Types of Nouns (with examples)

Noun Types

The nouns are terms that are used to name all animate and inanimate beings, of different nature. For instance: puppet, air, gods, Warsaw.

Morphologically, they possess gender and number, that is to say that they are variable words. Syntactically, they constitute noun phrases and fulfill various functions: subject nucleus, direct object, predicates, appositions.

Semantic classification of nouns

From the semantic point of view, that is, according to their meaning, nouns can be:

Morphological classification of nouns

From a morphological point of view, nouns can be classified according to gender and number:

The nouns that refer to beings or people admit the double form of masculine and feminine. This is expressed with a variation in the ending of the word. For instance: boy / girl, parrot / lora, abbot / abbess, poet / poet, bear / bear.

In these cases, the formal variation is related to the idea of ​​sex: from the names of the beings of the masculine sex those of the feminine sex are derived. They can be formed in different ways:

• Changing -o to -a. For instance: monor/monto, studentor/alumnto, teacheror/maestrto.
• Adding an -a when the noun ends in a consonant. For instance: Lion Lionto, director / directorto, doctor Doctorto.
• By the ending -esa. For instance: Milanese / Milanthis, count / condthis, marquis / marquthis.
• By the ending -ina. For instance: king / reina, rooster / gallina, hero / heroína.
• Using the ending -isa. For instance: priest / priestisa, prophet / prophetisa, poet / poetisa.
• Changing the ending -dor / -tor to -trix. For instance: emperor / empresstriz, actor / actriz.
• In some cases, the feminine is created considering the etymology of the word. For instance: Jose / Josefa (formerly Josef), Pablo / Paula (formerly Paulus).

But the vast majority of nouns have only one form: either they are feminine or they are masculine. For instance: the heaven, the evening, the book, the ant.

In these cases, the gender of the nouns is not linked to the idea of ​​sex, even when they designate animals.

Usually:

• Nouns ending in a vowel are masculine, minus a. For instance: song, forest, spirit, wild boar.
  Exceptions: hand, metropolis, tribe, nao, etc.
• The grave nouns ending in a vowel a are feminine. For instance: plant, laugh, rose, table, house
  Exceptions: language, athlete, planet, system, theme, etc.

It is the agreement with the adjective and the article that determines the gender of the noun with certainty.

In addition, they are male:

• The nouns that indicate beings of the masculine sex or conditions of those beings. For instance: Cervantes, Pinocchio, father.
• The names of oceans, seas and rivers. For instance:the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the Nile.
• The names of winds. For instance: the Levante, the Zonda, the Sirocco.
• The names of months, days, numbers and musical notes. For instance: a hot January, Thursday, the tenth, Wed.
• Many names of Greek origin, even if they end with -a, like those that end in -gram. For instance: pentagram, ideogram, monogram.

And they are female:

• The names that mean beings of the feminine sex or conditions of those beings. For instance: mother, nurse, Elena, muse.
• The names of the letters of the alphabet. For instance: the a, the c, the f.
• The names of islands. For instance: Philippines, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands.
• The names of sciences and arts (except drawing, right, engraving). For instance: physics, mathematics, painting.
• Words ending in -sion, -tion, -connection, -ction. For instance: action, emotion, vision, reflection.

To keep in mind:

• In some cases, the nouns admit feminine or masculine article, but the generic attraction modifies its meaning. For instance:
  (the) anger = anger / (cholera = disease.
  (the cure = cure / (the priest = priest.
  (slope = cost / (the earpice = jewelry.
• In other cases, the feminine and masculine gender is used interchangeably. For instance: the / the smudge, the / the sea, the / the apostrophe, the / the tilde, the / the boundary.
• There is no hard and fast rule to explain what gender the words ending in a consonant belong to. This will be determined from the generic attraction that it exerts on its modifiers.

In Spanish, there are two numbers: singular (to designate a single thing) and plural (to designate more than one thing).

Usually to form the plural:

• If the singular word ends in an unstressed vowel, a final -s is added. For instance: desks, shelfs, books.
• If the singular word ends in a stressed vowel or consonant, add -es. For instance: ombúit is, wild pigands delicacyit is. However, some words with a stressed vowel are governed by the first rule. For instance: dads, mothers, sofas, coffees, I will pays, teas.
• Words ending in -s or -x remain unchanged. For instance: (the) Monday, (the) cavities, (the) doses.
• The words character, regime, and specimen change the placement of the accent. For instance: (the) characters, (the) regimes and (the) specimens.
• In certain foreign words, the plural is formed in a special way. For instance: lord / lords, tailcoat / fraques, bivouac / bivouacs.
• Compound words are governed by the aforementioned rules and add -s or -es at the end, to pluralize. For instance: corkscrews, can openers, bumperit is, bittersweetit is.

Examples of nouns

Examples of nouns with masculine and feminine forms

Examples of one-way nouns

Examples of singular nouns

Examples of plural nouns

Examples of proper nouns

Examples of common nouns

Examples of abstract nouns

Examples of countable nouns

Examples of uncountable nouns

Examples of collective nouns

Examples of individual nouns

Follow with: