Abstract and Concrete Nouns for intermediate learners

Based on what we can or cannot perceive with our five senses, we can categorize nouns into two groups: abstract and common nouns. Start learning!

advanced
"Abstract and Concrete" Nouns in English Grammar

What Are Abstract and Concrete Nouns?

Abstract nouns refer to nouns that represent concepts, ideas, or qualities, rather than physical objects that can be seen, touched, or heard.
On the other hand, concrete nouns refer to physical entities such as people, animals, and objects that can be perceived through the senses of sight, touch, taste, smell, or hearing.

Examples of Abstract and Concrete Nouns

In the table below, you can see some of the common abstract and concrete nouns in English:

Abstract nouns Concrete nouns
Beauty Book
Freedom Child
Sadness Dog
Stupidity Ball
Anger Ice cream cone

Categorization of Abstract Nouns

We can categorize abstract nouns into different categories:

  • Emotions: anger, joy, passion
  • States: being, peace, freedom
  • Feelings: fear, stress, love
  • Qualities: beauty, honesty, trust
  • Concepts: culture, faith, chance
  • Ideas: democracy, wisdom, religion
  • Events: birthday, marriage, death

Comments

Loading recaptcha

You might also like

Collective Nouns

If we want to represent certain individual nouns as one entity we can make use of collective nouns. In this lesson, you'll learn about their structure and uses.

Possessive Nouns

Possessive structures have many functions like showing ownership or belonging. With the help of apostrophe 's', we can make a possessive noun. Let's start!

Gerunds

Gerunds are words derived from verbs that act as nouns. All gerunds include a verb and -ing. In this lesson, we will learn more about them.

Noun Modifiers

As you might guess, noun modifiers can modify nouns. What if there is a noun phrase after noun modifiers? If these questions are stuck in your mind, read more!

Verbal Nouns

Sometimes we can change a verb and make it into a noun. One of the most common ways of doing this is adding the suffix -ing. Let's see what verbal nouns are!

Gerund Phrases

Grund phrases are phrases that have 'gerunds,' 'its object,' and any 'modifiers' or 'complements.' In this lesson, we will learn all about them.
LanGeek
Download LanGeek app