Noun Notes for SSC Exams

Noun is one of the eight parts of speech and the base of English grammar. In SSC CGL, CHSL, MTS and other exams, questions on nouns are asked in error spotting, sentence improvement, fill in the blanks and subject-verb agreement. These Noun notes for SSC explain the types, number, gender, case and common errors with tables, examples and practice questions, in the way an English teacher would revise the chapter.

What Is a Noun?

• A noun is a naming word. It names a person (Gandhi, teacher), place (India, school), animal (elephant), thing (pen), quality (courage), state (poverty) or action (movement).
• A noun can be the subject ("Ravi plays cricket"), the object ("She likes music"), the complement ("He is a doctor"), the object of a preposition ("a book on history") or in apposition ("Delhi, the capital of India").
• Nouns are often preceded by articles (a, an, the), adjectives and possessives.

Types of Nouns

Collective Nouns and Verb Agreement

• A collective noun takes a singular verb when the group acts as one unit: "The jury has given its verdict."
• It takes a plural verb when the members act separately: "The committee are divided in their opinions."
• The words police, cattle, people, poultry and gentry are plural nouns and always take a plural verb: "The police are searching for the thief."

Common Collective Nouns

Abstract Nouns: How They Are Formed

Number: Singular and Plural

Regular Rules

• Most nouns add s: book - books.
• Nouns ending in s, x, z, ch, sh add es: bus - buses, box - boxes, church - churches, dish - dishes.
• Consonant + y changes to ies: city - cities, baby - babies. Vowel + y adds s: boy - boys, key - keys.
• Many nouns ending in f or fe change to ves: leaf - leaves, knife - knives, wife - wives, life - lives, wolf - wolves. Exceptions: roof - roofs, chief - chiefs, proof - proofs, belief - beliefs, cliff - cliffs.
• Nouns ending in o: es in hero - heroes, potato - potatoes, tomato - tomatoes, mango - mangoes; s in photo - photos, piano - pianos, video - videos, radio - radios.

Irregular and Special Plurals

Nouns That Are Always Singular (Uncountable)

advice, information, furniture, luggage, baggage, equipment, news, scenery, knowledge, evidence, progress, work, hair, bread, machinery, jewellery, mathematics, physics, economics, politics, ethics, gymnastics. Use "a piece of" for counting: a piece of advice, a piece of news, an item of furniture.

Nouns That Are Always Plural

scissors, trousers, pants, jeans, shorts, spectacles, glasses, tongs, pliers, binoculars, clothes, goods, belongings, riches, thanks, savings, premises, congratulations, surroundings, arms (weapons), proceeds. They take a plural verb. Use "a pair of" for counting: a pair of scissors.

Gender of Nouns

• Common gender words refer to either sex: child, student, teacher, parent, doctor, friend, cousin, servant, pupil.
• Neuter gender words name lifeless things: table, book, pen, city.
• A ship, a country or the moon are often given feminine gender, and the sun is given masculine gender in literary use.

Case of Nouns

Rules of the Possessive Case

• Singular nouns take 's: the girl's dress, Rahul's bat.
• Plural nouns ending in s take only an apostrophe: the girls' hostel, the students' union.
• Plural nouns not ending in s take 's: men's clothes, children's park.
• In compound nouns and joint ownership, the last word takes 's: my brother-in-law's car, Ram and Shyam's shop (one shop). For separate ownership, both take 's: Ram's and Shyam's shops.
• For lifeless things, the of-form is preferred: the leg of the table, the door of the room. But time, distance and personified nouns take 's: a day's work, a stone's throw, nature's beauty.

Noun-Based Rules Frequently Tested in SSC

Suffixes That Form Nouns

Quick Revision Points

• Noun = name of person, place, animal, thing, quality, state or action.
• Five main kinds: common, proper, collective, material, abstract.
• Uncountable nouns: advice, information, furniture, news, luggage, scenery - always singular, no s.
• Plural-only nouns: scissors, trousers, spectacles, clothes, goods, thanks, premises.
• Police, cattle, people are plural; mathematics, physics, news are singular.
• Possessive: boy's (singular), boys' (plural), children's (irregular plural).

Practice Questions With Answers

1. Choose the correct sentence: (a) The news are good (b) The news is good. Answer: (b) The news is good.
2. The plural of "criterion" is: Answer: criteria
3. The feminine of "emperor" is: Answer: empress
4. "A bunch of keys" - here "bunch" is a: Answer: collective noun
5. Pick the abstract noun: bravery / brave / bravely. Answer: bravery
6. The plural of "mother-in-law" is: Answer: mothers-in-law
7. "The police ___ searching for the thief." Answer: are
8. Identify the error: "She gave me many advices." Answer: advices - should be advice (uncountable)
9. "Gold" is a ___ noun. Answer: material
10. The correct possessive form: (a) the childrens toys (b) the children's toys. Answer: (b) the children's toys
11. "Mathematics ___ my favourite subject." Answer: is
12. "Scissors" is: Answer: always plural; use "a pair of scissors"

Next, study Pronoun and Parts of Speech notes, and solve English questions from our previous year papers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a noun?

