Kinds of Nouns

1. Proper Nouns

Among the 8 parts of speech, the simplest one and the easiest to remember is probably the noun. There are many kinds of nouns, but in this article, one of the most common ones will be discussed—the proper noun.

Definition of Proper Nouns

Basically, proper nouns refer to words which are used to name a specific person, place, animal, thing, or event. Aside from that, this type of noun always starts with a capital letter and is usually (but not always) in singular form.

Explanation of Proper Nouns

Based on the definition above, it can be said that proper nouns have two unique features: a) it names a specific or a “one-of-a-kind” person, place, animal, event, or thing, and b) it always begins with a capital letter, regardless of its location in the sentence.

The proper noun can be considered as the opposite of the common noun, which is used to give generic names to people, animals, things, places, or events. Lastly, you should remember that there is always a common noun equivalent for every proper noun, but not all common nouns have proper noun counterparts.

Examples of Proper Nouns

    

Darth Vader

   

Great Pyramid of Giza

Audrey Hepburn

The underlined words in the sample sentences below are some examples of proper nouns.

• Tom Hanks is one of my favorite actors.
• Ross and Rachel ended up together.
• It was a rainy Sunday when we first met.
• Jonathan and Raphael went to Mall of Asia to watch the event.
• As a child, he used to play Pokemon on his Gameboy Advance.
• My mom made these awesome Nutella cupcakes.
• V for Vendetta is a really cool movie for me.
• Carol wants to buy a Mini Cooper.
• Abbey Road is located in London.
• He named his sons after the Beatles.

Examples of Proper Nouns in Literature

Below are some examples of proper nouns (underlined words) used in famous literary pieces:

• “Once she had loved Prince Joffrey with all her heart, and admired and trusted her his mother, the queen. They had repaid that love and trust with her father’s head. Sansa would never make that mistake again.” – George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
• “It is my belief, Watson, founded upon my experience, that the lowest and vilest alleys in London do not present a more dreadful record of sin than does the smiling and beautiful countryside.” – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Copper Beeches“
• I asked if Tyler was an artist. Tyler shrugged…What Tyler had created was the shadow of a giant hand. . . he said how at exactly four-thirty the hand was perfect.” – Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
• “Your father, Jo. He never loses patience, never doubts or complains, but always hopes, and works and waits so cheerfully that one is ashamed to do otherwise before him.” – Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
• “Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a boy who was good, and kind, and brave, because he strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Cedric Diggory.” – J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• “The title was but a courtesy due him as a council member; Varys was lord of nothing but the spiderweb, the master of none but his whisperers.” – George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones
• “Pilkington, at Mombasa, had produced individuals who were sexually mature at four and full grown at six and a half.” – Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
• “But courage, child: we are all between the paws of the true Aslan.” – C.S Lewis, The Last Battle
• “Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” – William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
• “Every once in a very long while, Lord Tywin Lannister would actually threaten to smile; he never did, but the threat alone was terrible to behold.” – George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

Function of Proper Nouns

While the common noun provides a generic name for  a person, an animal, a thing, a place, or an event, a proper noun gets more specific. Simply put, its main function is to state the actual name of a specific person, an animal, a thing, a place, or an event, so that the audience will easily know which one are you talking about.

A. Singular and plural nouns

Regular nouns

Most singular nouns form the plural by adding -s.

Examples

Singular	Plural
boat	boats
house	houses
cat	cats
river	rivers

A singular noun ending in s, x, z, ch, sh makes the plural by adding-es.

Examples

Singular	Plural
bus	buses
wish	wishes
pitch	pitches
box	boxes

A singular noun ending in a consonant and then y makes the plural by dropping the y and adding-ies.

Examples

Singular	Plural
penny	pennies
spy	spies
baby	babies
city	cities
daisy	daisies

Irregular nouns

There are some irregular noun plurals. The most common ones are listed below.

Examples

Singular	Plural
woman	women
man	men
child	children
tooth	teeth
foot	feet
person	people
leaf	leaves
mouse	mice
goose	geese
half	halves
knife	knives
wife	wives
life	lives
elf	elves
loaf	loaves
potato	potatoes
tomato	tomatoes
cactus	cacti
focus	foci
fungus	fungi
nucleus	nuclei
syllabus	syllabi/syllabuses
analysis	analyses
diagnosis	diagnoses
oasis	oases
thesis	theses
crisis	crises
phenomenon	phenomena
criterion	criteria
datum	data

Some nouns have the same form in the singular and the plural.

Examples

Singular	Plural
sheep	sheep
fish	fish
deer	deer
species	species
aircraft	aircraft

Irregular verb/noun agreement

Some nouns have a plural form but take a singular verb.

