Noun Definition and Examples | (Best English Guide 2022)

What is the Noun definition?

Noun Definition and Examples: In simple terms, the Noun can be defined as the name of the person, place, thing, animal, idea, emotion, action, event, etc. It can be singular or plural like Cats, Dog, Tables, Chairs, Shoe, etc.

Usually, you can call Noun as a naming word, because it covers most of the words in the English Language.

Now, let us understand how to use Noun in different areas/fields.

Noun as a person Name

The name of the person is usually a noun. For example John, Alex, Supriya, Raju, Christiana, Shaun, Henry, Suraj, Kiran, etc.

Noun as a Place Name

The names of the places are usually a noun. It can also include Street, area/locality, region, City or Country names.

For Example, Paris, India, North America, London, Germany, Gandhi Nagar, etc.

Noun as an Animal Name

The names of the animals are included in the Noun. For example Cat, Dog, Elephant, Fox, Lion, Rabbit, Tiger, Leopard, etc.

Noun also includes names of birds and insects like Eagle, Ant, Bug, Parrot, Peacock, Butterfly, Bees, etc.

Noun as a Thing Name

The name of the things that you use (it may be living or non-living) includes in the Noun. For Example Pencil Box, Table, Eraser, Computer, Chair, Fan, etc comes under non-living things.

Living things like plants, trees, mammals (which come under animals), etc.

Usually, Noun is classified into two types. These two are common in all types of nouns. Those are,

  1. Singular Noun
  2. Plural Noun

Singular Noun

Singular Noun refers to a (Single/individual) person, place, thing, etc. For example, a car, hotel, a boy, bat, ship, monkey, etc.

Plural Noun

A Plural Noun refers to more than one person, place, thing, etc. For example, cars, hotels, boys, bats, ships, cats, dogs, etc.

How many Nouns are there in English?

There are usually 9 types of nouns present in the English Language. These Nouns are classified based on their properties. Click the below links to read them in detail.

  1. Proper Noun
  2. Common Noun
  3. Abstract Noun
  4. Concrete Noun
  5. Countable Noun
  6. Uncountable Noun
  7. Collective Noun
  8. Compound Noun
  9. Possessive Noun

Basic Rules Of Noun

To use Nouns in the English Language, you need to understand the basic rules on how to use these in sentences properly.

Rule 1: Some Nouns are Singular in meaning but used as Plural and always take the form of it. For example Police, People, Cattle, Family, Navy, etc.

Rule 2: Some Nouns are Plural in meaning and used as Plural and always take the form of it. For example, Thanks, Scissors, etc.

To learn more rules about the Noun – Click here (opens in a new tab)

Functions of Noun

Nouns can be used in different ways in the sentences like Subject, Direct and Indirect Object, Adverb, Adjective and Object of the preposition. You can refer to a few examples below.

Noun as a Subject:

Example: Virat Kohli is one of the best Cricket players in the world. (Here, “Virat Kohli” is considered as a subject because the whole sentence is referring to it)

Noun as a Direct Object:

Example: I finally bought a new Laptop. (Here, “Laptop” is considered a Direct Object because it describes what happened)

Noun as an Indirect Object:

Example: Sneha gives Saritha the Rubik’s cube toy. ( Here, “Saritha” is an Indirect object because the primary object “Sneha” is performing some action towards her)

Noun as Adjective:

Example: Our school has a strict history teacher. (Here, “history” acts as an adjective which is a noun and it is referring to another noun “teacher”)

Noun as an Adverb:

Example: I am leaving tomorrow. (Here, leaving acts as an Adverbial Noun because it acts as a verb in the sentence)

Noun as Object of Preposition:

Example: The cat was hiding under the chair. (Here, the preposition is “under” and after the preposition, the noun has been used – “chair”)

Number Nouns

There are two types of number nouns, i.e. Singular nouns (one) and Plural nouns (more than one).

  • Singular noun: When the noun is referring to one person or thing, then it is usually called a Singular Noun. For example pen, dog, chair, balloon, fish, fan, jug, gun, etc.
  • Plural noun: When the noun is referring to more than one person or thing, then it is called a Plural Noun. For example pens, dogs, chairs, balloons, farms, fans, jugs, guns, etc.

