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In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition(or put more simply, a noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing or abstract idea).

Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of expressions. The syntactic rules for nouns differ from language to language. In English, nouns may be defined as those words which can occur with articles and attributive adjectives and can function as the head of a noun phrase.

Expressions of natural language have properties at different levels. They have formal properties, like what kinds of morphological prefixesor suffixes they take and what kinds of other expressions they combine with; but they also have semantic properties, i.e. properties pertaining to their meaning.

The definition of a noun at the outset of this article is thus a formal, traditional grammatical definition. That definition, for the most part, is considered uncontroversial and furnishes the means for users of certain languages to effectively distinguish most nouns from non-nouns. However, it has the disadvantage that it does not apply to nouns in all languages.

For example in Russian, there are no definite articles, so one cannot define nouns as words that are modified by definite articles. There have also been several attempts to define nouns in terms of their semantic properties. Many of these are controversial, but some are discussed below.

Names for things

In traditional school grammars, one often encounters the definition of nouns that they are all and only those expressions that refer to a person, place, thing, event, substance, quality, quantity, or idea, etc. This is a semantic definition. It has been criticized by contemporary linguists as being uninformative^.Contemporary linguists generally agree that one cannot successfully define nouns (or other grammatical categories) in terms of what sort of object in the world they refer to or signify. Part of the conundrum is that the definition makes use of relatively general nouns (thing, phenomenon, event) to define what nouns are.

The point being made here is not that this view of verbs is wrong, but rather that this property of verbs is a poor basis for a definition of this category, just like the property of having wheels is a poor basis for a definition of cars (some things that have wheels, such as most suitcases or a jumbo jet, aren't cars).

Similarly, adjectives like yellow or difficult might be thought to refer to qualities, and adverbs like outside or upstairs seem to refer to places, which are also among the sorts of things nouns can refer to. But verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are not nouns, and nouns are not verbs, adjectives, or adverbs.

One might argue that definitions of this sort really rely on speakers' prior intuitive knowledge of what nouns, verbs, and adjectives are, and so do not really add anything. Speakers' intuitive knowledge of such things might plausibly be based on formal criteria, such as the traditional grammatical definition of English nouns aforementioned.

Countable and uncountable nouns

Count nouns are common nouns that can take a plural,can combine with numerals or quantifiers (e.g., one, two, several, every, most), and can take an indefinite article (a or an). Examples of count nouns are chair, nose, and occasion.

Mass nouns (or non-count nouns) differ from count nouns in precisely that respect: they can't take plural or combine with number words or quantifiers. Examples from English include laughter, cutlery, helium, and furniture. For example, it is not possible to refer to a furniture or three furnitures. This is true even though the pieces of furniture comprising furniture could be counted. Thus the distinction between mass and count nouns should not be made in terms of what sorts of things the nouns refer to, but rather in terms of how the nouns present these entities^.

A noun can be countable or uncountable. Countable nouns can be "counted", they have a singular and plural form .

For example:

A book, two books, three books .....
An apple, two apples, three apples ....

Uncountable nouns (also called mass nouns or noncount nouns) cannot be counted, they are not seperate objects. This means you cannot make them plural by adding -s, because they only have a singular form. It also means that they do not take a/an or a number in front of them.

For example:

Water
Work
Information
Coffee
Sand

Making uncountable nouns countable

You can make most uncountable noun countable by putting a countable expression in front of the noun.

For example:-

A piece of information.
2 glasses of water.
10 litres of coffee.
Three grains of sand.
A pane of glass.

Some nouns can be countable or uncountable depending on their meaning. Usually a noun is uncountable when used in a general, abstract meaning (when you don't think of it as a separate object) and countable when used in a particular meaning (when you can think of it as a separate object).

For example:-

glass - A glass of water. (Countable) | A window made of glass. (Uncountable)

Some supposedly uncountable nouns can behave like countable nouns if we think of them as being in containers, or one of several types.

