Nouns

Definition: a part of speech used for a person, place, or thing The noun is the subject of your sentence It is the word that does the action or has the action done TO it. One way to determine if a word is a noun is to look for “a”, “an”, and “the” Person: boy, girl, cat, teacher, student, dog Place: library, classroom, mall, house Thing: art, math, science, courage, bravery What is a noun?

Noun (person) The student hurried to class. A dog barked loudly. The waiter brought our lunch over. In each of these sentences, the noun is DOING the action or having the action to them. The student hurries, the dog barks, the waiter brings Examples

Noun (places) We arrived at the school. The room was crowded. The field was freshly mowed. In each of these examples, the noun is a place that is either described or where an action occurs. Examples

Noun (idea/thing) We ate our dinner in a hurry. The movie premiered last night. She ignored the commercials. Each example has a noun being acted on as a thing. They are the target of the actions. They may also perform the actions. Examples

Common nouns are not capitalized A common noun does not refer to a specific person/place/thing ex: boy, girl, teacher, dog, food, class, school Notice that none of these tell you WHO the boy is, WHAT kind of dog, and WHICH class it is Need it to be more specific? Then it’s a common noun! Common Nouns

Proper nouns are always capitalized A proper noun is a SPECIFIC person/place/thing Ex: John, Megan, River Dell, New Jersey, Oradell, River Edge, Statue of Liberty, Madison Square Garden. Notice that each of these proper nouns tells you WHO the boy/girl is, WHICH town, and uses the name of a particular thing Can you tell who the person is? Which location it is? What particular thing it is? It’s a proper noun! Proper Noun

Concrete nouns are nouns that can be experienced with one of the five senses. If you can see it, taste it, smell it, touch it, or hear it, it is a concrete noun Examples: desk, pencil, sandwich, student, Pepsi, River Dell, Cherry Hill, school REMEMBER: concrete nouns can be common OR proper nouns! As long as you use one of your five senses with it, it’s a concrete noun Concrete Nouns

Abstract nouns are nouns that cannot be detected by one of the five senses Ex: Honesty Can you see honesty ? Can you taste honesty? Can you smell honesty? Can you touch honesty? Can you hear honesty? NOPE. Is honesty a person/place/thing? Yes. Honesty is an idea. If you need to figure out whether a noun is abstract or not, use these questions. Abstract Nouns