what type of noun is essay

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Definition of essay noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

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[ noun es -ey es -ey , e- sey verb e- sey ]

• a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.

a picture essay.

• an effort to perform or accomplish something; attempt.
• Philately. a design for a proposed stamp differing in any way from the design of the stamp as issued.
• Obsolete. a tentative effort; trial; assay.

verb (used with object)

• to try; attempt.
• to put to the test; make trial of.
• a short literary composition dealing with a subject analytically or speculatively
• an attempt or endeavour; effort
• a test or trial
• to attempt or endeavour; try
• to test or try out
• A short piece of writing on one subject, usually presenting the author's own views. Michel de Montaigne , Francis Bacon (see also Bacon ), and Ralph Waldo Emerson are celebrated for their essays.

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Other words from.

• es·sayer noun
• prees·say verb (used without object)
• unes·sayed adjective
• well-es·sayed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of essay 1

Example Sentences

As several of my colleagues commented, the result is good enough that it could pass for an essay written by a first-year undergraduate, and even get a pretty decent grade.

GPT-3 also raises concerns about the future of essay writing in the education system.

This little essay helps focus on self-knowledge in what you’re best at, and how you should prioritize your time.

As Steven Feldstein argues in the opening essay, technonationalism plays a part in the strengthening of other autocracies too.

He’s written a collection of essays on civil engineering life titled Bridginess, and to this day he and Lauren go on “bridge dates,” where they enjoy a meal and admire the view of a nearby span.

I think a certain kind of compelling essay has a piece of that.

The current attack on the Jews,” he wrote in a 1937 essay, “targets not just this people of 15 million but mankind as such.

The impulse to interpret seems to me what makes personal essay writing compelling.

To be honest, I think a lot of good essay writing comes out of that.

Someone recently sent me an old Joan Didion essay on self-respect that appeared in Vogue.

There is more of the uplifted forefinger and the reiterated point than I should have allowed myself in an essay.

Consequently he was able to turn in a clear essay upon the subject, which, upon examination, the king found to be free from error.

It is no part of the present essay to attempt to detail the particulars of a code of social legislation.

But angels and ministers of grace defend us from ministers of religion who essay art criticism!

It is fit that the imagination, which is free to go through all things, should essay such excursions.

Related Words

• dissertation

Understanding the Types of Nouns in English Grammar

This part of speech can be a person, place, thing, or idea

• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

In English grammar, a  noun is a part of speech (or word class ) that names or identifies a person, place, thing, quality, idea, or activity. Most nouns have both a singular and plural form, can be preceded by an article and/or one or more adjectives, and can serve as the head of a noun phrase.

A noun or noun phrase can function as a subject, direct object, indirect object, complement, appositive, or object of a preposition. In addition, nouns sometimes modify other nouns to form compound nouns . To understand how to recognize and use nouns, it's helpful to learn about the different types of nouns in English.

Common Noun

A common noun names any person, place, thing, activity, or idea. It's a noun that is not the name of any particular person, place, thing, or idea. A common noun is one or all of the members of a class, which can be preceded by a definite article , such as the or this , or an  indefinite article , such as a or an . Examples of common nouns are sprinkled throughout these two sentences:

" Plants  rely on the  wind,  birds, bees , and  butterflies  — and other pollinating  insects  — to transfer  pollen  from  flower  to  flower . Some of our 'other' pollinating  insects  are  flies, wasps , and  beetles ." - Nancy Bauer, "The California Wildlife Habitat Garden"

Note how all of the italicized words are common nouns, which make up the vast majority of nouns in English.

Proper Noun

A  proper noun names specific or unique individuals, events, or places, and may include real or fictional characters and settings. Unlike common nouns, most proper nouns, like Fred , New York , Mars , and Coca-Cola , begin with a capital letter. They may also be referred to as proper names for their function of naming specific things. An example would be this famous movie line:

" Houston , we have a  problem ." - "Apollo 13"

In the sentence, the word  Houston  is a proper noun because it names a specific place, while the word  problem  is a common noun, which expresses a thing or idea.

Proper nouns are not typically preceded by articles or other determiners , but there are numerous exceptions such as the Bronx or the Fourth of July . Most proper nouns are singular, but again, there are exceptions as in the United States and the Joneses .

Concrete and Abstract Nouns

A concrete noun names a material or tangible object or phenomenon — something recognizable through the senses, such as  chicken  or  egg .

An abstract noun , by contrast, is a noun or noun phrase that names an idea, event, quality or concept —  courage , freedom , progress , love , patience , excellence , and friendship . An abstract noun names something that can't be physically touched. According to "A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language", abstract nouns are "typically nonobservable and nonmeasurable.”

In comparing these two types of nouns, Tom McArthur notes in "The Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language":

"... an  abstract noun  refers to an action, concept, event, quality, or state ( love, conversation ), whereas a  concrete noun  refers to a touchable, observable person or thing ( child, tree )."

Collective Noun

A  collective noun  (such as  team, committee, jury, squad, orchestra, crowd, audience,  and  family ) refers to a group of individuals. It is also known as a  group noun . In American English, collective nouns usually take singular verb forms and can be replaced by both singular and plural pronouns, depending on their meaning.

Count and Mass Nouns

A count noun refers to an object or idea that can form a plural or occur in a noun phrase with an indefinite article or with numerals. Most common nouns in English are countable — they have both singular and plural forms. Many nouns have both countable and  noncountable  uses, such as the countable dozen  eggs  and the noncountable egg  on his face.

A  mass noun  —  advice , bread , knowledge , luck , and work  — names things that, when used in English, cannot usually be counted. A mass noun (also known as a noncount noun) is generally used only in the singular. Many abstract nouns are uncountable, but not all uncountable nouns are abstract.

Other Types of Nouns

There are two other types of nouns. Some style guides might separate them into their own categories, but they are really special types of nouns that fall within the categories described previously.

Denominal nouns :  A denominal noun is formed from another noun, usually by adding a  suffix , such as  villager  (from  village ),  New Yorker  (from  New York ) , booklet (from book ), limeade (from lime), guitarist (from guitar ),  spoonful (from spoon ), and librarian (from library ). 

Denominal nouns are context-sensitive; they depend on the context for their meaning. For example, while a  librarian  usually works in a library, a  seminarian  usually studies in a seminary.

Verbal nouns :  A verbal noun (sometimes called a  gerund ) is derived from a verb (usually by adding the suffix  -ing ) and exhibits the ordinary properties of a noun. For example:

• His firing of William was a mistake.
• My mother didn't like the idea of my  writing  a book about her.

In the first sentence, the word  firing derives from the word  fire  but functions as a verbal noun. In the second sentence, the word  writing  derives from the verb  write , but it functions here as a verbal noun.

• The 9 Parts of Speech: Definitions and Examples
• Types of Nouns
• What Are Common Nouns?
• Definition and Examples of Count Nouns
• Learn the Seven Types of English Nouns
• What Are Nouns and How Are They Used?
• 100 Key Terms Used in the Study of Grammar
• Proper Nouns in English Grammar
• Meet the Abstract Noun
• Overview of Noncount Nouns in English Grammar
• Countable and Uncountable Nouns
• What Is a Collective Noun? Definition and Examples
• What Is a Mass Noun?
• A List of 130 Mass Nouns (Or Noncount Nouns) in English
• What Is an Uncountable Noun?
• Definition and Examples of a Concrete Noun

10 Types Of Nouns Used In The English Language

Nouns are an all-star team of words and always have a player ready to step up to the plate, no matter the challenge. Common nouns, proper nouns, abstract nouns, and concrete nouns are our go-to nouns but there are many types of nouns ready to get in the game. To learn the difference between all these nouns, use this guide to link to in-depth articles about each type of noun.

What is a noun ?

A noun is a word that refers to a person, place, or thing. The category of “things” may sound super vague, but in this case it means inanimate objects, abstract concepts, and activities. Phrases and other parts of speech can also behave like nouns and can be the subject in a sentence, as in Jogging is a fun exercise . Here, the verb jogging acts like a noun and is the subject of the sentence.

Different types of nouns

1) common nouns.

Common nouns are words that refer to undefined or generic people, places, or things. For example, the country is a common noun that refers to a generic place while the word Canada is not a common noun because it refers to a specific place. Common nouns are only capitalized when they begin sentences or are used in the names or titles of something, as in Grand Canyon or Iron Man.

• common nouns: house, cat, girl, foot, country

2) Proper nouns

Proper nouns help distinguish a specific person, place, or thing. These words should be capitalized. The names and titles of things are always proper nouns, such as the brand name Starbucks and the personal name Jenny.

• proper nouns: Spain, Fido, Sony

3) Singular nouns

Singular nouns are nouns that refer to only one person, place or thing. For example, a cat is one animal and a banana is one fruit.

• singular nouns: house, cat, girl, foot, country

4) Plural nouns

A  plural   noun refers to more than one of something. Many singular nouns just need an S added at the end to make them plural (e.g.,  bee becomes bees ). For some nouns that already end with an S , you may need to add -es to the end to make their plural forms (e.g.,  classes and buses ). Some singular nouns also change spelling when made plural (e.g. countries and babies ).