Plural nouns used with a singular verb	Sentence
news	The news is at 6.30 p.m.
athletics	Athletics is good for young people.
linguistics	Linguistics is the study of language.
darts	Darts is a popular game in England.
billiards	Billiards is played all over the world.

Some nouns have a fixed plural form and take a plural verb. They are not used in the singular, or they have a different meaning in the singular. Nouns like this include: trousers, jeans, glasses, savings, thanks, steps, stairs, customs, congratulations, tropics, wages, spectacles, outskirts, goods, wits

Plural noun with plural verb	Sentence
trousers	My trousers are too tight.
jeans	Her jeans are black.
glasses	Those glasses are his.

2. Possessive Nouns

A. Singular Possessive Nouns

• Apple’s taste
• Book’s cover
• Boss’s car
• Cat’s tuna
• Computer’s keyboard
• Deer’s antlers
• Diane’s book
• Diabetes’s symptoms
• Fish’s eggs
• Fez’s size
• Florida’s climate
• Goddess’s beauty
• Gym’s rules
• House’s roof
• Jam’s ingredient
• Laundry’s smell
• Lawyer’s fee
• Marble’s shape
• Month’s work
• Moss’s color
• Progress’s reward
• Senator’s vote
• Sun’s rays
• Today’s newspaper
• Tray’s usefulness
• Tree’s bark
• Victor’s spoils
• Watermelon’s rind

B. Plural Possessive Nouns

When a plural noun ends with an “s,” simply add an apostrophe to make it possessive. Here are examples of plural possessive nouns:

• Americans’ ideals
• Babies’ shoes
• Cabbages’ nutrition
• Donors’ cards
• Eggs’ color
• Frogs’ croaking
• Garages’ fees
• Hampers’ conditions
• Igloos’ construction
• Inventions’ popularity
• Juices’ flavors
• Kites’ altitudes
• Lemons’ acidity
• Members’ votes
• Nuts’ saltiness
• Owls’ eyes
• Planets’ orbits
• Quizzes’ difficulty
• Recesses’ measurements
• Students’ grades
• Suspects’ fingerprints
• Teachers’ qualifications
• The Smiths’ house
• Unicorns’ power
• Violins’ melody
• Wagons’ circle
• Yokes’ material

When a plural noun does not end with an “s,” add an apostrophe and an “s” to make it possessive. Here are examples of plural possessive nouns:

• Cattle’s pasture
• Geese’s eggs
• Women’s clothes
• Children’s toys
• Mice’s traps
• People’s ideas
• Feet’s toenails
• Nuclei’s form
• Cacti’s thorns
• Octopi’s legs
• Oxen’s diet
• Die’s roll
• Lice’s size
• Hippopotami’s strength
• Fungi’s location
• Formulae’s indication

C. Singular & Plural Possessive Pronouns

• That is mine.
• My car runs great.
• His work is good.
• Her diet is working
• The bag is hers.
• The house is ours.
• I see your coat. (singular)
• It is all yours. (plural)
• Their smiles are welcome. (singular)
• The fault is theirs. (plural)
• Its name is The Tower.

D. Indefinite Possessive Pronouns

• One – One’s
• Another – another’s
• Anybody – anybody’s
• Each other – each other’s
• Each one – each one’s
• Nobody – nobody’s
• No one – no one’s
• Someone – someone’s
• Somebody – somebody’s
• Something – something’s

E. Hyphenated or Compound Words

With hyphenated or compound words, only the last word shows possession.

Examples of singular possessive nouns:

• My sister-in-law’s advice
• Notre Dame’s tower
• Yellowstone National Park’s hours
• Middle class’s income
• T-shirt’s logo
• Attorney General’s job
• Real estate’s decline
• Full moon’s brightness
• Mid-June’s heat
• Front-runner’s confidence

Examples of plural possessive nouns:

• Water-bottles’ shape
• Changing-rooms’ door
• Five-year-olds’ excitement
• Six packs’ appeal
• Half sisters’ bedrooms
• Post Offices’ hours
• Ex-wives’ alimony
• Bus stops’ repair
• Oil spills’ costs
• U-boats’ stealth

F. Possessive Nouns Joined Together

• Hansel and Gretel’s adventure
• Sonny and Cher’s fame
• Salt and pepper’s flavors
• Man and wife’s vows
• Jupiter and Saturn’s atmospheres
• Birds and bees’ habits
• Additives and spices’ costs

G. Possessive Nouns Referring to Places, Churches and Universities

• Saint Anthony’s
• The grocer’s
• The dentist’s
• Saint Mary’s
• The vet’s
• The chiropractor’s
• Domino’s
• McDonald’s
• Frankie’s
• Dillard’s
• Macy’s

These examples of possessive nouns show the variety of formats used to add a possessive format to a noun.