This is because 'containers' and 'types' can be counted.

Believe it or not each of these sentences is correct:-

Doctors recommend limiting consumption to two coffees a day.
(Here coffees refers to the number of cups of coffee)
You could write; "Doctors recommend limiting consumption to two cups of coffee a day."

The coffees I prefer are Arabica and Brazilian.
(Here coffees refers to different types of coffee)
You could write; "The types of coffee I prefer are Arabica and Brazilian."

PROPER NOUN

Recognize a proper noun when you see one.

Nouns name people, places, and things. Every noun can further be classified as common

or proper. A proper noun has two distinctive features: it will name a specific [usually a one-of-a-kind] item, and it will begin with a capital letter no matter where it occurs in a sentence.

A proper noun is the special word (or name) that we use for a person, place or organization, like John, Marie, London, France or Sony. A name is a noun, but a very special noun - a proper noun. Proper nouns have special rules.

A proper noun or proper name is a noun representing a unique entity (such as London,Jupiter , or Toyota, as distinguished from a common noun, which represents a class of entities (or nonunique instance[s] of that class)—for example, city, planet, person or corporation). In English, proper nouns are not normally preceded by an article or other limiting modifier (such as any or some), and are used to denote a particular person, place, or object without regard to any descriptive meaning the word or phrase may have (for example, a town called "Newtown" may be, but does not necessarily have to be, a new [recently built] town).

Which nouns are considered proper names depends on language. For example, names of days and months are considered proper names in English, but not in Spanish, French, Swedish or Finnish, where they are not capitalized.

A noun belonging to the class of words used as names for unique individuals, events, or places. Contrast with common noun.

Most proper nouns (for example, Fred, New York, Mars, Coca Cola) begin with a capital letter. Proper nouns are not usually preceded by articles or other determiners. Most proper nouns are singular.

COLLECTIVE NOUN

In linguistics, a collective noun is a word used to define a group of objects, where objects can be people, animals, emotions, inanimate things, concepts, or other things. For example, in the phrase "a pride of lions", pride is a collective noun.

Most collective nouns encountered in everyday speech, such as "group", are mundane and are not specific to one kind of constituent object. For example, the terms "group of people", "group of dogs", and "group of ideas" are all correct uses. Others, especially words belonging to the large subset of collective nouns known as terms of venery (words for groups of animals), are specific to one kind of constituent object. For example, "pride" as a term of venery refers to lions, but not to dogs or llamas.

Collective nouns should not be confused with mass nouns, or with the collective grammatical number.

This collective nouns matching application is a simple to use word level exercise. The collective noun words are simply dragged to their matching partner on the blue picture cards.

A noun (such as team, committee, or family) that refers to a group of individuals.

In American English, collective nouns usually take singular verb forms. Collective nouns can be replaced by both singular and plural pronouns, depending on their meaning. (See observations below.)

Collective nouns are those nouns that denote a group of people, animals, objects, concepts or ideas as a single entity.

These collective nouns are commonly used under the category of people.

1. A class of students.

2. An army of soldiers.

3. A choir of singers.

4. A crew of sailors.

5. A band of musicians.

6. A bunch of crooks.

7. A crowd of people/spectators.

8. A gang of thieves.

9. A group of dancers.

10. A team of players.

11. A troupe of artists/dancers.

12. A pack of thieves.

13. A staff of employees.

14. A regiment of soldiers.

15. A tribe of natives.

COMMON NOUN

common noun is a word that names people, places, things, or ideas. They are not the names of a single person, place or thing. A common noun begins with a lowercase letter unless it is at the beginning of a sentence.

Examples:

People: man, woman, girl, baby, son, dughther, policeman, teacher
Animals: cat, dog, fish, ant, snake
Things: bear, book, boat, table, chair, phone
Places: bank, school, city, building, shop
Ideas: love, hate, idea, pride

Example sentences:

apple: I love a good red apple after dinner.
dog, yard: The black dog is in my yard.
book, table: The red book is on the table.
call: Give me a call when you arrive.

