Search results for 'tag:Abstract nouns tag:Difference between' matching tags 'Abstract nouns' and 'Difference between'

Re: Difference between sale and sales

Anonymous — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:46:03 GMT

Grammar Geek wrote:
Sales is used for the abstract noun meaning "relating to selling." Even if the person is responsible only for one product or one customers, the title is still sales engineer.

You could, I suppose, tease a co-worker by calling him a "sale engineer" if he had only one client, but you would be playing with language in doing so.

Thank you!
That is perfect. Answering with 'pluralization' alone would lack the depth that might cause ESL students to possibly make a mistake.

Re: Difference between sale and sales

Grammar Geek — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 01:32:28 GMT

Sales is used for the abstract noun meaning "relating to selling." Even if the person is responsible only for one product or one customers, the title is still sales engineer.

You could, I suppose, tease a co-worker by calling him a "sale engineer" if he had only one client, but you would be playing with language in doing so.

Re: Articles (a, an)

Yoong Liat — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 18:25:21 GMT

Hoa Thai wrote:
First, thank you for your reply. Now if you can help me a bit further, I would appreciate very much.

If advice is an uncountable abstract noun, then advices must be wrong, right? (Yesterday, my father gave me his advice. Today, my mother gives me hers. I don't like their ~~two~~ advice at all! 'Advice' is uncountable, so 'two advices' is wrong.)

Now, how could opinion be countable? I certainly cannot physically sense it...opinion and advice are not synonymous but they are both thought related, I think. So why are they different? [ opinion (singular), opinions (plural) Your opinion is what you think about someone or something based on your personal judgement. Advice (uncountable) You give someone advice when you suggest what they should do in a certain situation.

I hope the definitions I've extracted from the dictionary will enable you to see the difference between 'advice' and 'opinion'.]

Regarding satisfaction, here is an online sentence that goes with a:
"Even in those jurisdictions, however, a gift may still be treated as a satisfaction of legacy if such an intention is expressed in a written document made ..."
So the sentence is grammatically incorrect, right? But, doesn't treated as satisfaction of legacy sound unpleasant to you? ( I missed out the fact that 'satisfaction' can be a countable noun. So 'satisfaction' can be countable or uncountable depending on context.) Her success gave her parents a lot of satisfaction. (uncountable noun). A satisfaction is something that gives a feeling of pleasure or contentment ... the immense satisfactions (countable noun) of parenthood.

Shouldn't there be a source, from which we, ESL learners, can learn abstract nouns' nuances?

Thanks
Hoa Thai

Re: abstract/concrete nouns

CalifJim — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 19:47:59 GMT

Welcome to English Forums!

Don't feel that you're alone in having this difficulty. The difference between abstract and concrete nouns is not always easy to determine. The reason is that the distinction is over-simplified, and that it is made to seem that it is a property of the nouns themselves, whereas, in reality, it is a property of the entities in the real world that the nouns refer to.

Many linguists classify nouns into three types: first-order, second-order, and third-order nouns. Only the first-order nouns are called "concrete" in the simpler, traditional system of concrete and abstract. The second- and third-order nouns are called "abstract".

First-order nouns designate individual entities that exist in three-dimensional space that are publicly observable: people, animals, physical objects. Second-order nouns designate events and processes that exist in time: weather, storm, sunset. Third-order nouns designate entities that are not observable. They are not located either in space or time: faith, happiness, belief.

Note that the classification can change depending on how the noun is used, that is, depending on what it refers to in the real world. When money refers to the physical coins and bills, it is a first-order noun ("concrete"); when it refers to the idea of financial wealth, it is a third-order noun ("abstract").

There's some money on the table. (concrete)
There's a lot of money in his bank account. (abstract)

In short, any noun that refers to an observable physical entity is "concrete"; everything else is "abstract". Thus, weather is considered an abstract noun.

CJ
______
Some of the ideas in this post are a summary of material from Semantics by John Lyons (Section 11.3).

Re: evidences

Believer — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 16:10:22 GMT

MrPedantic wrote:

Yes, both are fine; you might want to make it absolutely clear that a person had not simply edited a book, for instance. MrPedantic, what is the difference between someone editing a book and writing a book?

To return to the earlier question, "evidences" might be used where you wanted to refer to individual items of evidence. Many seemingly non-countable abstract nouns can be used in this way; thus "felicity" is the state of happiness, but "felicities" might be individual instances of happiness. How should we know whether the writer is thinking something as an indiviudal instance of it or referring to an individual item of it? When a writer decides to use an uncountable word that deems to fit to turn around and being used as countable, does that person has to bear the burden of seeing the readers are aware reasonably of the picture depicted by his writing and will concur to its usage? I think CalifJim has said something to the line that a countable noun can be modified by the article "the" if a writer believes that the readers is mindful of the same thing, but in both cases, one being turning an uncountable noun into a countable noun and the other being the case of putting the infront of a countable noun thinking the readers are seeing the same thing, where does the reasonability of the mutual mindfulness of the matters on hand play out? Surely one doesn't at all have to be mindful of the fact whether the potential readers are aware of the matters that are brought out by one's writing. However, it might appear mannered What do you meam by this?

Sorry if my questions seem disorganized.

MrP

Re: the cases of abstract nouns taking "thes"

Mister Micawber — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 10:25:33 GMT

There is a difference between a clause (the term you used previously) and a phrase ('of the Princess of Bigman's land').

anything we should be aware of when we decide to take that road of turning uncountable nouns into sort of countable nouns?

Only be aware that you are creating one of several sorts of the uncountable, I suppose.

Re: the cases of abstract nouns taking "thes"

Believer — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 09:27:03 GMT

Thank you, Mr. M.

It helped me a lot.

Would you say the underlined part is a restrictive phrase or a modifying phrase. If it is either one, then would you kindly tell me what is the difference between a modifying phrase and a restrictive phrase?

A beauty of the Princess of Bigman's land

The beauty of a woman

Also, if I recall it correctly, the action of putting the indefinite article "a" in front of uncountables are OK?? but the problem is, as you seem to have said, that it turns the uncounble nouns into sort of countable nouns. OK. Are there anything we should be aware of when we decide to take that road of turning uncountable nouns into sort of countable nouns?

Thank you.

Re: What is the difference between "abstract noun" and "adjective"

pieanne — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 11:52:44 GMT

An abstract noun is a noun that describes something you cannot touch (not a thing, not a person), for example: love, anger, education, relationship... It's a noun, meaning it can take an article and an adjective.

An adjective qualifies a noun, for example: good, bad, blue, healthy, warm, cold... You can speak of a "warm relationship, a good education, ...", and also of "a warm blanket, a good person, ..."

What is the difference between "abstract noun" and "adjective"

Golden — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 11:46:21 GMT

What is the difference between "abstract noun" and "adjective" and which should be used when.

Re: What's the difference between 'broaden' and 'widen'...

hbae787 — Wed, 16 Mar 2005 16:14:18 GMT

Florazheng,

"Pitch" is a common noun alright (as opposed to proper noun), but is also among abstract nouns - those things that don't have sizes, shapes or colors, something you can't physically touch and see.

When someone broadens his pitch, he is trying to make his case appealing to a broader audience. Can you tell me the size, color, and shape of a pitch ? Can you physically touch it ? Of course not. Hence it belongs to the abstract word category, describing a concept rather than a physical being.