This document defines and provides examples of different types of nouns: 1) It describes common nouns which name general people, places or things, and proper nouns which name specific people, places or things. 2) It explains concrete nouns which refer to things we can experience with our senses, and abstract nouns which refer to ideas and qualities we cannot directly experience. 3) It provides rules for making nouns singular or plural and gives examples of irregular plural nouns.

2. NOUN
A word used to name a
person, place, thing, or idea

3. Identifying
nouns:

4. Compound Nouns =
Two or seafood
grandmother
more words
daydream
that are compact disc
used to grand piano
create one police office
noun self-esteem
great-grandparents

5. Collective Nouns =
Name a group faculty
family
composed of
herd
members. The team
idea is plural, band
but the usage jury
is singular. society
group

6. Common / Proper Nouns =
Common: name general
people, places, or things
Examples—boy, day, city, street
• Proper: name specific
people, places, or things
Examples – John, Friday, Atlanta,
Peachtree Street

7. Concrete Nouns =
Name a person, place, or
thing that can be seen,
heard, tasted, felt, or
smelled (experienced by
the senses)
Examples- movie, music, pizza,
heat, perfume

8. Abstract Nouns =
Name feelings, qualities,
ideas, or emotions that
aren’t experienced by any
of your senses
Examples = love, joy, freedom, peace,
knowledge, pride, faith, eloquence,
convenience

9. Tell whether each word names a person,
place, thing, or idea.
Note: some are not nouns
student person
exam thing
satisfaction idea
enter not a noun (verb)
entrance place
ugly not a noun (adjective)
often not a noun (adverb)
singer person

10. Identify the compound nouns.
My sister-in-law and her family
live on a houseboat on Lake Ontario.
sister-in-law Lake Ontario
houseboat

11. Identify the collective nouns.
The cast felt great self-respect when
the audience cheered on and on.
cast audience

12. Tell whether each noun is
common or proper.
England proper
love common
teenagers common
lake common
mayor common
Missouri River proper
mother common
Tate Museum proper

13. Tell whether each noun is
concrete or abstract.
Philadelphia concrete
wisdom abstract
eagle concrete
freedom abstract
water concrete
Ronald Reagan concrete
neighbor concrete
happiness abstract
dishes concrete
peace abstract

14. Singular and Plural
Nouns
• A noun that names only one
person, place, or thing is called a
singular noun.
• A noun that names more than one
person, place, or thing is a plural
noun.

15. Plural Nouns
Add “s” to most singular nouns to make
them plural.
desks
books apples

16. Plural Nouns
Add “es” to a singular noun that ends in:
-s glass – glasses
-x box – boxes
- ch church – churches
- sh brush – brushes
And sometimes – o ** BUT**
tornado – tornadoes radio – radios
potato – potatoes piano – pianos
hero – heroes burrito – burritos

17. Plural Nouns
• If a singular noun ends in “y” with a vowel before it, add an –s.
holiday – boy – boys monkey – monkeys
holidays
• If a singular noun ends in “y” with a consonant before it, take off
the “y” and add – ies.
baby – babies lady – ladies butterfly – butterflies
• Sometimes when singular nouns finish in “f” or “fe,” they become
– ves.
knife – knives hoof – hooves leaf– leaves
**BUT** chef – chefs reef – reefs café – cafes

18. Plural Nouns
Words that come from Greek and Latin follow different rules.
Singular Plural Examples
-a - ae vertebra – vertebrae, alga – algae
- is - es analysis – analyses, radius - radii
- um -a datum – data, bacterium – bacteria
- us -i fungus – fungi, stimulus - stimuli
- on -a phenomenon – phenomena
Some plurals are just irregular.
man – men woman – women child – children fish - fish
deer – deer mouse – mice foot – feet ox - oxen

19. Fill in the chart below with the correct
singular or plural form of the noun.
Singular Plural
field fields
fox foxes
echo echoes
dictionary dictionaries
survey surveys
life lives
parenthesis parentheses
criterion criteria
tooth teeth
bus buses
person people

20. Possessive Nouns
We add ‘s to all singular possessive nouns.
the boy’s book the boy’s shoes Ann’s car
Mr. Smith’s family the spider’s web James’s dog
We add only ‘ to plural possessive nouns ending in –s.
the girls’ school the girls’ friends
the Smiths’ house the stores’ prices
We add ‘s to plural possessive nouns that don’t end in –s.
the children’s toys the data’s conclusion
the mice’s cheese Mr. and Mrs. Smith’s children

21. Change these to their correct
possessive forms.
the damage of the earthquake the earthquake’s damage
the son of Charles Charles’s son
the job of the men the men’s job
the business of the Wilsons the Wilsons’ business
the knowledge of the people the people’s knowledge
the activities of the students the students’ activities
the notes of the professor the professor’s notes
the house of Jane and Bill Jane and Bill’s house
the bone that belongs to the dog the dog’s bone
the cat that belongs to the sisters the sisters’ cat

22. Find the nouns in the
paragraph below.
The town’s empty, but we found all of the residents’ cars
town residents’ cars
scattered throughout the streets. The cafés lining Primrose
streets cafés Primrose
Avenue have steaming coffee and lit cigarettes on the tables with
Avenue coffee cigarettes tables
food cooking in abandoned kitchens. Jeff, I don’t know how to
food kitchens Jeff
explain this, but a feeling of sadness is palpable in the air.
feeling sadness air