Noun & Noun Types

There are more nouns than any other type of words in the English language. These words describe people, places and objects. That is, they refer to things. For example:

The dog barked at the man.

There are two nouns in this sentence, dog and man.

Mark Twain wrote this book.

There are two nouns in this sentence, Mark Twain and book.

Notice that proper nouns (names) and noun phrases (peanut butter, rock star) equal one noun. 

Different Types of Nouns

There are different kinds of nouns. Here is a guide with examples:

Proper nouns

• Objects: Buckingham Palace, Ford Fiesta Zetec, Mount Fuji
• People’s Names: Mark, Amy, Chloe, Chris, James, Catherine, Martin
• Places: London, Yorkshire, Wales, The Sahara Desert, Japan

Concrete nouns

These are the things you can touch or see and have a position in time and space. For example:

• table, chair, building, electricity, clouds, burglar

Abstract nouns
There are three types of abstract noun:

1. Nouns that describe qualities, such as:

• I promise to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
• I believe in justice and freedom, but not necessarily in the American way.
• I trust you understand the importance of the matter.

2. Nouns that describe states, such as:

• The employment situation in India is not so good.
• I live in hope that the world will become a better place.
• A good language teacher has a lot of knowledge about grammar.
• I need at least seven hours sleep every night.
• It is my belief that we are not alone.

3. Nouns that describe events or actions, such as:

• I have an examination at 11.00am tomorrow.
• The fall of the Roman Empire did not happen overnight.
• I will write a reply to your letter later.
• Her voice was low, almost a whisper.
• The fight against Communism rose to a height during the 1950s in America.

Collective nouns

These describe a set or group of things, people or animals. For example, in the following phrases the highlighted nouns denote a group o:

• A swarm of bees
• A battalion of soldiers
• A flock of sheep
• A gaggle of geese
• A congregation of religious zealots
• A band of musicians

Countable & Uncountable Nouns

Many nouns can be counted and these are called countable nouns. Generally when we put the word “one”, “a” or “many” in front of a noun it is countable. For example:

• I have one apple in my hand. There are two apples on the table.
• There is a desk in my room. There are many desks in the classroom.
• There is one CD in my bag. There are many CDs in my house.

Some nouns can’t be counted and these are called uncountable nouns. For example:

• water (you can’t say one water, two waters)
• rice (you can’t say one rice, two rices)
• bread (you can’t say one bread, two breads)

When we quantify a noun or put them in a box or a container, the noun remains uncountable.

For example:

• I’d like a glass of water.
• May I have a portion of rice?
• Could you cut me a slice of bread?

Here, ‘glass’, ‘portion’ and ‘slice’ are countable nouns but ‘water’, ‘rice’ and ‘bread’ are still uncountable.

Sometimes we avoid mentioning the container but it is assumed. For example, “Can I have a cappuccino?” Here, “a cappuccino” refers to a cup of cappuccino, so in this context the noun “cappuccino” is countable.

There are some nouns which can be both depending on the context in which you use them.

Look at this example:

• This recipe calls for two eggs. (Countable)

Here, the word “eggs” is countable. However, in the following sentence the word “egg” is uncountable. Can you see why?

• The nutritionist suggested that I avoid recipes containing egg. (Uncountable)

Here, the noun “egg” is uncountable because the word “egg” is used in a non-specific or generic way. The speaker should avoid recipes containing egg as a product, not a particular egg or eggs.

Plural Nouns
All countable nouns have plurals. Usually we put an –s or an –es on the end of nouns. For example:

Towns, televisions, buses, foxes

Some nouns have irregular plurals and instead of the “–s“ or “–es” being added, the word changes or sometimes even stays the same. For example:

• manbecomes… men
• womanbecomes… women
• fishstays the same… fish (although fishes can also be used)
• footbecomes… feet (although in the imperial measurement we sometimes use the expression ‘six foot one’, instead of using the irregular plural form)

Possessive Nouns

When a noun is owned by another noun, we add an apostrophe and an “s” to the first noun to indicate the possessive form. For example:

• Mark’s new digital TV is cool.
• Martin’s car is pink.
• Catherine’s house is huge.

The first noun is not always a person. Sometimes an inanimate object can ‘own’ or ‘possess’ something. For example:

• The university’s academic semester begins in September.
• Japan’s main export is cars.
• Please stand away from the water’s edge.

Sometimes the first noun will be neither a person nor a thing. For example:

• In two days' time I’ll be gone.
• She didn’t answer my yesterday’s email

If the first noun already ends with an “s”, we simply add -’ at the end to indicate the possessive form, although it is acceptable to write another’s on the end of the noun. For example:

• Chris’ DVDs. (This could also be: Chris’s DVDs.)
• Bridget Jones’ diary. (This could also be: Bridget Jones’s diary.)
• Jesus’ disciples. (This could also be Jesus’s disciples.)

For plural nouns ending in -s, the possessive is formed only by adding -'. However, for irregular plurals not ending in -s, we add an apostrophe and s.
For example:
The foxes' tales ('foxes' is a regular plural)
The sweets' wrapping ('sweets' is a regular plural)
The oxen's owner ('oxen' is an irregular plural)

Compound Nouns

We often take a noun and put it with another to create a new word or collocation. For example, alarm and clock are two separate nouns, but when together they create a new collocation: alarm clock, which is called a compound noun.