This paper attempts to elucidate and substantiate the points that there is a referential validity underlying nouns in English and that this validity is more apparent and consistent in concrete than in abstract nouns; also that abstract nouns, too, broadly follow the general patterns of concrete nouns. The study has been made in three parts: I. A brief review of the criteria generally applied in defining English nouns. li. A study of the distinction between mass and count in concrete nouns employing referentiality as the basis. iii. A study of dual membership. viz. the occurrance of one noun as both count (concrete and abstract) and mass (concrete and abstract).