Table of Contents

About

Nouns are a component of the parts of the speech.

Category

Nouns can be grouped into five categories:

  • (1) persons,

Persons includes a sister, a grandmother, John, the teacher, fire fighter, Aunt May, a neighbor, the friend, Hoon, a boss, the colleague, a peer, the individual, and Nelson Mandela.

  • (2) places,

Places can be a school, Texas, a home, a store, Japan, a room, a stadium, the desert, a cave, Australia, a state, Veracruz, and a drawer.

  • (3) things,

Things can comprise the Statue of Liberty, a car, a computer, a cup, the Great Sphinx, a stapler, a pen or pencil, a fence, a cell phone, and the Oxford English Dictionary.

  • (4) living creatures,

Living creatures are a lion, a Bengal tiger, a dog, a pig, a Siamese cat, a horse, a dolphin, a caterpillar, a Monarch butterfly, a vole, an American Robin, and a yak.

  • and (5) ideas/concepts.

Ideas and concepts include Buddhism, love, freedom, money, time, the Declaration of Independence, marriage, religion, and Hinduism.

Common / Proper

Some of the nouns are capitalized and others are not.

In addition of being a person, place, thing, living creature, or concept, nouns can be common and proper.

Common

Common nouns are not capitalized.

Example: the nouns adult, country, pastry, dog, and disease are common nouns

Proper

Proper nouns are capitalized.

The nouns Mother Teresa, Latvia, Buche de Noel, Basenji, and Ebola are all proper nouns.

Reference