Nouns Definition Noun Nouns are words that indicate a person, place, or thing. In a sentence, nouns can function as the subject o...
Nouns
Definition
Noun
Nouns are words that indicate a person, place, or thing.
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.
The Subject
The subject in a sentence or clause is the person or thing doing, performing, or controlling
the action of the verb. For example:
• “The dog chased its tail.” (The noun dog is performing the action of the verb chase.)
• “Mary reads a book every week.” (The proper noun Mary is performing the action of the
verb read.)
Objects
Grammatical objects have three grammatical roles:
the direct object of a verb, the indirectobject of a verb, or the object of a preposition.
Direct objects
Direct objects are what receive the action of the verb in a sentence or clause. For example:
• “The dog chased its tail.” (The noun tail is receiving the action of the verb chase.)
• “Mary reads a book every week.” (The noun book is receiving the action of the verb read.)
Indirect objects
An indirect object is the person or thing who receives the direct object of the verb. For
instance:
• “Please pass Jeremy the salt.” (The proper noun Jeremy is receiving the direct object
salt, which receives the action of the verb pass.)
• “I sent the company an application for the job.” (The noun company is receiving the direct
object application, which receives the action of the verb sent.)
Objects of prepositions
Nouns are also used after prepositions to create prepositional phrases. When a noun is partof a prepositional phrase, it is known as the object of the preposition. For example:
• “Your backpack is under the table.” (The noun table is the object of the preposition under,
which creates the prepositional phrase under the table.)
• “I am looking for work.” (The noun work is the object of the preposition for, which creates
the prepositional phrase for work.)
Predicate Nouns
Nouns that follow linking verbs a
Categories of Nouns
There are many different kinds of nouns, and it’s important to know the different way eachtype can be used in a sentence. Below, we’ll briefly look at the different categories of nouns.
You can explore the individual sections to learn more about each.
Common and Proper Nouns
Nouns that identify general people, places, or things are called common nouns—they name
or identify that which is common among others.
Proper nouns, on the other hand, 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.
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| Common noun And Proper noun |
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.”
• “Sorry, Mr. President, I didn’t see you there.”
Concrete and Abstract 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
Africa
MacBook
Jonathan
Abstract nouns, as their name implies, name intangible things, such as concepts, ideas,
feelings, characteristics, attributes, etc. For instance:
love
hate
decency
conversation
emotion
Countable and Uncountable 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.
Single Countable Nouns Plural Countable Nouns
a cup two cups
an ambulance several ambulances
a phone 10 phones
Countable nouns contrast with uncountable nouns (also known as non-count or mass
nouns), which cannot be separated and counted as individual units or elements. Uncountable
nouns cannot take an indefinite article (a/an), nor can they be made plural.
✔ Correct ✖ Incorrect
“Would you like tea?” “Would you like a tea?”
“Do you have any information?” “Do you have an information?”
“We bought new camping equipment.” “We bought new camping equipments.”
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.”
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| Collective noun |
• “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.
To learn more about attributive nouns, go to the section on Adjuncts in the chapter on The
Predicate.
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)
• back + pack = backpack (a pack you wear on your back)
• police + man = policeman (a police officer who is a man)
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.
Nominalization (Creating Nouns)
Nominalization refers to the creation of a noun from verbs or adjectives.
When nouns are created from other parts of speech, it is usually through the use of suffixes.
For example:
• “My fiancée is an actor.” (The verb act becomes the noun actor.)
• “His acceptance of the position was received warmly.” (The verb accept becomes the
noun acceptance.)
• “The hardness of diamond makes it a great material for cutting tools.” (The adjective hard
becomes the noun hardness.)
• “This project will be fraught with difficulty.” (The adjective dificult becomes the noun
dif iculty.)
English Grammar Basic Quiz 1
(Answers are given on page bottom)
1. A noun can be which of the following?
a) The subject
b) An object
c) Predicative
d) A & B
e) B & C
f) All of the above
2. What category of nouns is used to identify the person or group being directly spoken to?
a) Common nouns
b) Nouns of address
c) Attributive nouns
d) Abstract nouns
3. Identify the type of noun (in bold) used in the following sentence:
“Your indifference is not acceptable.”
a) Proper noun
b) Countable noun
c) Collective noun
d) Abstract noun
4. What category of nouns is used to modify other nouns?
a) Common nouns
b) Nouns of address
c) Attributive nouns
d) Abstract nouns
5. Which of the following is commonly used to create a noun from a verb or adjective?
a) Prefix
b) Suffix
c) Attributive noun
d) Predicative noun
Answers
Nouns: 1-f, 2-b, 3-d, 4-c, 5-b
