Nouns What is a noun Definition a part

Nouns

What is a noun? 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

Examples 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.

Common Nouns • 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!

Proper Noun • 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!

Concrete Nouns • 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

Abstract 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.