- What are collective nouns?
- Examples of collective nouns
- Sentences with collective nouns
- Collective and individual nouns
- Other types of nouns
We explain what collective nouns are, various examples, how they are used in sentences and other types of nouns.
What are collective nouns?
The nouns They are words used to name objects or actions in the real or imaginary universe. For this reason, they are often referred to as "names." However, there may be different types of nouns, depending on the particular characteristics of what they name.
Among them, collective nouns are those whose referent is always an object or non-countable being, that is, that always forms a set indeterminate. In this they differ from individual nouns, whose referents are always countable, differentiable in number, even when dealing with several (plural).
For example, we can speak of "money" (a non-countable term), we refer to a set of capitals, expressible in an indeterminate number of bills or coins, and therefore a collective noun. On the contrary, "bill" and "coin" (one and one) or even "bills" and "coins" (two, three, ten, that is, countable) always constitute a case of individual nouns.
Examples of collective nouns
The following is a list of collective nouns:
- Money
- Grove
- Archipelago
- Constellation
- Student body
- Faculty
- Swarm
- Shoal
- Herd
- Foliage
- Fleet
- Fauna
- Flora
- Humanity
- Litter
- Branches
- Vocabulary
- Flock
- Savings
- People
- Public
- Audience
- Crowd
- Concurrence
- Electorate
- Cornfield
- Cluster
- Memorabilia
Sentences with collective nouns
Here are some sentences with collective nouns:
- We ran out of money and we had no savings.
- An immense school of sardines is crossing our coasts.
- The teachers and the students did not agree on the resumption of classes.
- We will resume the show soon, to amuse our gracious audience.
- The story formally began when mankind invented writing.
Collective and individual nouns
As we explained before, individual and collective nouns are distinguished in the nature of their referents. In the case of individual nouns, they designate countable referents, that is, individualizable, or that are necessarily collective.
Thus, when we speak of "fish," we mean two, three, or four individuals; But when we say "shoal", we mean all the fish that make up the same group, without stopping to see how many there are. The first is an individual noun, the second a collective one.
Other types of nouns
In addition to concrete nouns (and abstract ones, which we also saw), we can talk about other types of noun, such as:
- Concrete nouns. Those that refer to references that we can perceive through our senses, that is, material, tangible, concrete. For example: stone, woman, river.
- Abstract nouns. On the contrary, they refer to references that exist only in the world of ideas, and that are therefore immaterial, abstract. For example: Liberty, truth, love.