I have word
situation
Is this an abstract noun? I don't think it's an abstract noun as it does not describe a feeling, state or action.
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1Possible duplicate of Concrete vs Abstract nouns – Andrew Apr 22 '19 at 14:59
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1It's difficult to define the exact difference between an abstract and a concrete noun. To me it seems many nouns "sit on the fence", so to speak, and "situation" is one of them. There are some situations I can sense, and some I can only think about. Fortunately, unless you are a professional linguist, it rarely matters. – Andrew Apr 22 '19 at 15:05
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lol i had an exam so it matters for me. i think it is not abstract – Talha Israr Apr 22 '19 at 15:46
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In my opinion, when something like this is on an exam, the only way to get the answer correct is to accurately guess what your teacher thinks is the correct answer -- by which I mean I think it's a stupid question. If it was my test, I would mark you correct if you can argue, in English, which you think it is and why. You did this, so I think you've demonstrated a far more useful English skill than some mostly pointless distinction between two different flavors of noun. – Andrew Apr 23 '19 at 7:40
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@Andrew thanks for the reply. The exam was at a national level and its checked by a computerized system. Anyways, I just wanted to know so i could be careful of this mistake for the future.Also i wanted to know what a native english speaker would do. – Talha Israr Apr 23 '19 at 10:59
Where did you get your definition for "abstract noun" as describing "a feeling,state or action"? My understanding of "abstract noun" is a little more inclusive, in fact, basically, it's any noun that isn't "concrete".
Yourdictionary.com adds a few more categories to the ones you specify:
Concrete nouns are tangible and you can experience them with your five senses. Abstract nouns refer to intangible things, like actions, feelings, ideals, concepts and qualities.
According to them, "situation" would be abstract because it is an intangible concept.
I do tend to agree with Andrew though, in that it doesn't make too much practical difference whether a noun is abstract or not.
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From internet,school etc i know that abstract is something that we cannot feel by our 5 senses. But i think a situation is something which we can actually sense – Talha Israr Apr 22 '19 at 15:49
There is no grammatical classification of nouns as "concrete" or "abstract".
When learning nouns we are told that "nouns name things", but not just concrete things like "dog", "cheese" but also abstract things like "love" or "temptation". This is just to remind you that nouns can also be abstract.
But this is a category of meaning, not grammar. Many words can have both concrete and abstract senses, and some senses can have aspects of both concrete and abstract meanings. For example "love" is an abstract noun when we say "My love for you grows stronger every day." But it is a concrete noun (meaning "girlfiend") when we say "Come to me, my love!"
So is the meaning of "situation" abstract or concrete. That could depend on the sentence that you use it in. In most sentences it would have an abstract meaning, as it wouldn't name a physical thing, instead it means "how things are" which is an abstract quality.