• regular plural nouns: houses, cats, girls, countries

Not all nouns follow this pattern. Those that become plural in other ways are called irregular plural nouns . Some examples are man and men , wolf and wolves , foot and feet , and sheep and …  sheep.

• irregular plural nouns: person and people life and lives mouse and mice tooth and teeth

5) Concrete nouns

A concrete noun is something that can be perceived through the five senses. If you can see, hear, touch, taste, or smell something, it uses a concrete noun.

• concrete nouns: table, apple, rabbit, ear

6) Abstract nouns

Abstract nouns are intangible ideas that can’t be perceived with the five senses, such as social concepts, political theories, and character traits. For example, the abstract noun anger refers to an emotion and the abstract noun courage refers to a quality a person has.

• abstract nouns: love, creativity, democracy

7) Collective nouns

A collective noun  is a noun that functions as a singular noun while referring to a group of people or things. A collective noun refers to a group that functions as one unit or performs the same action at the same time. For example: the team plays in the main gym.

• collective nouns: crowd, flocks, committee, a sum of money

WATCH: We Asked: How Do You Remember The Definition Of A "Noun"?

8) compound nouns.

A compound noun combines two or more words into one. Compound nouns can appear as a single word, multiple words used separately, or words connected by hyphens.

• compound nouns: dry-cleaning, jack-in-the-box, toothpaste, haircut, output, ice cream, potato chip

9) Countable nouns

A countable noun (also known as a count noun ) is one that you can count. When you have three books or 10 pennies , you are describing a noun that is countable.

• countable nouns: table, apple, rabbit, ear

10) Uncountable nouns

An uncountable noun (also known as a mass noun ) is one that cannot be counted. For example, happiness cannot be counted. You don’t say that you have “a happiness” or “three happinesses.” Uncountable nouns typically don’t have plural forms.

• uncountable nouns: salt, seafood, luggage, advice

Nouns make up the majority of the English language. More nouns appear every year as people come up with new ideas, media, and technologies. However, a noun’s basic function never changes. It is a person, place, or thing, and it may be one or more of the types of nouns that we all know and love.

Nouns are great, but when you’re looking for clarity in writing, punctuation marks do the work! Learn about the major ones here.

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Ways To Say

Synonym of the day

Look up a word, learn it forever.

Other forms: essays; essayed; essaying

A composition that is usually short and has a literary theme is called an essay . You should probably start writing your essay on "To Kill a Mockingbird" sometime before the bus ride to school the day it is due.

As a noun, an essay is also an attempt, especially a tentative initial one. Your essay to make friends at your new school would probably work better if you actually spoke to other students. As a verb, to essay is to make an attempt. If you essay to run for student council, you might lose to the girl who promises more recess, longer lunches, and less homework.

• noun an analytic or interpretive literary composition see more see less types: show 5 types... hide 5 types... composition , paper , report , theme an essay (especially one written as an assignment) disquisition an elaborate analytical or explanatory essay or discussion memoir an essay on a scientific or scholarly topic thanatopsis an essay expressing a view on the subject of death term paper a composition intended to indicate a student's progress during a school term type of: piece of writing , writing , written material the work of a writer; anything expressed in letters of the alphabet (especially when considered from the point of view of style and effect)
• verb make an effort or attempt “The infant had essayed a few wobbly steps” synonyms: assay , attempt , seek , try see more see less types: show 17 types... hide 17 types... pick up the gauntlet , take a dare be dared to do something and attempt it fight , struggle make a strenuous or labored effort give it a try , have a go make an attempt at something grope search blindly or uncertainly endeavor , endeavour , strive attempt by employing effort give it a try , give it a whirl try adventure , chance , gamble , hazard , risk , run a risk , take a chance , take chances take a risk in the hope of a favorable outcome lay on the line , put on the line , risk expose to a chance of loss or damage strive , struggle exert strenuous effort against opposition drive , labor , labour , push , tug strive and make an effort to reach a goal flounder behave awkwardly; have difficulties be at pains , take pains try very hard to do something buck to strive with determination go for broke risk everything in one big effort luck it , luck through act by relying on one's luck adventure , hazard , jeopardize , stake , venture put at risk bell the cat take a risk; perform a daring act type of: act , move perform an action, or work out or perform (an action)
• noun a tentative attempt see more see less type of: attempt , effort , endeavor , endeavour , try earnest and conscientious activity intended to do or accomplish something
• verb put to the test, as for its quality, or give experimental use to synonyms: examine , prove , test , try , try out see more see less types: control , verify check or regulate (a scientific experiment) by conducting a parallel experiment or comparing with another standard float circulate or discuss tentatively; test the waters with field-test test something under the conditions under which it will actually be used type of: evaluate , judge , pass judgment form a critical opinion of

Vocabulary lists containing essay

Before you can answer a question on the PARCC English Language Arts/Literacy section, you first need to know what the question is asking. Learn this list of 45 words that we extracted from a PARCC practice test's directions, question stems, and answer options.

A thorough survey of various textbooks, assignments, content area standards, and examinations yields the following list of words compiled by Jim Burke . You cannot expect to succeed on assignments if you do not understand the directions.

To improve your fluency in English Language Arts and Reading (ELAR), learn this academic vocabulary list that includes words selected from the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) state standards.

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Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement..

Nouns: What’s in a Name?

Published July 20, 2020. Updated March 17, 2023.

With a name that means, literally, ‘to name’, it’s pretty impossible to imagine the English language—or any language—without the noun. But while we use them constantly to provide clarity and identify the things that we’re talking or writing about, this hugely essential word type still has some surprises up its sleeve. This guide should give you a deeper understanding of this seemingly simple element of language, and allow you to use them correctly in your work. You can also check out this  useful reference  to consolidate your learning. If you’re currently working on a paper and would find a quick and easy grammar check useful, upload your essay for free at Chegg Writing. You can also use our fantastic citation tool to help cite your sources using popular styles such as MLA and APA format .

Guide Overview

• What is a noun?
• Controversy and crossover
• Where the magic happens
• Phrase or clause?
• Types of nouns list
• Can you count it?
• Good and proper
• Getting possessive
• A blessing of unicorns
• Friendly compounds
• The pronoun takeover
• Grammar help is here!

What is a Noun?

At first glance, the noun definition is fairly straightforward—they’re naming words used to refer to a person, place, thing or idea. They’re arguably the most important element of any sentence, as they’ll usually be its subject. They can also be the direct object of a sentence. Or the indirect object. Or the object of the  preposition . And they can do much more besides that. So you get the idea that we’d find it very difficult to communicate without these superstars of the grammar world!

Controversy and Crossover

As they’re so important, the question ‘what is a noun?’ has been debated and discussed at length by linguists and grammar experts, often sparking some disagreement about the definition. Some feel that to define them as “naming words” is far too simplistic, as they’re also used to reference abstract and intangible concepts, feelings and activities such as  birth, sport, joy, cookery  and  technology . There’s also huge crossover with other elements of language. For example: Rain

• Verb — to rain
• Name of weather type — rain
• Adjective — red
• Name of color — red
• As an  adverb  — angrily
• As an adjective — angry
• Name of a feeling — anger

Because this single word type encompasses so many different things, some linguists feel that the definition should be narrowed. However, for now, we’re happy to stick with the generalization that it’s a naming word. For more on the various definitions of different parts of the English language, check out this  useful link .

Where the Magic Happens

Although it can lead to confusion, the fact the noun is multi-functional is part of its charm. Let’s take a look at some of the jobs that these hard-working words can perform in a sentence. Subject:  the subject of the sentence, i.e., someone or something performing the action of the  verb .

• Example:  Harry  is angry.

Direct object:  the direct object of the sentence, i.e., someone or something who receives the action of the verb.

• Example: Ashley baked  Noah  a cake.

Object of the preposition:  the object of the prepositional phrase.

• Example: Ashley baked a cake on  Sunday .

Subject complement:  follows a linking verb.

• Example: Ashley is a  teacher .

Object complement:  follows a direct object to rename or modify it.

• Example: She named her dog  Benji .

Appositive:  immediately follows another to add more information.

• Example: Her dog,  Benji , is black.

Modifier:  acts as an  adjective  to modify another noun.

• Example: A  black  dog.

Phrase or Clause?

In addition to your run of the mill single naming words, you can also use a noun clause or phrase to name or identify a person, object, thing, place or idea. A phrase has a naming word as its head word but may also include other kinds of words. For example:

• Head word  — car/cars
• Determiner  — My car
• Determiner and adjective  — My red car
• Quantifier  — Some cars
• Quantifier and adjective  — Some red cars
• In a sentence  —  My red car  is very old. ( My red car  is the phrase that identifies which car we are talking about.)

Caution! Don’t confuse a phrase with a compound, i.e., two or more words together to create a stand-alone common or proper noun with a meaning of its own (more on compounds later!). A clause is a dependent clause (doesn’t make sense alone) that performs the naming function in a sentence. It usually contains a subject and a verb, but may not necessarily contain a naming word. For example:

This weekend we can do  whatever you want .

Types of Nouns List

There are multiple types of naming words to get a grip on, and plenty of crossovers between categories too—just to keep things interesting! For example:

• You can have a mass, abstract, common name.
• Or a singular, concrete, proper, compound, or possessive name (phew!).

