This lesson covers the fundamentals and types of nouns, knowledge of which will help you in B-school entrance exams like the NMAT, SNAP and IIFT.

So, let’s get started!

Noun: A noun is a word that is used to name a person, animal, place, thing, or an abstract idea. Nouns tell you about the ‘what’s’ ‘who’s’ and ‘where’s’ of a sentence. Let’s see an example: TG and Dagny went to Maxims to order a chocolate truffle cake.

TG and Dagny are persons, Maxims is a place and chocolate truffle cake is a thing.

Nouns can be broadly classified into

• Common nouns
• Proper nouns
• Concrete Nouns
• Abstract Nouns
• Countable Nouns
• Non-Countable Nouns
• Collective Nouns

Hello World!! Now that you are well set on your journey of grammar, here’s a small lesson for you on one of the most frequent error zones in grammar- Modifiers.

Oh, by the way! Do you like coffee? It might not be a bad idea to keep a steaming mugful by your side as you read the lesson. Sip along!

Modifiers- Dangling and Misplaced:
A modifier describes, clarifies, or gives more detail about a word or a word group. A dangling modifier is a phrase that modifies the wrong word or phrase because of the absence of the word or phrase it is supposed to modify. In other words, the modifier is left “dangling”. A misplaced modifier is placed incorrectly in the sentence such that it modifies the wrong word and makes the sentence sound illogical.

This chapter deals with reasoning through premises. It is called syllogisms.

Broadly, you need to understand two types of arguments. We have already come to see what arguments look like. Now it is time to comprehend some ‘categories’ of arguments.

Analyse this, (P1= Premise 1, P2= Premise 2, C= Conclusion)

P1 – All men are buffoons.

P2 – Ravi (poor chap) is a man.

C – Ravi is a buffoon.

This kind of argumentation is known as deductive reasoning. Here, the conclusion arrived at, is a logical ‘necessity’, which you will find me referring to henceforth as an LN. The structure of the deductive argumentation is simple. We picked a set, gave it a characteristic (P1), picked an element from the set (P2), and with certainty, arrived at the conclusion that the element shall show the same characteristic.

P.S. I hope you understand that my sympathies with Ravi have nothing to do with the argument.

Now, the second type,

1. A NUMBER VS THE NUMBER

As a stand-alone word and as a collective noun, “number” can take a singular or a plural form.

e.g. Two hundred persons were at the party; the number(s) is (are) just astounding.

However, when preceded by an article and followed by the preposition “of”, “number” is singular and the verb that follows “number” will be conjugated singular or plural depending on whether there is a definite or indefinite article in front. The expression ‘the number of . . .’ is singular, while ‘a number of . . .’ is plural.

One question that will never stop coming from the students who prepare for CAT is “how to increase the vocabulary?” Suggestions such as read a lot, mug up words lists, make flash cards, subscribe to word a day etc. have always poured in from human race. Since I am the Queen of the Gadha Land, I am quite allergic to the advices that mortals always keep giving me. I like to make my own rules – Gadha Rules.

Each one of us must have followed some comic strip when we were kids but a few like me got addicted, and waste at least an hour each day even when we have left childhood at least 2 decades back. My day doesn’t complete without taking my daily dose of Archie, Peanuts, Nancy, Calvin and Hobbes, Dilbert, Garfield, Dennis etc.

But have you ever thought that these comics are a rich source of vocabulary and learning new words can really come with an incentive of laughter? Let me prove myself:

This strip is from Peanuts: