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Types of Nouns
Common nouns are not specifiic. Below are some examples of common nouns:
Proper nouns are more specific than common and exact nouns.
Let's use the exact nouns from before. But this time, we will give them more specific names. Also, since proper nouns are names, they will be capitalized.
Concrete Nouns
Collective Nouns
Abstract nouns are qualities and ideas.
Functions of a Noun
Exceptions for Nouns
team
class
family
choir
Now that we have covered the different types of nouns, we can decide how to use them in a sentence.
If the noun is telling who did the action in a sentence, then the noun is used as a subject.
Subject: Justin plays ball.
Justin is the person doing the action in the sentence. Therefore, Justin is the subject.
If the noun shows what received the action in the sentence, the noun is a direct object.
Direct object: Jill read a book.
What did Jill read? Jill read a book. Therefore, book is the direct object.
If the noun appears at the end of a prepositional phrase, it is called the object of a preposition.
Object of a preposition: The ball rolled across the street.
The noun street appears at the end of the prepositional phrase after the preposition across.
If the word showing action has an ing ending, but is not the verb of the sentence, then it is a noun called a gerund.
Gerund: Typing takes skill.
Typing is an action word that is used as a noun. It is what the sentence is about. To be more specific, typing is used as a subject. The word takes is the verb.
If to comes before an action word, it is called an infinitive.
Infinitive: Sara likes to read before bedtime.
To read is an infinitive that is used as a direct object, which is a noun. The word likes is the verb.
Usually, you can make nouns plural by adding the letter s.
Concrete nouns are nouns that you can see and touch. These nouns are placed after the indefinite articles a and an and the definite article the.
Common and exact nouns are concrete nouns.
Changing Verbs to Nouns
Some verbs can be changed to nouns by adding the suffix ment to the end of the verb.
Frank drank all the fruit juice.
Exact Nouns
Exact nouns can be described as the bridge between common and proper
nouns.
These nouns are more exact in their description than common nouns and less specific than proper nouns. Exact nouns make sentences a little more interesting.
a car
a tree
an apple
an hour (ou sound)
a horse (h sound)
the book
the animal
A noun is a word that identifies a person, place, or thing. There are different types of nouns. This section will take a closer look at each type.
Common Nouns
child
building
item
These nouns do not name any child, building, or item in particular. Also, these words begin with a lower case letter.
Proper Nouns
Collective nouns stand for an entire group. These nouns do not end in a plural form as other plural nouns do because they are treated as singular nouns.
There are many other collective nouns than the ones shown below:
Abstract Nouns
Plural Nouns
cars
trees
books
animals
Some nouns with certain endings, Latin nouns, or Greek nouns will require special changes.
To see how to make nouns plural: click here.
According to the general rule, fruit would be a noun.
But since it is placed right before the word juice, fruit becomes a word used to describe juice. So, fruit is an adjective.
A general rule to help identify a noun is to place the word a or the in front of the word. If it makes sense, then the word is a noun.
However, this is not always the case.
Depending on how the word is used, it could be an adjective.
I lost my computer book on the way home.
Here computer describes book, so computer is an adjective.
herd
club
army
association
bunch
group
clutter
galaxy
loyalty
bravery
patience
kindness
We can see the acts of these nouns, but we cannot touch them as we do with concrete nouns.
This section will cover the different types of nouns and how they are used.
verb
judge +
improve +
advance +
announce +
suffix
ment =
ment =
ment =
ment =
noun
judgement
improvement
advancement
announcement
Notice that the indefinite article a appears in front of nouns that begin with a consonant. The indefinite article an appears in front of nouns that begin with a vowel or consonants that have a vowel sound as in the example: an hour.
However, not all words that begin with h take the indefinite article an. The word horse starts with the letter h and makes the h sound. Therefore, it takes the indefinite article a.
Language Arts: Nouns - Tutorial