Don’t worry! This should become clearer as we work through the different categories in turn. If you’d like to do some more in-depth reading on the subject, you can  find more info  online.

Singular or Plural

You can have singular or plural nouns, with regulars keeping things nice and simple with the addition of  s  or  es .

• Car — cars
• Book – books
• Zoo — zoos
• Box — boxes
• Dish — dishes
• Hero — heroes

However, there are lots of rule-breaking irregulars thrown into the mix to complicate matters.

• Man — men
• Person — people
• Sheep — sheep
• Elf — elves
• Fish — fish
• City — cities

Concrete vs Abstract

As noted earlier, these debate-sparking naming words can be difficult things to define. So it can help to think of them as either concrete or abstract. Concrete nouns are the simpler of the two. They’re tangible things that can be detected by the senses. For example:

• You can touch, see and smell a  flower .
• You can hold a  pencil .
• You can see your friend  Emily .

Abstract nouns are far trickier to pin down—both literally and metaphorically speaking!

• You can’t hold  anger  or  space  or  childhood .

However, some people might argue that you can identify some abstracts with your senses. For example:

• You can see an expression of  anger .
• You can sense  fresh air .

So it might be more helpful to think of them as something that you can’t physically hold, i.e., concepts, ideas, experiences, qualities and feelings.

Can You Count It?

Naming words can either be  count  or  noncount . Count type doesn’t tend to give you much trouble—they’re, as the name suggests, something that can be counted. Noncount type (also known as mass nouns), however, are a whole different ball game! These rebellious words are definitely the evil twin of the two, as they defy several of the usual rules of grammar and, if you’re not careful, can cause chaos and confusion. Count:  something that can be counted, e.g.,  books, people, cars. Simple! Noncount (Mass):  something that can’t be counted (often because it’s an abstract concept), e.g.,  air, red, peace.  Or an aggregation of people or things that are lumped together as a whole, like  luggage, information,  or  salt. Not quite so simple! Caution! Be careful not to confuse noncounts with collectives, words which are used to name a collection of people or things (e.g.,  group, herd, bundle ). An easy way to test whether a word is noncount or collective is:

• Noncounts don’t follow indefinite articles ( a  and  an ).
• Noncounts don’t  usually  have a plural form.

For example, you don’t have  a luggage  or  luggages .

An Awkward Bunch

Despite the fact that they often represent an aggregation of people or things, noncounts can be a rather anti-social and awkward word type! They like to stand alone, without an indefinite article:

Music  can help you relax.

Not ‘ a music  can help you relax.’

I sprinkled  salt  on my food.

Not ‘I sprinkled  a salt  on my food.’ However, they can sit nicely with a  determiner  or quantifier instead.

• Determiner  —  The music  was loud.
• Quantifier  — I sprinkled  some salt  on my food.

In fact, some quantifiers only work with noncounts. For example:

• A little  salt
• Not much  information
• A bit of  music

However, we would never say:

• A little  books
• Not much  cars
• A bit of  flowers

The Singular or Plural Conundrum

Another quirk of the noncount is that, even when it represents an aggregation or group of things, it can still count as singular for grammatical purposes. For example:

The  luggage  is  heavy.  It  filled the trunk of the car. This  information  is  useful.  It  has helped me with my paper.

Even if a noncount appears to take a plural form with an  s  on the end, don’t be fooled! It may still be classed as grammatically singular. For example:

Politics  is a  difficult  subject  to study. I find  it  hard to grasp. The  news  is  on at 10 pm.  It’s  on for an hour.

On the flip side, some noncounts are grammatically plural. For example:

My  clothes  are  wet. The  scissors  are  sharp. His  manners  were  fantastic.

However, these go against the grain of plurals by not mixing well with numbers—we never say five clothes or six scissors!

Enumerating a Noncount

These awkward noncounts on the whole don’t mix well with numbers, although there are sneaky tactics that you can sometimes employ to enumerate them. These include:

• Grammatically plural  — if concrete, add  a pair of , e.g., a pair of  scissors .
• Grammatically singular  — if concrete, add  a piece of , e.g., a piece of  cutlery .
• Singular and plural  — both concrete and abstract noncounts can be enumerated by adding an indefinite adjective (quantifier), e.g.,  any, some, less, much .

For example:

• Pass me  some  cutlery .
• I don’t have  any  scissors .
• It contains  more  information .

Fewer vs Less

A quick note on fewer versus less as these are indefinite adjectives (quantifiers) that often trip people up!

• Fewer  — used for count type, e.g., I have  fewer   books  than Sarah.
• Less  — used for non-count type, e.g., I have  less   money  than Sarah.

Good and Proper

A proper noun is used to name very specific people, places, things and ideas. As their ‘proper’ title suggests, they’re formal names and, as such, deserve capitalization. Examples include:

• People  —  Sarah, Jack, Mrs. Smith, Prince George, Father Brown, Beethoven
• Specific places  —  America, Europe, Paris, George Street, Roman Empire, Times Square
• Natural and man-made landmarks  —  River Nile, Central Park, Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, Mount Etna
• Religions and related words  —  Christianity, The Bible, God, Allah, Buddhism
• Races and nationalities  —  African American, Russian, White, Eskimo, Japanese
• Languages  —  French, Spanish, Chinese, English
• Periods in history  —  Stone Age, Middle Ages
• Events  —  Olympic Games, Coachella, Wimbledon, Rio Carnaval, Oktoberfest
• Days, months and holidays  —  Sunday, Friday, June, October, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day  (note that the seasons are, somewhat contentiously, classed as common)
• Organizations, charities and businesses  —  New York Police Department (NYPD), Harvard University, Microsoft, Red Cross, Walmart, Forbes
• Product brand names  —  Tresemme, Adidas, Apple, Coca-Cola
• Well-known documents and acts  —  Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Magna Carta, Slavery Abolition Act 1833
• Names of specific things and works  —  Hope Diamond, Mona Lisa, Symphony No. 5, Star Wars, War and Peace
• Titles of publications and courses  —  The Washington Post, Introduction to Computer Science
• They can be singular  —  Sally, Australia, Picasso, iPad
• Or plural  —  the Smiths, the Rockies, the Americas, two iPads

From Proper to Common

Sometimes, they bend the rules to put themselves into a ‘common’ context. For example:

I made a mistake of  Titanic  proportions.

This is taken to mean a big mistake and isn’t literally referencing the Titanic ship.

I’m an  Einstein  when it comes to science.

Here Einstein is taken to mean a person who is smart, rather than referencing the man himself specifically. Similarly, over time, some have developed common ‘spin-off’ words. For example:

• Famous porcelain from   China  — a china cup (note, not a China cup)
• Coca-Cola  — coke (to describe a generic cola drink, not necessarily the Coca-Cola brand)

The Humble Common Noun

Common nouns  give a name to a general type of person, thing, object, place, concept or feeling. They’re not ‘formal’ names and, as such, they don’t demand capitalization. Examples include:

• People  —  man, woman, girl, boy, vicar, teacher, children
• Places  —  city, beach, library, street, garden
• Things  —  tiger, leg, sleep, beard
• Objects  —  watch, cake, shoe, ball
• Concepts  —  peace, justice, talent, religion
• Feelings  —  anger, joy, love, envy

In many cases, both a common and proper noun can be applied to the same thing. For example:

• A  Baby Ruth  (proper) is a  chocolate bar  (common).
• Rihanna  (proper) is a popular  singer  (common) in the US.
• Mrs. Smith  (proper) is a  teacher  (common).
• Benji  (proper) is a  dog  (common).
• The  Nile  (proper) is a  river  (common).

Of course, you can define proper noun words as having a far narrower application as they can only apply to one very specific thing. Common noun examples have a much wider application—hence their label as ‘common’! For example:

There are thousands of  singers  (common) in the world, but there’s only one  Taylor Swift (proper).

When a Commoner Becomes Proper

Occasionally, a commoner can move up the ranks to become proper—gaining that all-important capitalization along the way. This usually happens when a word becomes synonymous over time with a very specific type of thing. For example, a  parka jacket  depicts a type of long, all-weather coat. But you could argue that the term  Parka  is so synonymous with a very specific type of jacket that it should be classed as proper. This is definitely one for the grammar experts to slog out between themselves!

Getting Possessive

Possessive nouns are usually followed by another naming word, indicating that the second thing ‘belongs’ to the first. There are different ways to indicate this possession, depending on the word in question. These can become confusing, so let’s look at them in turn. Singular possessives  are usually indicated with ‘s. For example:

• the  girl’s  coat
• Emma’s  car
• the  city’s  main landmark

As are  plural possessives  that don’t end in  s . For example:

• the  men’s  bathroom
• children’s  toys

In the case of a  plural possessive  that ends in  s , you simply need to add an  apostrophe (‘). For example:

• the  girls’  coats
• the  Smiths’  house
• the  tigers’  pen
• the  computers’  manufacturer

When we come to  singular possessives  that end in  s , the waters get a little bit muddier. The most popular method used to form a singular possessive is to add  ‘s , as detailed above. For example:

• James’s  book
• the  bus’s  engine

However, just adding the  apostrophe  is also commonly accepted. For example:

• James’  book
• the  bus’  engine

The Importance of the Apostrophe

You’ll notice that subtle differences in your sentence structure can completely alter its meaning, so it’s important to get your grammar on point. For example:

• the girl’s coat  — belonging to one particular girl
• the girls’ coat  — a coat designed to be worn by a girl
• the girl’s coats  — more than one coat belonging to one particular girl)
• the girls’ coats  — a group of coats belonging to a group of girls

If you find yourself struggling to figure out where the apostrophe needs to go, why not run a free grammar check on your essay with Chegg Writing? You can also use Chegg Writing to help cite the sources that you use when conducting research  and writing your papers . The handy online tool can create citations in the popular APA and  MLA format , plus  more styles including Chicago/Turabian. Simply find out which style of citation you need to use (ask your professor or lecturer) and let Chegg Writing help you create them the easy way.

