What is a noun?
The naming word, how to test for one in any sentence, and why ideas like courage count too.
The answer
A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea, such as teacher, Leeds, bicycle or courage.
Examples
The dog chased the ball across the park.
Three common nouns, each after the word the.
Amira visited Cardiff on Saturday.
Proper nouns: names of one particular person, place and day, so they take capital letters.
The children showed great kindness to the new girl.
Kindness is an idea you cannot touch, but it is still a noun.
A flock of geese flew over the school.
Flock names a group; geese is the plural of goose.
How to spot it
- Put the in front of it: the dog, the kindness. Most nouns fit.
- Try making it plural: one bike, two bikes. Many nouns change like this.
- Look just before it. A noun often comes after a, an, the, my or some, sometimes with adjectives in between.
- Look at the job the word does in this sentence, not just its meaning. The same word can be a noun in one sentence and a verb in another.
The common mistake
Thinking a noun has to be something you can touch.
Feelings and ideas such as bravery, fear and friendship are nouns too. The opposite trap also catches children: an action word can be a noun. In ‘She did a huge jump’, jump is a noun, because it comes after a and huge.
When it is taught
- First met
- Year 1
- On the pupil word list
- Year 2, as “noun”
Year 1 children add -s and -es to make nouns plural (dog, dogs; wish, wishes). The word noun itself is on the Year 2 terminology list, alongside noun phrase, and Year 2 also builds nouns with suffixes such as -ness and -er.
Try a question
Circle all the nouns in the sentence below.
My brother hid the present under his bed.
Show the answer
Answer: brother, present and bed
Each one fits after the: the brother, the present, the bed. Hid is a verb, under is a preposition, and my and his are working as determiners.
Related terms
- Practise the 11+ skill: Classify a word in context
More grammar terms
Questions parents ask
Is a feeling like happiness a noun?
Yes. Happiness, fear and courage name ideas and feelings, so they are nouns (often called abstract nouns). You can put the in front of them, and they can be the subject of a sentence: Happiness is catching.
Can the same word be a noun and a verb?
Yes. In ‘We went for a run’, run is a noun. In ‘We run every morning’, run is a verb. Always look at how the word is working in its sentence.
What is the difference between a common noun and a proper noun?
A common noun names any person, place or thing of a kind (city, girl, day). A proper noun names one particular one (London, Priya, Monday) and starts with a capital letter.
Grammar turns up in 11+ English too
Many 11+ English papers include grammar and punctuation questions alongside comprehension. The free diagnostic checks maths, English and both kinds of reasoning, and shows what to practise next. No card is required.