Concrete Nouns, Abstract Nouns, and Verbs

[PhotonGuy]

Most people on this forum are no doubt familiar with some of the basic English grammar I will be discussing in this post but its always good to refresh such stuff. English obviously consists of words and the words used in the English language fall under different categories. Two of those categories are nouns and verbs.

Now to start off with nouns, nouns are "words that function as the name of some specific thing or set of things, such as living creatures, objects, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas." To put it simply you could say that nouns are "people, places, or things." Nouns can fall into two categories, concrete and abstract. Words such as "boy," "girl," and "tree" are examples of concrete nouns. Concrete nouns are nouns that you can touch or at least observe with one or more of the five senses. Abstract nouns are non physical nouns that you can't touch or observe with the five senses. For instance, "love," "hate," and "fortitude" are examples of abstract nouns.

Then there are verbs. Verbs are words that function as actions. For instance the words "walk," and "run," are examples of verbs.

Now, there are some words that can be either nouns or verbs depending on how they're used. For instance, the word "building" is one such word. A "building" can be the physical structure or it can be the act of making something. Take for instance the sentence, "Elvis has left the building." In that case the word, "building" is being used as a noun. You can also have a sentence such as, "He is building a sand castle." In that case the word "building" is being used as a verb.

There are also some instances where a noun can be either a concrete noun or an abstract noun depending on how it's used.

Now some people are probably wondering why I've made such a post, well, Im hoping to clear up some miscommunication that sometimes occurs on this forum.

 

[Buka]

English....

The plural of boxes is boxes, but the plural of ox is not oxes. The plural of moose is moose, goose is geese, mongoose is mongooses, mouse is mice but the plural of house is not hice. The plural of man is men but the plural of pan is not pen. If a tooth is a tooth and many are teeth, why isn't two booths a beeth?

Because English be easy.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Most people on this forum are no doubt familiar with some of the basic English grammar I will be discussing in this post but its always good to refresh such stuff. English obviously consists of words and the words used in the English language fall under different categories. Two of those categories are nouns and verbs.

Now to start off with nouns, nouns are "words that function as the name of some specific thing or set of things, such as living creatures, objects, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas." To put it simply you could say that nouns are "people, places, or things." Nouns can fall into two categories, concrete and abstract. Words such as "boy," "girl," and "tree" are examples of concrete nouns. Concrete nouns are nouns that you can touch or at least observe with one or more of the five senses. Abstract nouns are non physical nouns that you can't touch or observe with the five senses. For instance, "love," "hate," and "fortitude" are examples of abstract nouns.

Then there are verbs. Verbs are words that function as actions. For instance the words "walk," and "run," are examples of verbs.

Now, there are some words that can be either nouns or verbs depending on how they're used. For instance, the word "building" is one such word. A "building" can be the physical structure or it can be the act of making something. Take for instance the sentence, "Elvis has left the building." In that case the word, "building" is being used as a noun. You can also have a sentence such as, "He is building a sand castle." In that case the word "building" is being used as a verb.

There are also some instances where a noun can be either a concrete noun or an abstract noun depending on how it's used.

Now some people are probably wondering why I've made such a post, well, Im hoping to clear up some miscommunication that sometimes occurs on this forum.

lol. yeah didn't clear anything up for me.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

1. Some words in English were created wrong.

Shipment - Moving goods by "car".
Cargo - Moving goods by "ship".

2. English also have too much redundancy.

- I did yesterday ...

3. English also has double negative.

- I don't know nobody ...​

 

[JowGaWolf]

1. Some words in English were created wrong.

Shipmen - Moving goods by "car".
Cargo - Moving goods by "ship".

2. English also have too much redundancy.

- I did yesterday ...

3. English also has double negative.

- I don't know nobody ...​

lol Reminds me of "I don't disagree with you"

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

lol Reminds me of "I don't disagree with you"

Even today, I still don't know the difference between

- I agree with you.
- I don't disagree with you.
- I may agree with you today. But I preserve my right to disagree with you in the future if I can find a good reason for it.

