The Confidential Reference Book

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

A NOUN is a word that refers to a place, person, idea or thing…

Person such as engineer, college, Rahul, mother, father

Place such as India, Graphic Era, Dehradun, world, city

Idea such as truth, honesty, democracy, boredom

Thing such as star, sun, moon, telescope

We use nouns all the time– be it writing an assignment for class or a leave application to the Chairman. Even now I am using nouns to communicate with you. In fact, all the underlined words are nouns after all! Let us now look at the different types of nouns.

TYPES OF NOUN

Let us consider the sentence:- ―My favorite cousin is Rahul‖

cousin and Rahul are the two nouns used in the sentence; but how do they differ?

In the sentence, cousin refers to the blood relation and can be used for all the cousins in the world. It does not specify a particular person. Cousin is, therefore, a common noun.

A common noun is a word that names people, places, things, or ideas. They are not the names of a single person, place or thing. A common noun begins with a lowercase letter unless it is at the beginning of a sentence.

Let us go back to the sentence :- ―My favorite cousin is Rahul‖

Rahul, however, is the name of a particular person, in this case my favorite cousin! Rahul is, therefore, a proper noun.

A proper noun ( also called proper name) is the word which names specific people, organizations or places. They always start with a capital letter.

CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCE BOOK SHREEJATA DEY 2 Common Noun vs. Proper Noun

actor

Shah Rukh Khan

man

Rahul Gandhi

company

Infosys Ltd

car

Mercedes S100

country

India

Let us take a look at a few more examples of common nouns and proper nouns…

Now let me pose a question to all you readers: Is mother-in-law a noun?

YES… It is a compound noun i.e. nouns made up of two or more words. A few other examples of the same are toothpaste, court martial and paper– clip.

A noun can further be classified into countable noun or a non-countable noun.

As the name suggests, a countable noun refers to things that can be counted. For example; one sheep, two sheep, many sheep. Here sheep is not only a common noun but also a countable noun.

Non-countable nouns on the other hand cannot be counted as they are not separate objects. You cannot make them plural by adding -s, because they only have a singular form.

For example; air, water, information, work and sand.

Please refer to Appendix I for a short note on the use of uncountable nouns !

CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCE BOOK SHREEJATA DEY 3

Let us now consider another sentence:- "Look at the army marching!"

Is there a noun in the sentence??? Hmmm… yes, there is- "army".

The next question is: Is it a common noun or a proper noun?

The answer: Neither!! In the sentence, army refers to an entire group of soldiers.

It is therefore a collective noun.

A collective noun is a noun that can be singular in form whilst referring to a group of people or things. A few more exam-ples of collective nouns are group, choir, jury, band, flock and bunch.

Some collective nouns can exist alone, such as "India has an army", but if the collective noun "army" is used to mean some-thing other than an organized military force, you can say things like "an army of women" or "an army of ants", and even "an army of one".

Please refer to the Appendix II for a some more examples of collective nouns.

Let us consider the next sentence:- "He was applauded for his honesty!"

The noun in this sentence is honesty. It, however, is an abstract noun.

An abstract noun is a noun that you cannot sense, it is the name we give to an emotion, ideal or idea. They have no physical existence, you can't see, hear, touch, smell or taste them. A few more examples of abstract nouns are justice, liberty, bravery and happiness.

The opposite of abstract nouns are concrete nouns which is the name of something or someone that we experience through our senses, sight, hearing, smell, touch or taste. Most nouns are concrete nouns. Some common examples being cat, dog, desk, chair, tree and flower.

To wrap it up… REMEMBER– A NOUN CAN BE OF ONE OR MORE TYPES! For instance, army is BOTH A COMMON NOUN AND A COLLECTIVE NOUN. Can you think of some more ???

CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCE BOOK SHREEJATA DEY 4

WHEN DO WE CAPITALIZE NOUNS?

