All About Nouns: Types and Examples
Nouns are words used to identify people, places, objects, and ideas. We classify nouns in various ways to understand how they are used.
- Proper nouns identify an individual (Calvin, Hobbes), while common nouns refer to a class of things (boy, tiger).
- Count nouns refer to things that can be counted in number. They have singular and plural forms (cat/cats), and you can use a number before them (two cats). In contrast, mass nouns are not thought of in terms of individual units (e.g., liquids such as water).
- Collective nouns are used to speak of a group as a whole (team, herd, family).
- Concrete nouns can be perceived using the five senses (a chair, a rose), while abstract nouns cannot (hope, happiness).
- Nouns may also be understood based on function: they can act as subject, object, or complement, and also be possessive, attributive, or appositive.
- Gerunds are verb forms ending in -ing that function as nouns in sentences (singing, jogging).
What is a noun?
A noun is a name given to an individual, a group, or a class of things. We use nouns to refer to people, animals, places, things, qualities, and concepts.
- Maya lives with her cat Tooks in a red house by the beach, where she writes stories for a living.
- She often goes to the café down the road for a cup of tea.
- She used to drink coffee but quit because she believed that the caffeine was affecting her writing.
- She doesn’t write much better on tea either and is considering switching to another beverage, perhaps orange juice.
As you can see, nouns name not just individuals (Maya, Tooks) but also classes of things (cat, stories, cup, coffee, etc.). Nouns can also look like verbs (writing, switching) but name something rather than describe an action or a state, as discussed further below.
Proper and common nouns
Proper nouns are names given to individual people, places, animals, and things, and are capitalized.
- Tumkin and Maya will visit Thailand next year.
- My cat Hobbes has a black nose.
- Rita drives a Corvette to work every day.
Anything that is individually named is a proper noun: people, animals, organizations, celestial bodies, buildings, geographical features, languages, places, holidays, days of the week, months of the year, books, newspapers, etc.
- Is it difficult to climb Mount Everest?
- The world’s deepest lake is Lake Baikal in southern Russia.
- The Eiffel Tower is repainted every seven years.
- I wish I could speak Spanish.
- How do you celebrate New Year’s Eve?
- What does Jupiter look like from Mars?
- We meet every year on the first Sunday of October.
- Lulu lives in the Philippines.
- One of the most photographed bridges in the world is the Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco.
Common nouns refer to a group or class of objects in general and not to an individual. A common noun should not be capitalized in English (unless it appears at the start of a sentence, of course).
- The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
- Maya loves the rain.
- There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
- An estuary is where the tide meets the stream at the mouth of a river.
- Would you rather sleep on a chair or a table?
Do not capitalize a common noun (except at the start of a sentence).
- We visited the museum on Sunday.
The word museum is a common noun.
- We visited the Brooklyn Museum on Sunday.
The name of a specific museum is a proper noun and is capitalized.
Count and mass nouns
Count nouns (or countable nouns) refer to things that can be counted. These nouns may be singular or plural.
- girl/girls
- house/houses
- cup/cups
- road/roads
The plural is usually formed by adding an s or es to the word. However, some nouns have irregular plurals.
- child/children
- knife/knives
- leaf/leaves
- tooth/teeth
- mouse/mice
- radius/radii
- criterion/criteria
- deer/deer
Mass nouns (also called uncountable or non-count nouns) are classes of things that are not considered countable in terms of units. Thus, such nouns have no distinct singular and plural forms.
- Materials and substances: calcium, plastic, iron, wood, cement
- Liquids and gases: water, oil, oxygen, air
- Concepts and qualities: beauty, happiness, truth, jargon, goodness
- Things made up of an uncountable number of particles: sand, hair, flour, rice
Although such nouns cannot take a number (two calciums), they can sometimes be quantified by using another noun as a unit.
- two grams of calcium
- five liters of water
- a strong dose of honesty
- three bowls of rice
Some mass nouns (such as calcium and honesty) always take a singular verb. Other mass nouns, a relative few, have only a plural form and cannot be used with a singular verb.
- Are these the provisions for your journey?
- Tumkin needs new clothes for the trip.
- Has Farley lost his trousers again?
Nouns that can be either count or mass
Some nouns may be either count or mass depending on meaning—whether what you are referring to is countable or uncountable (e.g., a quality, a substance, or a feeling).
- Mass: I woke up this morning with such a sense of joy.
joy: a feeling of happiness
- Count: Gardening is one of the great joys of her life.
joys: things that make you happy
- Mass: There is a grain of truth in his lies.
truth: the quality of being true
- Count: Is there such a thing as a “fundamental” truth?
a truth: a fact accepted as true
- Mass: A thing of beauty is a joy forever.
beauty: a quality that pleases the aesthetic senses
- Count: Would you like to buy one of these beauties?
a beauty: an excellent example of something
Hair can be a count or a mass noun. When you refer to individual strands (He had coarse brown hairs growing out of his knuckles), hair is a count noun. However, when you speak of all the strands on someone’s head collectively, hair becomes an uncountable or mass noun (She has long black hair/hairs).
