both. Uncountable

A, an, many, few, a few The, Some, any, lot of, a Much, little, little bit of,
• A table lot of, enough, plenty of.
• An umbrella. • The table
• Many chairs. • The sugar. • Much love,
• A few apartments. • Some tea. • Little coffee,
• Many shops • Some pens, • Little bit of sugar.
• Plenty of water Abstract nouns, like love,
• Plenty of pencils advise, are uncountable.
• The chairs are
enough for the
party. We can use the units to
• There is enough talk about quantity.
water in the jug. Kilo (weight), litre
(volume), teaspoons,
glass, cup.

How many chairs? How much sugar/ coffee?

Few = to mean a small number. There is only a little water
in the pot.
There are many chairs in this room The water in this jug is
than the other room more than in the other
jug.

There are fewer (less is wrong) The water is less in the

chairs in this room than the other jug than in the other one.
room.
Exercise:
1. The man standing over there is Rajagopal. (man is a common noun. Rajagopal is a proper noun.)
2. Vasantha is a doctor. (Vasantha is a proper noun. Doctor is a common noun)
3. The Madras University is one of the best universities in India. (city is a common noun)
4. Delhi is a very polluted city. (Delhi is a proper noun. City is a common noun).
5. Our team won the test cricket in Melbourne yesterday. (team is a collective noun for a group of players).
6. That was because our players played better than Australians. Our team played better than Australian
team.