Nouns are everywhere. No matter how hard you try to avoid them, they are simply inescapable! Today, we’re going to look more closely at some of the different types of nouns and their particular function.
Common Nouns:
Common Nouns often refer to ‘general items’, ‘types of people/places’ and everyday ‘things’. For instance, if I am walking through San Francisco I can observe a huge number of Common Nouns.
sandwich
dog
car
hat
coffee
sweater
Proper Nouns:
Proper Nouns refer to the specific name of a person, place or thing. An easy way to identify Proper Nouns is through the fact that they begin with a capital letter.
Nike
EC San Francisco
Mary
BMW
New American English File
Collective Nouns:
Collective Nouns are relatively easy to recognize. They refer to a specific group of people or things. Usually, the people who form Collective Nouns are doing something alongside other members of the same group. In terms of grammar, this group then becomes singular, and the Collective Noun makes use of singular verb forms and pronouns.
community
choir
staff
team
school
class
Verbal Nouns:
Verbal Nouns are those which orginally stem from a verb, taking on all the properties of an ordinary noun. Verbal Nouns are often formed through a range of different suffixes, which are added on to the base form of the orginal verb.
to arrive (v.) – arrival (n.)
to swim (v.) – swimming (n.)
to decide (v.) – decision (n.)
to reassure (v.) – reassurance (n.)
to fly (v.) – flight (n.)
Compound Nouns:
Compound Nouns consist of two or more words and are formed by merging two separate nouns, in order to create a new lexical form. While some compound nouns may be hyphenated or completely adjoined, others may not.
desktop
haircut
alarm clock
hairbrush
credit card
swimming pool
make-up