Understanding Nouns
Stacy jumped over the fence and hurt her knee while chasing the family dog, but she did it all in the name of love.
The nouns in this sentence are: Stacy, fence, knee, family, dog, name, and love.
What Are Nouns?
Nouns are a part of speech that indicate persons, places, things, or ideas.
- Person: child, teacher, pilot
- Place: room, library, Detroit
- Thing: table, computer, book
- Idea: love, happiness, balance
The LanguageTool Grammar Checker can help you use nouns and other parts of speech correctly in your writing.
How Many Types of Nouns Are There?
There are several types of nouns, but they all fall under one or more of the following categories:
A few other noun types include:
- Common noun: refers to general names of persons, places, things, or ideas instead of specific names (e.g., girls)
- Proper nouns: names of a specific person, place, thing, or idea (e.g., Abraham Lincoln)
- Collective nouns: represent a collection of things or people as a whole (e.g., a bouquet of flowers)
- Compound nouns: refers to two or more words put together to form a noun (e.g., firefighter)
What Are Some Examples of a Noun in a Sentence?
Mr. Davis (person) mowed his lawn (thing).
Love (idea) cannot be explained, only felt.
I traveled from New York (place) to Pennsylvania (place).
How Do You Identify a Noun in a Sentence?
Nouns are usually found after an article (the, a, an), but they don’t always require one.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
If a word that isn’t the first in a sentence is capitalized, then it’s a (proper) noun.
Like the quick guide to verbs, we’ve only briefly covered what nouns are. LanguageTool (proper noun), is an intelligent text editor (common noun) that can make sure your writing (common noun) is flawless, and you’re understanding nouns.