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Kinds of Nouns

A noun that is the name of a particular person, animal, place or thing is called a proper noun . For example, the words Mr Gupta, Hyderabad, Wednesday and Red Fort are proper nouns.

Write the highlighted nouns in the correct columns in the table.

1. The white house on Mall Road belongs to my brother . 2. My teacher , Mr Gupta , comes from Lucknow . 3. Have you eaten a hamburger at TJoe’s ? 4. Mix the butter, eggs, sugar and flour well. 5. We saw red pandas and black bears in the Darjeeling Zoo . 6. The Taj Mahal and the Pyramids are magnificent monuments . 7. The father of the student came to meet the teacher . 8. The Krishna , the Ganges and the Godavari are some important rivers in India .

Nouns that are names of general people, places and things

Nouns that are names of special people, places and things

You have learnt that a noun is the name of a person, place, animal or thing.

A noun that gives a common, or general, name to persons, animals, places or things is called a common noun . For example, the words house, brother and river are all common nouns.

NoteProper nouns always begin with a capital letter.

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Nouns that refer to people, animals and things as a group are called collective nouns .

A. Give a common noun for each set of proper nouns. One has been done for you.

1. Jayanti, Manisha, Hema, Rashmi girls 2. Manish, Jaideep, Karan, Vijay 3. Nepal, England, France, Mexico 4. Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Sikkim 5. Mount Everest, Kanchenjunga, Mount Fuji, Kilimanjaro 6. Pacific, Indian, Atlantic 7. Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Earth 8. January, June, October, March 9. Alice in Wonderland, Heidi, Black Beauty

10. Ruskin Bond, Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl 11. Mathematics, English, Hindi, Science 12. Sunday, Tuesday, Friday, Thursday

B. In these sentences, underline the words that represent a group of people, animals or things.

The Andamans are a group of islands.1. A fleet of ships sailed to sea.2. We saw a herd of goats grazing in the field.3. Our class stood first in the singing contest.4. The choir of singers sang lovely carols.5. The library of books was burnt in the fire.6. The bear was attacked by a swarm of bees.7. The troupe of dancers presented a ballet.8. The gang of robbers committed a bank robbery.9. An army of ants attacked the termite mound.10. A heap of rubbish has collected on the road.11. Can you see the cluster of stars that is shaped like a spoon?12.

Words like herd , class and cluster are nouns that stand for groups of animals, people and things, respectively.

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In your notebook, make a table with two columns. In column A, put the nouns that you cannot touch or see, and in column B, put the nouns that you can touch and see.

P A C K C L B S P T BR C T Y B K O C O R UI L Q U I W U H D S ND S H O A L Q O D D CE S E E B I U O L A HD S R E G T E L W R BP E D F M T T H E R DE Z A H F E L Y W T EI M A E S R I B A N DS W A R M T M I R N GF L O C K B C N O I R

C. Find the collective nouns in this word grid. The clues will help you.

a p1. of wolves a f 2. of birds a s 3. of bees a b 4. of grapes a s 5. of fish a p 6. of lions a l 7. of puppies a p 8. of dolphins a h 9. of elephants

10. a s of whales 11. a b of thieves 12. a b of flowers

pin baby book power house faithman honesty depth pen fear studentpride knowledge thirst pain vase strength

Now, look at these sentences. • Ravi was awarded for his bravery . • Birbal was known for his wisdom . • I was filled with happiness when I received the award. • I am afraid of darkness .

The words bravery , wisdom , happiness and darkness are nouns. However, these nouns cannot be touched, seen, heard or smelt. These are qualities, thoughts or feelings that can only be felt.

Nouns that refer to ideas, feelings or thoughts are known as abstract nouns .

Sometimes, it is easy to recognise abstract nouns from their spellings. Study the table on the next page to understand and find out how we can make abstract nouns using suffixes. In some cases, the spellings change while taking on a suffix.

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Recall

E. Find and circle the opposites of these abstract nouns in the word grid.

bravery 1. weakness 2. politeness 3. truth 4. reward 5. happiness 6. destruction 7. death 8.

C O W A R D I C EP K I S U M T R IU I N O D O L E VN S G R E F I A HI T N R N H E T GS R O O E U S I SH E Y W S K E O XM N P K S Y Q N CE G N I F B H V AN T B L I F E S UT H E P O F D W P

Nouns are of different kinds—• common, proper, collective and abstract.

• Abstract nouns refer to ideas, feelings or thoughts.

Suffix Abstract nouns

-ness kindness, darkness, happiness

-ion action, creation, rejection

-y, -ty or -ity jealousy, safety, reality

-ship friendship, hardship, relationship

-hood childhood, boyhood, neighbourhood

-ion, -tion or -ation collection, admiration

-ment amazement, achievement, disappointment

-th depth, health, truth

-dom kingdom, wisdom, freedom

-ance or -ence appearance, importance, existence

D. Add suitable suffixes to the words given in the box to form abstract nouns. Use each of them in sentences of your own. Write them in your notebook.

foolish friend sad die inform lazybeautiful cunning deep punish neighbour absent

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