A Blessing of Unicorns

A collective noun is a name given to a collection or group of things. Although they represent more than one, they are usually classed as grammatically singular (in American English). For example:

• The  pride  of lions made  its  way to water.
• The  cast  of actors collected  its  award.
• The  class  of students  was  dismissed early.

They can often stand-alone, if the context makes it clear what collection or group of things is being referred to. For example:

• We followed the  herd  on safari.
• I got the  cast  to sign my autograph book.
• The  class  went on its field trip.

But be careful with this, as they can be used to represent very different things. For example:

• flock  of tourists  or  flock  of birds  **  cluster  of spiders* or  cluster  of stars

So saying “I stared open-mouthed at the  cluster  before me” could have two very different meanings—you might be staring in wonder or staring in horror! Some collective nouns have developed a more general or colloquial meaning. For example, you get a  bunch  of flowers or a  bunch  of bananas. However,  bunch  is also used more generally to denote ‘several’ or ‘lots’. For example:

• I saw a  bunch  of people that I knew.
• Thanks a  bunch .

Kooky Collectives

Collectives are one of the quirkiest word types in the English language and include some unusual naming words. For instance, it’s difficult to imagine where the examples below came from. For example:

• A  shiver  of sharks
• A  quiver  of cobras
• A  blush  of boys
• A  disguising  of tailors
• A  drunkship  of cobblers
• A  worship  of writers
• A  nest  of rumors

Friendly Compounds

Compound nouns consist of two or more words that have come together to form a new word with its own meaning. These are words that have decided they don’t want to stand-alone—they can work better together with another word! Both proper and common words can be compounded, and within these compounds are three sub-types. Proper

• Closed  —  PlayStation, YouTube
• Hyphenated  —  Coca-Cola, Chick-fil-A
• Open Spaced  —  New York, Ritz Carlton Hotel
• Closed  —  football, textbook
• Hyphenated  —  mother-in-law, well-being
• Open Spaced  —  bus stop, swimming pool

Wal-Mart Or Walmart?

Fun fact! Some popular brands have dropped their hyphens in recent years. For example, Wal-Mart switched to Walmart in 2009. This could possibly be because hyphenated domain names can cause issues for a brand’s online presence. Brands now have a whole host of digital considerations that simply weren’t on the table when they first decided on a name.

The Pronoun Takeover

While both concrete and abstract noun words are undeniably super useful and essential parts of the English language, they can be a bit much at times. Especially when you’re referring to the same thing several times in a sentence or section. For example:

Sally  loves  Fanta .  Sally  drinks  Fanta  every day.

This is where pronouns come in handy. These often small but ever so mighty words have the power to replace names and make your sentences flow much better. For example:

Sally  loves  Fanta .  She  drinks  it  every day.

This works for both proper and common types.

• The  Empire State Building  (proper) is very tall.  It  stands at 443m.
• Sally  (proper) loves  chocolate  (common).  She  eats  some  every day.
• My  dog  (common) has a red  ball  (common).  He  likes to chase  it .

The antecedent nouns give a reference point for the pronouns.

Is I a Noun or a Pronoun?

Commonly used ‘people’ pronouns include  he, she, me, his  and  hers . However, there’s some debate as to the word  I . While  I  is commonly accepted as a first person  pronoun , it may not follow the usual antecedent rule. For example, if you were Sally, you wouldn’t write:

Sally  loves Fanta.  I  drink it every day.

Instead you’d simply write:

I  love Fanta.  I  drink it every day.

I  is also classed as a naming word in the following contexts:

• I  — the name of a letter of the alphabet.
• I  — the subject or object of self-consciousness, i.e. the ego.

This guide should hopefully have answered lots of naming word questions for you, such as ‘what is a possessive noun?’, but if you’re still struggling you can  learn more here . The list of nouns can be difficult to remember, for the simple fact that there are so many different categories and variations of these naming words. People, objects, places, ideas and feelings are things that don’t seem to have much in common—yet they all have names, which lumps them grammatically into the same (very large!) category.

Grammar Help is Here!

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Course: Grammar   >   Unit 1

Introduction to nouns.

• Identifying nouns
• Introduction to singular and plural nouns
• Singular and plural nouns

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Home — Essay Samples — Science — English Language — Nouns in the English Language

Nouns in The English Language

• Categories: English Language

About this sample

Words: 2272 |

12 min read

Published: Apr 11, 2019

Words: 2272 | Pages: 5 | 12 min read

• Proper and common nouns
• Personal names (both first names like Diana and Chris, as well as surnames like Popescu);
• Nationalities (the Japanese, the British)
• Languages (English, Romanian, Spanish);
• Titles (Mr. John, Miss Deborah, Mrs. Kerry, Dr. Smith, Queen Elisabeth, Lord Byron, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sergent Jackson, Professor Bright);
• Animals (Spot, Missy);
• Calendar items (January, Monday, Christmas);
• Geographical names like:
• continents (Europe, Africa)
• countries (the United States of America, Greece)
• rivers, lakes, oceans, seas (the Black Sea, the Danube, Lake Michigan)
• mountains (the Alps) and so on.
• Celestial bodies (the Moon, Venus)
• Cardinal points, when they are not used geographically (North, West);
• Institutions (the European Union, the National Theatre, the British Museum);
• Newspapers, titles of books, magazines (the Guardian, Vogue, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes)
• Countable and uncountable nouns
• it has a plural form (girl – girls, table - tables);
• it can be preceded by the indefinite article a/an (a cat, an argument);
• it can be preceded by How many or (a) few (How many pencils have you got?; My cousin has a few books);
• it can be preceded by numbers (one pencil box with three rulers).
• it has not a plural form (sugar, silver, blood);
• it cannot be preceded by the indefinite article a/an (Such fine weather!);
• it can be preceded by How much or (a) little (How much honey do you want?; My parents have little furniture);
• it cannot be preceded by numbers.
• liquids (water, oil, milk);
• gas (air, oxygen, steam);
• food (spaghetti, butter, soup, bread, cheese, cookery, food, meat, toast );
• abstract ideas (chaos, advice, education, fun, gossip, hospitality, information, knowledge, luck, news, nonsense, patience, progress, strength, stuff );
• subjects / fields (mathematics, art, politics, poetry, vocabulary);
• mass nouns (hair, transportation, furniture, grass, money);
• grain and powder (sugar, rice, sand);
• natural phenomena (rain, snow, darkness, lightning, sunshine, thunder);
• sports (football, chess, poker);
• activities (reading, swimming, working, dancing, laughter, leisure, shopping, smoking, spelling, work);
• feelings (sadness, anger, courage, happiness, jealousy);
• states of being (adulthood, power, sleep, stress, safety, stupidity, violence, wealth).
• Concrete and abstract nouns; collective nouns

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Need editing and proofreading services, noun: definition, meaning, types, and examples.

• Tags: English as a Second Language / ESL , Grammar , Language

Whether we are speaking, reading, listening, or writing, nouns are an inseparable part of our daily life. Knowing what’s a noun is very important to communicate effectively. In this article, we will decode the definition of nouns. 

We will also understand various types of nouns with the help of simple examples. Whether you’re a language enthusiast or someone looking to deepen their grammar knowledge, this article will make understanding nouns easier for everyone. Let’s start with an easy noun definition.

Transform your nouns and perfect your writing! Learn more

What is a Noun?

A noun is defined as a word that names or identifies a person, place, thing, idea, or animal.

Nouns are the words in a sentence that represent a certain person (John), place (London), thing (pen), idea (discipline), or animal (dog). Nouns can be concrete (pen) or abstract (discipline).

The easiest way to spot a noun is by identifying a name, place, thing, idea, or animal in a sentence.

Being aware of the noun definition, noun meaning, and what are nouns is integral for understanding grammar and sentence structure in any language. 

A list of nouns commonly used is:

Animal: Cat     

Place : Park

Thing : Bicycle

Person : Girl

To understand the meaning of nouns in detail, let’s take a look at some more examples of nouns.

Noun examples

1. nouns naming a person:.

The Prime Minister

Indira Gandhi

2. Nouns naming a place

3. Nouns naming a thing

The magical book

4. Nouns naming an idea

5. Nouns naming an animal

These noun examples give us a quick insight into the process of identifying and choosing nouns in a sentence. Nouns are one of the eight parts of speech that play a vital role in forming sentences. 

What are parts of speech? 

Parts of speech are specific roles and functions of a word in the English language. Noun, verb , adjective , adverb , pronoun , preposition , conjunction , and interjection are the eight parts of speech. 

