NCERT Class 8 English Grammar Noun
NCERT Class 8 English Grammar Noun: A noun is a term that represents a person, location, or things or idea.
Nouns can work as the subject, the direct object, the indirect object, the subject complement, the object complement, the appositive, or the adjective in a sentence.
How to identify nouns in sentences?
If a word is followed by an article in a sentence like “the” or “a,” that is the most accurate hint that it is a noun.
Example- The Dance, The Window
We will see a few sentences here below.
1.) Radha walked home.- Here, Radha is a noun because she is a person. If SHE or HE appears in sentence instead of radha, then also, in such cases, She or He will be a noun.
2.) Shimla is a cool city. – Here, Shimla is a noun as it is the name of the location.
3.) The door needs to be closed. – Here, Door is a noun as it is a thing.
Types of nouns are below
1) Common Noun.
2) Proper Noun.
3) Collective noun.
4) Material noun.
5) Abstract Noun.
1.) Common Noun-
A common noun is a noun that names an idea or names a particular type of person, thing, or location.
Example– Goat, Men, Boys, Girls, Animals, Dish, Fork, Road, Tree, River etc.
2.) Proper noun-
The Specific name of the place or a person is known as the proper noun.
Example-
1) Ravi Saxena (Name of person is proper noun)
There are many students in the class. Everyone has their own unique name for their identity. So to recognise a particular boy we need to know his name, which is called a proper noun.
The identity of a specific student or boy by his name.
2) Ganga River, Yamuna River, Krishna River, Godavari River, Kaveri river
(Name of River is proper noun )
There are many rivers on earth. But to identify a specific river, we need to know the river’s name. That is a proper noun. The identity of the river by her name.
3.) Collective noun –
A collective noun is a word or phrase that describes a set of people or things as a single entity.
Example- A bunch of grapes, A range of mountains, Library, Party, Family, A team of cricket players
Example in sentence-
Shaila made a bunch of flowers.
4.) Material Noun-
A material noun is a phrase used to describe an item or object that can be recognised by the senses.
Gold, Silver, Rain, Rock, water, sunlight, leather, wood, sand, Air etc.
5.) Abstract Noun-
A noun that represents immaterial or abstract items or general quality, those that we can’t actually interact with our five human senses called an abstract noun. These nouns are feelings, traits, ideas
Example– Freedom, Lazy, fear,Joy, goodness, honesty,bravery, anger, love,wisdom, sleep etc.
Example in sentence– Radha is a lazy girl. (Here, lazy is an adjective which gives more information about Radha, and laziness is Abstract noun which shows general quality.)
The Number
1.) Singular Number-Noun or pronoun can be used for describing one person or things
Example- Boy, pen, pencil, Book etc.
2.) Plural Number – Noun or pronoun can be used for describing more than one person or things.
Example- Boys, trees, pens etc.
Regular noun-
Just adding -s or -es to the end of a regular noun can make it plural.
Example– Bottle – Bottles, Toy-Toys, Chair-Chairs, Car- Cars, Pencil-Pencils, Boss-Bosses etc.
Irregular Noun-
Nouns that don’t take the -s or -es suffix to become plural are considered irregular plural nouns.
Example-Leaf-Leaves, Wife-Wives, Deer-Deer,Mouse-Mice, Tooth-Teeth, Foot-Feet Etc.
Few rules which you need to follow:
1.) The plural of noun is usually made by adding “s” to singular form.
Example– River-Rivers, Boy-Boys, Actor-Actors, Shirt-Shirts, Door-Doors etc.
2.) The singular noun which ends with s, ss,sh,ch,x z, becomes plural by adding “es” at the end.
Example– Address-Addresses, Bench-Benches, Match-Matches etc.
3.) When singular noun ends with “y” with vowel before it, then plural can be made by adding “s”
Example- Journey-Journeys, Key-Keys, Play-plays,Day-Days
4.) When a singular noun ends with “y” and when consonant is present before “ y” then in plural form, changing “y” into “i” and with adding “es”
For Example– Country-Countries, Baby- Babies, Lady-Ladies
5.) When a singular noun ends with “f” or “fe” then while making the plural form we have to change “f” or “fe” into “v” with the addition of “es” into it.
For Example– Leaf-Leaves, Calf- Calves , Self-Selves
6.) When a singular noun ends with “ief”, “ff”, “ef”, “f” then to make a plural form, we have to add “s” to it.
For Example- Belief- Beliefs, Gulf-Gulfs,Proof-Proofs, Roof-Roofs
7.) When a singular noun ends with “o” we can form a plural form by adding “es” into it.
For Example – Echo-Echoes, Hero- Heroes, Potato-Potatoes,Mango-Mangoes
8.) Nouns that end with “oo”, “eo”, “ee” or “io” take only “s” to make plural forms.
For Example- Bamboo-Bamboos, Tree-Trees, Zoo-Zoos, Studio-Studios
9) In some cases, few nouns form their plurals by a change of inside vowels.
For Example– Foot- Feet , Postman-Postmen, Watchman-Watchmen, Man-Men, Woman-Women
10) Some nouns add “en” in singular form to make it in a plural form..
For Example- Child – Children
11) While making plural form of letters, figures, signs,symbols, we have to add apostrophe and “s” ie (‘s)
For example- M.A – M.A.’s
A – A’s
8 – 8’s
M.P – M.P ‘s
12) Few nouns have the similar singular and plural form.
Example– Hair-Hair, Sheep-Sheep, Fish-Fish,People-People
13) Few nouns look like they are plural but in actual, they are in singular form.