RULE 1: Names of specific people

CAPS: Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Aggarwal family

NO CAPS: family, boy, girl, sister, brother, cousin

But what of mom and dad?

Capitalize them when you are calling your parent’s name but not when you refer to them as "my mom" and "my dad".

CAPS: Hi Mom! Welcome back home Dad!

NO CAPS: It was great seeing my mother after so long. Both my father and mother have been busy at work!

RULE 2: Days of the week, names of the month and holidays but not seasons

CAPS: Monday, August, Diwali, Dusshera

NO CAPS: summer, monsoon

RULE 3: Ranks and titles, but only when used before a specific person’s name

CAPS: At my university, Professor Shastry heads the drama club.

NO CAPS: That man in a red coat is a professor at my college.

What about the prime minister? Many students think that the word prime minister should be capitalized purely because of the importance of the rank. That is not correct! Capitalize the "P" in prime minister only when it comes before the name of a person.

CAPS: Everyone stood up as soon as Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru entered the auditorium

NO CAPS: The president, APJ Kalam, came to Graphic Era for the convocation ceremony.

CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCE BOOK SHREEJATA DEY 5

RULE 4: Geographic areas: cities, states, rivers, park etc.

CAPS: Dehradun, India, Uttarakhand, Himalayas, Nainital

NO CAPS: The ocean is deep and the mountains are high!

Regions will be capitalized but not directions!

CAPS: He was born in Central India, but he grew up in the North.

NO CAPS: I live on the north side of the city.

RULE 5: Historical periods

CAPS: World War I, Middle Ages, the Independence Movement

NO CAPS: It has been a long war!

RULE 6: Religions, nationalities and races of people

CAPS: Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Indian, Chinese

NO CAPS: There are many temples that can be seen while driving down Rajpur Road.

RULE 7: Specific subjects being taught in school/ college but not general subjects.

CAPS: Hurry up! We will be late for Math 101!

NO CAPS: I love math!

RULE 8: Names of specific organizations, schools etc.

CAPS: Apple Computers

NO CAPS: I need a new computer.

RULE 9: Names of specific teams and their respective members.

CAPS: the Chennai Super Kings

NO CAPS: I am a part of the Graphic Era’s cricket team.

CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCE BOOK SHREEJATA DEY 6

RULE 10: Titles of books, chapters, movies and articles.

CAPS: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a fabulous read!

NO CAPS: Capitalize every word in a title except:

 The articles a, an and the

 The conjunctions and, but, for, or and nor

 The words to and as

 All prepositions (more on this later!)

Remember– Do capitalize any word that is the first or last word of the title or the first word after a dash or colon

Example: I love the play The Best Friend’ Wedding– A Fiasco!

Beware!!! Do not get excited and capitalize words unnecessarily!!! Tread carefully– it is dangerous territory….

CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCE BOOK SHREEJATA DEY 7

MAKING NOUNS PLURAL

The plural form of most nouns is created simply by adding the letter S

 more than one snake = snakes

 more than one ski = skis

 more than one Barrymore = Barrymores

Words that end in -ch, S, X or S-like sounds, however, will require an -es for the plural:

 more than one witch = witches

 more than one box = boxes

 more than one gas = gases

 more than one bus = buses

 more than one kiss = kisses

 more than one Jones = Joneses

There are several nouns that have irregular plural forms. Plurals formed in this way are sometimes called mutated (or mutating) plurals.

 more than one child = children

 more than one woman = women

 more than one man = men

 more than one person = people

 more than one goose = geese

 more than one mouse = mice

 more than one barracks = barracks

 more than one deer = deer

And, finally, there are nouns that maintain their Latin or Greek form in the plural.

 more than one nucleus = nuclei

 more than one syllabus = syllabi

 more than one focus = foci

 more than one fungus = fungi

 more than one cactus = cacti (cactuses is acceptable)

 more than one thesis = theses

 more than one phenomenon = phenomena

 more than one index = indices (indexes is acceptable)

 more than one criterion = criteria

 more than one appendix = appendices (appendixes is acceptable)

CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCE BOOK SHREEJATA DEY 8

But what of compound nouns...

