Nope, the definition hasn’t changed since you were little. Nouns are still people, places, and things. That’s a broad range, so in this article we’ll explain nouns in more depth. What are the different kinds of nouns? How do they function in a sentence? Let’s get started.
A noun is a person, place, or thing. The first two are clear—the last one’s a bit nebulous. A "thing" can be a feeling, or a concept, or an object, or a unit of measurement. If you’re not sure, consult your dictionary (or better yet, your ProWritingAid app).
Every sentence needs a subject and a verb. A noun is most often the subject of a sentence. For example:
“Wilson” is the subject of this sentence, and also a noun. The verb is “ruled,” and it tells you what Wilson is doing. Let’s try another example.
We’ve got three nouns here: astronaut, surface, and planet. However, only “astronaut” is the subject, since she’s the one doing the moonwalking. (By the way, surface is one of the “things” covered by our definition.)
Common nouns are any old regular noun. They refer to people, places, or things in general.
These refer to a specific person, place, or thing. To signify their importance, proper nouns are always written with initial capital letters.
This type of noun refers only to things that interact with our senses. That is, they can be touched, seen, smelled, tasted, or heard.
Abstract nouns refer to things which cannot be observed by the senses. For example:
Yes, you can look at someone’s face and see that they’re happy. However, happiness is still considered abstract because happiness itself is not an observable object.
Collective nouns refer to a particular group of people, places, or things.
These are self-explanatory. Countable nouns are those that can be counted:
Uncountable nouns, on the other hand, have an indefinite or undefinable value, and therefore cannot be counted:
You’ll notice that many abstract nouns end up being uncountable as well.
Many nouns have multiple forms: singular and plural. Singular nouns refer to one person, place, or thing, while plural nouns refer to multiple people, places or things.
Some examples of singular nouns:
Now here are the plural forms of these same verbs:
We can often turn a singular noun into a plural simply by adding an "s" on the end. Others, like "oxen", are a bit trickier. As always, if you’re unsure, check your dictionary or ProWritingAid.