Common nouns (загальні назви) and Proper nouns (власні назви)

Classification of Nouns

According to their lexical meaning nouns fall under two classes:

Common nouns are names applied to any individual of a class of persons or things, collections of similar individuals or things regarded as a unit, materials or abstract notions. They are subdivided into:

v class nouns (конкретні іменники)

v collective nouns (збірні іменники)

v material nouns (речовинні іменники)

v abstract nouns (абстрактні іменники)

1. Class nouns denote living beings or things belonging to a class, such as a man, a dog, a book. They are countable. They can have a singular and plural form.

2. Collective nouns denote a number of persons or things collected together to form a single unit. They are subdivided into:

a) Nouns that are used in both numbers: a family, a company, a team. They are countable.

In singular they may be followed by the verb either in singular or in plural. In singular if a collective noun is thought of as a single unit, and in plural if the collective noun is thought as a collection of separate individuals:

My family is my everything.

My family are sitting at the table and drinking tea.

b) Nouns that are used only in the singular. They have a singular form and they are singular in meaning. They are uncountable, e.g. furniture, money, youth.

c) Nouns that are used only in the plural. They have a plural form and they are plural in meaning. They are uncountable, e.g. goods, belongings, looks. Very often they are nouns formed from other parts of speech.

d) Nouns that are used only in the plural. These are names of things consisting of two similar parts (halves). They have a plural form and they are plural in meaning. They are uncountable, e.g. scales, trousers, shorts.

e) Nouns of multitude that are singular in form but plural in meaning. They are uncountable and used with a verb in plural, e.g. people, police.

f) Nouns that are used only in the singular. They have a plural form but they are singular in meaning. They are uncountable. These are names of some subjects, games and activities, e.g. maths, phonetics, aerobics.

3. Material nouns denote materials, such as air, water, paper, cotton, leather. They are uncountable and used only in singular.

4. Abstract nouns denote notions (science, information), qualities (beauty, humour), actions (work, conversation), feelings and emotions (joy, love, anger).

They are uncountable and used only in singular.

Proper nouns are names given to individuals of a class to distinguish them from other individuals of the same class: 1) personal names; 2) geo names; 3) months, days; 4) hotels, streets etc.

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