Common Nouns  Can I pet your dog?

Common nouns refer to

 Please pass the salt.
general, unspecific
categories. So, while  Your sweater is made of
"Nebraska" is a proper noun such soft wool.
because it names a specific
state, state is a common Concrete nouns can be
noun because it can refer to perceived by at least one of
any state. While "Harvard" our five senses.
refers to a particular place
of higher learning, the Abstract Nouns
common More ethereal, theoretical
noun university can refer concepts use abstract
to any school of that type. nouns to refer to them.
Ideas, qualities or
Proper Nouns
conditions like love, hate,
Proper nouns are nouns that power, and time are all
refer to specific people, examples of abstract nouns.
places or things. Proper
nouns  All you need is love.
like Nebraska, Steve,
or White House are  I hate my new school.
capitalized to show their
distinction from common  We must use
nouns, such as "state," this time wisely.
"man" or "building."
In these sentences, the
Concrete Nouns abstract nouns refer to
concepts or feelings that
Concrete nouns are nouns cannot be understood
that refer to things that concretely or touched
exist physically and can be physically.
touched, seen, smelled, felt,
or tasted. Here are some
examples:
Collective Nouns form), such as post
Collective nouns are nouns office and upper
that refer to a group of class that go together by
something in particular. meaning.
Often, collective nouns are
Countable Nouns
used to refer to groups of
animals. Consider the Countable nouns can occur
following sentences. in both single and plural
forms, can be modified by
 Look at that gaggle of numbers, and can co-occur
geese. with quantifying
determiners, such as many,
 There used to most, more, several, etc.
be herds of wild buffalo
on the prairie. For example, the noun
"bike" is a countable noun.
 A crowd of kids is in the
pool today.  There is a bike in that
garage.
 The team did a great job
in the competition. In this example, the word
bike is singular because it
Compound Nouns refers to one bike that is
A compound noun contains sitting in a particular
two or more words that join garage.
together to make a single
noun. Compound nouns can However, "bike" can also
be two words written as one occur in the plural form.
(closed form), such
 There are six bikes in
as softball and toothpaste
that garage.
; words that are
hyphenated (hyphenated In this example, the plural
form), such as six- noun bikes refers to more
packand son-in-law; or than one bike because it is
separate words (open
being modified by the Liquids and powders are
number six. among the items that are
considered mass nouns,
In addition, countable such
nouns can be used with as milk, rice, wood, sand,
determiners like "several," water, and flour. Other
rather than a number. more abstract examples
that cannot be counted
 In that garage, there would be air, freedom,
are several bikes. or intelligence.
Uncountable Nouns Material Nouns
On the other hand, some Material nouns refer to
nouns are not countable, materials or substances
you'll see them referred to from which things are
as uncountable, non- made. Let's take the word
countable or mass nouns. "cotton." Cotton is an
For example, the word adjective when used in
"clutter" is an uncountable "cotton dress." However,
noun. cotton is a material noun
when used to describe the
 The garage is full
crop. For example:
of clutter.
 We use cotton from a
This sentence makes
local farm in our t-shirts.
grammatical sense.
Possessive Nouns
However, the following
example does not. Possessive
nouns demonstrate
 That garage is full ownership over something
of clutters. else. The best way to spot
them is to look for an
Uncountable nouns usually apostrophe. Here are some
cannot take plural forms. examples:
Therefore, clutters isn't
grammatical.
 Melissa's imagination These pronouns take on
ran wild as she other forms depending on
daydreamed about her the type of function they're
trip to Ireland. performing in a sentence.

 Ireland's landscape is When used to signify

truly breathtaking. possession of another noun,
pronouns take on their
 The puppy's favorite toy possessive form,
is the squeaky including mine, ours, hers,
newspaper. and theirs.

These nouns are  Marley loves pepperoni

demonstrating ownership, pizza. The last slice of
but they're also still pizza is hers.
persons, places, or things.
When used as the object of
Words Acting Like Nouns a preposition, pronouns
Pronouns take on their objective case.
Examples
Personal pronouns take
include him, her, me, us,
the place of nouns when
and them.
referring to people, places
or things, and therefore  Jennifer is paying for the
play the part of a noun in a tickets. Give the money
sentence. They to her.
include I, you, he, she, it,
and they.  Things don't look good
for John and Ray. The
 Amy works at a flower police are on to them.
shop. She enjoys her
job. Gerunds

 The Greeks invented Gerunds are verbs that

democracy. They sought function as nouns. Sounds
freedom and equality. funny, right? They are a
little funny because, at first
glance, they appear to be
verbs. In truth, they're
acting as a noun. Here's an
example:

 Do you mind
my borrowing these
shoes?
In this sentence, "mind" is
the verb and "borrowing" is
a noun, the direct object of
the sentence. Anytime you
spot a word ending in -ing,
pause and take a good look
at its place in the sentence.