Nouns in English:
10+ Types You Need to Know (With Examples)
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This article will help you learn everything about different types of nouns in English. Nouns serve as the foundational knowledge for learning the English language. This is also often used while forming sentences and grammar.
What are nouns?
Nouns are names for persons, places, or things that can also refer to concepts and other abstract objects.
Examples: man, anger, uncle Joe, dog, book, etc.
Now that we know what nouns are, let us look at different categories of nouns. Some of the most important ones are mentioned below.
Types of nouns
What are common nouns?
Common nouns are in all places, and we use them while conversing without even realizing it. They are used to describe general and non-specific items. For example writer, car, girl, language, city, etc. Generally, while writing, common nouns are not capitalized unless they are the first alphabet of the first word or part of a title.
Example: The children are playing games during recess.
What are proper nouns?
Unlike, common nouns. proper nouns refer to a specific person, place, or thing. It usually starts with a capital letter. For example: London, BMW, Sally, English.
Example: Copenhagen is one of the cleanest cities in the world.
What are the other types of nouns?
Countable nouns
Countable Nouns are for people, things, animals, ideas, and places that can be counted. It can be in a singular or plural form.
Example: There are many books in the library.
It is important to note that countable nouns will always use an article (a, an, or the) when they are singular.
Example: I got a new bicycle yesterday.
Uncountable nouns
Things that cannot be counted are referred to as uncountable nouns. Also, uncountable nouns are always used in the singular form. We can't add an s to it.
Example: Listening to music makes me feel calm.
In some situations, the same noun can be countable and uncountable, often with a change of meaning.
Examples:
● There is too much light.
● There is one light in the hall.
Compound nouns
Compound nouns are nouns that are made up of two or more words. These words are very common and are a part of everyday vocabulary.
Examples: bedroom, password, air conditioner, etc.
Collective nouns
Collective nouns are words that denote a collection or group of things and people. Example: A bunch of flowers, A pack of cards. Whether to consider collective nouns as singular or plural is by far the most often asked question about them. Should you put "the group is" or "the group are" instead? Both may be correct. Depending on the meaning of the sentence, we should use a collective noun in the singular or plural.
Examples:
● The audience is happy.
● The audience is all wearing red caps.
Concrete nouns
Things, places, or people that you can experience with one or more than one of your five senses are termed concrete nouns.
Example: phone, voice, London, etc.
Example: The saree is made of silk.
Abstract nouns
Abstract nouns are types of nouns that you can’t touch, see or directly experience through any of the five senses. It denotes something abstract and immaterial.
Examples:
● love, happiness, danger, etc.
● Honesty is the best policy.
Possessive nouns
A possessive noun is a noun that shows possession or ownership of something. It is used to indicate that something belongs to someone.
Always remember that to show possession in plural form, add an apostrophe after the noun whereas in singular form add an apostrophe plus s.
Examples:
● Girls' books (Plural form), Girl's toy (Singular form).
● My mother’s laptop is very expensive.
English learning made easy
Congratulations! You’ve come this far and learned about nouns. Now you know some of the main noun types, you can start putting them into practice to better express yourself in English.
Nouns as subjects
There must be a subject in every sentence, and that subject must always be a noun. The person, place, or object that is doing or becoming the sentence's verb is known as the subject of the sentence.
Example: Sam left the party early.
Nouns as object
When a noun is an object, the noun would receive the action of the verb.
Example: The plane carried the Prime Minister to India.
Nouns as object and subject complements
Subject complements and object complements fill out and complete our sentences. The object complement gives details about the object of the sentence, whereas the subject complement gives information about the subject of the sentence.
Examples:
● She painted the wall pink (object complement)
● Monica is a good singer (subject complement)
What are gerunds?
As you might be aware, a verb is a word that refers to actions or states of being. If we talk about gerunds, then gerunds are words formed with verbs that end in –ing and are used as nouns. A gerund looks like a verb but acts like a noun. It is essential to know that the present participle also ends with –ing, so it is important to pay close attention to words that act as a noun and the ones that do not act as nouns.
Examples:
● I'm trying to focus (trying –verb).
● He loves traveling (traveling-gerund)
We hope this article helped you to understand everything about nouns. Learning about nouns will make your English learning journey easy. If you want to master learning English, then don’t wait to join Busuu interactive lessons now.!
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