Nouns 2

Concrete and Abstract Nouns 
All nouns serve to name a person, place, or thing. Depending on whether they name a tangible or an intangible thing, nouns are classed as being either concrete or abstract.
What is a concrete noun?
Concrete nouns name people, places, animals, or things that are or were physically tangible—that is, they can or could be seen or touched, or have some physical properties. For instance:
rocks
lake
countries
people
child
air
water
bread
Proper nouns are also usually concrete, as they describe unique people, places, or things.
Mary
The Queen
Africa
my MacBook
a Pepsi
What is an abstract noun?
Abstract nouns, as their name implies, name intangible things, such as concepts, ideas, feelings, characteristics, attributes, etc.—you cannot see or touch these kinds of things.
Here are some examples of abstract nouns:
love
hate
decency
conversation
emotion
aspiration
excitement
lethargy
Gerunds, verbs that end in “-ing” and function as nouns, are also abstract. For example:
running
swimming
jumping
reading
writing
loving
breathing
These all name actions as concepts. They cannot be seen or touched, so we know they are not concrete.
Countable Nouns vs. Uncountable Nouns
Both concrete and abstract nouns can be either countable or uncountable, depending on what they name.
Countable Nouns
Countable nouns (also known as count nouns) are, as the name suggests, nouns that can be counted as individual units.
Concrete countable nouns
Many concrete nouns are countable. Consider the following, for example:
cup
ambulance
phone
person
dog
computer
doctor
Each of these can be considered as an individual, separable item, which means that we are able to count them with numbers—we can have one, two, five, 15, 100, and so on. We can also use them with the indefinite articles a and an (which signify a single person or thing) or with the plural form of the noun. For example:
Singular
Plural
a cup
two cups
an ambulance
several ambulances
a phone
10 phones
a person
many people
Abstract countable nouns
Even though abstract nouns are not tangible, many of them can still be counted as separable units. Like concrete nouns, they can take either a or an or be made plural. For example:
Singular
Plural
a conversation
two conversations
an emergency
several emergencies
a reading
10 readings
an aspiration
many aspirations
Uncountable Nouns
Uncountable nouns, on the other hand, are nouns that cannot be considered as separate units. They are also known as non-count or mass nouns.
Concrete uncountable nouns
Concrete nouns that are uncountable tend to be substances or collective categories of things. For instance:
Substances: wood, smoke, air, water
Collective categories: furniture, homework, accommodation, luggage
Uncountable nouns cannot take the indefinite articles a or an in a sentence, because these words indicate a single amount of something. Likewise, they cannot take numbers or plural forms, because there cannot be multiple units of them. For example:
“I see (some*) smoke over there.” (correct)
“I see a smoke over there.” (incorrect)
“I don’t have (any*) furniture.” (correct)
“I don’t have furnitures.” (incorrect)
(*We often use the words some or any to indicate an unspecified quantity of uncountable nouns.)
However, uncountable nouns can sometimes take the definite article the, because it does not specify an amount:
“They’re swimming in the water.”
“The homework this week is hard.”
Abstract uncountable nouns
A large number of abstract nouns are uncountable. These are usually ideas or attributes. For instance:
Ideas or concepts: love, hate, news*, access, knowledge
Attributes: beauty, intelligence, arrogance, permanence
(*Even though news ends in an “-s,” it is uncountable. We need this “-s” because without it, news would become new, which is an adjective.)
Again, these cannot take indefinite articles or be made plural.
“He’s just looking for love.” (correct)
“He’s just looking for a love.” (incorrect)
“She’s gained a great deal of knowledge during college.” (correct)
“She’s gained a great deal of knowledges during college.” (incorrect)
As with countable nouns, though, we can sometimes use the definite article the:
“I can’t stand watching the news.”
“Can you believe the arrogance he exhibits?”
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