Gilli Danda
Abstract nouns
Learn about nouns that name things we cannot see or touch.
A noun is a naming word. Some nouns name things you can see, touch, taste or smell: a leaf, a rose, sugar, a football, a tiger, a spoon. You can hold a spoon. You can smell a rose. You can taste sugar.
Other nouns name things you cannot see, touch, taste or smell at all. They name feelings and ideas: joy, anger, happiness, fear, sadness, truth. These are called abstract nouns. 'Abstract' means something that has no shape you can touch.
Your book, Santoor, puts it like this on page 82: 'happiness' and 'rose' are both nouns, but you can touch, see and smell a rose. You cannot touch happiness. It is a feeling.
To find out if a noun is abstract, ask: can I pick it up, see it, taste it or smell it? If the answer is no, because it is a feeling, a thought or an idea, then it is an abstract noun.
Practise this lesson
Questions that get harder as you improve, a Tutor that helps without giving the answer away, and progress you can see. Free for every learner.
No account, no email address. Opens the real product.