The material noun is the name given to the material, substance or things made up of alloy. It refers to the type of substance instead of individual particles of the substance.
Material nouns also the names given to the raw elements or objects that exist in nature and cannot be created by human beings.
Material nouns are not countable means we cannot count them because they are in the forms of liquid, semi-liquid or solid like cloth, air, plastic, rubber, paper, shampoo, soap, perfume, wine etc. Sometimes we cannot make the plural forms of the material noun.
Some of the material nouns are used as the count nouns, for example, ‘wine’ as one may talk about different wines, type of wine instead of the substance of wine. So, here we can say that wine is not a material noun as the type of wine is countable. We can say that material nouns are common nouns as they denote substances instead of denoting people or places.
Examples of Material Nouns
Following is a list of examples of material nouns under various categories such as:
- Material nouns from nature: water, air, silver, gold, iron, copper, sand, coal, rock, sunlight, rain, earth, salt, etc.
- Material nouns from animals: egg, meat, honey, milk, silk, leather, wool, etc.
- Material nouns from plants: cotton, food, oil, wood, jute, coffee, medicine, tea, rubber, perfume, etc.
- Manufactured material nouns: acid, alcohol, asphalt, brick, cement, butter, chalk, ghee, cheese, dacron, ebony, enamel, felt, gelatin, paraffin, cloth, etc.
Material nouns are written in the capital letter when they occur at the start of a sentence; otherwise written in a small letter when they occur anywhere in the sentence.
Sentences Examples for Material Nouns
Following are the examples of the material noun in the sentence:
- Cotton dresses are very cheap and comfortable.
- My mom purchased a gold ring for me.
- I drink milk in the silver
- There are many utensils in my kitchen made up of iron.
- Taj Mahal is built using marbles.
- I drink milk daily at night.
- Most of the industries use fibre
- I eat egg
- I wear cotton
- We get silk from the silkworm.
- We should drink clean water.
- My mom wears a diamond
Rules of Using Material Nouns
Following are the rules you need to remember to make use of material nouns in the sentence.
1. Generally, articles (a, an or the) are not used with material nouns when they are uncountable such as:
- Honey is a wholesome food and beneficial to health.
- Water boils only at 100°C temperature.
2. Articles (a and an) may be used with material nouns when they are countable (denoting types of material or showing helping nature), such as:
- I would like to eat a Dutch cheese.
- It is a very healthy wine.
3. Use of ‘the’ and ‘some’ can also be done in the following way:
- The honey in the bottle is mine. Don’t give it to others!
- I saw there is some milk in the glass.
Keep exploring EnglishBix to learn about different types of nouns and what do they represent.
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