Plain English

A......of birds.

A......of workers.

ABSTRACT NOUNS

62. When primitive man began to name the objects about him, doubtless he first named the things which he could see, hear, taste, smell and touch,—the objects which he could perceive by the five senses. Then gradually he came to understand that these objects had certain qualities which he could consider apart from the object itself.

He hunted among the stones to find those which were suitable for making his arrow-heads. For this purpose he needed the hardest stone which he could find, so hardness became something which he could think of as something apart from the object itself.

He saw the men about him and found a name for them. Then he knew that some men were stronger than others, so strength was a quality which he could consider apart from the man himself.

These men performed certain actions; they ran, they climbed,—so running and climbing became actions which he could think of as something apart from any individual.

He noted too that men lived in certain conditions; for example, some men were free, some were slaves, so he came to think of slavery and freedom as conditions which could be thought of as something apart from the individual.

So we draw away, or separate certain ideas; the quality from the thing which has it and the action from the thing which does it and the condition from the thing which is in it. These nouns which are used to describe these qualities, actions or conditions are called abstract nouns. Abstract is a word derived from the Latin abs, away from, and tractus, drawn, so it literally means drawn away from.

The nouns which are names of things which we can see, hear, taste, smell and touch or perceive by any of the five senses are called concrete nouns.

63.A concrete noun is the name of an object which may be perceived by one or more of the five senses.

An abstract noun is the name of a quality, a condition or an action.

64. You remember we found in the study of adjectives that we have a class of adjectives which are used to describe the qualities of objects, as for example—good, noble, honest, true, wise, etc. Since abstract nouns are the names of qualities, many of our abstract nouns are formed from adjectives. Study carefully the following list of adjectives and nouns. Note that the word is an adjective when it is used with a noun to describe certain qualities. It is a noun when it is used by itself to name that quality.

65. You will notice that another use of abstract nouns is to name actions. The verb is the part of speech which expresses action, therefore many abstract nouns are formed from verbs. Notice the following list:

66. An abstract noun is also the name of a condition. These nouns are derived from the concrete noun which is the name of the person or thing which is in the condition.

Exercise 2

Form abstract nouns from the following adjectives, verbs and nouns.

long

simple

rapid

lovely

loyal

fresh

prove

sing

run

behave

believe

reflect

write

child

agent

infant

rascal

clerk

president

coward

NUMBER FORM

67. So we find that we classify our nouns according to the special work which they do. Now sometimes we find it necessary to change the form of the noun to make it express our thought. Thus we say, book, man, boy, knife, when we wish to express the idea of only one of each object mentioned. But when we wish to express the idea of more than one of them, we say, books, men, boys, knives.

We say, The boy calls; the boys call. The form of the noun boy is changed by adding an s to it. The meaning has also changed. Boy denotes one lad; boys denotes two or more lads. Any change in form and meaning of words is called inflection. The change to denote more than one object is called number. The word boy, denoting one is in the singular number; the word boys, denoting more than one is in the plural number.

68.Inflection is a change in the form of a word to denote a different application or use.

Number is the form of a noun which shows whether it denotes one or more than one.

The singular number denotes one thing.

The plural number denotes more than one thing.

There are a few rules governing the formation of plurals which we must know, and these rules are of great assistance in correct spelling.

69. Most nouns form their plural by adding s—thus:

Long ago in early English all plurals were formed by adding es, and you will read in the first translation of the Bible, for instance, such words as bird-es, cloud-es. Later the e was dropped and s added to the singular without an increase of syllables. But when the singular ends in an s sound, the original syllable es is retained, for two hissing sounds will not unite.

70. So nouns ending in s, x, z, sh or soft ch, form the plural by adding es to the singular. These words end with a sound so much like that of s that we cannot pronounce the plural easily without making another syllable. Thus:

71. In words ending with the s sound but with a final e, only s is added to form the plural, but in pronouncing the word we then have two syllables, thus:

72. Letters, figures, signs, etc., are made plural by adding an apostrophe and the letter s ('s), thus: