CBSE Class 8 English Grammar – Noun

CBSE Class 8 English Grammar – Noun

Definition of Noun
A noun is defined as the name that is given to any person, place, thing or an idea.

1. The Sun shines brightly.
2. The Jasmine smells sweet.

Kinds of Noun
The kinds of noun are as follows

Proper Noun
A proper noun is the name given to a particular person or a place. A proper noun always begins with capital letter.
e.g.

1. Maria lives in the United States of America.
2. World War I started in the year 1914.

Common Noun
A common noun is a name given in common to every person or thing of the same class or kind. Common nouns are not written in capital letters.
e.g.

1. India is a country.
2. Daniel is a boy.

Differences between Proper Noun and Common Noun

Abstract Noun
An abstract noun is a word that is used to indicate an idea, activity, action, a quality or a state which is considered separate from the object to which it relates. The names relating to arts and sciences are also included in abstract noun.

• Idea A thought, suggestion, belief, dream etc.
• Activity Marketing activity, advertising, economic activity, playing etc.
• Action Hatred, movement, operation, laughter etc.
• Quality Hardness, honesty, goodness, kindness etc.
• State Death, darkness, childhood, poverty etc.

e.g.

1. We are studying Mathematics.
2. Ken thought of a brilliant idea for his story.

Collective Noun
A collective noun is the name that is given to a group/number of persons or things in collection,
e.g.

• A staff of employees.
• A troupe of dancers.

Material Noun
Material nouns are names of substances of which things are made.
e.g.

1. I bought a gold ring.
2. Plastic toys are very colourful.

According to grammatical distinction, the nouns can be classified as either countable or uncountable.

Countable Noun
The countable noun represents the names of the people or the object that we can count,
e.g.

1. There are two books in my bag.
2. Our house has six rooms.

Uncountable Noun
The uncountable noun represents the names of the people or the object that we cannot count, but can measure or weigh.
e.g.

1. There is no information about him.
2. Have you got some paper?

There are certain nouns that can be used as both countable and uncountable according to the context,
e.g.

1. There are 3-4 hairs on my table.
2. She has a black, shiny hair.

In examples

1. ‘hair’ is used as countable nouns, while in examples
2. hair is uncountable noun.

Number
According to numbers, the nouns can be categorised as singular and plural.

Singular Number
A noun that represents one person or one thing is known as singular number,
e.g.

1. It is a very tall tree.
2. I am writing with a blue pen.

Plural Number
A noun that represents more than one person or a thing is known as a plural number.
e.g.

1. The boys are playing in the ground.
2. The cows are eating grass.
3. I like to read stories.

Rules for Changing the Singular into Plural

Rule 1
Nouns that end with a consonant are made plural by adding ‘-s’ to the singular.
Parrot                            Parrots
Egg                                Eggs
Boat                              Boats
Actor                             Actors
Cook                             Cooks
Hat                                 Hats

Rule 2
Nouns that end with -s, -ss, -ch, -sh, -z, -x are pluralised by adding ‘-es’.
Bus                                Buses
Glass                             Glasses
Bench                            Benches
Bush                              Bushes
Quiz                               Quizes
Tax                                 Taxes

Exception
Stomach               Stomachs
Monarch               Monarchs

Rule 3
Nouns that end with -o and there is a consonant before -o then plural is made by adding ‘-es’.
Tomato                Tomatoes
Mosquito             Mosquitoes
Mango                  Mangoes
Hero                      Heroes    

Exception
Photo             Photos
Zero                Zeros

Rule 4
Nouns that end with -y and there is a consonant before -y, then plural is made by changing ‘y’ to ‘i’ and adding ‘-es’.
Fly                   Flies
Fly                   Flies
Story               Stories
Baby                Babies
Family             Families
Copy                Copies
Library            Libraries

Rule 5
Nouns that end with -y and there is a vowel before -y, then plural is made by adding ‘-s’.
Boy               Boys
Day               Days
Key               Keys
Way              Ways
Toy                Toys
Essay             Essays

Rule 6
Nouns that end with double vowel are pluralised by adding ‘-s’.
Tree                      Trees
Bee                        Bees
Zoo                        Zoos
Radio                    Radios
Portfolio               Portfolios
Bamboo                Bamboos

Rule 7
Some nouns are pluralised by the change in their inside vowel.
Tooth            Teeth
Foot              Feet
Mouse          Mice
Man              Men

Rule 8
Nouns that end with -f or -fe pluralised by adding ‘-es’ after -f or -fe is changed to ‘-v’.
Knife        Knives
Thief        Thieves
Wife         Wives
Life           Lives

Exception
Roof            Roofs
Safe             Safes
Chief           Chiefs
Proof           Proofs
Scarf            Scarfs/scarves

Rule 9
Compounds nouns are pluralised by adding the principal word.
Step-son                 Step-sons
Brother-in-law       Brothers-in—law
Pea-cock                 Pea-cocks
Passer-by                Passers-by

Exception
Man-Servant  →  Men-Servants
Lord-Justice   →   Lord-Justices

Rule 10
Nouns that end with -man’ are made plural by changing ‘-man’ into ‘-men’
Woman           Women
Postman         Postmen
Watchman     Watchmen
Chairman       Chairmen
Milkman         Milkmen
Fellowman     Fellowmen

Gender
According to gender, the nouns can be classified as masculine, feminine, common and neuter gender.

Masculine Gender
A noun that represents a male is known as the masculine gender.
e.g. boy, man, lion, king etc.

Feminine Gender
A noun that represents a female is known as the feminine gender.
e.g. girl, woman, lioness, actress, queen etc.

Common Gender
A noun that represents either a male or a female is known as the common gender.
e.g. friend, guardian, guest, infant, owner,
parent, passenger, pig, pupil etc.

