Nouns mean every thing to us!

Definition: The word ‘noun’ comes from Latin nomen meaning ‘name’. A noun is the name of a thing. Everything that exists has a name, whether you can see it or not. A blind person cannot see something, but that does not mean that it isn’t there! It may only exist in our minds, like hope, beauty or calories.

 There are four kinds of nouns.

Common nouns

These are names of everyday things that we can see, hear or touch.

For example: table, banana, volcano, song

We can put the word ‘the’ in front of them and make sense, as in: the rope, the poison

If it does not make sense, the word cannot be a noun.

Proper nouns

Definition: The word ‘proper’ comes from the French word proper meaning one’s own, i.e. belonging to a particular person or thing. Proper nouns are the special names that we give to people, places and particular things like the days of the week, months of the year, or even the titles of books or TV shows.

For example: Jason, Town Hall, China, French, The Wishing Chair

Because they are special and individual names, they start with a capital letter and, apart from people, most of these things have only one proper name.

Collective nouns

Definition: These are names for groups of things, animals or people, which go together, or have something in common.

For example:

A number of people in a group singing is a choir.

A number of cows in a group is a herd.

Note here that if the group word is singular then the verb following must also be singular.

For example:

Correct – The choir was rehearsing in the chapel.

Incorrect – The choir were rehearsing in the chapel.

There may, of course, be more than one group. In which case the verb will be plural.

The choirs were competing in the final.

Abstract nouns

Definition: Abstract nouns form what can be the most difficult group to understand, as they represent ideas, and have no physical substance that you can see or touch.

The idea may be of quality, for example: beauty, greed, intelligence or the idea may be a state that is felt or suffered, for example: joy, misery, neglect.

It may be the act of something, for example: duty, aggression.

It may even be an event or happening, for example: conversation, pause.