Types of nouns

Proper noun.

Proper nouns are nouns that specifically name a person, place, or thing. Proper nouns start with capital letters, making it easy to distinguish them from other types of nouns.

Some proper noun examples are:

The time we visited Delhi was one of the most fun times of my life. (Name of a particular place.)

I watched a film about Freddie Mercury . (Name of a particular person.)

I love shopping at Shopper’s Stop . (Name of a particular brand.)

Collective noun

A noun used to refer to a group of individuals, animals, or things as a single unit is called a collective noun. It shows a grouping of similar things. Collective nouns are a type of singular noun but they represent a plurality of items. 

Some collective noun examples are:

A deck of cards.

A class of students.

A hive of bees.

Common noun

A noun that refers to a general category of people, places, or things is called a common noun. Common nouns do not represent a particular category or specific instance. 

Some common noun examples are: 

I am going to the hospital . (place)

I like using a pencil to sketch. (thing)

I bought a new car . (item)

Abstract noun

A word that represents an idea, a state, or an intangible concept is called an abstract noun. Abstract nouns are things that cannot be seen or touched physically but are present as feelings or emotions. Abstract nouns refer to things that are intangible and exist as feelings, thoughts, and ideas. 

Some abstract noun examples are:

Honesty is the best policy.

Loyalty is a dog’s best trait.

Freedom must not be considered as a liberty . 

Concrete noun

A concrete noun is a type of noun that refers to tangible objects that can be felt or perceived physically using their senses. Unlike abstract nouns, concrete nouns can be seen, touched, heard, and experienced physically. 

Some concrete noun examples are:

The tree was 100 years old.

The family traveled by bus . 

I want to read a book . 

Plural noun

A plural noun is used to indicate more than one of a place, thing, person, animal, or idea. Plural nouns are represented by words that are made plural by adding ‘s’, ‘es’, or ‘ ies’ to the ending. Confusing plural nouns with collective nouns is one of the common grammatical mistakes people make. Plural nouns refer to multiple individuals or objects while collective nouns refer to a group or collection of individuals or objects. 

Some plural noun examples are:

We bought a few oranges from the market yesterday.

There were a lot of dishes to be cleaned.

All the candies were sweet.

Possessive noun

A possessive noun is a word used to indicate ownership or possession of something. It shows possession or that something belongs to someone. It is often formed by adding a ‘s at the end of the words which show that the noun owns or possesses something.

Some possessive noun examples are:

The king’s reign was over. (reign of the king)

Students’ assignments were submitted. (assignments belonging to the students)

All the car’s windows have to be shut. (windows belonging to the car)

Compound noun

A noun that is formed by combining two or more words to create a new, single noun is called a compound noun. The combination of these two or more words results in the formation of a new word having a distinct meaning. The three types of compound nouns that are commonly used are hyphenated compound nouns, closed compound nouns, and open compound nouns. 

Some compound noun examples are:

Bus stop (bus + stop) (open compound noun)

Classroom (class + room) (closed compound noun)

Mother-in-law (hyphenated compound noun)

Countable nouns 

Countable nouns are people, objects, places, things, and ideas that can be counted using numbers. These nouns have plural forms. 

Some examples of countable nouns are:

He purchased two dozen apples for his family. (apple + s) 

She borrowed two purses from a friend.  (purse + s ) 

There are many temples in India. (temple + s) 

Uncountable nouns 

Uncountable nouns are those objects and ideas that cannot be counted using numbers. This means that the individual units of these nouns cannot be counted. These nouns do not have plural forms. Words such as some , any , much , and enough can be used to describe the quantity of these nouns. 

Some examples of uncountable nouns are: 

Trees grew in abundance . (Individual units of “abundance” cannot be counted.)

She has vast knowledge in her field. (Individual units of “knowledge” cannot be 

She appreciated her tolerance .  (Individual units of “tolerance” cannot be counted.)

Appositive nouns

Nouns that are used to add specificity or additional context to a noun in the sentence are known as appositive nouns. Appositive nouns give extra information about the subject and make sentences more engaging. They are typically set off by commas, dashes, or parentheses.

Some examples of appositive nouns are: 

The country, India , is known for its culture. (“India” serves as an appositive noun that renames “the country.”)

My dog, Leo , loves to play fetch. (“Leo” serves as an appositive noun that renames “my dog.”)

My sister, Riya , is a dancer. (“Riya” serves as an appositive noun that renames “my sister.”)

Using nouns as different parts of a sentence

Noun as a subject.

The subject of a sentence is the noun or noun phrase that performs the main action of the sentence or is the main focus of the sentence. A subject can be easily identified by asking the question “who?”. A noun mostly appears at the beginning of a sentence when used as a subject.

The baby was crying. (Who was crying? – the baby)

Cyrus was a naughty child. (Who was a naughty child? – Cyrus)

Mother went to the store. (Who went to the store? – mother)

Noun as a subject complement

A noun or noun phrase serves as a subject complement when it follows a linking verb and provides additional information about the subject in the sentence. The subject is typically described or renamed by a subject complement. 

Examples: 

The painting was a masterpiece . (“A masterpiece” describes the subject “the painting.”)

He is a scientist . (“A scientist” renames and describes the subject “he.”)

The owner of this house is Alan . ( “Alan” identifies the subject “the owner.”)

Nouns as subject complement help provide more information about the subject, clarifying its identity, characteristics, or state. They are an important element in sentences that use linking verbs to connect to the subject.

Noun as an object

When a noun is placed in a position where it receives the action of the verb, it is used as an object. An object placed immediately after a verb is known as a direct object. An object can be easily identified by asking questions like “what?” or “whom?”.

Izzy loved her skirt . (What did Izzy love? – her skirt)

The baby wanted milk . (What did the baby want? – milk)

Father drove the car . (What did father drive? – the car)

Noun as an object complement

A noun or noun phrase functions as an object complement when it follows a direct object and provides further description or identification of that object. The object is typically described or renamed by an object complement. 

He painted the wall red .  (“red” is the object complement, describing the object “wall.”)

We named our baby Judy . (“Judy” provides additional information about the object “baby”)

She considered the book a good read . (“A good read” describes the object “book.”)

Noun as a modifier

Nouns that act as an adjective and provide additional information or context about another noun are referred to as modifiers. They are also called attributive nouns. 

The mechanic understood that the car engine was faulty. (“car” acts as a modifier for “engine” and indicates that this type of engine is used in a car)

She took her Labrador Retriever to the dog park. (“dog” acts as a modifier for “park” and indicates that this type of park is for dogs)

He threw his coffee cup in the dustbin. (“coffee” acts as a modifier for “cup” and indicates that this type of cup is for coffee)

We hope that the given examples will help you use nouns effectively while communicating. As language experts who provide proofreading services , we’d love to help you perfect your words. 

Bookmark PaperTrue’s Resource Centre for useful grammar tips!

• Tips to Write Better if English Is Your Second Language
• Homophones, Homonyms, and Homographs: What’s the Difference?
• Its vs. It’s: When to Use Its and It’s in a Sentence
• 14 Punctuation Marks: Examples & Free Guide on How to Use
• Affect vs. Effect: Meaning, Difference, & Examples

Frequently Asked Questions

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Parts Of Speech

Common Nouns

What is a Common Noun? Definition, Types & Examples

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Understanding the structure of language begins with recognizing its fundamental components. In English grammar, nouns play an important role in naming people, places, things, or ideas. 

They are categorized into several types, including common nouns, which represent general entities rather than specific individuals.

A common noun is a broad term that can refer to any member of a class or category. For example, "person," "city," "book," and "happiness" are common nouns because they denote general types rather than unique instances. 

According to Common Noun Definition 

Unlike proper nouns , which identify specific individuals or entities and are capitalized (e.g., "John," "United States," "Harry Potter"), most common nouns remain in lowercase.

For instance, " teacher ," " dog ," and " ocean " are common nouns because they describe general types of people, animals, and bodies of water, respectively. They are essential for everyday communication, providing a universal language framework that everyone can understand.

Common Nouns Examples 

Types of Common Nouns 

Common nouns cover a variety of categories that reflect the diverse nature of language and communication. 

Here are different types of common nouns based on the entities they describe:

Concrete Nouns 

Concrete nouns refer to physical objects that can be perceived through the senses. They denote tangible entities that occupy space and have definite shapes.

• Examples: table, chair, dog.

Abstract Nouns 

Abstract nouns denote intangible concepts, qualities, emotions, or states that cannot be perceived through the senses but are understood and experienced.

• Examples: happiness, courage, freedom.

Countable Nouns 

Countable nouns are entities that can be counted as individual units or discrete items. They often have plural forms and can be preceded by numbers or quantifiers.

• Examples: Book (books), Apple (apples), Car (cars).

Uncountable Nouns 

Uncountable nouns refer to substances, materials, or concepts that cannot be counted as discrete units because they are viewed as a whole or in bulk.

• Examples: water, rice, information.

Collective Nouns 

Collective nouns represent groups or collections of people, animals, or things considered as a single unit or entity.

• Examples: team, flock, family.

