Nouns

Lesson 1 Nouns

The Basics

Essential Question

Which words do the "naming" in a sentence, and what roles can they play?

Grammar in the World

Imagine that you stand at the beginning of creation and are given a single task: name everything. Whether they be persons, animals, plants, or rocks; concrete objects or abstract ideas; individual examples or the categories of topics, they all need names.

Once you've finished, you will have created the list of all possible nouns in that language.

What Do I Know?

What do you already know about nouns? Take this quiz to find out.

Building Blocks

Grammar is a complex system and structure of language. Mizzou Academy Grammar Lab spotlights one skill (or block) at a time. It is also helpful to see how each skill works together with other, related blocks to build the language structure as a whole. You may find the following resource topics helpful as context for this lesson:

Learn About Nouns

Read each of these expressions. What do the words rock, ice, and nail have in common?

It’s as hard as a rock.
Let’s break the ice.
You hit the nail on the head.

Check your answer

Each of these words are something you can see and touch.

It’s as hard as a rock.

Meaning: It is extremely hard.
Example: This day-old bread is as hard as a rock.

Let’s break the ice.

Meaning: get to know each other or relieve tension.
Example: Let’s play a game to break the ice.

You hit the nail on the head.

Meaning: You are exactly right.
Example: You hit the nail on the head when you recommended we watch this movie!

A noun refers to a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns are the subjects and objects of our sentences—who and what we talk about. There are two ways to classify nouns: concrete/abstract and common/proper. In any sentence you speak or read, every noun will be either common or proper, and either concrete or abstract. Click on the tabs below to learn more about each.

Concrete and Abstract Nouns

The words rock, ice, and nail are concrete nouns. Concrete nouns can be experienced through the five senses. You can see, hear, taste, touch, or smell concrete nouns.

All nouns are either concrete or abstract nouns. Abstract nouns cannot be experienced through the five senses. You cannot see, hear, taste, touch, or smell abstract nouns.

Take a look at the table below to see some examples of each type:

Concrete Noun	Abstract Noun
book	knowledge
stomach	hunger
gift	sacrifice
grade	education
smile	happiness

Common and Proper Nouns

All nouns are also common or proper.

A common noun is general. It refers to any person, place, thing, or idea.
A proper noun is specific. It refers to a particular person, place, thing, or idea.

Common Noun	Proper Noun
vacation	Disney World
teacher	Mr. Truman
school	Mizzou Academy
holiday	Hanukkah
street	Truman Avenue

Recognizing Nouns

Other words in a sentence can help you recognize a noun. Here are a few tips:

Tip 1: If you can put an article (a, an, the) in front of the word and it makes sense, you probably are looking at a noun.

She wants to be a teacher when she graduates from the university.

Tip 2: The possessive pronouns (my, your, their, our, whose, and sometimes his, her, and its) work in the same way.

She cares deeply about their education.

Tip 3: Sometimes, an adjective might come between the possessive pronoun and a noun.

My favorite hippopotamuses are named George and Delilah.

- - - - my = possessive pronoun
        
        favorite = adjective
        
        hippopotamuses = noun

Check your understanding

Directions: Read the sentence and notice the words in bold. Then, drag the words below the chart into the appropriate categories.

Do I Get It?

Complete the review activity below to check your understanding of nouns.