{"id":4080,"date":"2013-06-27T17:23:35","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T17:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/?page_id=4080"},"modified":"2026-03-28T11:22:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T16:22:06","slug":"what-is-a-noun","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/what-is-a-noun\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Noun?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"mmDeferVideoEncompass_G9XwpOnFxmE\" style=\"position: relative;\">\n\t\t\t<picture>\n\t\t\t\t<source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/circle-play-duotone.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\">\n\t\t\t\t<source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/circle-play-duotone.png\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"> \n\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" id=\"videoThumbnailImage_G9XwpOnFxmE\" data-source-videoID=\"G9XwpOnFxmE\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/circle-play-duotone.png\" alt=\"What is a Noun? Video\" height=\"464\" width=\"825\" class=\"size-full\" data-matomo-title = \"What is a Noun?\">\n\t\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<style>img#videoThumbnailImage_G9XwpOnFxmE:hover {cursor:pointer;} img#videoThumbnailImage_G9XwpOnFxmE {background-size:contain;background-image:url(\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/123-what-is-a-noun-resized-1.webp\");}<\/style>\n\t\t\t<script defer>\n\t\t\t  jQuery(\"img#videoThumbnailImage_G9XwpOnFxmE\").click(function() {\n\t\t\t\tlet videoId = jQuery(this).attr(\"data-source-videoID\");\n\t\t\t\tlet helpTag = '<div id=\"mmDeferVideoYTMessage_G9XwpOnFxmE\" style=\"display: none;position: absolute;top: -24px;width: 100%;text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic;font-size: small;border-top: 1px solid #fc0;\">Having trouble? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v='+videoId+'\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to watch on YouTube.<\/a><\/span><\/div>';\n\t\t\t\tlet tag = document.createElement(\"iframe\");\n\t\t\t\ttag.id = \"yt\" + videoId;\n\t\t\t\ttag.src = \"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/\" + videoId + \"?autoplay=1&controls=1&wmode=opaque&rel=0&egm=0&iv_load_policy=3&hd=0&enablejsapi=1\";\n\t\t\t\ttag.frameborder = 0;\n\t\t\t\ttag.allow = \"autoplay; fullscreen\";\n\t\t\t\ttag.width = this.width;\n\t\t\t\ttag.height = this.height;\n\t\t\t\ttag.setAttribute(\"data-matomo-title\",\"What is a Noun?\");\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\"div#mmDeferVideoEncompass_G9XwpOnFxmE\").html(tag);\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\"div#mmDeferVideoEncompass_G9XwpOnFxmE\").prepend(helpTag);\n\t\t\t\tsetTimeout(function(){jQuery(\"div#mmDeferVideoYTMessage_G9XwpOnFxmE\").css(\"display\", \"block\");}, 2000);\n\t\t\t  });\n\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t\n<p><script>\nfunction 52f_Function() {\n  var x = document.getElementById(\"52f\");\n  if (x.style.display === \"none\") {\n    x.style.display = \"block\";\n  } else {\n    x.style.display = \"none\";\n  }\n}\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"moc-toc hide-on-desktop hide-on-tablet\">\n<div><button onclick=\"52f_Function()\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/toc2.svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"show or hide table of contents\"><\/button><\/p>\n<p>On this page<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<nav id=\"52f\" style=\"display:none;\">\n<ul>\n<li class=\"toc-h2\"><a href=\"#Types_of_Nouns\" class=\"smooth-scroll\">Types of Nouns<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"toc-h2\"><a href=\"#Examples\" class=\"smooth-scroll\">Examples<\/a>\n<ul><\/li>\n<li class=\"toc-h3\"><a href=\"#Example_1\" class=\"smooth-scroll\">Example #1<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"toc-h3\"><a href=\"#Example_2\" class=\"smooth-scroll\">Example #2<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"toc-h3\"><a href=\"#Example_3\" class=\"smooth-scroll\">Example #3<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"toc-h2\"><a href=\"#Pronouns\" class=\"smooth-scroll\">Pronouns<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"accordion\"><input id=\"transcript\" type=\"checkbox\" class=\"spoiler_button\" \/><label for=\"transcript\">Transcript<\/label>\n<div class=\"spoiler\" id=\"transcript-spoiler\">\n<p>Hello, and welcome to this Mometrix video lesson on \u201cWhat is a Noun?\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>Simply put a noun is pretty much anything. Think of people, places, things, and ideas; each of these are nouns. <\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Types_of_Nouns\" class=\"m-toc-anchor\"><\/span>Types of Nouns<\/h2>\n<p>\nNow, there are a few different categories that nouns can fall into. These categories are common and proper, concrete and abstract, and collective. