Nouns

Tutorial

Nouns

A noun is a word that names something, such as a person, place, thing, or idea.

In a sentence, nouns can play the role of subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement,

, appositive, or modifier.

Some noun examples include: cat. bicycle.

There are FOUR KINDS OF NOUNS –

A COMMON NOUN

refers to any one of a number of things of the same kind, such as as: “man”, “country”, “lake” or “cloud”. “Common” comes from a Latin word meaning “shared by several”.

is a name for one particular thing. “Proper” comes from a Latin word meaning “own”. (Think of property; somebody owns the property.) Thus a Proper noun can be given to only one thing at a time; it is an owned name. A Proper noun begins with a capital letter, as “John”, “Australia”.

A COLLECTIVE NOUN

is a name for a group of similar things, the group forming one complete whole. Example: “There are many sheep in the field but there is only one flock of sheep.” In this sentence sheep is a Common noun, because it may stand for any one and every one sheep, but flock is a Collective noun, as it stands for all the sheep at once, and not for any one sheep on its own.

An ABSTRACT NOUN

is the name given to something which has no substance, that is, to something which cannot be seen, heard, touched, smelled or tasted. Examples are “poverty”, “humility”, “goodness”, “laughter” and “hardness”.

We know that a stone is hard. We know that iron is hard. We know that a brick is hard. We can speak of hardness as being a quality apart from the stone, the iron, and the brick, or any other object having the same quality. We can put our hands on the stone, the iron and the brick,, but there is nothing to see or touch when we think of hardness. We can go to the store and buy some stones or bricks or iron, but we cannot buy any hardness as it does not exist. We can think of stones and iron and bricks as having substance, whereas hardness has no substance. So, hardness is called an abstract noun.

Other examples are: childhood, kingship, service, sight, fear, hope - and so on

The following words are all nouns, as they refer to the names of PERSONS:

Tom. Dick. Harry, Jenny, Joan, Jean, Kenneth, William, Thomas, Ronald, Rita, Reg.

These nouns all begin with a capital letter, which shows they are owned by somebody; they refer to a particular person, not just to anyone in general.

Words such as man, woman, boy, girl, lad, lass, child, baby, person, people, are also nouns, but they are not owned by any particular person; the names are common to many people. So these words are all common nouns.

Note especially that the names are words, not persons. It is the words that are nouns, not the persons.

The following words are all nouns as they refer to the names of PLACES:

Perth, Adelaide, Midland, Stratton, Australia, Holland, England, America, Timor.

Note that these nouns all begin with a capital letter. This indicates that they are all owned names. So they are all Proper nouns.

But words such as river, mountain, lake, road, street, town, country, village, city are names that belong to any number of such things, or places; they are common to many things. So they are all called Common nouns.

Words such as hill, tree, river, bank, house, table, chair, knife, spoon, eggs, hens, bed, cat, dog, are all nouns as they are the names of THINGS. These names are common to a great many such things, so they are called Common nouns.

But names such as Swan River, Commonwealth Bank, Mount Everest, Morrison Road, are Proper nouns, as the names refer to particular things; they are owned names.

The following words are all nouns because they refer to the names of THINGS.

They are all nouns; each one names something: chair, table, dishes, computer, knife, meal, car, dog, garden, cloud, flower, tree. These names are all called Common nouns.

Copy the highlighted text to a word document

EXERCISE

1. Read through the following paragraph. Then underline the nouns. (There are 15 nouns altogether.)

Once upon a time, Hans Hannekemaaier, with a scythe on his back, came into the land near Edam Town where they make cheeses. How he stared his eyes out! The meadows were so lush and green, and the cows so big, The farmers, long pipes in their mouths, were strolling about the fields with a lordly air.

Now make a list of all the nouns and beside each one write what kind of a noun it is – Common noun, (Common nouns are everywhere, and you use them all the time, even if you don’t realize it. Wherever you go, you’ll find at least one common noun. Street, closet, bathroom, school, mall, gas station; all of these places are named using common nouns).

People in general are named using common nouns, though their official titles or given names are proper nouns. When we refer to people using common nouns, we use words like teacher, clerk, police officer, preacher, delivery driver, boyfriend, girlfriend, grandma, cousin, and barista.

Collective nouns You might not know it, but you encounter collective nouns in everyday speech. Collective nouns are words for single things that are made up of more than one person, animal, place, thing, or idea. You can’t have a team without individual members; even so, we discuss a team as a single entity.

http://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/nouns/collective-nouns/

Abstract nouns are words that name things that are not concrete. Your five physical senses cannot detect an abstract noun – you can’t see it, smell it, taste it, hear it, or touch it. In essence, an abstract noun is a quality, a concept, an idea, or maybe even an event.