The more that you have met with people, the more that you will like your dog. Why can't we just say what we think?

In school I always argued with my English teacher. My English teacher told me that I should make my sentence as more detail as possible. I have always believed that I should make my sentence as simple as possible.

In the following sentence, which one do you think is correct?

1. Do you put your right side forward, or do you put your left side forward?
2. Do you put your right side forward, or your left side forward?
3. Do you put your right side forward, or left side forward?

 

[geezer]

1. Some words in English were created wrong.

Shipment - Moving goods by "car".
Cargo - Moving goods by "ship".

2. English also have too much redundancy.

- I did yesterday ...

3. English also has double negative.

- I don't know nobody ...​

Naw. #1 is cute but not accurate.

A shipment is just something you transport, whether on a car, truck, train, plane, or ship. The root word, ship goes back to old English, a Germanic language.
Cargo is any freight, burden or load of stuff you have to move or carry. A car (autocar) is just a vehicle. And yes, it comes from the same root as cargo (via Spanish from Latin)).

The real problem is that English is a mix of old Germanic tongues and Latin sourced words. And the result is inconsistency. But it all works. We're the MMA of languages!

 

[jobo]

Naw. #1 is cute but not accurate.

A shipment is just something you transport, whether on a car, truck, train, plane, or ship. The root word, ship goes back to old English, a Germanic language.
Cargo is any freight, burden or load of stuff you have to move or carry. A car (autocar) is just a vehicle. And yes, it comes from the same root as cargo (via Spanish from Latin)).

The real problem is that English is a mix of old Germanic tongues and Latin sourced words. And the result is inconsistency. But it all works. We're the MMA of languages!

don5 forget French, French was the official language for several hundred years, and Greek of course

 

[geezer]

don5 forget French, French was the official language for several hundred years, and Greek of course

Well yeah, ...but then what was Old and Middle French but a regional dialect of late Latin. So I just say "Latin sourced". Now as for Greek... outside of the sciences, we've borrowed far less of that. Which is why it's all Greek to me.

 

[Buka]

There's a murder of crows, a coterie of prairie dogs, a covey of quail, a muster of storks etc, etc.

But the bottom line is - trash in Pig Latin is ashtray.

 

[PhotonGuy]

So anyway in the original post I talked about how a word can be either a noun or a verb depending on how its used. I gave the example of the word "building" how it can be either a noun or a verb depending on how it's used. To see how the word "building" can be used as either a noun or a verb see my original post.

Now, I would like to point out how a word can be either a concrete noun or an abstract noun. As I said in the first post there are two types of nouns, concrete and abstract. Sometimes a word can be either a concrete noun or an abstract noun depending on how it's used.

 

[Tez3]

Naw. #1 is cute but not accurate.

A shipment is just something you transport, whether on a car, truck, train, plane, or ship. The root word, ship goes back to old English, a Germanic language.
Cargo is any freight, burden or load of stuff you have to move or carry. A car (autocar) is just a vehicle. And yes, it comes from the same root as cargo (via Spanish from Latin)).

The real problem is that English is a mix of old Germanic tongues and Latin sourced words. And the result is inconsistency. But it all works. We're the MMA of languages!

English derives from many languages, there's also the Celtic languages here, plus the Asian ones picked up through the Empire. There's a good smattering of Yiddish too ( I'm sure some people wouldn't use some of the words if they knew what they meant) Where I live many place names and dialect words are Old Norse understood by modern Norwegians. London especially has been a hub of immigration since the Romans at least, so hundreds of languages have passed through leaving their mark.

English changed when the settlers went across to America, it changed a lot! It's almost become a different language.

I do think however we don't need a lecture on nouns etc. I mean, really? What's that about? Language is interesting, but a discussion on nouns

George Orwell wrote a good essay on how to write English. Look it up.

 

[Tez3]

1. Some words in English were created wrong.

Shipment - Moving goods by "car".
Cargo - Moving goods by "ship".

