noun 2

Collective nouns are singular when the group (or unit or collection) is acting as one:.. After each performance, the audience rises to its feet in thunderous applause.[r]

The Parts of Speech: Nouns, I

Griffin Technical College Learning Support Center

Written by Cynthia Baynham

• Defining Nouns

• Types of Nouns

A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, concept (idea), or quality.

Person:

Student Teacher Uncle Mother Gardener Poet Musician Writer Sculptor Child

Place:

College Home Garden Library Mall Beach City Park Zoo

Thing:

Apple Game Movie Book Test Homework Dinner

Bracelet Desk Poem Painting Song Thumb

Abstract nouns are nouns that you can’t see, touch, smell, hear or taste Both ideas (or concepts) and qualities are ABSTRACT nouns

Ideas or Concepts

Freedom Love

Honor Feelings

Wish Idea

Patriotism

Qualities

Honesty Stubbornness Friendliness Happiness

Can you see freedom? Can you see an idea? While you can see the effects of both freedom and love, you cannot actually experience either one with any of your five senses This is why they are called abstract nouns To test to see if they are nouns, place a possessive pronoun in front of each one

“Our freedom,” “His love,” “Your Honesty”

Common Versus Proper Nouns

Concrete nouns can be divided into two other categories: Common vs Proper

Common nouns name a general person, place, or thing such as book or

friend

Proper nouns name a specific person, place, or thing such as the title of a book, Of Mice and Men or the name of a friend, Alison.

Notice that because proper nouns are the names of specific people, places, or things, they are

Here are some more examples of common and proper nouns:

Common Proper

country Italy president Thomas Jefferson

teacher Ms Jones game Monopoly

museum High Museum song Amazing Grace lawyer Johnnie Cochran newspaper The New York Times uncle Uncle Ray

doctor Doctor Hall

Notice that because proper nouns name specific people, places, or things, they are

Note that as common nouns neither president,

doctor nor uncle is capitalized.

For example, if I say:

I am going to my uncle’s house,

I am not naming a specific uncle, so “uncle” is not capitalized

But if I say:

I am going to my Uncle Ray’s house,

I am naming a specific person, and uncle is his title, so

uncle is capitalized

The same thing happens to any other common noun that is used as a title in front of a person’s name: Doctor Hall, Father Tim, Mister Connery, President Washington,

and Aunt Joan

A common noun that is used as someone’s name is also capitalized.

For example, If I say:

I am going to my mother’s house

The word “mother” is not capitalized because I am not using it as her name I am using the word to express a relationship not a name

But if I say:

I am going to Mother’s house

We have looked at concrete and abstract nouns, as well as proper and common nouns Now it is time to look at another type of noun:

The Collective Noun

The collective noun is one collection of many parts.

We have one forest, but it is made of many trees We have one class, but it is made of many students We have one audience, but it is made of many patrons

We have one team, but it is made of many players We have one troop, but it is made of many soldiers

The big question is, “Are collective nouns singular or plural?”

Yes.

“But how is that possible?” you ask Well, while collective nouns are usually singular, they can sometimes be plural

What?

Collective nouns are singular when the group (or unit or collection) is acting as one:

After each performance, the audience rises to its feet in thunderous applause The team has won all of its games this season

The family is going on vacation in August

Collective nouns are singular when the unit is acting as one Well then, how could they possibly ever be

plural?

Collective nouns are plural when the individual members of the collection are acting on their own – as individuals.

The collection is acting as one so the noun is singular: The faculty meets each Tuesday at 3:30.

The members of the group are acting individually, so the noun is

plural:

At the first Tuesday’s meeting, the faculty give their reports.

Forming Possessive Nouns

With the exception of a plural noun with an “s” on its end, all possessive nouns are formed by adding

an ’s.

There are two types of plural nouns, regular and

irregular A regular noun is one which is made plural by adding an –s or an –es. An irregular noun is made plural

with either an internal change (foot/feet) or the addition of another suffix (child/children) Still other irregular nouns have the same form whether they are singular or

Chart of Possessive Nouns

Regular Nouns

S P

box’s boxes’

hat’s hats’

toy’s toys’

boat’s boats’

Irregular Nouns

S P foot’s feet’s tooth’s teeth’s ox’s oxen’s fish’s fish’s child’s children’s

Note: The apostrophe is not used if the noun is

1 The articles a, an, and the are noun indicators That is, they

indicate a noun is coming, so to test if a word is a noun, place a “the” in front of the word in question:

“the air” – Yes! “Air” is a noun

“the empty” No! “Empty” is not a noun

2 Place a possessive pronoun in front of the noun( such as our, his, my)

“my idea” - Yes! “idea is a noun. “our follow”- No! “follow” is not a noun.

Noun Functions A noun can be the subject

of a sentence: Baseball is America’s favorite pastime A noun can be the subject

complement (predicate

noun): Kent’s favorite sport is baseball

A noun can be the direct object (the receiver of the action of an action verb):

Kent hit the baseball over the fence

A noun can be the indirect object of an action verb (There must be a direct object.) The indirect object is to whom or for whom the action was done:

More Noun Functions A noun can be the

object of a preposition: That pitcher leads with his left foot

A noun can be used as

an adjective: Gloria needs a new baseball glove A noun can be used

as a possessive modifier:

The laces on Gloria’s glove have broken

A noun can be used as a noun of direct address:

Will you pitch today, Kent?

A noun can be used as an appositive, which renames or further identifies the noun in front of it.

You are now ready to identify nouns Practice identifying

them and identifying their functions in the sentence by

going to this link.