Abstract nouns and concrete nouns are usually defined in terms of one another. Something that is abstract exists only in the mind, while something that is concrete can be interacted with in a physical way. Qualities, relationships, theories, conditions, and states of being are some examples of the types of things abstract nouns define.

http://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/nouns/abstract-nouns/

Proper noun, Collective noun or Abstract noun.

Two of the nouns are worked for you.

Noun Kind of Noun

1. time Abstract noun

2. Hans Hannekemaaier Proper noun

Examples of Nouns

Abstract Nouns – name things you can’t perceive with your five senses

advice	anger	belief	bigotry
communication	compassion	darkness	death
fear	freedom	friendship	gratitude
happiness	hatred	help	heroism
history	honesty	hope	infancy
jealousy	knowledge	life	love
loyalty	manhood	misery	peace
pride	poverty	power	promise
reality	redemption	regret	religion
troupe	trust	wealth	wisdom

Collective Nouns – a group of people or things

army	audience	band	bevy
bouquet	brood	bunch	caravan
cartload	choir	clan	colony
congregation	corps	drove	family
flock	gaggle	gang	group
herd	jury	mob	pack
panel	range	regiment	school
squadron	swarm	team	village

Compound Nouns – made up of two or more words

aftermath	anyone	blackboard	board of directors
bodyguard	court-martial	daughter-in-law	earthworm
eyeglasses	father-in-law	forget-me-not	grandfather
grasshopper	homemade	inside	jellyfish
jigsaw	keyboard	kneecap	lifetime
moonlight	mother-in-law	New York	overthrow
paperclip	photograph	pickpocket	pigtails
plaything	quicksand	railroad	rattlesnake
somewhere	snowflake	sunlight	tablecloth
upstream	uplift	wheelchair	windpipe

Countable Concrete Nouns – can be perceived with your five senses and can be counted

aardvark	banana	bed	bird
book	cat	clock	cookie
country	dog	eyes	flowers
house	light	match	movie
ocean	panther	pen	phone
photograph	planet	rain	speaker
sun	suitcase	sunset	train
ukulele	violin	walnuts	xylophone

Uncountable Concrete Nouns – cannot be counted

air	beer	blood	butter
cheese	clutter	currency	economics
electricity	flour	food	garbage
gas	ground	homework	honey
information	insurance	juice	lightning
milk	mud	music	news
rain	rice	sand	snow
timber	water	weather	wood

Verbal Nouns (Gerunds) – refer to actions

acting	asking	boating	bowling
camping	climbing	crawling	dancing
deceiving	destroying	eating	fishing
flying	golfing	growing	hiking
hopping	hunting	hurting	inserting
jogging	jumping	kayaking	living
making	moaning	naming	opening
painting	parasailing	placing	plotting
questioning	razing	rollerblading	rolling
running	shopping	skiing	smoking
snorkeling	surfing	swimming	talking
traveling	watching	watering	yodeling

Proper Nouns – name a particular person, place or thing

Africa	Atlantic Ocean	Australia	Beethoven
Big Ben	Chile	Clark Gable	Conoco
Disneyland	Elizabeth Taylor	Fluffy	Halley’s Comet
Honda	January	Jupiter	King Tut
Lake Eerie	La-Z-Boy	Minnesota	Michael
Minnesota	Mount Everest	Nelson Mandela	Notre Dame
Peking	Quebec	Rio Grande	Rocky Mountains
September	Stanford University	Starbucks	Susan
The New York Times	The Tower of London	Uncle George	United Nations
United States	Vincent van Gogh	Xerox	Zeus

