MPC English & Study Skills Center

Nouns:

Noun is simply another word for "name," so nouns are names of persons, places, things, or ideas.  Nouns may be classified a number of ways.

• Abstract nouns refer to intangible qualities such as ideas and emotions.
  • hunger
  • anger
  • love
  • hope
  • truth
  • justice

• Collective nouns refer to a class or a group and carry the sense of one thing made of many parts.  Collective nouns are singular because the group is considered as one unit.
  • committee
  • team
  • jury
  • herd
  • class
  • family
  • couple
  • audience
  • flock

   

• Common nouns refer to things in general, not a specific thing.
  • dog
  • house
  • woman
  • literature
  • art

   

• Concrete nouns refer to things that can be identified through the senses:  hearing, taste, touch, smell, sight.

  They generally have a specific form that can be described; they are physical objects.

  • table
  • photograph
  • spaghetti
  • spoon
  • apple

   

• Count nouns refer to those things that have a plural form  and can be counted.
  • dog, dogs
  • woman, women
  • chair, chairs
  • book, books

   

• Noncount nouns refer to those things that do not have a plural form and cannot be counted.
  • air
  • flour
  • salt
  • water
  • tea
  • rain
  • snow
  • furniture

   

• Proper nouns refer to specific names that have capital letters.
  • Thomas Park
  • The Monterey Herald
  • New York City
  • Fido
  • The Edison Building
  • Tuesday
  • January

Note:  nouns can be made with verbals (verb forms) and these may be a bit hard to identify.

• Present participle (verb+ing) can be used as a gerund (noun form).
  • Swimming is good exercise.
  • I like going to the beach.

   

• Past participle can be used as a noun.
  • The driven work extra hard to succeed.
  • The persecuted have no where to turn.

   

• Infinitive can be used as a noun.
  • To study is time-consuming.
  • I love to sleep.