Nouns and their Types

Hi there!
Have a close look at the table given below and you'll get a glimpse of the types of nouns.

Types of Nouns

Oh yes! They are a HUGE category of words. They are the naming words... They are the names given to people, places, animals, birds, things, emotions... PHEW!! Broadly divided into four categories based on their class, group, perception and number, we classify nouns into SEVEN types: Common, Proper, Collective, Concrete, Abstract, Countable and Uncountable.

Now watch this animation and try to spot all the naming words (it doesn't matter what they name) and then we shall see what each type means.



Could you find them all? Let us see...

The highlighted words in the following text are all nouns.

Hi, my name is Christine. I am a woman. I belong to the Sinclair family of London. I wear glasses because they make me feel confident. I love to have tea in the evening with one tea spoon of sugar and no milk.

Now based on our table above, let us try to put them in appropriate categories and Voila! We'll know what these types mean!

From now on be conscious of all the nouns around you and use them as often as you can. They will help improve your vocabulary and will help us further when we learn other grammar concepts.

So see you again, when we explore NOUNS further and learn how to use them.

Parts of Speech

Let's start with the basics :)
Here's how I understand the parts of speech... what do you think about this...

The eight brothers are talk of the town,
You know the naming one as Noun.
The next one known as Pronoun,

Is used instead of Noun.

The third called the Adjective,
Seems mighty descriptive.
The fourth one is the Verb
He consists of all the doing words.
The next christened Adverb,

Beautifies our spoken word.
Now meet the Preposition,

He cares for all relations.
Then comes our Conjunction,
He joins almost everyone.

The last one- Interjection,
Has quite a good expression.

Together they form the parts of speech

Now we begin to explore each!

Exercise:

Fill in the blanks with appropriate names of the parts of speech.

There were these eight brothers who went into the town
The eldest one, the smartest, was fondly known as ________________

The second in the line was called the _______________,
He told you noun's comparatives and also superlatives.
The third born child of English was called the _______________
He was a noun's replacement, in his ups and downs.
The fourth one was a worker and known to us as ____________
He consists of all the doing words, like love, hurt and disturb.
The fifth of them is genius, was christened as _________________
He himself tells the qualities of adjective and verb.
Now what all do I say about the sixth of brothers
He's called _____________ and locates all the others.
The last but one was the fondest and so was named ______________
He joined them all together on more than one occasion.
And last but not the least, was the brat called ___________________
The "aaahhs" and "ooohhhs" and "ouches" are quite a great selection.

He shouted and expressed in words that I can't teach...
And all these brothers together form your PARTS OF SPEECH.

The Rule of the Thumb

Are there any rules in grammar? 

Rules! Not exactly... But there are guidelines that help us understand the language better.

Let us give these guidelines or thumb rules, as I like to call them, a glance:

·         Parts of Speech

o   There are eight parts of speech.  Don’t get scared! They are nothing but simple words that when put together form meaningful sentences. Same words can be used as different parts of speech, depending on how they are used. These parts of speech are:

§  Nouns- Naming words like George, city, chair, happiness

§  Pronouns- Words used in place of nouns like he, she, I, they

§  Adjectives- Words that describe or tell the quality of nouns or pronouns

§  Verbs- doing words in action or in different states like sit, stand, like, want

§  Adverbs- words that describe adjectives, verbs and adverbs like quickly, very

§  Prepositions- words that tell the relationship of the main noun or the subject  with the rest of the sentence like on, at, into, from

§  Conjunctions- words that join words, clauses, sentences  like and, but, or

§  Interjections- words used to express emotions like oh, wow

·         Phrases, Clauses and Sentences

o   A phrase is a simple group of words that may or may not express any meaning

o   A clause is an incomplete sentence. It conveys a certain meaning but there’s always something more to be added.

o   A sentence is a group of words strung together to convey a meaning. It is the most basic component of any language and if spoken or written incorrectly, may or may not convey the meaning that it is intended to. It has two parts

§  Subject: a noun or a pronoun, along with its description, is the subject of the sentence

§  Predicate: the rest of the sentence that tells about the subject’s action or state and other such details is the predicate

·         Tenses

o   Tenses refer to the time being referred to in a sentence

o   As we all know (HOPEFULLY!) that there are three basic categories to tenses:

§  Past

§  Present

§  Future

o   Each of these categories is further divided into sub-categories based on the status of the action that is being talked about

§  Simple- the normal status of the action in past, present or future

§  Continuous- the progression of action in the three tenses

§  Perfect- a completed action in the three tenses

§  Perfect Continuous- a completed action in past, present and future which is in progression even after achieving the state of perfection.

·         Subject Verb Agreement

o   Well! What does the name suggest? Yes, it is what it suggests... Subject and the verb that talks about it must agree in number.  Confused? Don’t be! You’ll understand it better when we get there...

·         Active and Passive Voice

o   Ever voiced your opinions directly, openly, robustly? That was your ACTIVE VOICE.

o   Remember the time when you had to state something indirectly in order to subdue the situation or calm someone down... HUSH! HUSH! HUSH!! You had used PASSIVE VOICE there, and yes, there are a few guidelines that can help you speak “passively”

·         Conditionals

o   Oh! The ifs and whens! Conditionals are the types of conditions that are expressed in the English language and the consequences that follow.

o   There are four conditionals

§  Zero- surety

§  First- actual likelihood of the result happening  in future

§  Second- make-believe present or improbable future

§  Third- unreal past

And so we cover our major points... don’t let these guidelines overwhelm you; for there are hundreds of guidelines and structures that can be explored... but thankfully, we shall only stick to the basics!

The Grammar World!

Hi People!

Welcome to my world of grammar. For years I've been obsessed with the English language and have been trying to reason and question why grammar rules are made the way they are.
I haven't found an answer to that question, however, what I have discovered is my passion for grammar in the process...
So anyone who is as passionate as I am, is welcome aboard!