What are Abstract Nouns and Concrete Nouns? You can probably recall that nouns are words that name people, animals, places, things, and ideas. Here, I will be defining abstract nouns and concrete nouns, provide examples and give you the information you need for using an abstract and concrete noun to write interesting sentences.

Abstract nouns are words for things that you cannot experience with any of your five senses. In other words, you cannot see, hear, taste, smell, or touch them. Whereas the feelings and concepts and ideas are abstract nouns.

Concrete noun refers to the name of something or someone that we experience through our senses, sight, hearing, smell, touch, or taste.



Abstract nouns and concrete nouns are usually defined in terms of one another. Something that is abstract exists only in the mind, while something that is concrete can interact in a physical way. Qualities, relationships, theories, conditions, and stages of being are examples of the types of things abstract noun defines. Let us discuss each of these nouns separately.



Learn All About Nouns and Types of Nouns with Examples Abstract Noun A noun that denotes an abstract quality, state or action, rather than a concrete quality is called an abstract noun.These nouns have no physical shape. They can't be experienced with our five senses.

Examples: love, hate, anger, loyalty, sympathy, belief, dream, kindness, intention, knowledge, thought, culture, duration, trust, faith, leisure, etc.

These are abstract nouns, because:



They have no physical existence.

Articles cannot be used with them.

They cannot be felt with senses.

➤ Abstract nouns are formed using adjectives, verbs, and common nouns. We add suffixes to adjectives, verbs, and common nouns to form abstract nouns.



dark(adjective) + ness(noun suffix) = darkness(abstract noun)

observe(verb) + ation(noun suffix) = observation(abstract noun)

king(common noun) + ship(noun suffix) = kingship(abstract noun)



Abstract Nouns from Adjectives Abstract Nouns from Verbs Abstract Nouns from Common nouns Kind -- kindness Obey – obedience Child – childhood Honest – honesty Grow – growth Slave – slavery Ill – illness Punish – punishment Mother – motherhood Dark – darkness Please – pleasure King – kingship Happy – happiness Observe -- observation Infant – infancy Brave – bravery Move -- movement Agent – agency Strong -- strength Judge -- judgement Hero -- heroism Beauty – beautiful Die – death Member – membership Great – greatness Free – freedom Neighbour -- neighbourhood Hungry – hunger Know -- knowledge Leader – leadership New -- newness Marry -- marriage Scholar -- scholarship Thirsty -- thirst Speak -- speech Friend -- friendship So abstract nouns are very important and very common in English. They are often, not always, formed by adding an ending to the root words. For example, the word child is a concrete noun but childhood is an abstract noun. So by adding hood on to the root word child, we get the childhood, an abstract noun.





Nouns with these endings are often abstract nouns.

-tion, -ism, -ity, -ment, -ness, -age, -ence, -ship, -al, -acy, -hood.

So if you see a word ending with one of these endings is probably an abstract noun.

➤ Abstract nouns are often formed from adjectives. The abstract noun wisdom is formed from the adjective wise .



Many a time abstract nouns are confused with adjectives. The important thing to remember here is that it is a state of mind. For example, let us take the word ''happiness''. This word is an abstract noun because it is a state of mind, but this emotion is derived from the word "happy". The word 'happy' is an adjective because it is a quality of nature. Some other examples are kindness- from kind, youth- from young.





➤ Abstract nouns also name an action. The abstract noun discovery is a name given to the act of discovering.



➤ Most abstract nouns cannot be counted and are usually singular in number. The abstract nouns friendship and kindness cannot be counted and cannot be written in the plural.