Name: ________________________________________________________

Section: ____

Date: ________________________

6^th Grade English

Nouns

1. A noun describes a person, place, thing, or idea.

2. You can sometimes tell something is a noun if you can put “the,” “a,” or “an” in front of it, or an adjective, or if you add “’s” to the end of it to make it possessive.

3. Nouns can be singular (one) or plural (more than one).

a. Plurals are formed with regular nouns by adding –s, -es, and changing y to i and adding –es.

b. Irregular nouns either change their form completely or stay unchanged when they are plural.

4. Nouns can be divided up in different ways.

a. Concrete nouns exist in the real world and can be sensed. Abstract nouns are ideas or concepts.

b. Proper nouns name a specific person, place or thing and begin with capital letters. All other nouns begin with lower-case letters and are common nouns.

c. Compound nouns are made up of more than one word.

d. Countable nouns can be counted, while mass nouns cannot.

e. Collective nouns name a group of things.

5. In a sentence, a noun can act as a subject, predicate nominative, direct object, appositive, indirect object, noun of address, or object of preposition.

6. Other parts of speech and even clauses can function the same way as nouns in sentences.

a. Gerunds

i. Gerunds are verb forms ending in –ing, and can be used as nouns.

ii. If you can substitute the pronoun “it” for the ing-form in a sentence, it is a gerund acting as a noun.

b. Noun clauses

i. A clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb.

ii. Sometimes a clause starting with that, whether, who, why, whom, what, how, when, whoever, where and whomever can act as a noun in a sentence.

c. Any word in quotation marks can be used as a noun.

Notes:

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Noun Vocabulary

abstract................................... An abstract noun describes something existing only in the mind; an idea, quality, or concept.

clause...................................... A clause is a group of words containing a subject and a verb (otherwise known as a subject and a predicate)

collective................................. A collective noun is a singular noun that names a group of things.

common.................................. A common noun is one with a general meaning, and is a member of the group of things described by that noun.

concrete.................................. A concrete noun describes something that can be perceived by the senses.

countable................................. A countable noun has a plural form, and can be preceded by a number.

function................................... The function of a word is how it is used, or its purpose, or job, in a sentence.

irregular................................... An irregular noun does not follow the normal plural rules. It changes form or doesn’t change at all.

mass........................................ A mass noun has no plural form and cannot be counted without using a unit of measurement.

noun........................................ A word standing for a person, place, thing, or idea

plural....................................... A plural noun is more than one of something (a thing, item, or unit)

proper..................................... A proper noun is the name of a specific thing, person, organization, event, or place.

regular..................................... A regular noun follows the normal plural rule of adding –es or –s to form a plural, or changing –y to –I and adding –es.

singular.................................... A singular noun is one of something (a single thing, item, group, quality, or unit)