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Grammimes
Noun
Article
Verb
Adjective
Pronoun
Conjunction
Adverb
Preposition
Interjection
Games
The noun is the name of a thing.
These names may be sorted into four groups;
PROPER NOUNS
COMMON NOUNS
ABSTRACT NOUNS
COLLECTIVE NOUNS
In English there are special names that we give to individual people, creatures, places, countries and things; Oliver Twist, Rover (the dog) ,Worcester, England, Coventry Cathedral. These we call proper nouns. The word proper comes from the Latin 'proprius' meaning one's own and is therefore given to an individual or single identity. From the same Latin root we gain the word propriety, meaning fitness or rightness, proprietor and property. Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter.
The names of things which are not particular to an individual person, place or thing are termed common, arising from the Latin 'communis' which means serving all or common to all and from the same root we gain the words communion, community and communist.
If we are unable to appreciate the thing named with one of our five senses, but only experience it in the mind as a thought; an idea or mathematics, or emotion; love or happiness, such nouns are turned abstract from the Latin 'abstractus' (Latin abs = from and trahere = to draw) meaning withdrawn or separated in the sense of separated from the physicality of the world.
A collective noun is the particular name of a group or collection of people, creatures or things. The word collective comes from the Latin 'colligere' meaning to gather together and informs our words college and collection. Many collective nouns are familiar; such as crew and gang, but others are less well known to children; such as a flight of stairs.