Common Nouns vs Proper Nouns

In grammar, nouns are classified into common nouns and proper nouns based on their usage and specificity:

Common Nouns:

• Refer to general, non-specific entities.
• Examples: city, teacher, book.
• Capitalized only at the start of a sentence.
• Can be modified by articles , determiners, and adjectives to specify.

Proper Nouns:

• Refer to specific individuals, places, companies, etc.
• Examples: Paris, John Smith, Harry Potter.
• Always capitalized.
• Typically not modified by articles, determiners, or adjectives unless in a specific context.

Common nouns can sometimes become proper nouns when they are used to refer to specific individuals, places, events, or things that are unique or distinctive. 

Here are some examples:

• river: Mississippi River
• mountain: Mount Everest
• day: Monday
• language: English
• animal: Labrador (referring to a specific breed of dog)
• food: French fries (specific type of fries)

Correct and Incorrect Examples of Common Nouns in Sentences

Understanding the correct capitalization of common nouns is essential for clear and accurate writing. 

Here are examples demonstrating both correct and incorrect usage:

Role of Common Noun in a Sentence

Common nouns are general nouns that play various essential roles in sentence structure and communication:

Proper and Common Nouns Worksheet 

Instructions: Identify whether each noun is a proper noun (P) or a common noun (C). Write "P" or "C" next to each noun.

In conclusion, this blog has explored the concept of common nouns in detail. Understanding common nouns enhances our ability to communicate effectively by correctly categorizing and describing elements of our world. 

By mastering these concepts, you can improve clarity and precision in your writing, ensuring accurate use of language every day.

And if you still need help and don't know how to write an essay with AI , give our writing tools a shot! 

Continue Learning

If you want to learn more about academic writing, grammar, and related concepts, check out these blogs. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you capitalize common nouns after proper adjectives.

No, you do not capitalize common nouns after proper adjectives. Proper adjectives, derived from proper nouns, are capitalized, but the common nouns that follow them remain lowercase.

What Academic Concepts are Usually Common Nouns?

Academic concepts such as "biology," "chemistry," "mathematics," "history," and "literature" are typically common nouns. These terms refer to general fields or disciplines of study rather than specific instances or entities.

Caleb S. (Mass Literature and Linguistics)

Caleb S. is an accomplished author with over five years of experience and a Master's degree from Oxford University. He excels in various writing forms, including articles, press releases, blog posts, and whitepapers. As a valued author at MyEssayWriter.ai, Caleb assists students and professionals by providing practical tips on research, citation, sentence structure, and style enhancement.

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Home / Guides / Grammar Guides / Nouns: What’s in a Name?

Nouns: What’s in a Name?

With a name that means, literally, ‘to name’, it’s pretty impossible to imagine the English language—or any language—without the noun. But while we use them constantly to provide clarity and identify the things that we’re talking or writing about, this hugely essential word type still has some surprises up its sleeve. This guide should give you a deeper understanding of this seemingly simple element of language, and allow you to use them correctly in your work. You can also check out this  useful reference  to consolidate your learning. If you’re currently working on a paper and would find a quick and easy grammar check useful, upload your essay for free at EasyBib.com. You can also use our fantastic citation tool to help cite your sources using popular styles such as MLA and  APA format .

Guide Overview

• What is a noun?
• Controversy and crossover
• Where the magic happens
• Phrase or clause?
• Types of nouns list
• Can you count it?
• Good and proper
• Getting possessive
• A blessing of unicorns
• Friendly compounds
• The pronoun takeover
• Grammar help is here!

What is a Noun?

At first glance, the noun definition is fairly straightforward—they’re naming words used to refer to a person, place, thing or idea. They’re arguably the most important element of any sentence, as they’ll usually be its subject. They can also be the direct object of a sentence. Or the indirect object. Or the object of the  preposition . And they can do much more besides that. So you get the idea that we’d find it very difficult to communicate without these superstars of the grammar world!

Controversy and Crossover

As they’re so important, the question ‘what is a noun?’ has been debated and discussed at length by linguists and grammar experts, often sparking some disagreement about the definition. Some feel that to define them as “naming words” is far too simplistic, as they’re also used to reference abstract and intangible concepts, feelings and activities such as  birth, sport, joy, cookery  and  technology . There’s also huge crossover with other elements of language. For example: Rain

• Verb — to rain
• Name of weather type — rain
• Adjective — red
• Name of color — red
• As an  adverb  — angrily
• As an adjective — angry
• Name of a feeling — anger

Because this single word type encompasses so many different things, some linguists feel that the definition should be narrowed. However, for now, we’re happy to stick with the generalization that it’s a naming word. For more on the various definitions of different parts of the English language, check out this  useful link .

Where the Magic Happens

Although it can lead to confusion, the fact the noun is multi-functional is part of its charm. Let’s take a look at some of the jobs that these hard-working words can perform in a sentence. Subject:  the subject of the sentence, i.e., someone or something performing the action of the  verb .

• Example:  Harry  is angry.

Direct object:  the direct object of the sentence, i.e., someone or something who receives the action of the verb.

• Example: Ashley baked  Noah  a cake.

Object of the preposition:  the object of the prepositional phrase.

• Example: Ashley baked a cake on  Sunday .

Subject complement:  follows a linking verb.

• Example: Ashley is a  teacher .

Object complement:  follows a direct object to rename or modify it.

• Example: She named her dog  Benji .

Appositive:  immediately follows another to add more information.

• Example: Her dog,  Benji , is black.

Modifier:  acts as an  adjective  to modify another noun.

• Example: A  black  dog.

Phrase or Clause?

In addition to your run of the mill single naming words, you can also use a noun clause or phrase to name or identify a person, object, thing, place or idea. A phrase has a naming word as its head word but may also include other kinds of words. For example:

• Head word  — car/cars
• Determiner  — My car
• Determiner and adjective  — My red car
• Quantifier  — Some cars
• Quantifier and adjective  — Some red cars
• In a sentence  —  My red car  is very old. ( My red car  is the phrase that identifies which car we are talking about.)

Caution! Don’t confuse a phrase with a compound, i.e., two or more words together to create a stand-alone common or proper noun with a meaning of its own (more on compounds later!). A clause is a dependent clause (doesn’t make sense alone) that performs the naming function in a sentence. It usually contains a subject and a verb, but may not necessarily contain a naming word. For example:

This weekend we can do  whatever you want .

Types of Nouns List

There are multiple types of naming words to get a grip on, and plenty of crossovers between categories too—just to keep things interesting! For example:

• You can have a mass, abstract, common name.
• Or a singular, concrete, proper, compound, or possessive name (phew!).

Don’t worry! This should become clearer as we work through the different categories in turn. If you’d like to do some more in-depth reading on the subject, you can  find more info  online.

Singular or Plural

You can have singular or plural nouns, with regulars keeping things nice and simple with the addition of  s  or  es .

• Car — cars
• Book – books
• Zoo — zoos
• Box — boxes
• Dish — dishes
• Hero — heroes

However, there are lots of rule-breaking irregulars thrown into the mix to complicate matters.

• Man — men
• Person — people
• Sheep — sheep
• Elf — elves
• Fish — fish
• City — cities

Concrete vs Abstract

As noted earlier, these debate-sparking naming words can be difficult things to define. So it can help to think of them as either concrete or abstract. Concrete nouns are the simpler of the two. They’re tangible things that can be detected by the senses. For example:

• You can touch, see and smell a  flower .
• You can hold a  pencil .
• You can see your friend  Emily .

Abstract nouns are far trickier to pin down—both literally and metaphorically speaking!

• You can’t hold  anger  or  space  or  childhood .

However, some people might argue that you can identify some abstracts with your senses. For example:

• You can see an expression of  anger .
• You can sense  fresh air .

So it might be more helpful to think of them as something that you can’t physically hold, i.e., concepts, ideas, experiences, qualities and feelings.

Can You Count It?

Naming words can either be  count  or  noncount . Count type doesn’t tend to give you much trouble—they’re, as the name suggests, something that can be counted. Noncount type (also known as mass nouns), however, are a whole different ball game! These rebellious words are definitely the evil twin of the two, as they defy several of the usual rules of grammar and, if you’re not careful, can cause chaos and confusion. Count:  something that can be counted, e.g.,  books, people, cars. Simple! Noncount (Mass):  something that can’t be counted (often because it’s an abstract concept), e.g.,  air, red, peace.  Or an aggregation of people or things that are lumped together as a whole, like  luggage, information,  or  salt. Not quite so simple! Caution! Be careful not to confuse noncounts with collectives, words which are used to name a collection of people or things (e.g.,  group, herd, bundle ). An easy way to test whether a word is noncount or collective is:

• Noncounts don’t follow indefinite articles ( a  and  an ).
• Noncounts don’t  usually  have a plural form.

For example, you don’t have  a luggage  or  luggages .

An Awkward Bunch

Despite the fact that they often represent an aggregation of people or things, noncounts can be a rather anti-social and awkward word type! They like to stand alone, without an indefinite article:

Music  can help you relax.

Not ‘ a music  can help you relax.’

I sprinkled  salt  on my food.

Not ‘I sprinkled  a salt  on my food.’ However, they can sit nicely with a  determiner  or quantifier instead.

• Determiner  —  The music  was loud.
• Quantifier  — I sprinkled  some salt  on my food.

