Author: amalfabian

I'm an English language trainer based in India. I'm a bookworm and enjoy reading fiction, history, art, and much more. I like to doodle. Despite my best efforts, I draw like a 5-year old. I do enjoy swimming, especially when it is raining.

All about nouns in a nutshell

A cubist painting. All about nounds

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. 

220px-Barack_Obama_Hope_poster

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?

The difference between its and it’s

apostrophe-blackIts or it’s. What’s the difference?

Is this correct? Its my life. Nope. Why not? Because there is no verb in that sentence. It  should be: It’s my life.

It’s can mean two things: it is — or — it has. It all depends on the context. In our example sentence — It’s my life = It is my life. It is not: It has my life.

Let’s look at another sentence: It’s been a while since we last met. Now, here, it’s = it has.

Its is another dish altogether. And it has two different and distinct flavors.

1. Possessive pronoun

cartoon-robot-free-vector-illustration-800x566

image from: superawesomevectors.com

Imagine you have a robot (like the one above). In general, we consider a robot to be a thing. So we would say: it is washing the dishes.

Let’s look at some dialogue —

Your friend: Whose book is that?

You (pointing to the robot): Oh… That’s its.

Your friend: I didn’t know robots can read.

That is one way of using its. Here its acts as possessive pronoun. If the book was yours, you would say: Oh… That’s mine. (Mine is another possessive pronoun, by the way.)

You are still reading this post. That means you are determined to understand it’s vs its. A positive sign. We have one more use of its and then we’re done. Promise.

2. Possessive adjective

A friend asks you: Whose book is that?

You (pointing to the robot): Oh… That’s its book.

Here its acts as a possessive adjective. It gives us more information about the book. If it is your book, you would say: Oh… That’s my book.

Do you get it?

Are you a bit confused? I hope not. Don’t worry about all the grammatical jargon (possessive pronoun, possessive adjective). Just think about when to use it’s and its.

Keep in mind that its can be used either as a pronoun (a word that replaces a noun) or as an adjective (a word that describes a noun).

Phew! Done.

Next time someone emails you: Its okay. You know what is not okay!

For more on grammar, read these posts on articles and prepositions. 

How well do you know words?

We use words all the time to express what we feel, think, and want. But have you ever wondered whether you are using the appropriate word? The right word to express your thoughts and emotions? Are you thoughtfully using words to convey shades of meaning? Or are you using boiler-plate templates of phrases and words which ‘fit’ into a current situation?

man dictionary         

Words are like people. It takes time to get to know them. You have to meet them in different contexts. And just like people, they may be multi-layered and at times, misunderstood. You have to spend a lot of time with a person to become a good friend: someone whom you really understand. The same goes for words.

So, what does it mean to know a word?

  • Well, to know a word means to be aware of its dictionary meaning.
  • It also means to be aware of the other words that usually go with it. It’s called collocation.
  • It means to know whether it has a positive or negative connotation. So, you will have to be aware of the context when a word is generally used.
  • And to know a word means to know how it is pronounced.

Well, this is actually quite a list, if you think about it. And the list is expandable. To know a word also means to know the origin of the word, and the prefixes, or suffixes used. But, we’ll stay with the basics: dictionary meaning and pronunciation.

Let’s take an example. In India, people use this word a lot: improvise. At a meeting I attended, someone was giving a task. His colleague said, “Well, you’ll have to improvise!” What did he mean by that? Did he mean that there was a need to be creative? Or that there is a need to improve the current product? Or did he mean something else? I wish I asked him, because it was not clear to me at the time.

Let’s look at what the dictionary can unearth for us. Go ahead and click on this link. Read about the word improvise. Then return to this page.

 
 
 
Welcome back! When I clicked on this link, I learned a lot about the word, improvise. Here is what I found interesting:
 
1. There are three syllables in the word, and the first one is stressed. The other two are unstressed. So immediately, I had a good idea as to how the word is pronounced.
 
2.  The definition is what I expected it to be. Although, I would have not thought about including inventing devices in the meaning of the word.
 
3. I didn’t know that we could use the word from with improvise. The example sentence from the Cambridge Dictionary page is helpful: We improvised a mattress from a pile of blankets.
 
What were your thoughts when you read the dictionary entry for the word? And do you use this word accurately?
 
Words, like people, may not always be what you think they are. So, question yourself when you use a word. You may think you know its meaning or how it is pronounced, but in reality, you may be using the word inaccurately.
 
Doubt yourself. Check the dictionary. You may be in for a few surprises.