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Common or proper
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Common nouns
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Examples
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• name general persons, places, things, ideas
• begin with lowercase
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| religion | beauty | | student | knowledge | | country | rain |
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Proper nouns
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Examples
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• name specific persons, places, things, ideas
• begin with capital letter
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| Hinduism | President Mitterand | | Philip | Washington Monument | | Vietnam | Renaissance |
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Count or noncount (common nouns only)
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Count nouns
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Examples
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• name persons, places, things, or ideas that can be counted
• have plural forms
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| girl | girls | | city | cities | | goose | geese | | philosophy | philosophies |
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Noncount nouns
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Examples
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• name things or abstract ideas that cannot be counted
• cannot be made plural
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| water | patience | | silver | knowledge | | furniture | air |
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Singular or plural (both common and proper)
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Singular nouns (count and noncount)
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Examples
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• represent one person, place, thing, or idea
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| backpack | rain | | country | beauty | | woman | Nile River | | achievement | Block Island |
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Plural nouns (count only)
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Examples
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• represent more than one person, place, thing, or idea
• must be count nouns
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| backpacks | Ural Mountains | | countries | Falkland Islands | | women | achievements |
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Specific (definite) or general (indefinite) (count and noncount)
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Specific nouns
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Examples
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• name persons, places, things, or ideas that can be identified within a group of the same type
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The students in Professor Martin’s class should study.
The airplane carrying the senator was late.
The furniture in the truck was damaged.
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General nouns
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Examples
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• name categories of persons, places, things, or ideas (often plural)
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Students should study.
Books bridge gaps between cultures.
The airplane has made commuting between cities easy. [Airplane as a class of transportation]
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