Lettiere's English on the Web

Updated
March 27, 2012

Notes on Nouns

Definition:

Noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.

 

Hints:

1. Nouns can usually be made into plurals or possessive.

 

For example:

boy                 boys
Bob                Bob’s
computer        computers


2. Nouns are the only type of words that sound correct with the word the in front of it.

The cat
The glass
The book
The watch
The camera

The above sound correct by themselves.  We know they are not complete sentences, but you don’t anticipate more.

Now look at the following:

The green
The large
The odd
The tiny

The above doesn’t sound right to your ear.  They make you feel like there definitely needs to be something following it immediately.

The green hat
Hat is the noun in this phrase.


3. Nouns fill subject slots and object slots.

This hint is helpful only if you already understand what a subject and object is.  Come back to this hint after you learn subjects and objects.  Unfortunately, pronouns also fill these two slots, so you still need hint 1 & 2 to help distinguish nouns from pronouns.

 

Types of nouns:

Type of noun

Definition

Example

common noun

generic name

School

proper noun

specific name

Argo Community High School

concrete noun

names of objects that can be touched, heard, smelled, touched, or tasted

brick, burrito

abstract noun

names of ideas or qualities

love, joy, happiness

singular noun

one person, place, thing, or idea

desk, microphone

plural noun

more than one person, place, thing, or idea

desks, microphones

collective noun

name of a group

family

compound noun

Sing noun formed from two or more words

toothpaste

possessive noun

Noun that shows ownership

teacher’s desk

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