What is the abstract noun

In Spanish there are different kinds of words and one of them is the noun (also called a noun). The noun is a word that is used to name an object, person, animal or feeling; namely, refers to a fixed character entity. This characteristic of nouns differentiates them from other classes of words, such as pronouns, which, for example, designate entities that are variable depending on the different situations contextual.

For example, the second-person personal pronoun of the singular "tú" varies from one person to another depending on the communicative situation in which it is used. In this lesson of a TEACHER we are going to analyze a type of noun and we are going to study what is the abstract noun and what are its main characteristics.

The Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (DRAE) defines the abstract noun as the "name that does not designate a material reality". That is, the abstract name is a type of noun that refers to a feeling or thought of abstract character, that is, it designates an object or a reality based on how the speakers perceive it.

They are, therefore, typical concepts of areas such as feelings, sensations, or thoughts, and are usually closely related to the imagination and psychology of each speech community.

When designating immaterial realities, abstract nouns are characterized because, normally, follow the same word formation structure, which is the following:

• Some suffixes in spanish such as "-idad", "-ez (a)", "-ation" or "-cia", for example, are used to create abstract nouns from different adjectives or verbs. Let's see it through several examples: friendly - kindness; kind - kindness; banal - banality; solidarity - solidarity; happy - happiness; abundant - abundance; courteous - courtesy; cheerful - joy are some abstract nouns formed from adjectives, whose meaning is "fact or quality of + the proper meaning of each of the adjectives". For example, sadness is "the fact of being sad."
• In addition, we can also create abstract nouns starting from verb forms, What pollute - contamination; love love; crave - crave; abuse - abuse; accept - acceptance; know - knowledge; blame - guilt; wish - wish; educate - education; envy - envy; wait - hope; strengthen - strength; imagine - imagination; know - wisdom; respect - respect; tolerate - tolerance; think - thought; clean - cleaning , etc. Its meaning can be equated to "fact or result of + the proper meaning of each of the verbs". For example, circulation is "the action or effect of circulating."
• Another of the main characteristics of abstract nouns is that, as such, if we try to draw them it is practically impossible or, at least, much more difficult than if they were specific nouns. For example; How do you draw happiness or fear or intelligence? On the other hand, we can draw a tree, a dog or a car without difficulty, since the latter are not abstract but concrete nouns.

Do you know more examples of other abstract nouns in Spanish? Go ahead and share them with us!