What are Nouns?

What Are Nouns? You probably remember learning about nouns at some point, but you may be hard-pressed to explain what they are. Nouns are incredibly important in spoken and written language, but the good news is that they're also pretty easy to understand. Figuring out the basics of how nouns operate in sentences will help you learn lots of other more complex rules down the road. Are nouns incredibly important in spoken and written language?

Definition of Nouns A noun is a part of speech, and parts of speech simply refer to types of words. You may be familiar with a lot of basic parts of speech, like nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Nouns identify people, places, things, and ideas. Nouns can be categorized as either common or proper. Common nouns name general people, places, things, and ideas, while proper nouns name specific people, places, things, and ideas. What do nouns identify?

Which of the following is a common noun? Remember, common nouns name general people, places, things, and ideas.

Which of the following is a proper noun? Remember proper nouns name specific people, places, things, and ideas.

The first letter in a common noun isn't capitalized unless that common noun is the first word in a sentence. The first letter in a proper noun is typically capitalized. Which is a proper noun?

Nouns in Sentences A key thing to remember about nouns is that every sentence needs to have one to be complete. Nouns perform and often receive the actions being performed in sentences, and they play other roles in sentences, too. Without nouns, we'd end up with incomplete sentence fragments like, 'walks around' or 'stomped on.' What does every sentence need to be complete?

Nouns in Sentences There is an exception to the rule that every sentence needs a noun. Some sentences contain short commands, like 'Leave!' or 'Stop.' In each of these examples, the noun is understood without actually being included. The understood noun, or pronoun, here is 'You.' The speakers in those very short sentences really mean, 'You leave!' and 'You stop.' When does a sentence not need a noun?

Which of the following nouns is a common noun?

Which of the following nouns is a proper noun?

Consider this sentence: Alvin studied for his test after going swimming. Which of the following words from the above sentence is a noun?

Which of the following words is a common noun identifying a person?

Which of the following words is a noun?