A noun is a word that names something, such as a person, place, thing, or idea. In a sentence, nouns can play the role of subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object complement, appositive, or modifier.

Some noun examples include:

• dog

• apple

• Rajah Wild

• East End

Nouns form a large proportion of English vocabulary, and they come in a wide variety of types.

Nouns can name a person:

Albert Einstein

the president

my mother

a girl

Mount Vesuvius

Disneyland

my bedroom

Nouns can name things:

Things might include intangible things, such as concepts, activities, or processes. Some might even be hypothetical or imaginary things.

shoe

faucet

freedom

The Elder Wand

basketball

One important distinction to be made is whether a noun is a proper noun or a common noun. A proper noun is a specific name of a person, place, or thing and is always capitalized.

Does Tina have much homework to do this evening?

Tina is the name of a specific person.

I would like to visit Old Faithful.

Old Faithful is the specific name of a geological phenomenon.

The opposite of a proper noun is a common noun, sometimes known as a generic noun. A common noun is the generic name of an item in a class or group and is not capitalized unless appearing at the beginning of a sentence or in a title.

The girl crossed the river.

Girl is a common noun; we do not learn the identity of the girl by reading this sentence, though we know the action she takes. River is also a common noun in this sentence.

I heard the doorbell.

My keyboard is sticky.

Doorbell and keyboard name real things that can be sensed.

Conversely, an abstract noun is something that cannot be perceived by the senses.

We can’t imagine the courage it took to do that.

Courage is an abstract noun. Courage can’t be seen, heard, or sensed in any other way, but we know it exists.

A collective noun denotes a group or collection of people or things.

That pack of lies is disgraceful.

Pack as used here is a collective noun. Collective nouns take a singular verb, as they refer to the collection of people or things they identify as one entity—in this case, the singular verb is.

A pride of lions roamed the savanna.

Pride is also a collective noun.

All nouns are either singular or plural in number. A singular noun refers to one person, place, thing, or idea and requires a singular verb, while a plural noun refers to more than one person, place, thing, or idea and requires a plural verb.

Forming plural nouns

Many English plural nouns can be formed by adding -s or -es to the singular form, although there are also many exceptions.

cat→cats

These two cats are both black.

Note the plural verb are.

tax→taxes

house→houses

The cat’s toy was missing.

The cat possesses the toy, and we denote this by use of -’s at the end of cat.

Casey’s sister is a geologist.

Here, the possessive case indicates the relationship between Casey and their sister.

The novel’s release made quite a splash.

In the above example, the possessive case is denoting that novel is in the role of object in relationship to release; someone released the novel.

The possessive of a plural noun that ends in –s or –es is formed by adding just an apostrophe.

My nieces’ prom outfits were exquisite.

The possessive of an irregular plural noun is formed by adding –’s.

When a singular noun ends in the letter s or z, the general rule of adding –’s often applies.

I have been invited to my boss’s house for dinner.

Ms. Sanchez’s coat is still hanging on the back of her chair.

This is a matter of a style, however, and some style guides call for leaving off the s after the apostrophe.

Brussels’ cathedrals attract hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

Whichever style an organization or writer chooses should be used consistently.

Functions of nouns

Nouns take on different roles based on their relationships to the rest of the words in a sentence.

Nouns refer to a person, place, thing, or idea. They serve as the subjects, direct objects, and indirect objects in a sentence, along with other roles.

What are some examples of nouns?

Nouns can be living things (Keanu Reeves or cat), places (beach or Detroit), things (ruler or PlayStation 5), or ideas (nihilism or the theory of evolution).

What are the different types of nouns?

Common nouns refer to general things (like parks), and proper nouns refer to a specific thing (like Yellowstone National Park). Nouns can also be plural or singular, depending on how many there are, countable or uncountable, and possessive or not possessive.

How do you identify a noun in a sentence?

Nouns often have articles (the, a, or an) before them in a sentence, but not always. Sometimes you’ll see adjectives like red or some before nouns. Aside from the first word in a sentence, if a word is capitalized, then it’s most likely a proper noun, such as a person’s name.

All nouns are either concrete or abstract, but never both at the same time. It can sometimes be hard to know which is which, so this guide explains their differences and how to tell them apart, with lists of both concrete noun examples and abstract noun examples.