Dear Aspirants, Here we have given the Important English Grammar Tips in usage of English Common Noun Examples, candidates those who are preparing for the SBI, RBI, IBPS and all other competitive exams can make use of it.
Important English Grammar Tips – Usage of Noun Examples
Now a days IBPS has changing the questions pattern of English Section more often, to tackle the English Section aspirants should be very strong in the Basic English Grammar. To help you in this aspect here we have given the Important English Grammar Tips in usage of English Noun which will be more helpful to attend Error Spotting Questions.
Noun:
Noun is a naming word. It refers person, place, things or animals.
Eg: Vaibhav, Chennai, pen, cow…..with this noun is classified into 5 types in major.
PROPER NOUN is the name of a particular person or place.
Eg: George, Banaras …
COMMON NOUN is the name of group of persons or things.
Eg: Boy, town,….
COLLECTIVE NOUN is the name of a group or collection of similar persons, animals, or things.
Eg: Group of boys, fleet of soldiers,…
ABSTRACT NOUN is the name of a quality that persons or things have, action they take or state they find themselves in. You cannot touch it but can feel it.
Eg: Honesty, happiness, music, freedom.
MATERIAL NOUN: These are raw materials or objects, existing in nature.
Eg: iron, stones, furniture….
MASCULINE: a noun that denotes male sex.
Eg: boy ,bull, dog
FEMININE: a noun that denotes female sex .
Eg: girl,cow, bitch
COMMON NOUN: a noun that denotes either a male or a female.
Eg: servant, child, student
NEUTER: It denotes lifeless things.
Eg: pen, pencil, books,…
Ways of forming feminine nouns
By using different words:
| Masculine | Feminine |
| Bachelor | Maid/spinster |
| Dog | Bitch |
| Bull | Cow |
| Drone | Bee |
By adding a syllable ‘-ess’…
| Masculine | Feminine |
| Lion | Lioness |
| Heir | Heiress |
| Peer | Peeress |
| Poet | Poetess |
| Host | Hostess |
By adding ‘-ess’ after dropping the vowel ending..
| Masculine | Feminine |
| Executor | Executrix |
| Master | Mistress |
| Tempter | Temptress |
| Abbot | Abbess |
| Signor | Signora |
By adding a word suffix or prefix
| Masculine | Feminine |
| He-goat | She-goat |
| Bull-calf | Cow- calf |
| Peacock | Peahen |
| Milkman | Milkmaid |
| Grandfather | grandmother |
SINGULAR: It denotes only one thing or person.
Eg: boy, pen
PLURAL: It denotes more than one.
Eg:boys, girls…
Adding ‘s’ to plural form:
| Pen | Pens |
| Girl | Girls |
| Pencil | Pencils |
| Dwarf | Dwarfs |
| Chief | Chiefs |
Adding ‘es’ to plural form for the words ending with’s,ss,sh,ch,x’
| Bus | Buses |
| Glass | Glasses |
| Bush | Bushes |
| Bench | Benches |
| Box | Boxes |
Adding ‘es’ by removing ‘y’
| Baby | Babies |
| story | Stories |
| City | Cities |
| Army | Armies |
| Lady | Ladies |
| Pony | ponies |
Adding ‘ies’ by removing ‘f, fe’
| Wife | Wives |
| Shelf | Shelves |
| Loaf | Loaves |
| Thief | Thieves |
| Wolf | wolves |
Complete change of words
| Child | Children |
| Man | Men |
| Woman | Women |
| Analysis | Analyses |
| Memorandum | memoranda |
Plurals for phrases:
| Mother in law | Mothers in law |
| Father in law | Fathers in law |
| Inspector general | Inspectors general |
| Attorney general | Attorneys general |
| Brother in law | brothers in law |
RULES FOR NOUNS:
- Some nouns are used only in the plural form.
Eg: Scissors, spectacles,…
- Some nouns are used only in the singular
Eg: civics, mathematics, news…
- Some nouns have the singular and plural alike
Eg: sheep, deer, swine, cod
- Abstract nouns and Material nouns are not used in the plural.
Eg: charity, kindness, copper,…
Note: when they are used in plural, the meaning changes and they become common nouns.
- Proper nouns are always written with capital letters at the beginning.
Eg: Delhi
- Collective noun usually takes a singular verb and is substituted by singular by a singular pronoun.
Eg: The jury has given its decision.
- Collective noun takes plural a plural verb when the noun gives the meaning of representing the members individually.
Eg: The jury were divided in their decision.
- A material noun and abstract noun do not take articles.