H. American vs. British English

The format and rules for possessive nouns are slightly different between American and British English. For example, in American English the possessive case can be used with an inanimate object – the book’s cover. However, in British English the possessive case cannot be used with an inanimate object. Instead the possession would be shown with “the book cover.”

3. Concrete and Abstract nouns

When you think of nouns, you probably think of people, places or objects. While these are all nouns, they are not the only type. While concrete nouns are something tangible, abstract nouns are intangible. People, places, animals and objects are all concrete nouns. Conversely, abstract nouns encompass actions, events, ideas, states of mind, qualities and conditions.

A. Concrete nouns

Concrete nouns are perceivable by the senses and name something you can see, hear, smell, taste or touch. These include people, animals, places and objects. Consider the following concrete nouns:

People: dentist, firefighter, man, Rita

Animals: barracuda, gorilla, puppy, tiger

Places: Empire State Building, island, mountain, Turkey

Objects: cake, fruit, keys, coffee cup

Consider the following examples:

Example 1: Kathy nestled the black kitten in her arms.

“Kitten” is an example of a concrete noun. A kitten registers with the five senses: you can see a kitten, pet its fur, smell its breath, hear it purr and taste its kisses.

Example 2: Kyle and Nina ordered a large pizza for lunch.

“Pizza” is an example of a concrete noun. You can see, feel, smell and taste pizza.

B. Abstract nouns

Abstract nouns name things you cannot see, hear, smell, taste or fell. In other words, abstract nouns are not tangible. They name actions, events, ideas, states of mind and qualities. Consider the following abstract nouns:

Actions and events: childhood, Friday, September, war

Ideas: energy, freedom, ideas, luck

States of mind: anger, courage, depression, freedom

Qualities: beauty, truth, kindness, truth

Conditions: cancer, a cold, the flu, diabetes

Abstract nouns exist, but your senses cannot perceive them. Instead, you are encompassing the meaning because you perceive its existence even though you cannot picture it in your mind. Consider the following examples:

Example 1: When Anthony dove into the swimming pool to rescue a drowning child, his bravery amazed the people sitting poolside.

“Bravery” is an abstract noun. You can see the other nouns “Anthony,” “swimming pool” and “people.” You cannot see the quality “bravery.” It has no flavor, texture, size, shape or color.

Example 2: Naomi’s childhood was traumatic.

“Childhood” is an example of an abstract noun. You can see the other nouns “Naomi” and “private detective.” You cannot see Naomi’s “childhood.”

While abstract nouns are intangible, in some cases, you may question whether a noun is concrete or abstract or feel unsure. Consider the following example:

Example 1: Samantha saw the jump from the corner of her eye.

In order for a jump to take place, there is a jumper (subject), and the “jumper” is omitted in the above sentence. “The jump” is an abstract noun. By writing “the jump,” you change a verb into a noun and abstract the animal, person or thing that did “the jumping.” If you wanted to avoid the abstract noun “jump,” you would write:

Samantha saw the fish jump above the lake’s surface from the corner of her eye.

When the sentence is reconstructed, “jump” turns into a verb, eliminating the use of “jump” as an abstract noun. You can imagine a jump occurring, but you cannot imagine it without the fish doing the action.

3. Proper and common nouns

Students of English grammar classes are often confused by the difference between a common and proper noun. Simply stated, a proper noun is capitalized, whereas a common noun is not. Any grammar teacher, however, will tell you that the difference goes deeper than that: there are special rules for identifying and creating proper nouns, and these might take special studying to understand completely.

The English language is unique in what it considers to be proper nouns and what it considers to be common nouns. Read on to learn more about the difference between a common and proper noun, how to use them correctly in sentences, and how to come up with your own examples of each.

A. Defining a Common Noun

A common noun is any generic uncapitalized noun. Here are some examples:

ball, tree, flower, moon, dog

Notice that these were all single. Here are some plural examples of common nouns:

balls, trees, flowers, moons, dogs

Most of the time, these nouns end in “s” to indicate plurality.

A common noun is only capitalized when it is at the beginning of a sentence.

A basic definition of a common noun is a person, place thing or idea that is not specific to a certain, particular, or named person, place, thing, or idea.

B. Defining a Proper Noun

In truth, a proper noun functions exactly the same way a common noun does, in that it is a person, place, thing, or idea. However, this proper noun is capitalized. You use them the same way in a sentence as a common noun, but it retains its capitalization whether or not it is at the beginning of a sentence.

Proper nouns include the days of the week, the months of the year, towns, cities, streets, states, countries, and brands.

Names are all proper nouns, too!  Notice how your own first, middle, and last name are all capitalized: they are proper nouns because they indicate a specific, particular person – you!