Example– Scissors, Tongs, Spectacles, orders, Drawers, Trousers, Measles, Thanks.
14) Few nouns are used in singular form and they look like in plural form.
Example- News, Mathematics, Physics.
Genders of Noun
There are four genders of Nouns.
- Masculine gender- This refers to a male figure, ie boy, father Actor, king etc
- Feminine gender- It is used to refer the female figure ie woman, girl,hen, mother etc
- Neuter gender- It is used to refer to non living and lifeless things.ie Book, table, chair etc
- Common gender- It refers to either a male or female sex. Ie. Bird, Calf, Child, Deer, Servant, Teacher, Person,Cousin, Friend, Enemy
Also, please note, country name (England, Germany, India), The moon, The earth, The spring, A ship, The soul, these all are referred as feminine gender.
How to Change Gender of Noun
There are 4 ways to change gender.
1) By using completely different word
Example-
Masculine |
Feminine |
Boy | Girl |
Emperor |
Empress |
Man | Woman |
Cock | Hen |
Horse | Mare |
God | Goddess |
King | Queen |
2.) By changing a word Prefix or suffix (before or after)
A.) Changing the Prefix (Word Before)
Masculine |
Feminine |
He Bear |
She bear |
Man Servant |
Maid Servant |
Son in law |
Daughter in law |
Bull Calf |
Cow Calf |
Brother in law |
Sister in law |
B) Changing the Suffix (Word After)
Masculine |
Feminine |
Grand-Father |
Grand-Mother |
Pea-Cock |
Pea- Hen |
Washer-man |
Washer- Woman |
Step-Son |
Step-Daughter |
3) By adding “ess” to Masculine without changing its form.
Masculine |
Feminine |
Peer |
Peeress |
Host |
Hostess |
Priest |
Priestess |
4) By adding “ess” to Masculine after removing the last vowel of the Masculine.
Masculine |
Feminine |
Hunter |
Huntress |
Actor |
Actress |
Waiter |
Waitress |
Founder |
Foundress |
Persons:
Below are Three types of persons pronouns
First Person |
Second Person | Third Person |
The narrator speaks for themselves. | The narrator speaks to the readers directly. |
The narrator speaks about other people. |
I ME MY WE OUR US |
YOU YOUR YOURSELF |
HE SHE IT THEY THEIR |
Singular Form |
Plural Form | |
First Person | I, ME, MY, MINE |
WE, US, OUR, OURS |
Second Person |
YOU, YOUR, YOURS | YOU, YOUR, YOURS |
Third Person |
HE, SHE, IT, HIM, HER, HIS HER, HERS, IT |
THEY, THEM, THEIR, THEIRS |
Tree, River,House, Dog, Cat, these are third person singular common nouns.
So, likewise all other nouns apart from “I”, “ME”, “YOU” come under third person singular form.
Also See: Class 8 English Grammar Subject and Predicate
Articles
In English, articles (ie A, AN, THE ) are used before nouns.
- A Article- This can be used before singular common nouns.
Example– A boy, A river, A pond, A house, A bag, A kite etc.
- AN Article- “An” is used before common nouns that starts from vowels ie (a, e, i, o, u)
Example– An apple, An umbrella, An Aeroplane, An urgent, An ant, An elephant, An ox, An engine, An old man, An ink, An ice, An idle.
But, “An” will not be used before “University”, “Union” as they are pronounced by Consonants.
Also, “An” can be used before ”Hour “, “Honest”, Honourable because they are initiated with vowel sound but in actual, they are Consonants.
- THE article is used to give information about things. Ie river, mountain, directions etc
Example– The Quran, The Taj Mahal, The East, The Koyana, The Pacific Ocean, The Arivali, The Bible, The Vedas, The Dnyaneshwari etc.
Cases
Case shows how nouns or pronouns relate to other words.
In modern English, there are only three cases:
1.) Subjective / Nominative (he)- Generally Comes before the verb
Example– The Glass was broken.
Here, Subject is The Glass
2) Objective / Accusative case (him)- Generally comes after the verb.
Example-
Chitra Broke the glass.
Here, Object is the glass.
3.) Possessive/ Genitive case (his)- This can be formed by adding apostrophe “s” or simple apostrophe to nouns.
Example– This is a girl’s school.
Here, Possessive – Girl’s
Subjective / Nominative |
Objective / Accusative case | Possessive/ Genitive case |
I | ME |
MY |
WE |
US | OUR |
YOU | YOU |
YOUR |
YOU |
YOU | YOUR |
HE | HIM |
HIS |
SHE |
HER | HER |
IT | IT |
ITS |
THEY |
THEM |
THEIR |
Case 1-
Exceptionally, in the possessive case, nouns do not change their forms in any other case.
Example-
1.) You know me and Leena’s
Here, Subjective case – You
Objective case – Me
Possessive case – Leena’s (In possessive case, Leena becomes Leena’s)
2.) This is Rama’s house
This sentence, Rama relates to his house.
So, Rama’s will be Possessive case (In possessive case, Rama becomes Rama’s)
In possessive cases, Lee becomes Lee’s
He becomes His
In Objective case, He Becomes Him
She becomes Her
Case 2-
1.) Ganesh came before Mangesh.
2.) Shaila went to the station.
In above both examples, BEFORE and TO prepositions appear respectively before Mangesh and station nouns.
When nouns and pronouns come after prepositions then it is mostly an Objective / Accusative case.