A noun is a word that names a person, place, animal, thing, idea, quality or action. Examples: Rahul (person), Delhi (place), tiger (animal), table (thing), honesty (quality) and arrival (action). In a sentence, a noun can act as a subject, an object or a complement.

How many types of nouns are there?

Nouns are mainly classified as common, proper, collective, material and abstract nouns. Another useful classification divides them into countable and uncountable nouns. A compound noun is a noun made of two or more words, such as toothbrush or mother-in-law.

What is the difference between a common noun and a proper noun?

A common noun names any one of a class of persons, places or things (boy, city, river), while a proper noun names a particular person, place or thing and always begins with a capital letter (Ravi, Mumbai, the Ganga).

What is a collective noun? Does it take a singular or a plural verb?

A collective noun names a group of persons or things taken as a whole, for example team, committee, jury, class and family. It takes a singular verb when the group acts as one unit ("The team is playing well") and a plural verb when the members act separately ("The team are arguing among themselves").

What are material nouns?

Material nouns name the substances from which things are made, such as gold, silver, iron, wood, water, milk and cotton. They are treated as uncountable and normally take a singular verb. "Gold is a precious metal."

What is an abstract noun?

An abstract noun names a quality, state, action or idea that we cannot touch or see, such as honesty, bravery, childhood, laughter and freedom. Many abstract nouns are formed from adjectives (wise - wisdom), verbs (decide - decision) and common nouns (child - childhood).

What are countable and uncountable nouns?

Countable nouns can be counted and have a plural form (book - books). Uncountable nouns cannot be counted and have no plural form (water, advice, furniture). Words like a few and many are used with countable nouns, while a little and much are used with uncountable nouns.

Which nouns are always singular in SSC grammar?

Advice, information, furniture, luggage, baggage, equipment, news, scenery, knowledge, evidence, progress, mathematics, physics, economics, politics and gymnastics are treated as singular and uncountable. We say "The news is good", not "The news are good".

Which nouns are always plural?

Scissors, trousers, jeans, spectacles, glasses, pants, shorts, tongs, binoculars, clothes, goods, belongings, riches, thanks, savings, premises and congratulations are plural in form and take a plural verb. To make them singular we use "a pair of".

How do we form plurals of nouns ending in -y, -f and -o?

Nouns ending in a consonant plus y change y to i and add es (city - cities). Nouns ending in a vowel plus y just add s (boy - boys). Many nouns ending in f or fe change to ves (leaf - leaves, wife - wives), but some just add s (roof - roofs, chief - chiefs). Nouns ending in o add es in many cases (hero - heroes, potato - potatoes), but add s with musical or foreign words (piano - pianos, photo - photos).

What are some irregular plurals asked in exams?

man - men, woman - women, child - children, foot - feet, tooth - teeth, mouse - mice, ox - oxen, goose - geese, person - people. Same singular and plural form: sheep, deer, fish, series, species, aircraft. Foreign plurals: datum - data, criterion - criteria, phenomenon - phenomena, crisis - crises, analysis - analyses, basis - bases, medium - media, bacterium - bacteria.

How do we form the plural of compound nouns?

Usually the main noun takes the plural: mother-in-law - mothers-in-law, passer-by - passers-by, commander-in-chief - commanders-in-chief. If there is no noun in the compound, the last word takes it: forget-me-not - forget-me-nots. Words ending in -ful add s at the end: spoonful - spoonfuls.

What are the rules of possessive case?

Add apostrophe and s to singular nouns (the boy's bag), only an apostrophe to plural nouns ending in s (the boys' bags), apostrophe and s to irregular plurals (children's toys), and put the apostrophe s on the last word in compounds (my mother-in-law's house). For inanimate things, the "of" form is generally used (the leg of the table).

What is the gender of nouns?

English has four genders: masculine (boy, lion), feminine (girl, lioness), common (child, student, teacher) and neuter (table, book). Common pairs asked in exams include actor - actress, host - hostess, prince - princess, bull - cow, nephew - niece, bridegroom - bride, widower - widow, wizard - witch, emperor - empress and landlord - landlady.

What are some common noun errors in SSC error spotting?

Using a plural verb with uncountable nouns (The furniture are new), using "informations", "advices" or "luggages", using a plural form with "one of" incorrectly, confusing "a lot of news" and "many news", and wrong subject-verb agreement with collective nouns and nouns like "mathematics", "the police" and "the cattle".

How should I prepare nouns for SSC exams?

Learn the types with examples, memorise the lists of uncountable and always-plural nouns, revise irregular plurals and gender pairs in tables, and practise subject-verb agreement questions. Solve previous year error spotting and sentence improvement questions based on nouns.