Noun

Types of Noun

A noun is a word for a person, place, or thing. (It might be helpful to think of a noun as a “naming word.”) There are different types of noun, but all nouns can be classified as either a proper noun or a common noun.

Proper Nouns

A proper noun is the specific name given to a person, place, or thing (e.g., a personal name or a title). For example:

• Michael
• Africa
• Peking
• Dayton Peace Accord
• United Nations
• The Tower of London
• Uncle George
• Auntie Sally
• The Red Lion

Note: A proper noun always starts with a capital letter.

Common Nouns

A common noun is the word used for something. In other words, it is the word that appears in a dictionary. For example:

• car
• man
• bridge
• town
• water
• metal
• ammonia

The difference between common nouns and proper nouns becomes clearer when they’re side by side.

Common noun.  Proper noun. 

Heading.      Examples

Feelings. anxiety,fear,sympathy
Emotions. anger,joy

An abstract noun is the opposite of a concrete noun.

(2) Concrete Noun

A concrete noun is something you can see or touch (e.g., “tree,” “cloud,” “garlic”). Here are some more examples of concrete nouns:

• abbey, banjo, camel, daughter, eclipse, fawn, gerbil, hatchet, igloo, jackal, kangaroo, locket, monsoon, nuts, owl, palm, quill, raspberries, sea, tavern, usher, vulture, wasps, xylophone, yacht, zoo

A concrete noun is the opposite of an abstract noun.

(3) Collective Noun

A collective noun is the word used for a group of people or things (e.g., “team,” “group,” “choir”). Here are some more examples of collective nouns:

• band, board, choir, class, company, congregation, crew, crowd, gang, horde, jury, mob, group, pack, party, team, tribe, bunch, cluster, fleet, range, gaggle, herd, hive, school, shoal, pride, swarm, tribe

Singular or Plural? Writers are sometimes unsure whether to treat a collective noun as singular or plural. In fact, a collective noun can be singular or plural depending on the sense of the sentence. For example:

• That team is the worst in the league. 
• The team are not communicating among themselves. 

(4) Compound Noun

A compound noun is a noun made up of two or more words (e.g., “court-martial,” “water bottle,” “pickpocket”). Some compound nouns are hyphenated, some are not, and some combine their words to form a single word. For example:

Hyphenated compound nouns:

• mother-in-law
• forget-me-not
• paper-clip

Two-word compound nouns (also called “open compound nouns”):

• black market
• board of members
• washing machine

One-word compound nouns (also called “closed compound nouns”):

• blackbird
• anteater
• snowman

Pluralizing a Compound Noun. To form the plural of a compound noun, pluralize the principal word in the compound. When there is no obvious principal word, add “s (or “es”) to the end of the compound.

(5) Gender-Specific Nouns

A gender-specific noun refers to something specifically male (e.g., “man,” “boy,” “bull”) or a female (e.g., “woman,” “girl,” “vixen”). Below are some more examples of gender-specific nouns:

Always masculine:

• actor, boy, brother, emperor, father, gentleman, grandfather, grandson, headmaster, husband, man, master, mister, nephew, prince, son, steward, uncle, waiter, wizard

Always feminine:

• actress, aunt, daughter, empress, girl, granddaughter, grandmother, headmistress, lady, lioness, lioness, madam, mistress, mother, niece, princess, princess, sister, stewardess, stewardess, tigress, tigress, waitress, waitress, wife, witch, woman

(6) Gerund

All gerunds end “-ing.” A gerund is a noun formed from a verb (e.g., running quickly, guessing a number, baking cakes). Here are some examples of gerunds in sentences.

• Running the tap will clear the air pocket.
• She is known for talking quietly.
• My highlight was visiting New York.

Be careful. Not every word that ends “-ing” is a gerund. Present participles are formed from verbs and they also end “-ing.” In fact, the present participle of a verb and the gerund are always identical. The difference is how they are used. Gerunds are used like nouns, but present participles are used as adjectives or to form verb tenses. For example:

• I like baking.
• I need some baking powder.
• She was baking a cake.

Gerunds are different to other nouns because they maintain some of their verb-like properties. More specifically, gerunds can take direct objects and be modified by adverbs. This makes them useful for writing concise sentences that flow naturally.

• The quick development of the process is essential.
• Quickly developing the process is essential.

(7) Non-Countable Nouns (Mass nouns)

A non-countable noun (or mass noun as it’s also known) is a noun without a plural form (e.g., “food,” “music,” “ice”). Non-countable nouns usually fall into one of the following categories: concept, activity, food, gas, liquid, material, item category, natural phenomenon, or particles. 

(8) Countable Nouns

A countable noun is a noun that can be pluralized (e.g., “cat/cats,” “argument/arguments,” “device/devices”). Here are some more examples of countable nouns:

• aardvark, backbone, coin, daffodil, eagle, face, gorilla, house, igloo, jaguar, koala, log, man, note, orange, package, queen, robot, suitcase, table, udder, vacation, waltz, xylophone, yacht, zombie

Countable nouns are the opposite of non-countable nouns.

(9) Verbal Nouns

A verbal noun is a noun that has no verb-like properties despite being derived from a verb (e.g., a building, an attack, a decision). Being normal nouns, verbal nouns can be modified by adjectives, be pluralized (if the sense allows), and be followed by prepositional phrases (e.g., “…of men,” …by me”). Here is another example of a verbal noun:

• I am responsible for the funny drawing of the monster.

Gerunds are sometimes called verbal nouns, but there is a distinction. Compare the example above with this example featuring “drawing” as a gerund:

• I am responsible for drawing the funny monster.