Common nouns are the opposite of proper nouns. They are your run of the mill, generic nouns. They name people, places, things or ideas that are not specific.

Examples:

woman, city, dog, shoe

Since these nouns are not naming anything specific, they do not need to start with a capital letter unless they begin a sentence.

CONCRETE NOUN

Ice cream, for example, is a concrete noun. You can see the pink. You can taste the berry flavor. You can feel your tongue growing numb from the cold. Any noun that you can experience with at least one of your five senses is a concrete noun.

Don't confuse a concrete noun with an abstract noun.

Not all nouns are concrete. A second class of nouns is abstract. You cannot experience abstract nouns with your senses. Read this example:

Diane pushed Reliable off her lap to register her disapproval.

Disapproval is an example of an abstract noun. What color is disapproval? You don't know because you cannot see it. What texture is disapproval? Who knows? You cannot touch it. What flavor is disapproval? No clue! You cannot taste it! Does it make a sound? Of course not! Does it smell? Not a bit!

A concrete noun is the name of something or someone that we experience through our senses, sight, hearing, smell, touch or taste. Most nouns are concrete nouns. The opposite of a concrete noun is an abstract noun.

For example:-

Cats, dogs, tables, chairs, buses, and teachers are all concrete nouns.

eConcrete nouns refers to objects and substances, including people and animals, physical items that we can perceive through our senses, that means concrete nouns can be touched, felt, held, something visible, smelt, taste, or be heard.

Concrete nouns can be countable nouns or uncountable nouns, and singular nouns or plural nouns. Concrete nouns can also be a common noun, proper nouns and collective nouns.

Example:

This is my house.

* In this example the noun "house" names a building where I live. That building is an individual object and can be seen and touched by everyone.

Here are some sample sentences:

Although there are five other chairs in the living room, everyone in Jim's family fights to sit in the puffy new Roll-O-Rocker.

Chairs = common noun; Roll-O-Rocker = proper noun.

Harriet threw the stale cucumber sandwich in the trash can and fantasized about a Big Mac dripping with special sauce.

Sandwich = common noun; Big Mac = proper noun.

Because we like an attentive waiter, we always ask for Simon when we eat at Mama Rizzoli's Pizzeria.

Waiter = common noun; Simon = proper noun.

ABSTRACT NOUN

An abstract noun is a type of noun that refers to something a person cannot physically interact with. A noun is a person, place or thing. However, in many cases, the 'thing' might be an intangible concept – which means it is an abstract form of noun. In this instance, abstract means to exist apart from concrete existence. A noun that is abstract is an aspect, concept, idea, experience, state of being, trait, quality, feeling, or other entity that cannot be experienced with the five senses.

Recognizing When a Noun is Abstract

Concrete nouns are people, places, or things that we d experience do with our five senses. The abstract class is the opposite - we can never experience these nouns according to our senses. If a noun describes something you can see, hear, touch, taste, or smell, it is not abstract.

Sometimes it can be difficult to recognize when the noun is abstract because there are a number of words that can function in different ways. For example, some words might function as verbs in some cases and abstract nouns in other cases. Check to see whether the word in question is expressing action in some way or if it is a functioning as a 'thing.' Love and taste are two such examples.

I love my husband. [In this sentence, the word love expresses an action and is therefore acting as a verb.]
Send them my love. [In this sentence, the word love functions as an abstract noun because it is a thing that exists beyond the five senses.]
Sarah could taste cilantro in the salsa. [In this sentence, the auxiliary verb 'could' functions with taste to illustrate action. She can physically taste the salsa.]
Sarah has great taste in clothes. [In this sentence, taste functions in an abstract manner. Taste refers to her preferences.]

Abstract nouns can be countable or non-countable (mass). They can also be in singular or possessive form. These nouns follow the same grammar rules as other nouns.