Nouns and types of a noun are very common in the English language. We widely use them in our speech, writing every day. The noun is a standard part of speech in English grammar. It plays an essential role in sentence structure.

 It can be subject, direct object, indirect object, and complement of clause or sentence.

In this lesson, we’ll be covering a noun, from beginner to advanced; keep reading for better understanding.

What is a Noun?

A noun derived from the Latin word (nomen) means name. Hence, it represents the names of objects or things. A noun usually tells who is speaking in a sentence or clause.

Definition of Noun

A noun is a word used to name a person, place, thing, quality, and idea. It can be the subject, direct object, indirect object, and complement of a sentence or clause.

It refers to any group of specific or ordinary people, places, things, or object

The tangible and intangible ideas like concepts or feelings are also nouns.

Examples of Noun

Name of Peoples: Roy, Jim, John, Cora, Sophia, Liam, Oliver, William, James, etc.

Name of Places: Africa, America, China, Taj Mahal, Paris, Pakistan, India, etc.

Name of Things: car, bike,  hat, bottle, chair, ball, bat, etc.

Name of Animals: dog, cat, mice, lion,   rabbit, elephant, chicken, horse, etc.

Name of Ideas: happiness, Joy, Anger, Fear, Beauty, Strength, bravery, etc.

The following are ten examples of noun sentences.

• John and Sophia are siblings.
• Jim and his family live in Africa.
• John and Roy play football.
• Ahmad loves his family.
• We got milk from buffalo.
• They saw snow for the first time.
• They had so much fun.
• She went to school today.
• An elephant drinks little water.
• My favorite subject is Biology.

Types of nouns

Nouns are the most common part of speech, and there are several types of nouns. In this lesson, we discussed the major twelve types of nouns.

1. Common Noun
2. Proper Noun
3. Pronoun
4. Compound Noun
5. Collective Noun
6. Concrete Noun
7. Abstract Noun
8. Material Noun
9. Countable Noun
10. Uncountable Noun
11. Singular Noun
12. Plural Noun

1. Proper noun

A proper noun is a noun used to identify or refer to specific or unique people, places, or things; that is only one example.

It denotes a particular thing; which is unique among others. It does not refer to ordinary people or things.

It usually starts with an uppercase or capital letter.

For examples

Roy

America

London

Sunday

March

Mars

The names of the days of the week, months of the year are specific and proper nouns.

Name of days: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc.

Name of months: January, February, April, March, etc.

The special events, celebrations, famous places, organizations, institutes are proper nouns.

Name of special Days/celebration: Christmas, Mothers day, Labor day, etc.

Name of famous places: The Great Wall of China, The Taj Mahal, The Eiffel Tower, etc.

Name of organizations: Coca Cola, KFC, MacDonald, etc.

Name of institutes: Oxford University, Quaid-e-Azam Medical College, Alpine School, etc.

2. Common noun

A common noun is a noun used to identify or refer to general people, places, or things; that have many examples.

The Common noun denotes any or all members of a class that is common among others. It does not refer to specific people or things. 

Common nouns include boy, country, apple, band, car, city, country, day, dog, man, month, planet, religion, street, etc.

In this example:

A girl went to university.

The girl is a common noun because there are many girls in the world.  We did not know the girl’s identity in the above sentence. We only know where she goes.  

The university is also a common name in the sentence.

Common nouns Vs. Proper nouns

We can understand it better by observing that boy and girl are common nouns while Roy and Sophia are proper nouns. 

Similarly, man and woman are common nouns, but John and Cora are proper nouns.

3. Pronoun 

A pronoun is a  subcategory of the noun and is used in place of a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence.

It refers to a noun that is also mentioned elsewhere in the sentence or paragraph. It uses to avoid repetition of the same noun again and again.

In this example:

John went to school, and he is a hard-working student.

John is the noun, and he is the pronoun.

4. Compound Noun

A  noun consists of two or more words appearing together and function as a single noun in a sentence. 

They behave as a single unit in the English language.

Compound Noun examples such as living room, notebook, Mother-in-law, full moon, dinner table, Superman, fireman, bookstore, coffee mug, etc.

In compound nouns, we still have an understanding of each halfword that contributes to its meaning.

There are three types of compound words such as open, closed, and hyphenated.

Open compound words 

The compound words that are written separately with space between the words are called open compound words. Some open compound words containing the -ing form of a verb.

For example, 

dry cleaning

driving school

ice cream

coffee shop

health center

income tax

police station

bank account.

Closed compound words

The compound words that are written together without any space are called closed compound nouns. Closed compound words are generally composed of only two words. 

For example, 

housewife

firebomb

houseboat

toothpaste

football

payday

teapot

Hyphenated compound words

The compound words written with hyphens are called hyphenated compound nouns.

In old English grammar, hyphenated compound words are not much famous, but now in modern grammar, they are used frequently.

For example, 

Mother-in-law

fire-watcher

Paper-clip

fire-walker

5. Collective noun

A noun refers to something groups of people,e animals, or things as one individual or unity.

It is singular in form but illustrates a group of people or things.

For Examples,

arm

audience

class

committee

company

family

public

 school

team

department

Use of Collective noun in the following sentences.

a crowd of people

a family of people

a flock of sheep

a herd of cattle

a shoal of herring

a fleet of ship

a pride of lion

a constellation of the star.

In English, the collective noun is followed by a singular or a plural verb. The collective noun takes a singular or plural verb depending on how we think about it when referring to it.

If each member of a collective noun is not acting together, we can use the plural verb’s all form.

For example, 

The team were given cash awards by their respective captains (plural verb)

In this example: 

Their respective captains gave the team cash awards.

