A Brief Introduction: Nouns
What is a noun?
At its most basic level nouns are ‘naming words’. Meaning they describe a person, place or thing.
How many types of nouns are there?
There are four main groups of nouns. The following is a list with examples:
- Common nouns:
- Common nouns are words that describe everyday objects/things.
- For example: house, car, apple, bread, mobile, town, bank etc.
- For example: This is my house. My car is red. I am eating an apple.
2. Abstract nouns:
- Abstract nouns are words that describe things that we cannot physically touch or see. Generally abstract nouns describe things such as feelings/ emotions, ideas and beliefs.
- For example: love, hate, courage, communism, capitalism etc
- For example: Love is special. Communism is not practiced anymore.
3. Collective nouns:
- Collect nouns are names for groups of things such as plants/ animals/ humans.
- For example: group, bunch, flock, herd/ gaggle/ school/ pod/ family etc
- For example: … a pod of dolphins; a school of fish; a gaggle of geese; a herd of sheep; a bunch of flowers; a group of people
4. Proper nouns:
- Proper nouns are the names of people, places (villages, towns, countries etc), buildings and institutions. They are easy to remember and identify in a sentence because the always start with a capital letter.
- For example: Hester, Susan, Daniel, London, Paris, New York, the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, Tokyo Sky Tree, International House, United Nations, Amnesty International etc
- For example: I use to live in South Africa. When I lived in Paris I went up the Eiffel Tower. I want to work for the United Nations.