English Grammar Nouns for Class 3

Class 3 grammar takes the naming words kids already know and splits them into five kinds: common, proper, collective, material and abstract. Learning the five definitions is the easy part. Deciding which kind a noun belongs to in an exam question is where kids get stuck. So this post gives them a simple set of questions to ask about any noun.

Five Questions to Sort Any Noun

Ask these in order. The first “yes” usually gives you the answer.

1. Is it the special name of one particular person, place or thing?

Then it's a proper noun. It always starts with a capital letter.

Examples: Riya, Mumbai, Diwali, Monday, the Ganga

2. Does it name a group?

Then it's a collective noun.

Examples: team, flock, herd, bunch, class, family

3. Does it name a substance that things are made of?

Then it's a material noun.

Examples: gold, wood, cotton, water, iron, milk

4. Is it something you can't see, touch, hear, smell or taste, like a feeling, a quality or an idea?

Then it's an abstract noun.

Examples: honesty, courage, fear, joy, friendship, childhood

5. None of the above?

Then it's a common noun, the everyday name for any one of a kind of thing.

Examples: girl, city, chair, fruit, dog

Collective Nouns Worth Knowing

These come up in Class 3 tests again and again:

Making Abstract Nouns

Many abstract nouns are made from adjectives or verbs. Learning the endings helps kids build new ones on their own.

• -ness: kind → kindness, happy → happiness, dark → darkness

• -ty / -ity: honest → honesty, cruel → cruelty, able → ability

• -dom: free → freedom, wise → wisdom

• -hood: child → childhood, neighbour → neighbourhood

• -ship: friend → friendship, leader → leadership

• -ion: decide → decision, act → action

Kids remember these endings faster when they use them in their own writing, which is one reason creative writing is a module in Unbox English, Bambinos' English course for kids aged 4 to 15.

Three Common Mix-Ups

“Wooden” is not a material noun.

Wood is a material noun. Wooden describes the table in “a wooden table”, so it's an adjective. The same goes for golden and silver when they describe something. “A gold ring” uses gold as a describing word.

A noun can belong to more than one kind.

Water is a material noun, but it is also common rather than proper. Most Class 3 questions ask for the most specific kind, so water → material, not common.

Capital letters give proper nouns away, unless the noun starts a sentence.

In “Team India won the match”, Team India is a proper noun, the name of one particular team. In “The team won”, team is a collective noun. And in “Team spirit matters”, Team has a capital only because it starts the sentence.

Practice

A. Name the Kind of Each Underlined Noun

1. A herd of elephants crossed the road.

2. Kindness costs nothing.

3. The ring is made of gold.

4. We visited Jaipur last winter.

5. My brother plays the guitar.

6. She showed great courage.

7. The class went on a picnic.

8. This shirt is made of cotton.

B. Make Abstract Nouns

1. brave

2. friend

3. free

4. child

5. sad

C. Fill in the Collective Noun

1. a ______ of bees

2. a ______ of ships

3. a ______ of lions

Answers

A.

1. collective

2. abstract

3. material

4. proper

5. common

6. abstract

7. collective

8. material

B.

1. bravery

2. friendship

3. freedom

4. childhood

5. sadness

C.

1. swarm

2. fleet

3. pride

Abstract nouns are usually the hardest kind for this age. A good way in is to ask, “Can you put it in a box?” A pencil, yes. Happiness, no. That one question clears up most of the confusion.

In Bambinos' live English classes, Class 3 kids practise grammar like this while talking and writing short pieces, so the rules have a reason to stick. Trial classes cost nothing, and you can pick a trial slot whenever it suits you.