All about nouns in a nutshell

Read this sequence of words, and guess what is happening —

Colgate, Gillette, Dove, Levi’s, Kellogg’s, Samsonite, Samsung, Uber, Indira Gandhi International, Indigo, Maggie, Kempagowda International Airport, Ola, Radisson blu…

Yes, I woke up and brushed my teeth with Colgate toothpaste, took a shower with Dove soap, got ready, had Kellogg’s cereal for breakfast, booked an Uber cab on my Samsung cellphone, and left Delhi for Bengaluru airport. After reaching, I took an Ola cab to the Radisson Blu hotel.

All about nouns 

Proper nouns

The list above is composed solely of nouns, proper nouns, to be precise. Proper nouns are specific places, persons, or events. And of course, brand names are proper nouns.

Isn’t it amazing that you were able to make sense of and find connections with all (or almost all) of the proper nouns in that list?

We live in a world that is saturated with proper nouns. In our daily lives, many of us have conversations teaming with proper nouns. Do we go to Subway or Pizza Hut for lunch? Coke or Pepsi? Should I buy shoes from Nike or Adidas?

There are other noun types out there. Maybe not as glamorous or enticing. But, they are important.

Common nouns

There are common nouns, which name a class of things, animals, people, or places. Yes, that’s the definition you learned (or memorized) at school. Examples of common nouns are: teacher, student, bird, city, and tree.

Concrete nouns 

Then there are concrete nouns: nouns that you can know through your five senses. Words such as keys, tickets, and sunglasses. We deal with a lot of concrete nouns in our daily lives.

There is one type of noun that overshadows all the nouns we have seen till now. This is the most powerful category of nouns.

Abstract nouns

These nouns can inspire you to greatness, and they can make people do terrible things. You cannot see them, hear them, smell them, taste them, nor touch them. I’m talking about abstract nouns. Love. Hate. Justice. Jealousy. Forgiveness. War. Peace. Envy. Compassion. The list goes on and on. All these words are abstract nouns.

Now that you know the value of abstract nouns. Start thinking about them as well. Are you feeling jealousy? Or pity? Or compassion? Or … Abstract nouns  help you introspect. 

In 2008, Barack Obama’s election campaign centered on an abstract noun. It proved to be a successful choice. It captured the imagination and aspirations of the voting public. The abstract noun was: hope.

Image from wikipedia.org

Now, what on earth are uncountable nouns?