Parts of Speech Series - Part One - Nouns

There are common nouns and proper nouns. A noun names a person, place, or thing. For example, ball, bat, toy, boy, girl, Adam, Nancy, Kansas, building, etc. These are all nouns.

Common Nouns

A common noun names a person, place, or thing, like I mentioned above. The common nouns are not capitalized. Let's look at some common nouns: boy, girl, toy, ball, football, game, cat, dog, mouse, garage, house, door, wall, building, school, church, etc. These nouns all name a person, place, or thing, but they do not name a specific person, place, or thing.

Exercises

Look at the underlined words. Some of these are not common nouns, so be careful. Which ones are common nouns?

1. The boys like to play basketball at recess.

2. We had a great party last night.

3. Tom and Mary enjoyed their engagement party.

4. Sparky makes a great watch dog.

5. The basketball game went into double overtime.

Proper Nouns

A proper noun names a specific person, place, or thing. For example: Mrs. Marks, Tony, Topeka, Kansas, Nancy, Bill, etc. All of these name someone or something specifically.

Exercises

Is the underlined word a common noun or a proper noun?

1. I enjoy reading Agatha Christie's books.

2. I enjoy watching television every day.

3. I finally finished writing my book and sent it off to the publisher.

4. I lived in Kansas all of my life.

5. My dogs all like to play together.

Besides common and proper nouns, there are singular and plural nouns. Let's look at these.

Singular Nouns

Singular nouns are nouns that name one person, place, or thing. For example: boy, girl, toy, game, cat, dog, etc.

Exercises

Let's look at the following sentences and see which ones are singular. Some of the underline words are not singular nouns, so be careful.

1. The television show was great last night.

2. The boys came over to our house to play basketball.

3. We went to the basketball game.

4. We got to adopt a puppy today.

5. The new girl in school was shy at first.

Plural Nouns

Plural Nouns are nouns that name more than one noun. For example: boys, girls, toys, games, cats, dogs, etc.

Exercises

Find the plural nouns in these sentences.

1. The boys went to the party today.

2. The basketball players were excited about their first tournament.

3. The dogs chased each other around the house.

4. The birds were scattered all over the yard.

5. The squirrels like to come on the porch and eat their peanuts.

The answers to all of the exercises will appear in the next article. Next time we will continue our study of the Parts of Speech.