C. Common and Proper Noun

In each of the examples below, sentence “A” uses a common noun, and sentence “B” replaces this common noun with a proper noun. See if you can tell the difference:

• A – Mary liked to read a book every night before she went to bed.
• B – Mary liked to read Harry Potter every night before she went to bed.

 

• A – My favorite drink is soda.
• B – My favorite drink is Diet Coke.

 

• A – In the country I live in, it is not legal to marry more than one person at a time.
• B – In the United States, it is not legal to marry more than one person at a time.

D. Tips for Understanding the Proper Noun

Whenever you see a capital, question whether or not it is a proper noun. Make sure that the capitalized word is in fact a noun: ask yourself, is it a person, place, thing, or idea? You might not be aware that there are also proper adjectives.

Below, the first example contains a proper noun, and in the second example, there is a proper adjective. Can you understand the difference between the two?

• Asia is one of the seven continents of the world.
• Many people like to eat Asian food.

In the first example, Asia is the subject of the sentence and is clearly a proper noun. In the second example, Asian is an adjective and clearly describes the kind of food.

E. Practice with Common and Proper Nouns

It doesn’t often take much to know which nouns in a sentence are proper nouns, unless the proper noun is the first word in the sentence. Remember – just because it is capitalized does not mean that it is a proper noun! For this reason, most students like to practice determining the kind of noun that is the first word in the sentence.

4. Collective nouns

A. Collective Nouns

Collective nouns are names for a collection or a number of people or things. Words like group, herd, and array are collective noun examples. Here, we’ll take a closer look at collective nouns, and provide even more examples, placing them in context so you can gain a greater understanding of how they work.

B. What is a Collective Noun

You might not know it, but you encounter collective nouns in everyday speech. Collective nouns are words for single things that are made up of more than one person, animal, place, thing, or idea. You can’t have a team without individual members; even so, we discuss a team as a single entity.

C. Collective Noun Examples

Remember that nouns are words naming people, animals, places, and things. Collective nouns are in a class all their own. Once you’ve read these examples, you’ll find it much easier to recognize collective nouns when you see them.

• class

• herd

• jury

• team

• army

• council

• family

• group

• audience

D. How to Use Collective Nouns

People who are new to writing often encounter some trouble with sentence agreement when using collective nouns. This is understandable, because a collective noun can be singular or plural, depending on a sentence’s context. How do you know if a collective noun is singular? How can you tell if it’s plural? What pronouns and verbs are best for pairing with the collective noun you’ve chosen?

Here’s a simple trick you can use to decide how to use collective nouns in sentences: Imagine a herd of zebras grazing peacefully on the savanna. Suddenly, a lion jumps out of a clump of tall grass. What do the zebras do? They run away as a single unit as they attempt to make a getaway, galloping across the savanna in the same direction.

Often, people behave in the same way, engaging in a single activity in unison with everyone else in their group. When individuals are in a team, a choir, a committee, or part of any other collective noun, that noun is singular and is paired with singular pronouns and singular verbs. As you read the examples that follow, notice that each individual who is part of the collective noun is doing the same action at the same time as others who are part of that collective noun.

• Every morning, the herd follows its leader to the watering hole for a drink.

→ Herd is a singular collective noun. Follows is a singular verb, and the word its is a singular pronoun. All the animals in the herd arrive at the watering hole at the same time.

• Today, Ms. Kennedy’s class takes its SOL test.

→ Class is a singular collective noun. Takes is a singular verb, and the word its is a singular pronoun. All the students in Ms. Kennedy’s class are taking the same test at the same time.

• The committee agrees that people are misusing their cell phones, so its verdict is that phones must not be used during working hours.

→ Committee is a singular collective noun. Agrees is a singular verb, and the word its is a singular pronoun. All the members of the committee are thinking alike.

Now imagine three teenagers in the living room. Are they all doing the same thing at once? Not likely! One is watching TV intently. Another is reading a book and listening to music. The third has one eye on the TV and the other on his computer. There is a single group of teenagers, but the members of the group are doing different things.

Members of collective nouns can act the same way, as individuals doing their own thing. When members of a collective noun act as individuals, that collective noun is plural and must be paired with plural pronouns and plural verbs. As you read the following examples, you’ll notice that members of the collective noun are not functioning in unison.

• After eight hours sitting in the stuffy courtroom, the jury stretch, look at their watches, and head to their cars for the commute home.→ Jury is a plural collective noun in this instance. Stretch, look, and head are plural verbs, and their is a plural pronoun. The members of the jury are stretching and looking at their individual watches before they head to different cars to go to their own homes.
• After taking a test, the class start their papers on Shakespeare’s sonnets.

→ Class is a plural collective noun in this instance. Start is a plural verb, and their is a plural pronoun. Although the students are in the same class, they are beginning their own papers on different sonnets written by Shakespeare.