Parts of speech: Nouns

A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or an idea. Nouns are often but not always signaled by an article (a, an, the).

Nouns sometimes function as adjectives modifying other nouns. Because of their dual roles, nouns used in this manner may be called noun/adjectives.

Nouns are classified for a variety of purposes. When capitalization is the issue, we speak of proper versus common nouns. If the problem is one of word choice, we may speak of concrete versus abstract nouns. The distinction between count nouns and noncount nouns is useful for nonnative speakers of English. Most nouns come in singular and plural forms; collective nouns may be either singular or plural. Possessive nouns require an apostrophe.

Count nouns/noncount nouns

Singular nouns/plural nouns

Common nouns/proper nouns

Exercises:

Parts of speech: nouns 1

Parts of speech: nouns 2

All parts of speech 1

All parts of speech 2

Related topic:

Multilingual challenges with nouns and articles