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Common nouns<\/strong> are nonspecific, whereas <strong>proper nouns<\/strong> are specific and must be <a class=\"ylist\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/capitalization\/\">capitalized<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Concrete nouns<\/strong> are nouns that can be observed with any one of the five senses-sight, sound, taste, touch, smell-and abstract nouns are merely unobservable ideas.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Examples\" class=\"m-toc-anchor\"><\/span>Examples<\/h2>\n<p>\nI have created a few sentences for us to look at that contain examples of each of these concepts.<\/p>\n<div class=\"transcriptcallout\">\nSarah Snake and Chester Cheetah live at the zoo.<\/p>\n<p>Together, they have big dreams of escaping to the aquarium district.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 0em;\">When they get there, they want to see the exotic schools of fish.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nLet\u2019s look at this example sentence by sentence.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"Example_1\" class=\"m-toc-anchor\"><\/span>Example #1<\/h3>\n<p>\nSarah Snake and Chester Cheetah live at the zoo.<\/p>\n<p>Our nouns for this sentence are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sarah Snake &#8212; Person, Proper noun<\/li>\n<li>Chester Cheetah &#8212; Person, Proper noun<\/li>\n<li>Zoo &#8212; Thing, Common noun<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nSarah Snake and Chester Cheetah are people, and because they are people, they are also proper nouns. The zoo is a thing, and by itself, it is a common noun. If I were to give a more specific example like the Chicago Zoo, then it would be a proper noun.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"Example_2\" class=\"m-toc-anchor\"><\/span>Example #2<\/h3>\n<p>\nOur next sentence is:<\/p>\n<p>Together, they have big dreams of escaping to the aquarium district.<\/p>\n<p>The nouns in this sentence are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dreams &#8212; Idea, Abstract<\/li>\n<li>District &#8212; Thing, Common noun<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nDream is an idea. Ideas are abstract nouns because they cannot be physically observed with any of the five senses. The district is a thing and a common noun.<\/p>\n<h3><span id=\"Example_3\" class=\"m-toc-anchor\"><\/span>Example #3<\/h3>\n<p>\nLet\u2019s break down the last sentence.<\/p>\n<p>When they get there, they want to see the exotic schools of fish.<\/p>\n<p>The noun in this sentence is:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li>Schools of fish &#8212; Thing, Collective<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nThe noun schools is a thing and is also a collective noun. Schools is collective because it refers to a group of fish rather than an individual.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Pronouns\" class=\"m-toc-anchor\"><\/span>Pronouns<\/h2>\n<p>\nWhen talking about nouns, we definitely need to familiarize ourselves with <a class=\"ylist\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/pronoun-usage\/\">pronouns<\/a>. Have you heard of pronouns before?<\/p>\n<p>In the simplest of terms, pronouns are <em>he<\/em>, <em>she<\/em>, <em>I<\/em>, <em>they<\/em>, <em>it<\/em>, <em>him<\/em>, <em>her<\/em>, <em>we<\/em>, <em>us<\/em>, etc. There are so many that exist. In the first two example sentences, the pronoun <em>they<\/em> is used several times to replace the names Sarah Snake and Chester Cheetah. By using pronouns to replace our main nouns, we can reduce repetition in our sentences and ease readability.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"citelist\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/en.oxforddictionaries.com\/grammar\/types-of-noun\"target=\"_blank\">\u201cOxford Languages | the Home of Language Data.\u201d n.d.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<div class=\"home-buttons\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/parts-of-a-sentence\/\">Return to Parts of a Sentence Videos<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Return to Parts of a Sentence Videos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91159,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-4080","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"page_category-parts-of-a-sentence-videos","7":"page_category-video-pages-for-study-course-sidebar-ad","8":"page_type-video","9":"subject_matter-english"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4080"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260836,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4080\/revisions\/260836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}