Whether you’ve just recently started learning English, want to get a better understanding of your own language, or like to learn something out of curiosity – understanding the basic rules of a language is a must, not only to create proper and solid sentences but also to improve your overall communication skills in both written and spoken form. 

In this article, we’ll start with very basics and work our way slowly further up. Get ready to learn everything you need to know about “nouns”!

What is a Noun?

To create a proper sentence in any language, you need both a subject and a verb. 

He eats.
The dogs are barking.
The tree grows.

To make a sentence more lively and provide more information, you add adjectives, adverbs, and other words.

He eats a red apple.
The dogs are barking loudly.
The tree grows an inch every year. 

But we won’t discuss the other terms yet – now, we’ll focus on nouns. 
So, as said above, the simplest sentence form consists of a subject and a verb. In all cases, the subject is a noun. So we can already tell that the term “noun” stands for a person, thing, animal, or place. Those are called “concrete nouns” since they can be observed by touch, sight, taste, smell, or hearing. 

Person / People / Names:
father
friend
Sophie
lawyer
SpongeBob

Things:
car
bowl
banana
doorbell
washing machine

Animals:
dog
lion
polar bear
duck
parrot

Places:
New York (any other city would be the noun)
My apartment (“apartment” is the noun)
The local pub (“pub” is the noun)
A friend’s house (“house” is the noun)
A close village (“village” is the noun)

You may have already guessed it: there are also nouns you cannot observe with your senses since they are too vague or intangible, such as concepts, ideas, and emotions. In the broader sense, they are indeed “things,” but you can’t see, hear, smell, taste, or touch them. Those are then called “abstract nouns.”

Concepts:
beauty
heroism
peace

Ideas:
friendship
freedom
loyalty

Emotions:
love
compassion
happiness

What do Nouns do?

Nouns build (together with verbs) the very basic foundation of a sentence. As mentioned above, they act as a subject but can represent an object (or more) in a sentence, as well.  

Nouns as a Subject:
He eats.
The dogs are barking.
The tree grows.

Nouns as an Object:
He eats a red apple.
The dogs are barking loudly at the neighbor.
The tree grows an inch every year.

Subjects always work together with a verb. One can’t stand without the other, or else the meaning of the sentence gets lost. An object, however, only adds information and isn’t necessary to get the meaning behind the sentence. 

More Noun Categories

Of course, you can classify nouns even further into the following categories:

Common Noun: (a person, thing, place, or animal itself – NOT the name)

father, neighbour, doctor
table, sunglasses, car
kitchen, village, pub
cat, bird, Border Collie

Proper Noun: (the exact name of a person, thing, place, or animal)

Sophie, Dad, the Queen
Neptune, Wall Street Journal, Titanic
London, Atlantis, Hogwarts
Coco, Max, Mrs. Norris

Abstract Noun: (cannot be observed by any of our senses)

love
opportunity
idea
puberty
divorce

Concrete Noun: (can be touched, seen, heard, smelled, or tasted)

stone
water
book
pizza
music

Collective Noun: (a group instead of a single person, thing, etc.)

herd ( = collection of sheep)
litter ( = collection of puppies)
class ( = collection of students)
jury ( = collection of judges)
commitee ( = collection of members)

Compound Noun: (consists of one or more words (partly hyphenated))

snowboard (snow + board)
notebook (note + book)
seafood (sea + food)

apple tree (not hyphenated)
bus stop (not hyphenated)
dining room (not hyphenated)

mother-in-law (hyphenated)
baby-sitter (hyphenated)
ex-boyfriend (hyphenated)

Gender-specific Noun: (feminine, masculine, neutral)

feminine:
queen
heroine
widow

masculine:
mailman
emperor
prince

neutral:
police officer
doctor
host

Gerund: (based on a verb and ends with “-ing”)

swimming (“swimming is healthy”)
writing (“improve your writing with Grammatica”)
singing (“her singing got better since she started taking singing lessons”)

Noncount Noun: (cannot be pluralized, only available in a single form)

water
pasta
thunder
money
sugar

Count Noun: (can be pluralized – there’s more than one)

apple(s)
car(s)
sibling(s)

Verbal Noun: (based on a verb but shows no verb-like traits)

failure (based on “to fail”)
hatred (based on “to hate”)
landing (based on “to land”)

sleep (based on “to sleep”)
view (based on “to view”)
drink (based on “to drink”)

Possessive Noun: (something or someone that “belongs” so someone or something else)

John’s car
student’s notebook
dog’s food bowl