resources

Explanation for Student Compendium
File	Includes
Abbreviations	A shortened form of a word or phrase. ANU - Australian National University
Acronyms	An acronym is a pronounceable word formed from the first letter (or first few letters) of each word in a phrase or title. Sometimes, the newly combined letters create a new word that becomes a part of everyday language. An example of this is the acronym radar. Also includes Mnemonics
Adjectives	a word naming an attribute of a noun, such as sweet, red, or technical. Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words * Priest = Sacerdotal
Animals	Types of animals, Sounds the make, Where do they live, Collective names of animals Apes - gibber, Camel live in Australia, Sahara & Arabia, names = Bull - is called a heifer
Antonyms	a word opposite in meaning to another (e.g. bad - good ). Opposites = Absent - present
Big_Words for small	Small word with big word alternative Anger - Dudgeon * bold - Audacious
Characteristics	A feature or quality belonging typically to a person, place, or thing and serving to identify them A partner in crime - accomplice
Church	Words pertaining to the church A passage between the pews in a church - Aisle
Commonly_confused_words	Similar sounding words with different meanings also Homonyms Council, an administrative or advisory body, do not confuse with counsel, advice or guidance.
Communication	All about communication see also A History of Communication
Computer_terms	All computer terms (ASCII, Binary, Unicode)
Countries	Names given to certain towns or countries includes facts about climate Aberdeen - The Granite City The Torrid Zone has the hottest climate Zinc - Mexico, U.S.A., Spain
Death	Words pertaining to death Occurring after death - posthumous
Diminutives	A diminutive person is short and small. A diminutive wordis a "cute" version of a word or name: for example, "duckling" is a diminutive of "duck" and Billy is a diminutive form of the name William Cask - casket
Famous_People	Famous world discoveries of countries continents, includes Australian discoverers Matthew Flinders -discovered Bass Strait. * Lord Robert Baden-Powell founded the Boy Scouts in 1908
Figurative_Expressions	Explanation of a word, words in literal expressions denote what they mean according to common or dictionary usage Aloof -To keep to oneself and not mix with others.
Gender	Gender list of male female Actor - Actress
Geography	Countries of the world and Geographical facts The Circumference of the earth is approxinmately 24,800 miles.
Gods	List of gods and goddesses War - Mars
Government	Australian and UK government with words denoting government Australian Government
Grammar	Explains grammar syntax and verbs adjectives nouns etc. Explains various uses of nouns verbs etc.
Human_Relationships	The art of living together includes senses, elements, cardinal numbers, cardinal virtues THE ART OF LIVING - Consideration for the feelings of others
Inventions	Alphabetical list of the most important inventions Clock (pendulum) - Christian Huygens
Kings_Queens	List of kings and queens of Britain with facts and information EGBERT 827 - 839
Literary	Practical list of words explained in a sentence or phrase A book in which the events of each day are recorded - Diary
Marriage	Words pertaining to marriage included anniversary gifts A hater of marriage - misogamist
Medical	Medical terms in use today A disease confined to a particular district or place - endemic
Metaphors	Metaphor is a figure of speech that makes an implicit, implied, or hidden comparison between two things that are unrelated
Miscellaneous	Sounds that things make, description of various venues or habitats, special calendar dates, Aussie slang words, Mnemonics All Fools' Day - 1st April - Aussie slang - sounds that things make etc.
Names	Names of persons or things, occupations, and a description of word meanings i.e. Terrestrial = Earth Various names explained Bird of night - Owl
Nature	Words connected to nature A four-footed animal - quadruped
Negatives	a word or statement that expresses denial, disagreement, or refusal That which cannot be pierced or penetrated - impenetrable
Nouns	Explanation of nouns, COMMON Nouns, PROPER Nouns, COLLECTIVE Nouns and ABSTRACT Nouns. sit - seat (when to use Nouns)
Numbers	Numbers of animals things i.e. A number of Cattle = herd A number of fish taken in a net - catch, haul
Opposites	a person or thing that is totally different from or the reverse of someone or something else. Unable to read - il-literate
Other	Special days, Aussies slang and any other items not covered in this list Any other items that might be of interest
Patron Saints	List of Patron Saints St. George of England, St. Andrew of Scotland
Phobias	Noctiphobia - Fear of the night
Places	A list of places A place where bees are kept = apiary A place where fishes are kept - aquarium
Possessive_Case	The case which is used to show possession is called the possessive case or genitive case. In case of nouns, an apostrophe is used to show it. Is the case which denotes the owner or possessor
Prefixes	All Prefixes
Professions	List of various professions The commander of a fleet - Admiral
Proverbs	Famous proverbs A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush A bad beginning makes a good ending.
Quotes	Serious Quotes and some Witty funny one liners Someone has glued my pack of cards together...I cannot deal with it!
Sayings	Famous sayings as a drowned rat. - as ancient as the sun—as the stars.
Science_and_Arts	List of words used in Science or Art An instrument for detecting earthquakes - seismograph
Scientific_Terms	Explanation of scientific items like barometer The science of land management - agronomics
Seven_Wonders	The seven wonders of the ancient world with explanations The Pyramids of Egypt
Similes	Words to use as a Simile which is a phrase that describes one thing in terms of another. A simile usually begins with like or as. *Archates - a good friend Belt = to hit below the belt**
Synonyms	List of words or phrases that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another abandon....... desert, forsake, leave.
Thesaurus	Understanding words, Incorrect Use of Words, Thesaurus of Words :Thesaurus - abandon = abandoned, abandoning, abandonment, abandons affluent =having an abundant supply of money or possessions of value,words explained and incorrect use of words
UrbanMyths	The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor."
War	Words used in war Nations carrying on warfare - belligerents
Weddings	Anniversary dates and wedding information
Words_to_Verbs	Words shown in noun or verb strong - strengthen
Zodiac_signs	Signs of the Zodiac