English Grammar Noun

The different types of nouns. There are several different types of nouns.  These include:  common nouns (e.g., abstract nouns, collective nouns, compound nouns, concrete nouns, non-countable nouns, gender-specific nouns, verbal nouns), proper nouns, and pronouns (despite pronouns being classified as a different part of speech).

What is a noun?

A noun is a part of speech that is used to name a person, place, thing, quality, or action. A noun can function as a subject, object, complement, appositive, or object of a preposition.

Plural vs singular

Nouns can be singular or plural. The plural form of a noun is usually formed by adding s at the end of the noun. But this is not always the case. There are exceptions to the rule. Some plurals are irregular:

Singular	Plural
fish	fish
tooth	teeth
man	men
woman	women

Different types of nouns

Nouns | Abstract Nouns | Collective Nouns | Common Nouns | Compound Nouns | Concrete Nouns | Countable / Uncountable Nouns | Gerund Nouns | Predicate Nouns | Proper Nouns

There are different types of nouns:

1. An abstract noun names an idea, event, quality, or concept (freedom, love, courage...) Concrete nouns name something recognizable through the sense (table, dog, house...)
2. Animate nouns refer to a person, animal, or other creature (man, elephant, chicken...) An inanimate noun refers to a material object (stone, wood, table...)
3. A collective noun describes a group of things or people as a unit (family, flock, audience...)
4. Common noun is the name of a group of similar things (table, book, window...) Proper nouns, however, refer to the name of a single person, place or thing (John, Joseph, London...)
5. Compound nouns refer to two or more nouns combined to form a single noun (sister-in-law, schoolboy, fruit juice)
6. Countable (or count) nouns have a singular and a plural form. In plural, these nouns can be used with a number- they can be counted. (friends, chairs, houses, boys...) Uncountable (or non count) nouns, however, can only be used in singular. They can't be counted. (money, bread, water, coffee...)

As covered in the lesson nouns, nouns are naming words. There are several different kinds of nouns. This page describes the most common types.

Common Nouns
A common noun is the word used for a class of person, place or thing.

Examples:

car
man
bridge
town
water
metal
ammonia
Note: Common nouns are capitalized only when they start a sentence.

Common nouns are further classified into:

Abstract nouns – things you cannot see or touch (e.g., bravery, joy)
Collective nouns – words to describe groups (e.g., team, choir)
Compound nouns – nouns made up of more than one word (e.g., court-martial, pickpocket, water bottle)
Concrete nouns – things you can see or touch (e.g., tree, cloud)
Non-countable nouns (mass nouns) – things you cannot count (e.g., food, music)
Gender-specific nouns – words which are definitely male or female (e.g., vixen, actress)
Verbal nouns – nouns derived from verbs (e.g., a building, an attack)
Gerunds – nouns that represent actions (e.g., running fast, guessing a number)
Proper Nouns
A proper noun is the name of a person, place or thing (i.e., its own name). A proper noun always starts with a capital letter.

Examples:

Michael
Africa
Peking
Dayton Peace Accord
United Nations
The Tower of London
Uncle George
(Uncle is written with a capital letter because it is part of his name.)
My favourite auntie is Auntie Sally.
(In this example, the first auntie is a common noun, but the second Auntie is part of a proper noun.)
The Red Lion


Collective Nouns
A collective noun is the word used for a group of people or things.

Examples:

Choir
Team
Jury
Shoal
Cabinet (of ministers)
Regiment

The big question with collective nouns is whether they should be treated as singular or plural. The answer is: They can be treated as singular or plural depending on the sense of your sentence. This is covered in more depth in the lesson Collective Nouns – Singular or Plural? and in the Beware section on the right of this page.

Pronouns
A pronoun is a word used to replace a noun.

Pronouns are one of the eight parts of speech which are: adjectives, adverbs
conjunctions, interjections, nouns, prepositions, pronouns and verbs.

Even though they are classified as a different part of speech to nouns, pronouns are nouns. They always play the role of a noun in a sentence.

James is the first choice for the post. He has applied for it twice already.
(He is a pronoun. In this example, it replaces the proper noun James.)
(It is a pronoun. Here, it replaces the common noun post.)
Some / Who / This
(The term pronoun covers lots of words, and all three words above are classified as pronouns. There is whole section dedicated to pronouns.)

Gerunds
Gerunds are formed from verbs. They end -ing. They are a type of common noun.

I love swimming.
(swimming – the name of an activity; it is formed from the verb to swim.)
Thinking is required to solve this problem.
(thinking – the name of an activity; it is formed from the verb to think.)

Gerunds are different to other nouns, because they can take an object or be modified with an adverb.

I love swimming this lake.
Thinking laterally is required to solve this problem.

Compound Nouns
Compound nouns are nouns made up of two or more words. Some compound nouns are hyphenated. Some are not, and some combine their words to form a single word. (This is covered in the lesson Hyphens in Compound Nouns.)

Examples:

Mother-in-law
Board of members
Court-martial
Forget-me-not
Manservant
Pickpocket
Paper-clip