Nouns - What Is A Noun And How Is It Used
What Is A Noun?
Nouns are really easy. A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea. People, places and things are concrete nouns because you can actually see them. Ideas are abstract nouns because you can only experience them.
Examples:
- Person
- you
- girl
- police officer
- teacher
- Mr. Smith
- mailman
- Place
- park
- school
- bedroom
- France
- inside
- Thing
- skate
- key
- boat
- house
- Statue of Liberty
- Idea
- honesty
- courage
- evolution
- creation
- Theory of Relativity
- Nirvana
Exercise
- Name 5 nouns which are people and write them 5 times each.
- Name 5 nouns which are places and write them 5 times each.
- Name 5 nouns which are things and write them 5 times each.
- Name 5 nouns which are ideas and write them 5 times each.
Common And Proper Nouns
A proper noun gives a correct name to the person, place, thing or idea. A proper noun always starts with a capital letter.
Common nouns do not give the person place, thing, or idea a proper name. A common noun starts with a lower cased letter unless it is the first word of a sentence.
Examples:
- Proper Nouns
- Mr. Bell
- Canada
- Burger Palace
- Quantum Physics
- Common Nouns
- playground
- math
- jump rope
- candy
Exercise
- Name 5 proper nouns and write them 10 times each.
- Name 5 common nouns and write them 10 times each.
Subjective And Objective Nouns
A subject is the part of the sentence that is the person, place, thing or idea in which something will happen to that person, place, thing, or idea. Example of the subjective noun:
Katie is going on a trip around the world.
In the example above, Katie is the subject of the sentence because she is the one who will be going on a trip around the world.
An object is the part of the sentence in which something will take place with the subject in a secondary manner. An example of an objective noun:
The dog will play with the ball.
In the sentence above, the dog is the main focus of the action and would be considered the subject. However the ball, which is a noun, is what the subject, the dog, will play.
More of this will be covered in the How To Construct A Basic Sentence And Paragraph section.
Singular And Plural Nouns
A noun can be one person, place, thing, or idea. If it is just the one, it is a singular noun. Examples include:
- bird
- toast
- can
- tower
A noun can also be plural meaning there are more than one in the grouping of a person, place or thing. A plural noun is often spelt in a different manner than a singular noun to signify more than one.
Most plural nouns end in the letter "s" such as:
- cats
- dogs
- planes
- parks
The plural of words that already end in "s" "o" "ch" and "y" are often made plural by adding "es" to the end. If it ends in "y", the letter "y" is replaced by the letter "i" before adding "es". Examples of special plural nouns are:
- glass - glasses
- hero - heroes
- cherry - cherries
- witch - witches
If the word ends with a letter "y", but has a vowel before it, then only add the letter "s" at the end. Examples include:
- day - days
- monkey - monkeys
Other plural nouns are spelt the same as the singular noun. Examples of plural nouns include:
- deer
- furniture
- cutlery
There are other rules to remember in making a noun plural which will be covered under Spelling Rules - Tips To Help You Spell Any Word.
Exercise
- Name 5 singular nouns and write them 5 times each.
- Name 5 plural nouns which end with the letter "s" and write them 5 times each.
- Name 5 plural nouns which are spelt the same as the singular noun and write them 5 times each.
Pronouns
Pronouns are nouns in the most generic form. A pronoun is used in place of a noun or nouns. Examples include:
- he
- she
- it
- they
- them
- we
- us
A pronoun can be subjective or objective.
A subjective pronoun is what the sentence is about. Example:
He will go out and play today.
An objective pronoun is an object within the sentence where it's activity is secondary to the main subject. Example:
Mandy went to play with her.
More of this will be covered in the How To Construct A Basic Sentence And Paragraph section.
Exercise
- Point to and name 10 pronouns in the room.
Possessive Nouns
When you have a noun and want to let everyone know it belongs to you or someone else, you will address the owner of the object with a "'s" and the noun which follows is what they own. Examples include:
- Harry's ball
- Sandra's cat
- Bill's speeding ticket
In the examples above, these are all possessive nouns. They name the owner and tell you what it is they own.
Exercise
- Name 10 possessive nouns and write them 10 times each.
Return To The English Grammar Section
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