Abstract Nouns

Objective: Make sentences using abstract nouns. We have looked at proper and common nouns. Common nouns also give us concrete and abstract nouns. All the nouns we have looked at so far are concrete nouns. We can use our five senses to determine that they exist. You can see, touch, hear, smell and taste them. Another group of nouns exists that those senses can not help you determine their existence. These are called abstract nouns. Read the following poem: Who has seen the wind?/ Neither I nor you./ But when the leaves hang trembling,/ The wind is passing through. Who has seen the wind?/ Neither you nor I:/ But when the trees bow down their heads/ The wind is passing by. (“Who Has Seen the Wind?” Christina Rossetti)NB:Each backslash marks the end of a line so you can rewrite it to get a feel of its structure. List all the nouns in this poem. You should have listed wind, leaves, trees and heads. One of these is an abstract noun, which one? If you picked wind your answer is right. Your teachers always ask you to be honest. The noun formed from honest is honesty. This is a quality that people admire in you. Other qualities that people admire in you include bravery, loyalty and courage. These are abstract nouns. Other abstract nouns refer to a state in our lives: childhood, youth, adolescence and adulthood. Other abstract nouns refer to the ideas we have: dream, truth, thought, faith and truth. Making sentences using abstract nouns is not very easy. Complete these sentences using one of the nouns on this list: faith, childhood, dreams, truth, honesty, bravery/courage and dreams. Make sure you look up the meanings of all these words in a dictionary before you start this exercise. a) The boy who returned the lost phone was praised for his_____________. b) She showed a lot of _____________ when she got five stitches on her cut without making a noise. c) In the bible, Job was healed because of his________________. d) During our______________ we depend on our parents for food, clothing and shelter. e) Are _____________real? f) Do you know of any child who always speaks the _____________?