Concrete Nouns

Types of Concrete Nouns

There are various kinds of concrete nouns, which can be clustered in a few subcategories.

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns can be counted directly. Examples include person, car, ball, and lamp.

Countable nouns do not have to be material things, however. They can be other forms of matter or energy and still be concrete.

Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns cannot be directly counted. Examples include luggage, water, money, and coffee. These nouns require other words in order to be counted.

An easy way to check if a noun is uncountable is to try to pluralize it. If it just doesn't work in a plural form, it's uncountable.

Fig. 1 - Bottle it before you count it.

Collective Nouns

Collective nouns indicate groups of nouns. Examples include: team, cluster, family, and stack.

In American English, the collective noun generally agrees with a singular verb. This is because of the singular construction of collective nouns

Proper Nouns

Finally, proper nouns are the proper names of people and places.

Don’t Get Confused

Note, however, that all of these noun types can appear as abstract nouns as well. For instance, the word “idea,” which is not a form of matter or energy, is a counting noun (one, two, three ideas). To give another example, the Pythagorean theorem is a proper noun, as it is the name of something, yet it also is not a form of matter or energy.

The differences between concrete and abstract nouns are not always straightforward, so it is well worth the time to examine them in detail.

Concrete Nouns and Abstract Nouns

While concrete nouns are forms of matter and energy, abstract nouns are the inverse. Abstract nouns are nouns that are not forms of matter and energy.

Abstract nouns are not scientifically quantifiable, such as "fear." There is no scientific way to quantify “fear” into units, the way you can with solids, liquids, gases, and energy.

Virtually all concepts are abstract nouns. For example, “thought” is an abstract noun. On the other hand, brain waves are concrete nouns because they are themselves a form of matter or energy and can be detected by scientific equipment.

Distinguishing Concrete and Abstract Nouns

Some words can be both concrete and abstract. As such, whether a given noun is concrete or abstract might depend on the context.

Example 1

Is the underlined word a concrete noun or an abstract noun?

Metaphors are tricky. In this example, although the “railroad” is obviously not real, it does functionally exist in the sentence as a concrete noun. Think of it this way. A railroad is not a concept on its own; it can only be employed as a concept through metaphor. Abstract nouns can and do exist independently from metaphor. Use this same process to break down a simile.

Example 2

Is the underlined word a concrete noun or an abstract noun?

Because a statistic is not a form of matter or energy, it is an abstract noun. Yes, the word "statistic" might be written somewhere, but what's frightening is the statistic as an idea, not the statistic as a sketch of graphite. Besides, this example contains no such context. Read into only what is written, not what you think is implied.

Fig. 2 - What does the noun really refer to?

Example 3

Is the underlined word a concrete noun or an abstract noun?

Because a “slap” has no physical properties, it is an abstract noun. A slap is an action noun. Action nouns describe actions in the form of nouns. A “shout,” a “leap,” and a “lick” are all action nouns because they refer only to an action, not to any lasting physical presence. Action nouns include gerunds, which are verb-to-nouns ending in -ing such as my “asking,” the “dancing,” and your “sleeping.”