For students and for anyone who can tell me the answer to the following questions. Let us begin. When you hear the words: doctor, animals, Mary, California, Thanksgiving, actress, mice, luck, hair, scissors, eggs, oh wow!, yikes! Oh for heaven sake! and music. What is the first thing or the things that come to mind? For students they often would say doctor is a job or an occupation, an animal is an animal, Mary is a person, California is a place, Thanksgiving is an event, an actress is the opposite of an actor or an actress is a female actor. Mice are animals, luck is luck, hair is a part of your head, scissors is a thing, eggs are food, music is noise. Depending on the level of your students, these answers above would basically be for students who are still learning the types of speech.
However, if the level of your students are above or better yet, you are teaching high school or university students, their answers would of course differ. But apart from that, what do the examples remind you of? What type of speech do these words belong to? If you have guessed it by now or have already known from the examples above, the answer would be Nouns.
You may have heard of this from learning about it either through reading or through your professors. That a noun is simply just one of the many types of speech, and just like the other types of speech, a noun is also necessary enough to learn why they are important. What are nouns? What are the kinds of nouns? Why do we have to learn about them? Is there any importance to learning nouns? What can they do? These are often the questions asked by students to teachers and vice versa. If you want these kinds of questions answered, I highly suggest you check out these 100+ noun examples now.
You may have already guessed what the topic is as well as what we may be discussing for today. If you have seen the top part of the article, the examples of random words and where they may fit in all this. So, let’s begin with the most common of questions, or the questions that students and teachers often ask. What are nouns? What are the kinds of nouns? What purpose does a noun have? What does it do to our sentences? What happens if nouns do not even exist? Is a gerund even considered a noun? A lot of questions to tackle, but I can assure you, we will get answers to every single one of them.
To begin, what are nouns or what is a noun? It goes without saying, a noun is a type of speech. A noun is a word or a phrase that gives a name of a person, a place, an animal, an event, an action, an idea, etc. There are of course kinds of nouns and each of the words that may have been present above as an example, fall into their own categories. These nouns differ in definition and uses.
Second, what are the kinds of nouns? As mentioned earlier, there are several kinds of nouns, the most common ones and the ones that are often taught in schools are the following. We have the common noun, the proper noun, countable or count nouns, non-countable or mass nouns. As they are categorized as the most common kinds of nouns, there are also some kinds of nouns that are categorized as the not so common but still a part of the kinds of nouns. We have concrete nouns, singular nouns, plural nouns, abstract nouns, and the gerund. Each type of noun as stated above, have their own definitions and uses. A common noun is a kind of noun that gives out the general examples. Common nouns are the easiest kinds of nouns to remember. As an example for that would be cats, houses, boys, holidays. Moving on, we have the Proper noun.
A Proper noun is the opposite of that of a common noun, Proper nouns give out a specific name for the word, and is always regardless of where the Proper noun may be found in the sentence, the first letter of the word is capitalized. As stated for this example we have Mary, a name of a girl. California, a name of a place. Count nouns from the term itself are nouns that you are able to count. The opposite would be uncountable nouns or mass nouns, and these nouns are the ones that are too impossible to count. Moving on, we have the not so common types. To start off, what are gerunds? So a gerund is a type of noun but is not fully considered a noun. Confusing? Let me explain, so a gerund is actually a form of verb that ends in “-ing” but the use is not as a verb, rather as a noun.
Take this sentence as an example: She went swimming earlier today. The word swimming is a verb but it functions as a noun. Why does it function as a noun? It is because you use swimming as a way to express the movement or the action in the sentence. Moving on, we also have abstract and concrete nouns. The difference between these two types of nouns is that an abstract noun is something you cannot use your fives senses with. Basically, you cannot see it, feel it, touch it, smell it, or taste it. Concrete nouns however are the exact opposite. Concrete nouns actually use the five senses.
Now that we covered up the basics of what a noun is, the types and a few example sentences to make it clearer, you may not want to move on and know how to use nouns in a sentence. Of course this would literally depend on where the noun is placed and its use. If you want to know where nouns can be used, I can tell you they can be used just about anywhere. From speeches, to writing essays, and even to conversations. But really, how do you think you would use nouns? Depending on which type of noun you would be using as well, all the types have their own purpose and all the types have their own importance. Here are some five ways on how to use nouns. Let’s get right to it.
If you must know, writing stories, you would see a lot of examples of nouns. Not just the common types but even those that are not as common as you think. Look at it this way, what happens if nouns did not exist, do you think your writing would still be as good as it is today? No, it won’t. Using nouns in your writing whether it may be through stories or any literary piece helps bring it to life. It gives breath to your writing.
Whether it be through reading, conversing or even making a speech, nouns tend to help by directing the attention of your audience to what you are going to be saying. In sentence making, if you wish to direct the reader’s attention, turn your noun into a direct object. By doing this, you are able to pinpoint the noun as the subject of the sentence.
Aside from directing the attention of the audience to your work, you can also use a noun as the subject of your sentences. Whether you may be using a common or a proper noun, when you use the noun as the subject, always remember that it should begin at the very beginning of your sentence.
Nouns basically help make your sentences make more sense. Of course when you write out a sentence without a noun, it also in a way makes sense. But take this for example: “is dancing to the beat of the music.” Does this sentence make any sense? If you answered yes, it is partly correct, the one thing that is lacking here is a noun. Nouns also help by answering WH questions just like adverbs. However, for nouns, they are usually used to direct who you mean by in the sentence.
If you are teaching children what nouns are, you may also use this as a way to expand their vocabulary. As early as possible teaching your students or children nouns would also be basically teaching them newer vocabulary words. It can also be used as an activity which students would enjoy. Using random examples of nouns, they are able to identify which is a common noun and which is a proper noun, all the while their vocabulary grows.
A noun is any word that could be used as a name of an object, a person, a place, an event, a feeling, and an animal. This is also a type of speech.
The types of nouns are:
It goes without saying, nouns like any other part of speech have an important role in grammar and sentence constructions. Nouns often give out the idea of importance. It is mostly the first thing that a person would see, especially when they are writing out their sentences.
This is where we end. The roller coaster of learning what a noun, the types and their uses has come to an end. To sum it up, a noun is a type of speech, it gives out names. That is one thing that should be a clue when teaching nouns to younger students or children. Simply by introducing them to common words and names. As for teaching older students, the most basic of definitions may not suffice, but the activities and the examples are enough to help you get started on that.