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The parts of speech are the basic categories of words according to their function in a
sentence. It is a category to which a word is assigned in accordance with its syntactic
functions. English has eight main parts of speech, namely, Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives,
Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions & Interjections. In grammar, the parts of
speech, also called lexical categories, grammatical categories or word classes is a
linguistic category of words.
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Nouns as Part of Speech
A noun is a part of speech that identifies a person, place, thing, idea or events. Nouns
are the simplest among the 8 parts of speech. In a sentence, nouns can play the role of
subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object complement,
appositive, or adjective as depending on the necessity.
• Proper Noun: It refers to specific entities. It can be the name of specific person,
place or thing.
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• Collective Noun: They are nouns that refer to a group of something in a specific
manner or the collection of some persons or things and represented as a singular
noun.
• Abstract Noun: Denotes something that cannot be seen, touched, etc. and
signifies a quality. More ethereal, theoretical concepts use abstract nouns to refer
to them.
1. Countable nouns- These are the nouns that can be counted are considered as
individual and separable items. To the linguists, these countable nouns can occur in
both single and plural forms. They can be modified by numerals and can co-occur with
quantificational determiners like many, most, more, several, etc.
⇒ We can use countable nouns with the indefinite articles a and an, which indicate one
person or thing.
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Example - a notebook, an apple
⇒ We can also use countable nouns with the plural form of the noun.
• Uncountable nouns cannot take an indefinite article (a/an), nor can they be made
plural. They are also called as Mass Nouns. Examples are as follows:
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Incorrect - A lot of luggage are lying in the drawing room.
Here, the noun ‘dog’ is performing the action of the verb ‘run’.
Here the proper noun ‘Manisha’ is performing the action of the verb ‘skip’.
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• Direct objects- Those objects which receive the action of the verb in a sentence
or clause.
Here the noun ‘scooter’ is receiving the action of the verb ‘run’.
Here the noun ‘lunch’ is receiving the action of the verb ‘skip’.
• Indirect objects- An indirect object is a person or thing that receives the direct
object of the verb.
Here, the proper noun ‘Aasha’ is receiving the direct object ‘documents’, which receives
the action of the verb ‘give’.
Here the noun ‘table’ is the object of the preposition ‘on’, which creates the prepositional
phrase ‘on the table’.
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1. There are some nouns which seem to be plural but are singular, such as
Mathematics, physics, gymnastics, series, news.
Example - A four-match series is being played between England and India in the
Lord’s stadium.
2. There are some nouns which seem to be singular but exist in plural, therefore
plural verbs are used with them. For instance, children, cattle, people, police,
infantry.
3. There are some nouns which are plural and exist in form but cannot be converted
into the singular form.
Note- Always use the singular verb with them until numbers are specified.
Consider the following examples:
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4. When in a sentence there is a numerical adjective with a noun, we cannot use the
plural of that noun if there is another noun after it.
Here, the plural of ‘year’ cannot be used as there is another noun (toddler) after it.
Alternatively, the following is also correct: The toddler is three years old.
5. After the phrase, some of/each of/either of/neither/any of/none of, a plural form
of the noun is used. Example -
6. There are some nouns which exist both in singular and plural form. The nature of
verb depends upon the sense of sentence and noun.
7. The ‘apostrophe’ and ‘s’ (‘s) cannot be used with non- living things to show
possession. Example -
Now, that you have read the Nouns as Part of Speech and also gained some other parts
of speech, continue to read more about the following important articles.
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