The center's much-hyped attempt to privatise Air India by disinvesting 74 percent equity has come a cropper.
I am still not able to understand how "attempt" is considered as noun rather then verb.
Any tip on how to figure out if a word is a verb or noun.
Here, attempt seems to be subject's action and in simple present tense. So attempt is satisfying both conditions of a verb i.e action and timing.
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"The center's much hyped attempt to privatise..."
I hope the following helps to explain why "attempt" is a noun in this case. Breaking this part of the sentence down, we get:
"The" is the definite article and is used to introduce a noun.
"center" is obviously a noun. It is followed by an "'s", which indicates that the "center" possesses something. Whatever that something is, it will also have to be a noun. There is not usually much distance between a possessive noun and the object that it possesses. Since "much hyped" is not an object, the noun has to be "attempt".
"much hyped" is an adjective. Adjectives are usually followed by a noun, which in this case brings us back to "attempt".
This leaves "to privatise", which shows what action was being taken, so it is a verb.
You are correct that attempt can also be used as a verb, e.g.:
Do not attempt to repeat this. I will attempt to climb the mountain. He tried to attempt the impossible.
Ignoring the cruft, the sentence is "attempt has come".
"Attempt" is the subject.
