Nouns

What is a noun?

A noun is a word that identifies a person, place, object, idea, etc. Nouns are either common nouns or proper nouns.

The different types of nouns are listed below.

Common noun

A common noun refers to places, objects, ideas, or things without specifying them, e.g., country, shoes, joy, trees. Common nouns are lowercase unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence.

Proper noun

A proper noun is specific in nature and always begins with a capital letter. These usually include names of places, phenomena, institutions, or people, e.g., Denmark, Halley’s Comet, Judaism, Sam.

Concrete nouns

Concrete nouns are nouns that refer to material things rather than abstract concepts, e.g., dogs, buildings, carrots.

If you can reach out and touch it, see it, smell it, taste it, or hear it, it’s probably a concrete noun. For example, we may not think of a “velvety voice” or a “nauseating stench” as tangible because they are not objects, but “voice” and “stench” both refer to concrete nouns. ...