English Grammar: Nouns

English Grammar: Nouns

Time to learn about how to use nouns in English!

This is a part of a basic series on English grammar. You can find the other posts below:

Nouns are the starting point of the English sentence. Like learned in The Parts of Speech and the Sentence (Part 1), the subject of the sentence is a noun.

A noun is a word for a person, place, or thing. The bolded words in the examples are nouns:

  • James learns a language.
  • The television is on.
  • Birds are cute.
  • Yellow cars drive fast.

There are many different types of nouns or words that act as nouns. Here are the most important types of nouns:

  1. Common nouns
  2. Proper nouns
  3. Possessive nouns
  4. Pronouns
  5. Abstract nouns

Common nouns are basic people, places, or things. Examples are bold:

  • The dog sleeps.
  • The house is far.
  • The boy ran fast,

Proper nouns are names. Examples are bold:

  • James learns a language.
  • I don’t like San Francisco.
  • Russia is a large country.
  • Pepsi is cheap.

Possessive nouns are nouns that show ownership over something else. Possessives will be taught more in a future post. As you will see below, possessive nouns normally come with a second noun after it. Examples are bold:

  • The dog’s bone
  • Peter’s girlfriend
  • My house – an example of a possessive pronoun

Pronouns are not nouns, but they act like nouns. Pronouns will be taught in more detail in a future post. Examples are in bold:

  • I run home.
  • You are very pretty.
  • It is gross.
  • He is strong.

Abstract nouns are nouns that deal with things that do not physically exist. Examples are in bold:

  • Love is great.
  • Is this happiness?

Now that we understand the use of nouns in English, we will now take a closer look at verbs. Continue here:

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