In fact, some quantifiers only work with noncounts. For example:

• A little  salt
• Not much  information
• A bit of  music

However, we would never say:

• A little  books
• Not much  cars
• A bit of  flowers

The Singular or Plural Conundrum

Another quirk of the noncount is that, even when it represents an aggregation or group of things, it can still count as singular for grammatical purposes. For example:

The  luggage  is  heavy.  It  filled the trunk of the car. This  information  is  useful.  It  has helped me with my paper.

Even if a noncount appears to take a plural form with an  s  on the end, don’t be fooled! It may still be classed as grammatically singular. For example:

Politics  is a  difficult  subject  to study. I find  it  hard to grasp. The  news  is  on at 10 pm.  It’s  on for an hour.

On the flip side, some noncounts are grammatically plural. For example:

My  clothes  are  wet. The  scissors  are  sharp. His  manners  were  fantastic.

However, these go against the grain of plurals by not mixing well with numbers—we never say five clothes or six scissors!

Enumerating a Noncount

These awkward noncounts on the whole don’t mix well with numbers, although there are sneaky tactics that you can sometimes employ to enumerate them. These include:

• Grammatically plural  — if concrete, add  a pair of , e.g., a pair of  scissors .
• Grammatically singular  — if concrete, add  a piece of , e.g., a piece of  cutlery .
• Singular and plural  — both concrete and abstract noncounts can be enumerated by adding an indefinite adjective (quantifier), e.g.,  any, some, less, much .

For example:

• Pass me  some  cutlery .
• I don’t have  any  scissors .
• It contains  more  information .

Fewer vs Less

A quick note on fewer versus less as these are indefinite adjectives (quantifiers) that often trip people up!

• Fewer  — used for count type, e.g., I have  fewer   books  than Sarah.
• Less  — used for non-count type, e.g., I have  less   money  than Sarah.

Good and Proper

A proper noun is used to name very specific people, places, things and ideas. As their ‘proper’ title suggests, they’re formal names and, as such, deserve capitalization. Examples include:

• People  —  Sarah, Jack, Mrs. Smith, Prince George, Father Brown, Beethoven
• Specific places  —  America, Europe, Paris, George Street, Roman Empire, Times Square
• Natural and man-made landmarks  —  River Nile, Central Park, Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, Mount Etna
• Religions and related words  —  Christianity, The Bible, God, Allah, Buddhism
• Races and nationalities  —  African American, Russian, White, Eskimo, Japanese
• Languages  —  French, Spanish, Chinese, English
• Periods in history  —  Stone Age, Middle Ages
• Events  —  Olympic Games, Coachella, Wimbledon, Rio Carnaval, Oktoberfest
• Days, months and holidays  —  Sunday, Friday, June, October, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day  (note that the seasons are, somewhat contentiously, classed as common)
• Organizations, charities and businesses  —  New York Police Department (NYPD), Harvard University, Microsoft, Red Cross, Walmart, Forbes
• Product brand names  —  Tresemme, Adidas, Apple, Coca-Cola
• Well-known documents and acts  —  Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Magna Carta, Slavery Abolition Act 1833
• Names of specific things and works  —  Hope Diamond, Mona Lisa, Symphony No. 5, Star Wars, War and Peace
• Titles of publications and courses  —  The Washington Post, Introduction to Computer Science
• They can be singular  —  Sally, Australia, Picasso, iPad
• Or plural  —  the Smiths, the Rockies, the Americas, two iPads

From Proper to Common

Sometimes, they bend the rules to put themselves into a ‘common’ context. For example:

I made a mistake of  Titanic  proportions.

This is taken to mean a big mistake and isn’t literally referencing the Titanic ship.

I’m an  Einstein  when it comes to science.

Here Einstein is taken to mean a person who is smart, rather than referencing the man himself specifically. Similarly, over time, some have developed common ‘spin-off’ words. For example:

• Famous porcelain from   China  — a china cup (note, not a China cup)
• Coca-Cola  — coke (to describe a generic cola drink, not necessarily the Coca-Cola brand)

The Humble Common Noun

Common nouns  give a name to a general type of person, thing, object, place, concept or feeling. They’re not ‘formal’ names and, as such, they don’t demand capitalization. Examples include:

• People  —  man, woman, girl, boy, vicar, teacher, children
• Places  —  city, beach, library, street, garden
• Things  —  tiger, leg, sleep, beard
• Objects  —  watch, cake, shoe, ball
• Concepts  —  peace, justice, talent, religion
• Feelings  —  anger, joy, love, envy

In many cases, both a common and proper noun can be applied to the same thing. For example:

• A  Baby Ruth  (proper) is a  chocolate bar  (common).
• Rihanna  (proper) is a popular  singer  (common) in the US.
• Mrs. Smith  (proper) is a  teacher  (common).
• Benji  (proper) is a  dog  (common).
• The  Nile  (proper) is a  river  (common).

Of course, you can define proper noun words as having a far narrower application as they can only apply to one very specific thing. Common noun examples have a much wider application—hence their label as ‘common’! For example:

There are thousands of  singers  (common) in the world, but there’s only one  Taylor Swift (proper).

When a Commoner Becomes Proper

Occasionally, a commoner can move up the ranks to become proper—gaining that all-important capitalization along the way. This usually happens when a word becomes synonymous over time with a very specific type of thing. For example, a  parka jacket  depicts a type of long, all-weather coat. But you could argue that the term  Parka  is so synonymous with a very specific type of jacket that it should be classed as proper. This is definitely one for the grammar experts to slog out between themselves!

Getting Possessive

Possessive nouns are usually followed by another naming word, indicating that the second thing ‘belongs’ to the first. There are different ways to indicate this possession, depending on the word in question. These can become confusing, so let’s look at them in turn. Singular possessives  are usually indicated with ‘s. For example:

• the  girl’s  coat
• Emma’s  car
• the  city’s  main landmark

As are  plural possessives  that don’t end in  s . For example:

• the  men’s  bathroom
• children’s  toys

In the case of a  plural possessive  that ends in  s , you simply need to add an  apostrophe (‘). For example:

• the  girls’  coats
• the  Smiths’  house
• the  tigers’  pen
• the  computers’  manufacturer

When we come to  singular possessives  that end in  s , the waters get a little bit muddier. The most popular method used to form a singular possessive is to add  ‘s , as detailed above. For example:

• James’s  book
• the  bus’s  engine

However, just adding the  apostrophe  is also commonly accepted. For example:

• James’  book
• the  bus’  engine

The Importance of the Apostrophe

You’ll notice that subtle differences in your sentence structure can completely alter its meaning, so it’s important to get your grammar on point. For example:

• the girl’s coat  — belonging to one particular girl
• the girls’ coat  — a coat designed to be worn by a girl
• the girl’s coats  — more than one coat belonging to one particular girl)
• the girls’ coats  — a group of coats belonging to a group of girls

If you find yourself struggling to figure out where the apostrophe needs to go, why not run a free grammar check on your essay with EasyBib Plus? You can also use EasyBib.com to help cite the sources that you use when conducting  research  and writing your papers . The handy online tool can create citations in the popular APA and  MLA format , plus  more styles  including Chicago/Turabian. Simply find out which style of citation you need to use (ask your professor or lecturer) and let EasyBib Plus help you create them the easy way.

A Blessing of Unicorns

A collective noun is a name given to a collection or group of things. Although they represent more than one, they are usually classed as grammatically singular (in American English). For example:

• The  pride  of lions made  its  way to water.
• The  cast  of actors collected  its  award.
• The  class  of students  was  dismissed early.

They can often stand-alone, if the context makes it clear what collection or group of things is being referred to. For example:

• We followed the  herd  on safari.
• I got the  cast  to sign my autograph book.
• The  class  went on its field trip.

But be careful with this, as they can be used to represent very different things. For example:

• flock  of tourists  or  flock  of birds  **  cluster  of spiders* or  cluster  of stars

So saying “I stared open-mouthed at the  cluster  before me” could have two very different meanings—you might be staring in wonder or staring in horror! Some collective nouns have developed a more general or colloquial meaning. For example, you get a  bunch  of flowers or a  bunch  of bananas. However,  bunch  is also used more generally to denote ‘several’ or ‘lots’. For example:

• I saw a  bunch  of people that I knew.
• Thanks a  bunch .

Kooky Collectives

Collectives are one of the quirkiest word types in the English language and include some unusual naming words. For instance, it’s difficult to imagine where the examples below came from. For example:

• A  shiver  of sharks
• A  quiver  of cobras
• A  blush  of boys
• A  disguising  of tailors
• A  drunkship  of cobblers
• A  worship  of writers
• A  nest  of rumors

Friendly Compounds

Compound nouns consist of two or more words that have come together to form a new word with its own meaning. These are words that have decided they don’t want to stand-alone—they can work better together with another word! Both proper and common words can be compounded, and within these compounds are three sub-types. Proper

• Closed  —  PlayStation, YouTube
• Hyphenated  —  Coca-Cola, Chick-fil-A
• Open Spaced  —  New York, Ritz Carlton Hotel
• Closed  —  football, textbook
• Hyphenated  —  mother-in-law, well-being
• Open Spaced  —  bus stop, swimming pool

Wal-Mart Or Walmart?

