Parts of Speech: Noun (Functions) – JSS1 English Lesson Note (First Term)

A noun is a word that names a person, animal, place, thing or idea. Nouns can be common, proper, concrete, abstract or collective, and one noun can belong to more than one type. This note explains how to identify nouns in a sentence and describes each type with examples.

Behavioural objectives

By the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

• define a noun;
• identify the nouns in a sentence;
• name and describe common, proper, concrete, abstract and collective nouns;
• give examples of each type of noun.

What is a noun?

A noun is a part of speech that denotes a person, animal, place, thing or idea. The English word noun has its roots in the Latin word nomen, which means “name”. Every language has words that are nouns. As you read the following explanations, think about some words that might fit into each category.

• Person: A term for a person, whether proper name, gender, title or class, is a noun.
• Animal: A term for an animal, whether its proper name, species, gender or class, is a noun.
• Place: A term for a place, whether its proper name, physical location or general locale, is a noun.
• Thing: A term for a thing, whether it exists now, will exist or existed in the past, is a noun.
• Idea: A term for an idea, be it a real, workable idea or a fantasy that might never come to fruition, is a noun.

How do you identify a noun in a sentence?

When we first start to learn the parts of speech, identifying different words can seem a challenge. This process gets easier with practice. Here are some examples to help you get started. The nouns in each sentence are in bold.

• Person: He is the person to see.
• Person: John started to run.
• Person: Plato was an influential Greek philosopher.
• Animal: The dog barked at the cat.
• Animal: Elephants never forget.
• Animal: Sophie is my favourite horse.
• Place: The restaurant is open.
• Place: Let’s go to the beach.
• Place: Harvard and Yale are two famous universities.
• Thing: Throw the ball.
• Thing: Please close the door and lock it.
• Idea: Follow the rules.
• Idea: The theory of relativity is an important concept.

What are the types of nouns?

Common noun

A common noun is a noun that refers to people or things in general, e.g. country, bridge, city, birth, day, happiness.

Proper noun

A proper noun is a name that identifies a particular person, place or thing, e.g. Steven, Africa, London, Monday. In written English, proper nouns begin with capital letters.

Concrete noun

A concrete noun is a noun that refers to people and to things that exist physically and can be seen, touched, smelled, heard or tasted. Examples include dog, building, coffee, tree, rain, beach, tune.

Abstract noun

An abstract noun is a noun that refers to ideas, qualities and conditions: things that cannot be seen or touched and things that have no physical reality, e.g. truth, danger, happiness, time, friendship, humour.

Collective noun

Collective nouns refer to groups of people or things, e.g. audience, family, government, team, jury.

In American English, most collective nouns are treated as singular, with a singular verb: The whole family was at the table. In British English, the same sentence is correct, but it is also correct to treat the collective noun as a plural, with a plural verb: The whole family were at the table.

Can a noun belong to more than one type?

A noun may belong to more than one category. For example, happiness is both a common noun and an abstract noun, while Mount Everest is both a concrete noun and a proper noun.

Evaluation

Identify the nouns in the following sentences.

• Person: Sharon admires her grandfather.
• Place: Look! There’s the Eiffel Tower.
• Thing: The lamp sits on a table next to the sofa.
• Thing: Money doesn’t grow on trees.
• Person: My mother looks a lot like my grandmother, and I look very much like them.
• Idea: Love is a wonderful emotion.

Assignment

Reading assignment: Nouns.

Reference: English Grammar for Junior Secondary Schools, pages 8 to 10.