Here you can observe that the Plural noun is having -s or -es at the end of the words. So, always remember the two rules.

  1. To make the word in the plural, add -s at the end.
  2. If the words are ending with -s, -ss, -x, -o, or -ch, then add -es to the end.

Examples of normal (maximum) words

  • Word – Words
  • cycle – cycles
  • plant – plants
  • rock – rocks
  • vehicle – vehicles
  • ring – rings
  • pen – pens
  • sport – sports
  • computer – computers
  • cat – cats

Examples of words ending with -ch, -x,-ss, -o, -s

  • glass – glasses
  • match – matches
  • box – boxes
  • watch – watches
  • dress – dresses
  • gas – gases
  • punch – punches
  • potato – potatoes
  • batch – batches
  • tomato – tomatoes

Always remember that some words ending with -s, -ss, -x, -o, or -ch don’t necessarily have -es. It also ends with -s like,

  1. photo – photos (Not ‘photoes’)
  2. studio – studios (Not ‘studioes’)

Examples of Noun

These are some simple examples of nouns to which you can refer to understand this concept well.

  • John is a good boy.
Here, "John" is the name of the person.
  • I love to play Football.
Here, "Football" is the one of the Sport's name.
  • My cousin’s sister lives in Australia.
Here, "Australia" is the name of a country.
  • The Book is on the table.
Here both things are considered as Noun (i.e, Book and Table).
  • Sita loves to read books.
Here, "Sita" is a Person's name and "Books" are things.
  • Ramu is a good friend of Raju.
Here, two person "Ramu" and "Raju" are reffered in the sentence.
  • New Delhi is the capital city of India.
Here, "New Delhi" is the City (place) name and "India" is a Country.
  • Eiffel Tower is located in Paris.
Here, "Eiffel Tower" and "Paris" are Nouns used in the sentence.
  • Cats are usually afraid of Dogs.
Here, "Cats" and "Dogs" are animals.
  • Henry is very happy because he scored good marks in English.
Here, "Henry" is a person and "English" is a Subject.

Quiz time! (Test your Knowledge here)

#1. What is the plural form of sheep?

Answer: The plural form of sheep is “sheep”.

#2. Write the plural forms of match and photo.

Answer: The Plural forms of match and photo are matches and photos.

#3. Which of the following is not a Singular noun?

Answer: Cars doesn’t belong to the Singular noun because it represents more than one car (which is Plural).

#4. Which of the following is not a noun?

Answer: The word “And” is not a name. So it is not a noun.

#5. Identify the nouns of the given sentence, "Raju loves to play chess all the time."

Select all that apply:

Answer: Here, both Raju and Chess belongs to the noun because Raju is the name of the person and Chess is the name of the game.

#6. A Noun can also function as ____________.

Answer: A noun can also function as Subject, direct object, indirect object, adjective, adverb and object of the preposition.

#7. Some of the nouns are Plural and always takes the form of it. Is it true or false?

Answer: Yes, some nouns are Plural and always takes the form of it. For example thanks, scissors, etc.

#8. The noun is also known as _________.

Answer: The noun is also called a Naming word.

#9. A noun is the name of the ____________.

Select all that apply:

Answer: A noun is the name of the person, place, thing, etc. It is actually the name of everything!

#10. The noun has both Singular and Plural forms. Is it true or false?

Answer: It is true. For example: gun (singular) – guns (plural)

Finish

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Noun Definition and Examples (Summary)

Noun definition and examples
Noun Definition and Examples

A noun is just a name of something like a Person, Animal, Things, Places, Emotions, etc. Whatever you name it, it becomes a noun.

Always remember that you need to capitalize when you are mentioning a Noun at the start of the sentence.

Understanding Nouns may be easy, but to use them correctly, you need to understand the rules of nouns which helps you to understand the functionality well.

Also Read: Rules of Noun (Learn how to apply these noun in the sentences)

If you are interested to learn more, then you can refer to Wikipedia here.

I hope that you understood the topic Noun Definition and Examples. If you have any doubts regarding this topic, then comment down below and we will respond to your questions as soon as possible. Thank You.

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