What Is a Noun?

Everything You Wanted to Know

What is a noun?

Look around you.

Everything that you see, you can name.

Each of those names fits the above definition. What do you see? A computer, the living room, your dad, a duck.... You don't see a duck? You will in a moment.

Before you commit the above definition to memory, I would like to clarify one thing. Nouns are words that name people, places, things, or ideas - they are not actually people, places, things, or ideas.

After teaching grammar for some time, I was surprised at how many of my students weren't really clear on the whole "word" thing. Allow me to make this clear.

What is a noun? Choose the noun from the following two pictures.

Does that make sense? A word is a noun - not the actual thing that the word represents. It's kind of cool, huh?

Now, your task is to memorize the following definition:

Nouns are words that name people, places, things, or ideas.

Put on your memorizing cap and stick that sentence in there.

Types of Nouns

Do you like apples? I hope so; They're good for you! Well, as you know, there are many different types of apples (Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Gala, McIntosh). While each type of apple tastes a bit different, each is still an apple.

Nouns are similar, only they don't taste as good. Whichever type you're dealing with, it will have its own characteristics, but when it comes down to it, it will still be a noun.

That means it still fits our answer to the question, "What is a noun?" (a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea) Are you ready to hit me over the head because you're so tired of me repeating that? Good. Hopefully that means it's stuck in your mind.

Here are the different ways to describe or classify nouns. If you would like a more examples of each, click here to see a list of nouns.

For example: writer, city, park, religion

• Proper: These name specific people, places, things, or ideas. They always start with a capital letter.

For example: Victor Hugo, Paris, Disneyland, Christianity

• Abstract: These are the opposite of concrete. They name something that you cannot perceive with your five senses - something that does not physically exist.

For example: happiness, freedom, Christianity

• Concrete: These name something that you can perceive with your five senses - something that physically exists.

For example: cat, chocolate, Martha

• Countable: Yep. You guessed it. These can be counted, and they use both the singular and the plural forms. Anything that you can make plural is a countable noun.

For example: clock/clocks, David/Davids, poem/poems

• Uncountable: These guys cannot be counted. Since they cannot be counted, they only use the singular form.

For example: milk, rice, water

*Note that you would never ask for milks, rices, or waters! That just sounds crazy!

• Compound: These are made up of two or more smaller words.

For example: tablecloth, haircut, applesauce

• Collective Nouns: These are singular nouns that refer to a group of things as one whole.

For example: class, audience, swarm

• Singular: These refer to one person, place, thing, or idea.

For example: box, face, road, ball

• Plural: These refer to more than one person, place, thing, or idea. They generally end in with an s.

For example: boxes, faces, roads, balls

Don't get too bogged down by all of those definitions. Know that they exist, but don't worry about committing all of that to your memory. There are more important things to do- like learn some sentence diagramming!

Their Jobs

Out of all eight of the parts of speech, the noun has the ability to perform the most jobs in a sentence.

You might say that it is a bit overworked. It can perform a variety of different functions, while still maintaining its "noun-ness" (I made that word up).

Each time a noun is performing one of these jobs, it still fits the answer to the question, "What is a noun?" And you know the answer to that question, don't you?

Here is a list of its jobs.

• Subject- whom or what the sentence is about

Mary kicked the ball.

• Direct object- receives the action of the verb

Mary kicked the ball.

• Indirect Object- receives the direct object

Mary kicked Jimmy the ball.

• Object of the Preposition- the noun or pronoun after a preposition

Mary kicked the ball at Jimmy.

• Predicate Nominative- renames the subject, always after a linking verb

Mary is a soccer player.

If you feel overwhelmed, don't worry - just keep reading and working. You'll get it. Once you start diagramming, you'll know all of this stuff without even trying too hard!

Speaking of that, if you're ready to move on...

Start Basic Sentence Diagramming!

Do you know your stuff?

Learn how to diagram nouns, or learn basic sentence diagramming.

Quick Refresher: What is a noun?

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

Read the What is a noun?" page? Click here to see a list of nouns.

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