Eg: Cotton is a cash crop.
- Collective nouns, even when they denote living beings, are considered of the neuter gender.
Eg: Debi had a herd of cows. He kept a herdsman to look after it.
- Young children, infants and the lower animals are referred as neuter gender.
Eg: The baby loves its toys.
- Objects without life are considered as of
- Masculine gender- if the object gives the sense of strength, and violence.
Eg: sun,summer,winter,time,death…
- Feminine gender – – if the object gives the sense of beauty, gentleness, and gracefulness.
Earth, moon, spring, nature….
- Pair, dozen , score, gross, hundred, thousand,etc,..(units of counting) when used after numbers remain their singular form.
Eg: My friend has two dozen apples.
- Abstract noun and material noun are not used in plural form.
Eg: Care of the old is necessary.
- Use correct form for abstract noun.
Eg: young-youth, honest-honesty.
- Check spelling error if any.
- Collective noun follows must take singular verb. (Phrase with noun must be in plural)
Eg: A bunch of bananas has become expensive.
- Proper doesn’t take articles before it but when it is taken in comparison , it does.
Dear Aspirants, Below we have given some exercise questions which may consist of errors (based on NOUN), check whether the statement has error or not if any given your answers in the below comment section.
EXERCISE QUESTIONS:
- The parliament is divided on the bill.
- His brother committed thiefhood in his house.
- He wears glass to aid his short sighted eye.
- The same board is used chess as well as draught.
- Take care of the vixen because they are wily creatures.
- The Indians are a religious-minded people.
- Time passes in its chariot majestically.
- The practices of the lawyers vary from those of the doctors.
- The bright lamps gave much lights.
- Devi is Anand of our chess class.
- You will be promoted in the time of a year.
- The cup’s base was rounded.
- The Earth treats us as his children, not strangers.
- The fleet of ships move at a uniform speed.
- Queen Elizabeth is the monarchess of England.
- Aurangzeb’s religious bigotism caused severe harm to the Mughal empire.
- The tin is a precious metal.
- The mildwoman said that she would not supply milk on holidays.
- The team camped at Namkum. They followed a rigorous routine.
- Who will win if there is a contest between the dwafrves and the giants.
Explanation
- The parliament is divided, it is not being divided thought of a whole, but in terms of its constituents. Hence, use plural verb. ’The parliament are divided on the bill.
- The abstract noun from common noun thief is theft, not thiefhood. ‘His brother committed theft in his house’.
- This sentence intends is spectacles made of glass. So we use plural ‘glasses’ . ‘He wears glasses to aid his short sighted eye’.
- The game is not draught but draughts.‘ The same board is used chess as well as draughts’.
- Vixen is the feminine gender of fox, not its plural. ‘Take care of the foxes because they are wily creatures’/ ‘Take care of the vixen because she is a wily creatures’.
- The sentence is correct. People usually, is used as a plural. But when it means a nation, as it does here, it is used as a singular. ‘The Indians are a religious-minded people’.
- In this sentence time is personified and takes masculine gender. ‘Time passes in his chariot majestically’.
- In this sentence , it is talking of persons from different professions-lawyers and doctors. Thus practice means exercise of a profession. This meaning does not have a plural. ‘The practice of the lawyers varies from those of the doctors’.
- If one light gives light, do you think two lights give two lights? Light is not countable so it does not have plural form. ‘The bright lamps gave much light’.
- Devi is not Viswanathan Anand . Anand here is compared with Devi.‘Devi is the Anand of our chess class’.
- Possessive is used with nouns denoting time .‘You will be promoted in a year’s time’.
- The cup is not a living thing . so it does not take possessive sign. ‘The baseof the cup was rounded.
- The earth is personified and it takes feminine gender.. ‘The Earth treats us asher children, not strangers’.
- The fleet is a collective noun. It should be in the singular.‘The fleet of shipsmoves at a uniform speed’.
- Monarch does not have feminine gender. It is of common gender. ‘Queen Elizabeth is themonarch of England’.
- Aurangzeb’s religious bigotism caused severe harm to the Mughal empire.
- Tin is a material noun. A material noun does not take an article before it.‘Tinis a precious metal’.
- The feminine for milkman is milkmaid, not milkwoman. ‘Themilkmaid said that she would not supply milk on holidays’.
- Team like army is a collective noun. Collective nouns are neuter gender . so it takes the pronoun ‘it’.‘The team camped at Namkum.It followed a rigorous routine’.
- Plural for dwarf is dwarfs. ‘Who will win if there is a contest between thedwarfs and the giants?’.