Identifying a Noun

A noun is a part of speech that denotes a person, animal, place, thing, or idea. The English
word noun has its roots in the Latin word nomen, which means “name.” Every language has
words that are nouns. As you read the following explanations, think about some words that
might fit into each category.

 Person – A term for a person, whether proper name, gender, title, or class, is a noun.
 Animal – A term for an animal, whether proper name, species, gender, or class is a noun.
 Place – A term for a place, whether proper name, physical location, or general locale is a noun.
 Thing – A term for a thing, whether it exists now, will exist, or existed in the past is a noun.
 Idea – A term for an idea, be it a real, workable idea or a fantasy that might never come to
fruition is a noun.

Noun Examples
When we first start to learn the parts of speech, trying to identify different words can seem like a
challenge. This process gets easier with practice. Here are some noun examples to help you
get started. The nouns in each sentence have been italicized.

 Person – He is the person to see.

 Person – John started to run.
 Person – Plato was an influential Greek philosopher.
 Person – Sharon admires her grandfather.
 Person – My mother looks a lot like my grandmother, and I look very much like them.

 Animal – The dog barked at the cat.

 Animal – Elephants never forget.
 Animal – Sophie is my favorite horse.

 Place – The restaurant is open.

 Place – Let’s go to the beach.
 Place – Look over there.
 Place – Come here.
 Place – Harvard and Yale are two famous universities.
 Place – Look! There’s the Eiffel Tower.

 Thing – Throw the ball.

 Thing – Please close the door and lock it.
 Thing – Use words properly to be understood.
 Thing – The lamp sits on a table next to the sofa.
 Thing – Money doesn’t grow on trees.

 Idea – Follow the rules.

 Idea – The theory of relativity is an important concept.
 Idea – Love is a wonderful emotion.

Types of Common Nouns

Common or generic nouns can be broken down into three subtypes: concrete nouns, abstract
nouns, and collective nouns. A concrete noun is something that is perceived by the senses;
something that is physical or real.

I heard the doorbell.

My keyboard is sticky.

Doorbell and keyboard are real things that can be sensed.

Conversely, an abstract noun is something that cannot be perceived by the senses.

We can’t imagine the courage it took to do that.

Courage is an abstract noun. Courage can’t be seen, heard, or sensed in any other way, but we
know it exists.

A collective noun denotes a group or collection of people or things.

That pack of lies is disgraceful.

Pack of lies as used here is a collective noun. Collective nouns take a singular verb as if they
are one entity – in this case, the singular verb is.

A pride of lions roamed the savanna.

Pride of lions is also a collective noun.

Plural Nouns

Plural nouns, unlike collective nouns, require plural verbs. Many English plural nouns can be
formed by adding -s or -es to the singular form, although there are many exceptions.

cat—cats
These two cats are both black.

Note the plural verb are.

tax—taxes

house—houses

____________________________________________________________________________

Types of Nouns[edit]
Common and Proper Nouns[edit]
A common noun is any nonspecific person, place or thing.

A proper noun is any specific person, place, living being, or thing. A proper noun can be a name, places, companies, and trademarks. In the English
language, all proper nouns are capitalized, which makes them easy to recognize.

Examples[edit]

In comparing common and proper nouns, the word cat can be used to describe many things, which makes it a common noun. Describing an animal as
a thing happens in grammar but not biology since they're living beings. (J.D. Meyer) However, you could be more specific and identify a certain cat as
being Garfield or Felix, which would make it a proper noun.

Special Classes of Nouns[edit]

 Concrete noun names something that can be perceived with the five senses (sight, sound, touch, smell and taste).
Examples: air, flower, food, water
 Abstract noun names something that can't be perceived with the five senses.
Examples: love, truth, belief, sympathy
 Collective noun names a collection or a group of similar things.
Examples: flock, herd, pack, etc.
 Mass noun a noun that is very rarely plural and is never with articles 'a' and 'an'.
Examples: advice, equipment, fruit, information, weather
 Compound noun is made up of two or more words forming a unit idea.
Examples: skyscraper, rubout, commander-in-chief

Properties of Nouns[edit]
1. Person
2. Number
 Singular in number indicates one object only.
Examples: bus, girl, boy, town, stone
 Plural in number indicates two or more objects. Most noun form their plural by adding -s or -es Examples: bag-bags, tree-trees,
glass-glasses, church-churches
3. Gender determines the sex of a noun.
 Masculine gender indicates the male sex.
Examples: brother, gander, nephew, father, John
 Feminine gender indicates the female sex.
Examples: mother, sister, doe, Mary
 Common gender indicates uncertainty of sex which is either male or female.
Examples: teacher, parent, horse, cat, child
  Neuter gender indicates that an object is without sex.
Examples: rock, leaf, sea, mountain, hill, paper
4. Case shows the relation of a noun to other words in the sentence or phrase.
 Nominative case indicates that a noun is doing or being something in the sentence. A noun in the nominative case can be either a
subject or predicate but not both in the sentence.
 Objective case indicates that a person or a thing is being acted upon. A noun in the objective case can be use as object of the
verb or object of the preposition.
 Possessive case indicates that a person or a thing owns something. The possessive form of a noun is usually formed by adding an
apostrophe (') or an apostrophe s ('s)

Uses of Nouns[edit]
1. Subject refers to the word about something is said in a sentence.
2. Predicative nominative or predicate noun renames, identifies or explains the subject in a sentence. It is normally placed after a linking
verb.
3. Direct object refers to the receiver of the action in a sentence. It answers the question What? or Who?
4. Indirect object tells to whom, to what, for whom or for what a thing is done.
5. Object of the preposition answers the question What? or Whom? after the preposition.
6. Appositive refers to a noun that identifies or provides further information about another word in the sentence.
 Essential appositive makes the meaning of a sentence clear. It is usually not set off by a comma.
 Non-essential appositive may be omitted in the sentence without changing the meaning of it.
7. Objective complement adds to the meaning of or renames the direct object. It appears only with these verbs: appoint, call, consider,
declare, elect, judge, label, make, name, select or think.
8. Direct address is the name or word by which a person is addressed. It is set off by a comma.

Identifying Nouns[edit]
In the following paragraph, taken from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, all nouns appear in bold lettering. The first place that I can well remember was a
large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. Some shady trees leaned over it, and rushes and water-liliesgrew at the deep end. Over
the hedge on one side we looked into a plowed (British English: ploughed) field, and on the other we looked over a gate at our master's house,
which stood by the roadside; at the top of the meadow was a grove of fir trees, and at the bottom a running brook overhung by a steep bank.