See this article on count and mass nouns for tips on how to distinguish between these two types of nouns and avoid making grammatical errors.
Collective nouns
A collective noun, as the name suggests, refers to a group of persons, animals, or things. Here are some examples of collective nouns used regularly in writing and conversation.
- family
- assembly
- team
- committee
- panel
- pack
- herd
- board
- company
- jury
- government
- class
- public
- staff
- crew
And then there are the whimsical ones, found mainly in your student’s companion or guide to English.
- a murder of crows
- a clowder of cats
- an exaltation of larks
- a gaggle of geese
- a parliament of owls
- a skulk of foxes
See this article how to use collective nouns and whether they are singular or plural (my family is arguing or my family are arguing?).
Concrete and abstract nouns
We identify and name not just tangible objects but all things in our universe, including concepts and theories. Thus, every noun is either concrete or abstract. A concrete noun is something you can identify with your senses—you can see, hear, taste, smell, or touch it.
- Do I smell smoke?
- I just love tea.
- Would you like some cake?
- Look at the leopard lap up water from the stream.
Abstract nouns are those you cannot perceive using your senses—for instance, ideas, concepts, and emotions.
- I never thought I would find such happiness.
- Tumkin had a sudden thought.
- The truth is that I never lie.
- We are looking for someone with experience in handling Martian customers.
- Adolescence can be a challenging time of life.
- Game theory is the mathematical modeling of strategic interaction between players.
How nouns are used in sentences: subject, object, and complement
Nouns and noun phrases (which comprise a noun and all the other words that help describe it and complete its meaning) act as the subject in a sentence. (The subject is what or whom a sentence is about.)
- Cats like pizza.
- My cat loves cheese.
- Farley can’t find his shoes.
But nouns and noun phrases also serve as direct or indirect object. (A direct object is what is affected by the action of a verb in a sentence, while an indirect object is a person or animal that receives the direct object.)
- Direct object: Cats like pizza.
- Direct object: My cat loves cheese.
- Direct object: Farley can’t find his shoes.
- Indirect object: I gave him my shoes.
- Indirect object: Maya told me a story.
Nouns and noun phrases also appear after a preposition as its complement, helping complete the meaning of a prepositional phrase. (Prepositions are words like to, at, on, from, and in, which indicate direction, place, time, and location.)
- We went to Bali last year.
- Why are you sitting on the table?
- Maya lives in Thailand.
A noun can also be a subject complement, which means it provides information about the subject of the sentence.
- Tumkin is an engineer.
- That woman is a genius.
Possessive, attributive, and appositive nouns
A noun can occur in the possessive case to indicate a relationship of ownership or belonging. It takes an apostrophe and is then called a possessive noun.
- Farley’s cap blew away in the wind.
- My friend’s sister is an astronaut.
- Did you clip both cats’ claws?
Attributive nouns act like adjectives in a sentence by describing or modifying another noun.
- Lulu loves an afternoon siesta.
The noun “afternoon” helps describe another noun, “siesta.”
- I have the travel blues again.
- My music teacher can’t sing, but she is a great piano player.
Appositive nouns appear right beside another noun or noun phrase to help describe it.
- Her new book, an autobiography, is a masterpiece.
The noun phrase “an autobiography” tells us more about another noun phrase, “her new book.”
- My friend Maya can fly.
- My father, a wildlife photographer, loved to travel.
Gerunds
A gerund is a verb form that acts as a noun in sentences. It is formed by adding -ing to the base form of a verb. (A verb of course is a word that describes an action, occurrence, or state.)
| Verb | Gerund |
|---|---|
| jog | jogging |
| listen | listening |
| bake | baking |
| smile | smiling |
| dance | dancing |
Like a noun, a gerund can function as the subject of a sentence, object of a verb, or complement of a preposition.
- Subject: Jogging is good for health.
- Object of a verb: Tumkin likes listening to rock music.
- Complement of a preposition: Lulu is taking a class on baking.
A gerund has no plural form.
- Lulu likes dancing/
dancingsat parties. - Maya enjoys traveling/
travelingsaround the world.
A gerund is quite an interesting verb form that can do everything a noun can, all while retaining its verb-like qualities. Learn more in this article on the superpowers of a gerund.
Nouns vs. pronouns
Pronouns are words that replace nouns in sentences. They help avoid repetition and wordiness. They function in all the same ways as a noun. When you use a pronoun, make sure it is clear which noun it refers to in the passage.
- Maya can fly, but she can’t run.
It’s clear that she refers to the person being discussed, Maya.
- Poco bought himself another watch.
- Have you asked your friends whether they have eaten?
Learn more about pronouns, their types, and how they are used.