2. English also have too much redundancy.

- I did yesterday ...

3. English also has double negative.

- I don't know nobody ...​

2 and 3 are examples of bad English which shouldn't be used, they aren't examples of English. 2 doesn't make sense and 3 is stupid, it shows a certain lack of education.
1 you've already had explained.

 

[_Simon_]

I can't not unsay that I won't not be not unsurprised!

 

[Tez3]

I have been studying English since I was 5 years old, and to be honest, I always wondered about a lot of things, including the fact that English also has double negative, just like Kung Fu Wang said. That is one point that I will never understand, as all the other languages that I have been learning throughout my entire life do not have this kind of things. Despite the fact that I started to learn english so early, I still have some problems with my grammar, sometimes, I am not using the tenses in the right way, that freaks me out soooo much. I still have to use an online english writing tutor, so I do not forget some of the grammar rules and not only.

No, that's not a double negative. It's excruciatingly bad English which makes educated people wince with pain. No one should ever write or say that.
'I don't know nobody' actually means the writer knows somebody, what they mean and should write is 'I don't know anybody/anyone'. That would be correct.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

No, that's not a double negative. It's excruciatingly bad English which makes educated people wince with pain. No one should ever write or say that.
'I don't know nobody' actually means the writer knows somebody, what they mean and should write is 'I don't know anybody/anyone'. That would be correct.

Many years ago when I was young, I had a waiter job. One guy said, "I don't want no sugar." I put a lot of sugar into his coffee.

This definitely can cause some communication problem. What if a military general told his solders, "I don't want no withdraw"?

 

[Tez3]

Many years ago when I was young, I had a waiter job. One guy said, "I don't want no sugar." I put a lot of sugar into his coffee.

This definitely can cause some communication problem. What if a military general told his solders, "I don't want no withdraw"?

I would hope someone would have removed the general long before it got to that point, I mean 'withdraw'?

Sloppy speech indicates sloppy thinking. Making mistakes if English isn't your first language is fine, it's not easy but things like that in a native English speaker/writer are just sloppy and lazy. No one wants that in a leader.

 

[isshinryuronin]

3. English also has double negative.

- I don't know nobody ...

Two negatives = a positive.
Correct phrasing should be, "I don't know anybody."

English is very inconsistent due to its being a "mongrel" language with many contributors. This is, by itself, simply a challenge. But this is compounded by lax instruction in school and the lowering of expectations from the students. Uneducated use of the language has become the norm to the point that "wrong" usage = "right" usage. This is just another example of the "dumbing down" of our society.

Lowering the educational bar in school, police and military physical requirements, and many other areas for the sake of being "inclusive" of one group or another is beyond ridiculous from a socially and nationally logical perspective. What makes this so insidious is that it's facilitated by politicians who cave into special interests for the sake of their own interests, ahead of what's good for the country and society in the long term.

While this post may not socially engineer the future onto the right path, I feel much better.

The plural of boxes is boxes, but the plural of ox is not oxes. The plural of moose is moose, goose is geese, mongoose is mongooses, mouse is mice but the plural of house is not hice. The plural of man is men but the plural of pan is not pen. If a tooth is a tooth and many are teeth, why isn't two booths a beeth?

Profound questions such as these, and dealing with other similarly important metaphysical considerations was why Zen was invented.

 

[geezer]

English derives from many languages ....There's a good smattering of Yiddish too ( I'm sure some people wouldn't use some of the words if they knew what they meant)

Yiddish? Yeah, a lot of that in American English ....Especially around NYC. My mom was from there. And once I found out what some of those words actually meant ....I started using them a lot more!

 

[Tez3]

Yiddish? Yeah, a lot of that in American English ....Especially around NYC. My mom was from there. And once I found out what some of those words actually meant ....I started using them a lot more!

Being Sephardi, my language is Ladino (which I don't know nearly as much as I'd like to) rather than Yiddish but it's still descriptive lol.