Types of Nouns

We have different types of nouns in English.

They are:

• Common nouns and Proper nouns
• Countable nouns and Uncountable (or mass) nouns
• Collective nouns
• Concrete nouns and Abstract nouns
• Compound nouns
• Predicate nouns

When we talk or write, we talk or write ABOUT someone or something. If so, then we need to give a name to that ‘someone’ or ‘something.’ So we need nouns. We cannot avoid them. And since we use different kinds of names we have different kinds of nouns in grammar.

Different types of nouns in grammar represent different kinds of names.

It may be easy to understand this, but it may not be immediately clear what grammar means by 'different kinds of names.'

If you were Albert Einstein. People would call you different things: Albert, Mr. Einstein, or Al. Your close friends might even call you Mr. Intelligent or Mr. Genius (either to praise you or to make fun of you). If you happened to be in my country, we would address you as Einsteinji or Einstein Sahab or even Albertji.

All these names of Einstein (that is you) are different names; we refer to them as names, surnames or nicknames. However, grammar does not treat these as different types. All of them belong to one type.

Then, what are the different kinds of names in grammar?

Let’s take an example.

Suppose a man comes to meet me at home while I am in my study. My wife receives him at the door and reports to me, “A man has come to see you.” She refers to him as ‘a man.’

Now suppose both she and I know that he is Joseph my student. In that case, she would tell me, “Joseph wants to meet you.” She would refer to him as ‘Joseph.’ These two (man and Joseph) are different names for the same person.

When my wife said man I had a vague idea that the person waiting for me was a man and not a woman or child. The information was helpful...somewhat. When she said Joseph I knew exactly who was waiting for me.

A difference of this kind between two names (man and Joseph) is not the same as the difference between a name, surname or nickname (Albert or Mr. Einstein or Mr. Genius).

In our day-to-day conversation, it is common to say, My name is Joseph or Ramesh or Abdul. We use these ‘names’ for ourselves. We don’t say, “My name is a man.”

We don’t usually think of ‘man’, ‘woman’ etc. as names. Yet in truth they are names because we use those words to refer to people. Grammar recognizes this fact. So grammar is more true to life than life itself!

Which type does a particular noun belong to?

The answer to this question depends on different things.

• We can say a noun is common or proper based on the generality or specificity of the name.
• Whether concrete or abstract is based on how we perceive the named thing.
• Countable and mass nouns are based on whether the named people or places or things can be counted or not.
• Collective nouns refers to group names and not to names of individuals.
• When we talk of compound nouns we are concerned about the morphology of the word, i.e. how the word is formed.
• When we want to discuss Predicate nouns we are busy with the syntax, i.e. the part played by the noun in the structure of the sentence.

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