Nouns have been defined in our previous lesson as
words used as names of persons, animals, places, things, ideas as well as
events.
In this study, we are looking at the major classifications of
noun. This will help learners identify nouns easily irrespective of whatever
form it takes in a grammatical structure. Nouns are of diverse types and
classifications, but here we want to consider the first major classifications
of noun.
Major
Classification
We are considering the following 4 types of noun:
1. Proper noun
2. Common noun
3. Collective
noun
4. Compound
noun
Proper Noun
Proper noun is defined as a specific name given to a
particular person, place, or thing. Examples include: Mary, Segun, Frankfurt
College, Japan, Azikiwe Road, River Niger, Edo etc.
One striking feature of a proper noun is that it begins with
an upper case letter irrespective of its position in a grammatical structure.
Examples in sentences
i.
I travelled to Madrid to meet with Mr Raul,
my former teacher at Lexley College, London.
ii.
Clara left Nigeria for the first
time in her life on an excursion to the Maghreb Park in Libya.
Each of the underlined words in the above sentences is a
proper noun, hence was started with a capital letter irrespective of its
position in the sentence.
Common Noun
Common noun represents the general name given to a particular
set of nouns with same attribute. No one member of that group lays hold on that
name specifically. E.g., animal, boy, school, country, street, hospital, book,
car, dress, fruit etc.
Examples in sentences
i.
There are over fifty countries in Africa.
ii.
Our teachers are trained specialists in their job.
iii.
My father promised to buy my mother a car.
Note: Common nouns are written beginning with small letters,
except where they are used to begin a sentence.
Collective
Nouns
Collective noun is a name given to a particular noun in its
group formation, i.e. when a given noun gathers as a group. Think of say, five
to ten armed robbers gathered together as a single group. Instead of referring to
them as ten or five armed robbers, the most appropriate thing to do is to use
their collective name- in this case; gang of armed robbers- gang here is
the collective name.
Examples of
most popular collective nouns
S/NO
|
NOUN GROUP
|
COLLECTIVE NAME
|
1.
|
Soldiers
|
Troop/Army/Battalion of
soldiers
|
2.
|
Football players
|
Team of players
|
3.
|
Keys/Bananas
|
Bunch of keys/bananas
|
4.
|
Dancers
|
Troupe of dancers
|
5.
|
Singers
|
Choir of singers
|
6.
|
Sheep
|
Flock of sheep
|
7.
|
Cattle
|
Herd of cattle
|
8.
|
Cars
|
Fleet of cars
|
9.
|
Flowers
|
Bouquet of flowers
|
10.
|
Sailors
|
Crew of sailors
|
11.
|
Teachers/Workers
|
Staff of teachers/workers
|
12.
|
Students
|
Class of students
|
13.
|
Musicians
|
Band of musicians
|
14.
|
Worshippers
|
Congregation of worshippers
|
15.
|
Rioters
|
Mob of rioters
|
16.
|
Angels
|
Host of angels
|
Examples in sentences
i.
The shepherd took the flock to the open field
for pasture.
ii.
The pastor delivered a sermon to the congregation.
iii.
To be a member of the choir, one needs to learn
the rudiments of music.
Compound
Nouns
Compound nouns are nouns formed by a combination of two or
more independent words, with or without a hyphen in between. E.g., meatpie (meat+pie),
pancake (pan+cake), classroom (class+room), lunchpad (launch+pad), blackboard (black+board),
mother-in-law (mother+in+law), governor-general (governor+general) etc.
Examples in sentences
i.
John misplaced his father’s suitcase.
ii.
Mr. Smith is the new Attorney-general of the
federation.
iii.
My step-mother is a classroom teacher.
Exercises
1. In a
tabular format, place the following nouns under the appropriate headings of
Proper noun, Common noun, Collective noun, Compound noun.
(school, beverage, Jude, France, bunch, armchair, King’s
College, runners-up, galaxy, host, battalion, Lake Chad, chair, lipstick,
funfair, soup).
2. Make a
correct sentence each of the following types of noun:
a. Proper noun
b. Common noun
c. Collective noun
d. Compound noun
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