Nouns

Mihai Negrean

Dec 18, 2023 — 2 min read

Nouns are one of the most basic building blocks of languages. In fact, you can make a sentence out of just a noun and a verb! Even though nouns may seem basic, many things can be done with them.

Nouns are usually used to represent a person, place, thing (living or non-living), idea, or activity. Nouns can be singular, as in "cat" or plural "cats". Note that sometimes the plural form of a noun will be the same as the singular form, such as "fish" or "sheep".

Roles of nouns in sentences:

Subject
- For example, in "Peter tossed..."
- This sentence has a subject (Peter), who is doing the action (tossing).
Direct object
- For example, in "Peter tossed an orange..."
- The direct object is what is being acted upon; in our case, it is the orange being tossed.
Indirect object
- For example, in "Peter tossed an orange to James."
- The indirect object is to whom or for whom the action is being done. In this case, the indirect object is James.
Possessive noun adjective
- For example, in "Peter's orange sailed through the air."
- In this case, the possessive noun (Peter's) is acting like an adjective towards orange.
Object of preposition
- For example, in "They ran away from the dragon."
- In this case, dragon is an object for the preposition from.
Predicate nominative
- For example, in "Robinson is a sailor."
- Sailor indicates what Robinson is. A linking verb (is) forms the predicate with sailor.
Object complement
- For example, in "The general promoted him to a sergeant."

In this sentence, sergeant is the object complement to the direct object him.

Direct address
- For example, in "What's up, Bob?"
- A direct address noun is always a proper noun (the name of the person being addressed). It is also set apart from the rest of the sentence with commas.

Classes of nouns in sentences:

Proper:
- Bob, Atlantic, Pikes Peak, Mississippi, Romania, Subaru Impreza, etc.
Common:
- man, ocean, mountain, river, country, car, etc.
Concrete:
- mouse, book, sofa, etc.
Abstract:
- love, hatred, joy, etc.
Count (have singular and plural versions):
- mother(s), chair(s), table(s), painting(s)
Noncount (only have singular form):
- milk, water, air, money, sheep
Collective
- army, council, company, church, crew

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