Noun Chapter
What Is noun ?
Nouns are the words that are used to represents name , people , animals, ideas, places, or things.
In a sentence, nouns can function as the subject or the object of a verb or preposition. Nouns can also follow linking verbs to rename or re-identify the subject of a sentence or clause; these are known as predicate nouns.
There are many different kinds of nouns, and it’s important to know the different way each type can be used in a sentence. Below, we’ll briefly look at the different types of nouns.
Different categories of nouns.
You can explore the individual sections to learn more about each.
Common Noun
Nouns that identify general people, places, or things are called common nouns—they name or identify that which is common among others.
For Example
“He sat on the chair.”
“I live in a city.”
“We met some people.”
Proper Noun
Proper nouns are used to identify an absolutely unique person, place, or thing, and they are signified by capital letters, no matter where they appear in a sentence.
For Example
“Go find Jeff and tell him dinner is ready.”
“I’ll have a Pepsi, please.”
“Prince William is adored by many.”
Nouns of address
Nouns of address are used in direct speech to identify the person or group being directly spoken to, or to get that person’s attention. Like interjections, they are grammatically unrelated to the rest of the sentence—they don’t modify or affect any other part of it.
For Example
- “James, I need you to help me with the dishes.”
- “Can I have some money, Mom?”
- “This, class, is the video I was telling you about.”
Concrete Nouns
Concrete nouns name people, places, animals, or things that are physically tangible—that is, they can be seen or touched, or have some physical properties. Proper nouns are also usually concrete, as they describe unique people, places, or things that are also tangible.
For example:
- table
- rocks
- lake
- countries
- people
Abstract nouns
Abstract nouns, as their name implies, name intangible things, such as concepts, ideas, feelings, characteristics, attributes, etc.
For example:
- love
- hate
- decency
- conversation
- emotion
Countable Nouns
Countable nouns (also known as count nouns) are nouns that can be considered as individual, separable items, which means that we are able to count them with numbers—we can have one, two, five, 15, 100, and so on. We can also use them with the indefinite articles a and an (which signify a single person or thing) or with the plural form of the noun.
Uncountable Nouns
Uncountable nouns are the nouns that are unable to count that means there many in numbers.
Uncountable nouns cannot take an indefinite article (a/an), nor can they be made plural.
For Example
- Sand
- Stars
Collective Nouns
Collective nouns are nouns that refer to a collection or group of multiple people, animals, or things. However, even though collective nouns refer to multiple individuals, they still function as singular nouns in a sentence. This is because they still are technically referring to one thing: the group as a whole.
For example:
- “The flock of birds flew south for the winter.”
- “The organization voted to revoke the rules that it had previously approved.”
- “The set of tablecloths had disappeared. ”
Attributive Nouns (Noun Adjuncts)
Attributive nouns, also called noun adjuncts, are nouns that are used to modify other nouns. The resulting phrase is called a compound noun.
For example:
“The boy played with his toy soldier.”
In this sentence, toy is the noun adjunct, and it modifies the word soldier, creating the compound noun toy soldier.
Compound Nouns
A compound noun is a noun composed of two or more words working together as a single unit to name a person, place, or thing. Compound nouns are usually made up of two nouns or an adjective and a noun.
- water + bottle = water bottle (a bottle used for water)
- dining + room = dining room (a room used for dining)
Noun Phrases
A noun phrase is a group of two or more words that function together as a noun in a sentence. Noun phrases consist of a noun and other words that modify the noun.
For example:
• “He brought the shovel with the blue handle.”
In this sentence, the shovel with the blue handle is a noun phrase. It collectively acts as a noun while providing modifying words for the head noun, shovel. The modifiers are the and with the blue handle.
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