- What are abstract nouns?
- Examples of abstract nouns
- Sentences with abstract nouns
- Abstract and concrete nouns
- Other types of nouns
We explain what abstract nouns are, examples and sentences that use them. Also, what are concrete nouns.
What are abstract nouns?
The nouns are those types of words that serve to name objects or actions in the real or imaginary universe, which is why they are often referred to as "names". However, there may be different types of nouns, depending on the particular characteristics of what they name.
Thus, abstract nouns designate a reality not tangible, that is, abstract, not perceptible by human senses. Traditionally, they are the opposite of concrete nouns: it is understood as abstract those references from the world of ideas and the mind, and as concrete those that are perceived through the senses.
Abstract nouns are abundant in all languages. In Spanish they are often obtained by adding suffixes to verbs and adjectives, in such a way that the resulting word refers to the fact of being or being that which the adjective indicates (from ugly, ugliness), or the fact itself of the action described by the verb (the to run, for example, unconjugated).
Examples of abstract nouns
Some examples of abstract nouns are:
- Liberty
- I forget
- Fraternity
- Compassion
- Hate
- Surprise
- Despair
- Courage
- Justice
- Order
- Chaos
- Truth
- Beauty
- Ugliness
- Harmony
- Prudence
- Legality
- Purpose
- Idea
- Thought
- Memory
- Calculation
- Sum
- Subtraction
- Multiplication
- Division
- Originality
- Falsehood
- Hypocrisy
- History
- Love
- Passion
- Afraid
- God
- Hell
- Paradise
- Tradition
- Allegory
- Perseverance
- Suggestion
- Loss
- Sincerity
- Impossibility
- Coherence
- Cohesion
- Art
- Politics
- government
- Opposition
- Meaning
Sentences with abstract nouns
Some sentences endowed with abstract nouns are the following:
- For freedom and independence we will have to risk absolutely everything.
- No calculation is more complicated than multiplication and division.
- God shows us the way to paradise through faith and devotion.
- The ancients believed that beauty and truth were the same as goodness.
- Today the originality of art content is little valued.
- What significance do they have for economy the new government announcements?
Abstract and concrete nouns
Unlike abstract nouns that, as we have seen, belong to the world of ideas or the imaginary, concrete nouns refer to objects or actions that are perceptible through our senses.
This difference can be understood, according to the Spanish writer José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955), if we consider that concrete nouns have an independent, real existence in the world of everyday life, while abstract nouns must be extracted, taken from said objects through a process, as the name implies, of abstraction.
Examples of concrete nouns are: woman, dog, stone, water, wind, table, blow, shot, funeral.
Other types of nouns
In addition to abstract nouns (and concrete ones, which we also saw), we can talk about other types of noun such as:
- Individual nouns. Those that designate a singular object or an individual, and not a group or a set of them. For example: currency, banknote.
- Collective nouns. On the contrary, they are those that designate collectivities or sets of objects, considered globally, and that cannot be individualized. For example: money, cash.