Question

Choose the nouns in the following sentence, and say whether they are Common, Proper, Collective or Abstract:

We saw a fleet of ships in the harbour.

• A. we - Collective; ships - Common; harbour - Proper
• B. fleet - Collective; ships - Common; harbour - Common
• C. we - Collective; fleet - Common; harbour - Collective
• D. we - Common; fleet - Abstract; ships - Collective

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

fleet - Collective; ships - Common; harbour - Common

The name given to a collection of persons or things taken together and spoken of as one whole is a collective noun. The name given to every person or thing of the same class or kind is a common noun.

Fleet is used to describe collection of ships, hence it is a collective noun. Harbour is a common place for ships to station, hence it is a common noun. Ships is also a common noun since it not the name of a particular ship but refers to ships in general.