English/Parts of Speech/Nouns
From Wikibooks
| English Wikibook (edit) |
| General: Introduction - Grammar |
| Parts of speech: Nouns - Verbs - Adjectives - Adverbs - Pronouns - Conjunctions - Prepositions - Interjections |
| Parts of the sentence: Subjects - Predicates |
| Word functions: Subjects - Predicates - Direct Objects - Indirect Objects - Objects of the Preposition |
| Types of sentences: Simple Sentences - Complex Sentences |
| Other English topics: Gerunds - Idiomatic Phrases - Spelling - Vocabulary - Punctuation - Syntax - Appositives - Phonics - Pronunciation |
A noun is a part of speech. It names or identifies four things:
- people
- places
- things
- ideas
Nouns can be categorized in many ways.
- They may be singular (like "son") or plural (like "sons"). This is called number.
- They may be common (like "house") or proper (like "Thomas House"). All nouns that are not proper are common.
- They may be concrete (like "street") or abstract (like "love"). All nouns that are not concrete are abstract.
- They may be count (like "piece"), non-count or mass (like "information") or collective (like "group"). This is called countability.
- Some nouns may be masculine (like "postman") or feminine (like "stewardess"), but most nouns do not have gender. Nouns that are masculine or feminine are said to have noun gender.
You may learn about these aspects of nouns or go to the next section about verbs.
