What is a noun?
A noun is a word that names a person, animal, place, thing, or idea.
Examples:
person: Laura, child, American, people
animal: bird, cat, sheep
place: kitchen, Boston, school, the United States
thing: computer, flower, train, water
idea: democracy, friendship, love, lunch
Read this sentence:
The girl was walking on the sidewalk.
What are the nouns in this sentence?
They are "
girl" and "
sidewalk."
Common and Proper Nouns
Common nouns describe things in general.
Proper nouns name
specific people, animals, places, things or ideas.
Proper nouns must always be capitalized.Examples: Common nouns
| Proper nouns that are specific examples of the common nouns
|
woman . . .
boy . . . . .
cat . . . . .
country . . .
restaurant . . .
car . . .
holiday . . .
| Maria Santiago, Jessica
Alexander, Charlie
Fluffy, Spot
The United States, Brasil
McDonalds, Pizzeria Uno
Honda Civic, Jeep
Thanksgiving, Halloween
|
Count and Non-count nouns
Nouns are either
count or
non-count nouns.
- You can count fingers and toes, houses and cars, pieces of bread, and sentences.
I have five fingers on my hand. There are two houses for sale. Three cars are parked in the driveway. The sandwich is made with two pieces of bread. The paragraph has eleven sentences.
- You can't count liquids (water, oil, lemonade) or things that you measure in a measuring cup (flour, salt, pancake mix.) You can use "some" with non-count nouns, and sometimes you can use "the" and "a" or "an"
She drank water and used vinegar and oil on her salad. I measured out some flour and salt for the cake.