Neuter Gender
A noun that represents a thing which is neither a male nor a female as a neuter gender,
e.g. box, bread, butter, chair, chalk etc.
All non-living objects and animals fall into this category.

Rules for Changing Masculine into Feminine

Rule 1
Masculine can be changed into feminine by adding ‘-ess’.
Poet                   Poetess
Lion                   Lioness
Host                   Hostess
Giant                 Giantess

Rule 2
In some nouns,- ending in V, after masculine can be changed into feminine by adding ‘-ess’ removing the ‘vowel’ before the last letter.
Tiger                                              Tigress
Monitor                                         Monitress
Actor                                              Actress
Editor                                            Editress

Rule 3
Masculine can be changed into the feminine by using a completely different word.
King                                               Queen
Hero                                              Heroine
Uncle                                             Aunt
Husband                                       Wife

Rule 4
Feminine of the compound nouns are made by changing the masculine word of the compound noun that comes to the front.
He-bear                                     She-bear
Bull-calf                                    Cow-calf
He-goat                                     She-goat
Son-in-law                                Daughter-in-law

Rule 5
Feminine of some masculine are made by removing the last vowel and consonant and then by adding ‘-ess’.
Governor                                     Governess
Murderer                                     Murderess

Exception
Duke          Duchess

Rule 6
Compound nouns change their gender masculine word into feminine coming later.
Headmaster     Headmistress
Grandfather     Grandmother
Milkman           Milkmaid
Peacock            Peahen

Chapter Practice

Question 1:
Identify Common Noun and Proper Noun in each of the following sentences.
(i) The house is on main street.
(ii) Shashi played with her sister.
(iii) Sita is a girl.
(iv) Australia is a country.
(v) Ram goes to bank.
(vi) I went to the city. –
(viii) Mr Brown is a kind man.
(viii) Vihaan went on a holiday.
(ix) Joe is my cousin.
(x) Mrs Wood took her baby to the park.
(xi) New Delhi is the Capital city of India.
(xii) Kashish likes her new dress.
(xiii) Anita is bad.                       –
(xiv) Peter has a bag of lollies.
(xv) Our new classmate came from Africa.
(xvi) Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India.
(xvii) The crowd was very big.
(xviii) We went to the zoo in Melbourne.
(xix) I go to the temple on Monday.
(xx) The Godavari is a river.

Answer:

Question 2:
Choose the correct form of noun given in the brackets.

1. We all love…………………… (honest/honesty)
2. The knife needs……………………. (sharping/sharpening)
3. My house has .. rooms, (four/some)
4. A large is expected,…………………… (crowd/crowds)
5. There are three in my team……………………. (woman/women)
6. There are many in my house……………………. (children/childrens)
7. of soldiers visited our academy……………………. (An army/A group)
8. The are very good……………………. (cloth/cloths)
9. There is a at my school today……………………. (holidays/holiday)
10. I wear polished…………………… (shoes/shoe)

Answer:

1. honesty
2. sharpening
3. four
4. crowd
5. women
6. children
7. an army
8. cloths
9. holiday
10. shoes

Question 3:
Pick out the correct sentence from the following.

1. (a) All the news were sad
   (b) All newses were sad
   (c) All the news was sad
   (d) Every news were sad
2. (a)Richard gifted her three gold jewellery
   (b) Richard gifted her three gold jewelleries
   (c) Richard gifted her three items of gold jewellery
   (d) Richard gifted her three items of gold jewelleries
3. (a) The people of India are peace loving
   (b) The people of India is peace loving
   (c) The people of India are peace loving
   (d) The peoples of India is peace loving
4. (a) Riya has four pencil
   (b) Riya has four sticks of pencil
   (c) Riya has four sticks of pencils
   (d) Riya has four pencils
5. (a) You need a lost of patience
   (b) You needs a lot of patience
   (c) You need a lot of patience
   (d) You need a lot of patiences
6. (a) The old woman lifted the woods
   (b) The old woman lifted the bunch of wood
   (c) The old woman lifted the bunch of woods
   (d) The old woman lifted the bunches of woods
7. (a) I purchased the crockery for two thousand rupees
   (b) I purchased the crockeries for two thousand rupees .
   (c) I purchased the crockery for two thousands rupee
   (d) I purchased the crockeries for two thousand rupee
8. (a) Vibha is ten year old
   (b) Vibha is ten years old
   (c) Vibha was ten yea“r old.
   (d) Vibha were ten years old
9. (a) The three women are sister
   (b) The three woman are sisters
   (c) The three woman is sisters
   (d) The three women are sisters
10. (a) Abhi and Aryan are her brother-in-laws
    (b) Abhi and Aryan are hers brother in law
    (c) Abhi and Aryan her brothers in law
    (d) Abhi and Aryan are her’ brother-in-laws

Answer:

1. (c)
2. (c)
3. (a)
4. (d)
5. (c)
6. (b)
7. (a)
8. (b)
9. (d)
10. (c)

Question 4:
Find all the nouns in the passage given below. It is a great thing to take pride in our work. Anything that is worth doing at all, is worth doing well. Even in the humblest task we should be ambitious to do it as well as we can, if possible better than anyone else. e.g. a
cobbler should not think that because his job is a humble one, it can be scaneped and done anyhow; he should be determined to make better shoes than any other cobbler; and a tinker should take pride in mending even an old kettle better than any other tinkercad.
Answer:
thing            Pride
task              ambitious
cobbler        humble
cobbler        tinker
pride            kettle
tinker

Question 5:
Listed below are some nouns. State their two forms when used in the plural.

1. Brother
2. Cloth
3. Die
4. Index

Answer:

1. Brothers               Brethren
2. Cloths                   Clothes
3. Dies                       Dice
4. Indexs                   Indices

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