Nouns

Noun: A noun is a word for a person, a place, a thing, a quality, an action, or a concept. It is a name for something (the word "noun" comes from the Latin word "nomen," meaning "name."). A noun has a meaning by itself, but it can also be modified by articles and adjectives. Choosing specific, vivid nouns can make your writing better. Avoid over-used vague nouns such as guy, kid, place, and so on.

One way to identify a noun is whether you can put a, an, or the in front of it. Another way is to see if you can make a sentence using the noun as the subject.

Example: A trout swam around in the pool. The thought bothered Emory so much he couldn't sleep.

Nouns can be singular or plural. Plurals are usually formed by adding s, es, or changing y to i and adding es.

Some nouns are irregular. For example, the plural of knife is knives, the plural of man is men, and the plural of child is children. A few nouns do not change at all when they are made plural, such as sheep and deer.

Proper nouns name a specific person, place, thing, or idea. The first letter of a proper noun is always capitalized. Examples: Chicago, Alexandra, English.

Nouns can be abstract or concrete. Abstract nouns name things that don't have a physical existence. They can be ideas, qualities, or characteristics. Example: pride, philosophy, analysis, terror, humor. Concrete nouns name things that have a physical existence. Examples: desk, finger, building, road.

Compound nouns are nouns made up of more than one word. Examples: dining room, ice hockey. If they have a space between the words, they are really noun phrases in which one noun is acting as an adjective. Others are treated as one word. Examples: wallpaper, lawsuit, housewife, blackboard. Some are hyphenated. Examples: car-carrier, sky-scraper.

Other parts of speech can function as nouns in sentences.

For instance, a gerund is a verb acting as a noun. Sing, for instance, is a verb. The bird sings loudly. I sang in the choir. However, the present participle of the verb (singing) can be used as a noun. We call it a gerund when we do that : Singing in the shower is always fun.

Red is an adjective. However, it can be used as a noun: Red is my favorite color.