Nouns
A noun is a part of speech that identifies a person, a place, an animal, a plant, an object, an item,
an idea, a feeling, a belief, an action, a process, a condition, a quality, or something else that
exists. Nouns do not describe; they identify. Often, a noun can be spotted based on its suffix
(see Suffixes Commonly Found in Nouns). Sometimes, nouns are preceded by the words a, an,
or the. These words are adjectives that are called articles. A noun can immediately follow an
article, but in other instances, words including adjectives, adverbs, and coordinating conjunctions
can split the article from the noun.
Examples:
a library
an elephant
the test
a quiet library
an old elephant
the vocabulary test
a quiet but busy library
a rather old elephant
the challenging vocabulary test
Types of Nouns
▪ A common noun identifies a general person, place, idea, feeling, etc. Examples include city,
athlete, restaurant, superhero, and song. Common nouns will not be capitalized unless they
appear at the beginning of sentences or in titles.
▪ A proper noun identifies a specific person, place, idea, feeling, etc., by its name. Examples
include Flagstaff, Clayton Kershaw, Hard Rock Café, Hong Kong Phooey, and “Fear of the
Dark.” Proper nouns must always be capitalized.
▪ A singular noun represents only one person, place, idea, etc. Examples include book, lamp,
vehicle, slice, eraser, man, and child.
▪ A plural noun represents more than one person, place, idea, etc. Examples include books,
lamps, vehicles, slices, erasers, men, and children.
▪ A possessive noun is one that identifies who or what has something. They are easy to spot
because they feature apostrophes. Possessive nouns are used to simplify an idea that shows an
object, item, feeling, etc., belongs to someone or something.
Examples:
the car belonging to Judy
the parents of the children
the team of the boys
the smile belonging to Sarkis
Judy’s car
the children’s parents
the boys’ team
Sarkis’s smile
▪ A collective noun is one that identifies a group of people, places, items, etc. Together, these
people, places, items, etc. are considered a single unit or whole, and thus, a collective noun is
singular. Examples of collective nouns are group, pair, trio, flock, team, set, and multitude.