Daily Grammar Lessons – Nouns Lesson 4

A noun is a word that names a person, place or thing. It also one of the eight parts of speech. Examples: man, city, book, courage. Nouns often follow words like a, an, and the.

Instructions: Pick out all the nouns in these sentences.

1. The teacher told the student that a person should always be loyal.

2. People with perseverance will be successful in life.

3. I bought a new pen at the drugstore across the street.

4. The man said to the policeman that he had not seen the accident.

Nouns can be singular as in lesson 16 or be plural in form. Plural means two or more. Plurals are formed by adding s, es, changing y to i and adding es, and with changes in spelling as in man becoming men. Examples: car, cars; fox, foxes; baby, babies, man, men.

Instructions: Find the nouns in the following sentences. Some are plurals and some are not.

5. Computers are making work easier for secretaries.

6. Children always require great energies from parents.

7. Labors on farms take great effort by workers.

8. Alaina doesn't like puzzles or mathematics

Nouns are classified into two general classifications, proper and common. Proper nouns name a special person, place or thing and begin with capital letters. All other nouns begin with small letters and are common nouns.

Common nouns city, man, boat, and radio could be changed to the proper nouns Salt Lake City, Mr. Jones, Santa Maria, and Motorola.

Instructions: Pick out the nouns in these sentences and tell if they are common or proper.

9. Becky went with her sisters to Lagoon on Friday.

10. My youngest son is in Brazil until September.

11. Mr. Smith works with his wife in American Fork.

12. Love could bring marriage to Mark and Terri.

Nouns can also be classified in specific ways. Concrete nouns, abstract nouns, and compound nouns are three such ways. Concrete nouns name things that exist physically such as: sidewalk, bird, toy, hair and rain.

Abstract nouns name ideas, characteristics, or qualities as courage, pride, goodness and success. Compound nouns are made up of more than one word as dining room, Bill of Rights, Jeff Hansen, and home run.

Instructions: In the following sentences, find the nouns and classify them as concrete, abstract or compound.

13. People like to see a home run hit over the wall.

14. My daughter works for the post office in Salt Lake City.

15. Rhode Island is a success although smaller than Texas.

Respect must be earned, but honesty should always be our policy.

Three other specific classifications for nouns are collective nouns, count nouns and mass nouns. Collective nouns name groups as team, class and choir. Count nouns can be counted as one boy, six sheep and many days. You can use a, an, many or a number before it. Mass nouns are not countable as gasoline, water or dirt.

Instructions: Find the nouns in these sentences and classify them as collective nouns, count nouns or mass nouns.

17. Get some gasoline, or the class will be late arriving.

18. The alien group should come by bus soon.

19. The orchestra will be playing in the arena in the evening.

20. The water at the beach was covered with oil.