English noun

The world is full of nouns. Look out the window. You may see trees, cars, houses, people, etc. These are all nouns.

Walk into a store or a market and the shelves are full of nouns. Every time you purchase something, you are acquiring a noun.

Types of Nouns

Nouns represent people, places, and things. Doctors, policewomen, writers, plumbers, artists, students, children, etc. are people. People are nouns.

Beaches, cities, towns, shopping malls, houses, schools, etc. are places. Places are nouns.

Computers, cars, games, lip gloss, keys, lint, socks, etc. are things. Things are nouns.

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There are different types of nouns. Let's begin with the two basic types, common and proper.

Common Nouns

Common nouns are general, nonspecific nouns. Examples include:

• car
• teacher
• beach
• cheesburger

What car? which teacher? what beach? which cheeseburger?

We can add adjectives, words that describe nouns. For example, we can have a red car, a Math teacher, a beautiful beach, and a tasty cheeseburger. However, they are still nonspecific. How do I make them proper nouns?

Proper Nouns

Proper nouns are specific.

• Chevrolet
• Mr. Cohen
• Miami Beach
• McDonalds cheeseburger

Proper nouns provide you information about their existence. You can have a car or you can have a Chevrolet, a Mercedes, a Saturn, or a Ford Thunderbird. You have many teachers but there is only one Mr. Cohen, Ms Raimo, and so on. There are many beaches but only one Miami Beach, one Revere Beach, and one Malibu Beach. A cheeseburger is a cheeseburger but there is only one McDonalds cheeseburger, one Sonic cheeseburger, etc.

Note: Proper nouns are capitalized.

Compound Nouns

Compound nouns are nouns whose name consists of more than one word. Some examples are:

• basketball
• bike trail
• email

English is full of compound nouns. They may appear as two or more separate words, a hyphenated word, or as one word. New compound nouns usually begin as two words, then become hyphenated, and eventually become one word. Here is an example.

• Initially, we had electronic mail.
• After a while, it became known as e-mail.
• We now call it email.

Collective Nouns

Collective nouns, as the name suggests, represents collections or groups of things. Some examples include families, team, and companies.

Collective nouns are both singular and plural.

• The family is going on vacation.
• The families are going on a neighborhood picnic.

Abstract Nouns

Abstract nouns represent feelings, qualities, and other things that aren't physical. Some abstract nouns include: love, honor, honesty, fear, virtue, bravery, etc.