The noun

A noun is the name of a person,place or thing,quality,action,etc.

rainbow,Tokyo,students,Mars,honesty,warfare,Rebecca,protest.

Five kinds of nouns

1.Proper noun

It is the name of a particular person,place or thing.

Multan,Shahnaz,Asia,Mars,Iceland,Hercules.

2.Common noun

It is a name which is common to any person,palace or thing of the same kind.

village,boy,car,country,theater,platform,market or bazaar,square,tree,ocean,city-cities,village-villages,etc.Some do not have plurals:sheep-sheep;deer-deer.Some have one meaning in the singular and another meaning in the plural:

fish-fishes.Fishes=kinds of fish.Today we caught the best fishes in the sea.

Persons Places Things Ideas

Common poet country newspaper religion

Proper Ghalib Russia Dawn Islam

Common inventor statue tv channel airline

Proper Instein The Statue of Lenin BBC News PIA

3.Collective or group noun

It is the name of a number of things or animals or persons taken together.It is used as a common noun.

team,army,nation,class,committee,fleet,bundle,flock,council,mob,crowd

4.Material noun

It is the name of a material of which things are made.

silver,iron,wood,flour,milk,cement.(Materials like plastic,wood and iron with which things of daily use are made,materials like butter,flour,wheat,water,milk and meat with which foods are prepared and materials like tincture,chloride and bromide with which medicines or industrial goods are produced are all material nouns.)

5.Abstract noun

It is the name of a quality,condition or action which cannot be seen or felt through the five senses(or which can be imagined or thought of).

foolishness,wisdom,understanding,strength,weakness,childhood,quickness,slowness,etc.

(Most of the material and abstract nouns are uncountable,whose plural cannot be had.Uncountable nouns are also called mass nouns.)

Also note that there are material nouns like "glass" and "iron",which can also be common nouns(glasses for drinking water in;irons for ironing clothes with).Abstract nouns like "reality","fact","advantage" and "indecency" are countable like common nouns.

The realities of the situation,the facts of the case,the idiocies of the leader,the hopes of the people.

Group(collective) nouns can take singular or plural verbs and pronouns.

The committee has its meetings daily.(that is,the committee as a whole.)

The committee have written the reports.(that is,the members of the committee separately)

The jury sits in the room next to the court room.(ads a whole)

The jury are sure of their opinions on the case of honor killing before them.(the members separately)

Compound nouns

A compound is made up of two or more words.Compound nouns are written as single words,separate words or words separated by hyphens.

• single words:fuitstall,heartbeat,mountaintop,moonshine.
• separate words:zero hour,carbon paper,subject matter.
• hyphens:trouble-maker,short-sighted,one-piece.

Countable & uncountable nouns

1.Nouns whose plurals we can have are countable nouns.

Most common nouns(like tree,friend) and collective nouns(like team,class,army)are of this kind.

2.Nouns whose plurals we can't have are uncountable nouns.

Most material nouns(like zinc,blood,sugar) and abstract nouns(like anger.peace.simplicity) are of this kind.