11 types of noun and how to tell them apart

Nouns are words which name people, places, things or ideas

sunlight, John, cat, Mexico, trust

We can classify nouns in different ways…

1. CONCRETE NOUNS
2. ABSTRACT NOUNS

We can see, hear, taste, smell or touch the things that
CONCRETE nouns represent, for example:

apple, friend, Sydney Opera House

We can’t see, hear, taste, smell or touch the things
that ABSTRACT nouns represent:

3. PROPER NOUNS
4. CONCRETE NOUNS

PROPER nouns refer to a specific person, place or thing.
They start with a CAPITAL letter…

Mark has a friend called John. They live in a house in
London.

COMMON nouns don’t refer to a specific person, place or
thing…

Mark has a friend called John. They live in a house in London.

5. SINGULAR NOUNS
6. PLURAL NOUNS

Nouns can be SINGULAR (only one)…

The baby held up one foot and one hand.

Babies have two feet and two hands.

We usually add "s" to a singular noun to make it PLURAL:

But some nouns follow different rules, for example:

baby – babies, foot – feet, wolf – wolves, mouse - mice

7. COUNTABLE NOUNS
8. NON-COUNTABLE NOUNS

…but there are some nouns we can’t count

We’d have to put water into glasses (or drops) to count it

1 glass of water
2 glasses of water
3 glasses of water

That’s why countable nouns can be singular or plural…

…but non-countable nouns can’t be made plural

We use the POSSESSIVE form of a noun to show that it
"owns" something

The children’s dinner is cold

The birds’ nest is in the tree

COLLECTIVE nouns talk about a group of people
or things made up of individual parts

Collective nouns are singular if the individual parts
are acting together… The team was playing well

…and plural if they are acting individually. The team
got in their cars.

We can stick two words together to make a COMPOUND
noun

Want to know more grammar rules? Get the Eslbase Online Grammar Course

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