If a compound noun has a main noun in it, add the S to the main noun

 more than one mother-in-law = mothers-in-law

 more than one chief of police = chiefs of police

If a compound noun has no main noun associated with it, add the S at the end

 more than one follow-up = follow– ups

But it’s not as simple as that! Let us look at some special cases as well…

With words that end in a consonant and a y, you'll need to change the -y to an -i and add es.

 more than one baby = babies

 more than one gallery = galleries

(Notice the difference between this and galleys, where the final y is not preceded by a consonant.)

 more than one reality = realities

This rule, however, does not apply to proper nouns:

 more than one Kennedy = Kennedys

CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCE BOOK SHREEJATA DEY 9

Words that end in O create special problems.

 more than one potato = potatoes

 more than one hero = heroes

However…

 more than one memo = memos

 more than one cello = cellos

… and for words where another vowel comes before the O…

 more than one stereo = stereos

Plurals of words that end in -f or -fe usually change the f sound to a v sound and add s or -es.

 more than one knife = knives

 more than one leaf = leaves

 more than one hoof = hooves

 more than one life = lives

 more than one self = selves

 more than one elf = elves

There are, however, exceptions…

 more than one dwarf = dwarfs

 more than one roof = roofs

Can you think of any more such special cases… ???

When in doubt, as always, consult a dictionary.

The online version of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary should help!!!

CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCE BOOK SHREEJATA DEY 10

MAKING NOUNS POSSESSIVE

When we want to show that someone owns something, we make the noun possessive by adding an apostrophe and an s to the noun.

 The eyes of Ram = Ram’s eyes

 The fingers of Sita = Sita’s fingers

Let us look at a few more examples:

RULE 1: If two people own the same thing, use an apostrophe and S for only the second person.

 Radha and Nitin’s wedding ceremony (they got married to each other and had only one ceremony)

 Dhruv and Abhishek’s father (they are brothers and share the same father)

RULE 2: If the two people involved do not possess the same thing, the apostrophe and S is added for both people.

 Ram’s and Lakshman’s hands (both Ram and Lakshman have different sets of hands)

 Kush’s and Lata’s teeth (both of them don't share the same teeth)

 My boss’s bike = one boss, one bike

 My bosses’ bikes = many bosses, many bikes

Noun

Possessive Noun

Shyam

Shyam’s guitar

The cat

The cat’s tail

Jones

Jones’s beard

CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCE BOOK SHREEJATA DEY 11

RULE 3: If the noun is plural and ends in S (for example, girls) we ONLY add an apostrophe.

 The boy’s jacket = one boy, one jacket

 The boys’ jackets = many boys, many jackets

RULE 4: If the noun is plural and does not end in S (for example, women) we add an apostrophe and an —S.

 The woman’s dress = one woman, one dress

 The women’s dresses = many women, many dresses

Beware!!!

Proper nouns that end in s need to be dealt with carefully….

Here’s how:

Mr. and Mrs. Jones have a new car

The Joneses have a new car

Mr. Jones’s car is new

The Joneses’ car is new

CONFIDENTIAL REFERENCE BOOK SHREEJATA DEY 12

WHAT IS NOUN GENDER?

Similar to in Hindi, we have genders which define the sex of the noun…

In English language there are predominantly two genders; namely masculine and feminine

A noun is said to be in the Masculine gender if it refers to a male character or mem-ber of a species.

For example; man, lion, hero boy and king

A noun is said to be in the Feminine gender if it refers to a female character or member of a species.

For example; woman, lioness, heroine, girl and queen

In addition noun gender can also be classified into common and neuter gender. However, it will not be dealt with in this chapter…

Please refer to the Appendix III for a some common gender nouns.