The different types of nouns

The different types of nouns

1. There are several different kinds of nouns.

Common Nouns
A common noun is the word used for a class of person, place or thing.

Examples:

Car

Man

Bridge

Town

Water

Metal

Ammonia

Proper Nouns
A proper noun is the name of a person, place or thing (i.e. its own name). A proper noun always starts with a capital letter.

Examples:

Michael

Africa

Peking

Dayton Peace Accord

United Nations

The Tower of London

Uncle George
("Uncle" is written with a capital letter because it is part of his name.)

My favourite auntie is Auntie Sally.
(In this example, the first "auntie" is a common noun; whereas, the
second "Auntie" is part of a proper noun.)

The Red Lion

Collective Nouns
A collective noun is the word used for a group of people or things.

Examples:

Choir

Team

Jury

Shoal

Cabinet (of ministers)

Regiment

Pronouns
A pronoun is a word used to replace a noun.

James is the first choice for the post. He has applied for it twice already.
("He" is a pronoun. In this example, it replaces the proper noun "James".)
("It" is a pronoun. Here, it replaces the common noun "post".)

Some / Who / This
(The term "pronoun" covers lots of words, and all three words above are classified as pronouns. There is whole section dedicated to pronouns.

Verbal Nouns
Verbal nouns are formed from verbs. They are a type of common noun.

I love swimming.
("swimming" - the name of an activity; it is formed from the verb "to swim".)

Lateral thinking is required to solve this problem.
("thinking" - the name of an activity; it is formed from the verb "to think".)

Compound Nouns
Compound nouns are nouns made up of two or more words. Some compound nouns are hyphenated. (This is covered in "Hyphens in Compound Nouns".)

Mother-in-law

Board of members

Court-martial

Forget-me-not

Manservant

Paper-clip

Below are some common errors related to nouns:

NO CAPITAL LETTERS

Common nouns do not start with capital letters (unless they start a sentence or are part of a title). It is a common mistake to capitalise a common noun that is an important word in a sentence.

The corporal disobeyed
a direct Order.

("order" is a common noun - no capital letter)

It is the largest Church in
Birmingham.

("church" is a common noun - no capital letter)

This is covered more in "Capital Letters - Common and Proper Nouns".

ONLY CAPITALISE THE PRINCIPAL WORDS

When names contain words such as "the", "of", "an" or "in", these words are not usually given capital letters.

I must visit the Tower of London.

("of" is not a principal word - no capital letter)

Have you seen Day of the Jackal?

("of" and "the" are not principal words - no capital letters)

This is called "Title Case" and is covered more in "Capital Letters - Title Case".

SINGULAR OR PLURAL?

Writers are sometimes unsure whether to treat a collective noun as singular or plural. In fact, a collective noun can be singular or plural depending on the sense of the sentence.

That team is the worst in the
league.

("team" treated as singular)

The team are not communicating amongst themselves.

("team" treated as plural)

When the group is considered as one unit, it is singular. When the individuals of the group are considered, it is plural.

This is covered in "Collective Nouns - Singular or Plural?".

FORMING THE PLURAL OF COMPOUND NOUNS

To form the plural of a compound noun, pluralise the principal word in the compound. When there is no obvious principal word, add s (or es) to the end of the compound.

Mothers-in-law

(pluralise the principal word "mother")

Paper-clips

(pluralise the principal word "clip")

Forget-me-nots

(no principal word, so add s to the end)

Words like "spoonful", "plateful" and "cupful" are exceptions to this rule. They form their plurals by adding an s to the end, even though the principal words are spoon, plate and cup.

This is covered more in "Compound Nouns - Forming Plurals".

Associated lessons:

What are nouns?
What are pronouns?
The different types of pronouns