The cash awards are provided to individual team members, so the plural form is used.

If each member of a collective noun is acting together, use the singular form.

The team was warmly welcomed to win the match. (Singular verb)

In this example: The team was warmly welcomed to win the match.

The audience welcomed the whole team, not individual members, so “singular form of the verb” is used.

6. Concrete noun

A noun that refers to something that the human senses can observe; seen, heard, felt, or touched.

Not abstract or imaginary, we can touch, smell, hear, taste, and observe; things that have a physical existence.

For example

coffee

Tea

rain

mountain

beach

bag

carpet

door

flower

grape

Examples in the following sentences.

Sophia likes coffee.

Please let me open the window.

Can you share the book?

Roy stands along with the door.

7. Abstract noun

A noun that refers to something that cannot be seen and touched; abstract or imaginary.

The things or objects that have no physical existence.

For examples 

truth

desire

Beauty

uncertainty

feelings

happiness

time

friendship

anger

beauty

loyalty

wisdom

youth

We all love honest people.

Cleanliness is next to godliness.

Concrete noun Vs. abstract noun

The difference between concrete nouns and abstract nouns is sometimes exclusive.

Some nouns have multiple senses, for example, the noun art, which typically refers to a concept.

In this example: 

 Art is an essential element of human culture.

But in some cases, refer to a specific artwork.

I put my daughter’s art on the table.”

8. Material Noun

Nouns refer to something material or substance out of which other things are made.

For example, 

silver

 gold

iron

diamond

Water

Cotton

Gold

Cement

The Material nouns are uncountable and do not exist in plural form.

Material nouns include gold, silver, iron, water, air, silver, gold, iron, copper, sand, coal, rock, sunlight, rain, earth, salt, etc. 

9. Countable noun

A countable noun can be counted as an individual item and modified by a numeral determiner (each, two, three, etc.). 

The countable nouns can take an article: a, an, the.

They can exist in both singular and plural words precede the singular forms of names (e.g., an, an, the). They can be used words like each or every. 

The plural form is preceded with determiners (e.g., few, many, each, any, several, every, most). 

Examples in the following sentences.

I’ve just bought a new flat.

I prefer cities to the village.

The child plays with toys.

The school is over there.

There are two mice in the storeroom.

Some concrete nouns are countable such as bag, chair, pen, shoes, window, etc.

10. Uncountable Noun

Uncountable nouns that cannot be counted as an individual item and do not exist in a plural form have only singular form. 

Uncountable nouns do not usually refer to things that can be counted. 

They do not have a standard plural form and are rarely used with an article. But they can be used words like much and less.

Examples in the following sentences.

Light reflects off the stream.

Roy lived in poverty.

Our baggage went missing.

We are waiting for valid information.

You should put sugar in the tea.

I put petrol in the car today.

I’ll have a kilo of sugar, please.

Countable noun vs. the uncountable noun

Some nouns have both countable and uncountable uses.

In this example:

Give me three cakes.

The cake is a countable noun in the above sentence because we can count it.

• Likewise

Jimmy likes cake.

Now the cake is uncountable in the above sentence.

So careful look in the sentence how the noun is used as countable or Uncountable.

11. Singular noun 

A singular noun is used to represent only a single person, place, thing, and object.

An article: a, an, the, is placed before this noun.

For example

A boy

an elephant

one car

two cake

12. Plural noun

A plural noun is used to represent more than one person, place, thing, and object.

Most plural nouns are formed by adding s or es to the singular noun, as in pen/pens and dog/dogs.

There are two rules used to change a singular noun to a plural noun, such as regular and irregular.

Regular Method Of Making Plural Noun

Rule 1

In most cases, nouns are pluralized regularly simply by adding s or es to the singular noun, as in cat/cats, dog/dogs, house/Houses. 

For example,

Boy – Boys

Day – Days

Trolley – Trolleys

Toy – Toys

kiss – kisses

lady – ladies

march – marches

Tomato – Tomatoes

Volcano – Volcanoes

Rule 2

In some cases where the singular noun ends in y, then plural forms are made by dropping the y and adding (ies) as in story/stories. 

For example,

story stories

variety varieties.

City – Cities

Lady – Ladies

berry berries

Irregular Method Of Making Plural Noun

Some nouns do not form their plural as in the above regular ways. 

Therefore, this method of forming plural is known as irregular.

Irregular plural forms do not follow any rule by adding something in the singular form.

In this case, both singular and plural are different from each other as in man/men.

For example,

foot – feet

tooth – teeth

woman – women.

half -halves

leaf – leaves

scarf – scarves

wife – wives

How to identify nouns in a sentence?

Here are some pro tips that help you to identify nouns in the sentence. 

Look at the main verb in the sentence to identify the connected noun or subject.

A verb is an action word that typically describes the act of a noun or subject. Walking, singing, and playing are all verbs.  The verb in the sentence is directly linked to the noun or subject of the sentence. Identify how or who is completing the action in the sentence. The noun is the subject or object of a verb.

For example

 Roy went to University. 

The word (went) is the verb, and (Roy) is the noun or subject. Similarly, In the sentence He ran away from me, the word (ran) is the verb, and (he) is the noun.

 Identify the adjective in the sentence that gives necessary information about a noun.

Nouns often come after an adjective like beautiful, yellow,  blue, gorgeous,  handsome, and so on. 

For example,

I have bought a blue car.

He is a handsome boy.

 Find determiners that are taken by nouns.

Nouns often take determiners before them (e.g., a/an, the some, few, etc.) that describe quantities or a noun. If the sentence has a determiner word, then it will be a noun after it.

In this example:

 Some books are on the table.

Some are the determiner, and the book is the noun.