Your English Class

Classification of Nouns

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by Tom Fasano

A noun is a word that names something. The something that a noun names may be:

(1) An animate or an inanimate thing with physical existence: as, person, dog, plant, stone, winner, town.

(2) An abstract or spiritual concept: as, compassion, honor, hatred, honesty, love.

(3) Some quality or property belonging to an object; as, color, weight, thickness, density.

(4) An action: as, singing, exercising, dancing.

Note: In the sentence, “Studying is necessary to pass the exam,” studying is a noun because it is the name of an act and is the subject of the verb is; but notice that in “He was studying all night” studying is not a noun: it is a part of the verb was studying, which tells what he was doing.

Nouns fall into two classes; Common Nouns and Proper Nouns

(1) A Common Noun is the name for all the members of a class of objects — that is, the name is common to all the members of the class: as, state, country, man, bank, lake.

(2) A Proper Noun is the distinctive name of an individual member of a class: as, Virginia (a member of the class of state), Germany (country), William (man), Erie (lake).

The word “proper” traces its root through the word “property” and has the meaning of “one’s own.”

In writing, proper nouns are capitalized. Such words as Pepsi (That drink is a Pepsi), the French, a Canadian, a Moose (a member of the Moose Lodge), Democrats, Protestants, etc., are also capitalized. Although these nouns are names common to all the members of a class, they are the names of particular classes.

Special Classes. The two classes — common and proper — cover all nouns, but included in those two are some special classes.

(1) An Abstract Noun names a mental or abstract concept: as, benevolence, courtesy, trust, tranquility.

(2) A Collective Noun is the name of a collection or group of similar objects: as, mob, herd, club, team, company (a commercial organization), U.S. Navy, United Nations, Republican Party, Army Corps of Engineers.

(3) A Compound Noun consists of two or more nouns, or a noun combined with some other type of word, which forms a single idea: as, grandmother, highway, businessman, commander-in-chief, brother-in-law, sales department, payroll, Marriott Hotel, Apple Computer.

(4) A Count Noun names something that can be counted and can be either physical or abstract: as, pencil, pencils; mouse, mice; idea, ideas; dream, dreams.

(5) A Noncount Noun (also known as a Mass Noun) is the name of something that cannot be counted and is used only in the singular; it may or may not also be abstract: as, clutter, wisdom, silence, satisfaction, music.

Note: A collective noun can also be compound.

Copyright © 2012 Thomas Fasano.
Your English Class™ trademark is the property of Thomas Fasano.

Parts of Speech

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by Tom Fasano

This podcast is brought to you by Your English Class, an online source of English lessons. For additional lessons not found on this page and links to helpful sites, subscribe to one of the social services in the right sidebar.

A sentence consists of words combined so as to express a complete thought. Each word performs a particular function in expressing that thought, and all words are classified according to their respective functions into eight Parts of Speech.

A Noun is a word that names something: as, horse, student, plagiarism.

The horse ran effortlessly.

The student committed plagiarism.

A Pronoun is a word used in place of a noun: as, she, we, who.

She was here.

We are the people who pay the highest taxes.

An Adjective is a word that describes or modifies a noun: as, brown, big, last.

He wore a brown coat.

The soldier took the last train home.

A Verb is a word that expresses an action or state: as, walk, dance, read, sleep, is.

The girls dance gracefully.

My sister sleeps till noon.

An Adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb: as, softly, quickly, very, too, often.

She played the piano softly.

The soup was very hot.

He got into trouble too often.

A Preposition is a connecting word that shows the relation of a noun or a pronoun to some other word in the sentence: as, on, over, to, through, from, of.

The plane flew over the mountain.

The boy threw the ball through the window.

Much of our time is wasted.

A Conjunction is a word that joins words or groups of words in a sentence: as, and, but, because, although.

The officer and his troops fought bravely.

You can be lazy, but don’t expect success.

She left the party because she was sick.

An Interjection is an exclamatory word with little or no grammatical relationship to the rest of the sentence.

Ouch, that hurts.

These eight classes can be divided into four groups according to the relation between the different parts of speech.

(1) Nouns; Pronouns (used in place of nouns); Adjectives (modifiers of nouns).

(2) Verbs; Adverbs (primarily modifiers of verbs).

(3) Prepositions and Conjunctions, both of which are connecting words.

(4) Interjections, which usually have no grammatical relation to the rest of the sentence.

The following sentence contains seven of the Parts of Speech and demonstrates their use.

Several bright engineers worked diligently on the project and completed it.

Engineers and project are nouns — they are the names of things.

It is a pronoun standing for the noun project.

Several and bright are adjectives modifying the noun engineers.

The is an adjective (article) modifying the noun project.

Worked and completed are verbs — they tell what the engineers did: in other words, they make a statement about the engineers.

Diligently is an adverb modifying the verb worked — it describes the manner of their working.

On is a preposition — it shows the relation of the noun project to the verb worked.

And is a conjunction connecting the verbs worked and completed.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE
The contents of this page copyright © 2012 by Thomas Fasano. Address all inquiries to Coyote Canyon Press @ info@coyotecanyonpress.com.

Copyright © 2012 Thomas Fasano.
Your English Class™ trademark is the property of Thomas Fasano.

Affect versus Effect

by Tom Fasano

This classroom video instructs the student in the difference between the words “affect” and “effect.”

Copyright © 2012 Thomas Fasano.
Your English Class™ trademark is the property of Thomas Fasano.