Fun fact! Some popular brands have dropped their hyphens in recent years. For example, Wal-Mart switched to Walmart in 2009. This could possibly be because hyphenated domain names can cause issues for a brand’s online presence. Brands now have a whole host of digital considerations that simply weren’t on the table when they first decided on a name.

The Pronoun Takeover

While both concrete and abstract noun words are undeniably super useful and essential parts of the English language, they can be a bit much at times. Especially when you’re referring to the same thing several times in a sentence or section. For example:

Sally  loves  Fanta .  Sally  drinks  Fanta  every day.

This is where pronouns come in handy. These often small but ever so mighty words have the power to replace names and make your sentences flow much better. For example:

Sally  loves  Fanta .  She  drinks  it  every day.

This works for both proper and common types.

• The  Empire State Building  (proper) is very tall.  It  stands at 443m.
• Sally  (proper) loves  chocolate  (common).  She  eats  some  every day.
• My  dog  (common) has a red  ball  (common).  He  likes to chase  it .

The antecedent nouns give a reference point for the pronouns.

Is I a Noun or a Pronoun?

Commonly used ‘people’ pronouns include  he, she, me, his  and  hers . However, there’s some debate as to the word  I . While  I  is commonly accepted as a first person  pronoun , it may not follow the usual antecedent rule. For example, if you were Sally, you wouldn’t write:

Sally  loves Fanta.  I  drink it every day.

Instead you’d simply write:

I  love Fanta.  I  drink it every day.

I  is also classed as a naming word in the following contexts:

• I  — the name of a letter of the alphabet.
• I  — the subject or object of self-consciousness, i.e. the ego.

This guide should hopefully have answered lots of naming word questions for you, such as ‘what is a possessive noun?’, but if you’re still struggling you can  learn more here . The list of nouns can be difficult to remember, for the simple fact that there are so many different categories and variations of these naming words. People, objects, places, ideas and feelings are things that don’t seem to have much in common—yet they all have names, which lumps them grammatically into the same (very large!) category.

Grammar Help is Here!

If you’d like to check your grammar, EasyBib Plus can help. Simply upload your paper and let EasyBib Plus do the hard work! You can also use the EasyBib Plus  plagiarism checker  to ensure that you’ve cited your sources. We have other grammar pages besides this one, too. Check out two tricky parts of speech:  conjunction  and  interjection . Use the handy online toolkit at EasyBib Plus to check for unintentional plagiarism and grammatical errors, and feel more confident that you won’t drop unnecessary marks on avoidable mistakes.

Nouns starting with A-Z

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Social Media Broke Slang. Now We All Speak Phone.

The irony: Online is where we most need the identity cues that idiosyncratic language used to provide.

Listen to this article

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

It was on the social-media platform some call X that I first encountered the slang term tea , an expression that originated in Black drag culture to mean “ gossip ” or “secret biographical information”—as in, “She said she didn’t get fillers, but her boyfriend spilled the tea.” Tea was common parlance on Twitter by at least the Trump administration. At some point in the past year, however, people started saying body tea, a noun phrase meaning “physical hotness.” This usage was apparently derived from a misreading of the influencer Queen Opp’s remark : “Her body tea, she’s super thick, she’s super pretty.” Queen Opp elided the verb to be from a declarative clause, which viewers seem to have misinterpreted, taking “her body [is] tea” to mean “[she has] body tea.” Body tea as a noun has since become so popular that it threatens to eclipse the original usage. An expression that once had a narrow meaning within a specific subculture has drifted toward meaning “good”—a flattening that is the final destination of all slang terms that spread too far too fast.

As a middle-aged heterosexual, I shouldn’t know any of this stuff. While I think of myself as cool and relevant, objectively there is no reason I should understand any slang term that originated after the final season of Workaholics . But I live under unnatural conditions—conditions dictated by social media and its delivery system, the smartphone. Like most internet users with access to X, Instagram, TikTok, and so forth, I routinely spend two to 22 hours a day competing in a metered popularity contest that rewards, among other things, whoever can deviate the furthest from standard English and still be understood. If the slang that emerges from these deviations excludes anyone, it should exclude me. And yet I comprehend it with terrifying clarity.

Because social media gives me access to conversations among people of all ages, from every place and subculture, I am exposed to a virtual fire hose of slang. The discourse that produces new slang is not only publicly available online, but also amplified based on its ability to attract attention from outside its original context. We all stand before this fire hose now, and some of it gets in our mouths. The situation has created a language crisis, in which Americans of all types and backgrounds use expressions of every provenance, destroying the power of slang to perform its basic function: to signal membership in a group.

The incentives imposed by social media to develop and use slang are, of course, not new. Middle schools, skate parks, barracks, gay bars, locker rooms, and various music scenes have operated on the slang-for-esteem model for generations. But these milieus differ from social media in one crucial way: The wrong people cannot get in. In real life, I do not learn how teenagers talk, because whenever I drift by, they fall silent and glare at me. On social media, there is no such exclusion. Thirty-five-year-olds hear the slang of teenagers, college students are privy to the language of the urban underclass, and advertising consultants learn how to talk like self-diagnosed anxiety shut-ins. As a result, how someone talks is no longer a reliable indicator of where they’re coming from. The irony is that social media—the disembodied online spaces where what we post becomes the entirety of who we are—is where we most need the identity cues that slang used to provide.

These cues are an essential part of life offline, if only at a subconscious level. If I’m in a crowd and someone addresses us collectively, I immediately start assessing that person’s background and orientation based on whether they say “ladies and gentlemen,” “you guys,” or “y’all.” These assessments depend on a whole mess of associations and shifting cultural currents of which I am imperfectly but also instinctively aware—associations that are felt more than considered but nonetheless specific and up-to-date.

Read: The most fun way to learn a language

The valence of any given expression is constantly changing—for instance, the dramatic shift since 2008 in what kind of person says “folks.” Folks was a word used almost exclusively by older rural people until the Obama administration, when the president used it relentlessly . Folks subsequently became so popular with politicians, HR supervisors, and others who professionally reassure the hoi polloi that it is now, perversely, one of the strongest signs of membership in the professional managerial class. When Obama said “folks,” he sent the message that, although he was a graduate of Harvard Law School, a senator, and the kind of hyper-ambitious professional who becomes a candidate for president, he was also a salt-of-the-earth type who spoke the language of farmers and Dolly Parton. He was folksy .

One term for this kind of implied message is exformation . The word has different definitions in different fields, but we will define it for our purposes as David Foster Wallace did in a July 1998 essay for Harper’s Magazine : as information conveyed about the speaker that is not explicit in the content of the speech.

Exformation communicated by slang is a way for strangers to efficiently understand whom they are talking with and where they’re from, based on whether they use double negatives or say “man” versus “bro,” “that rules” versus “that owns,” “pot” versus “weed,” “cool” versus “lit.” Exformation is also a way to announce your identification with other people. When I see old friends from whom I have been separated by time and distance greater than I imagined I could bear, and I say, “What’s up, sluts?,” I could be taken to mean, in the literal sense, that I am greeting them and condemning their past sexual behavior. But at the level of exformation, I am conveying a whole parcel of unspoken ideas about our relationship, our shared cultural consumption , and my perspective on it. The basic premise of exformation is that there’s what you say and there’s how you say it, and they are in scope and function as the ground is to the sky.

Read: Why AI doesn’t get slang

Social media, however, has standardized our language to the point that exformation has become endangered. For the past 10 years, the English language’s wealth of previously exformative, subcultural slang has dispersed into a single, universal argot that is simply Phone. Hence the destruction of tea as a useful expression. It used to be a fun word that implied knowledge of a whole social realm to which most of us are not privy, and then it became a built-in Twitter GIF that told you only that the person using it knew what the GIF button did. Now anyone who uses tea in conversation might give you information—but exformatively, all they’re telling you about themselves is that they’ve been racking up a lot of screen time.

In the absence of distinctive subcultural expressions, social media has become full of empty slang. The locution the way , used at the beginning of a declarative statement—for example, “the way I never thought I would be 46”—makes that statement less formal and therefore less intense but otherwise adds no informative or exformative meaning. The comparably empty “ It’s giving [noun/adjective]” at least turns a sentence fragment into a complete thought—allowing me to respond to a photo of the Tesla Cybertruck with “It’s giving DeLorean” instead of simply blurting out “DeLorean!” like a caveman—but in a potentially insidious way that encourages us to think in vague, unspecified connections, at the level of vibes .

Read: The origin of vibes

Vibes , it seems to me, is the worst offender in the category of slang expressions that help us think less instead of more, a cliché that releases the pressure on language and keeps vaporous thoughts from coalescing into anything solid at all. Everyone online says “vibes” now —college students and corporate bureaucrats and The New York Times (and The Atlantic !) alike.

This mass outbreak of exformation-free slang is a problem because it deprives people of a previously reliable way to know whom they’re talking with and how to treat them. If I hear someone make a remark about the first Velvet Underground album with which I strongly disagree, I am more likely to respond kindly if I know they come from a background different from my own. If a stranger on Twitter says that Nico had pitch problems, I am much more likely to tear into them if they speak the way I do, because I assume they have the cultural experiences, education, and resources that brought me to my own extremely correct opinions. When everyone talks like me, I make the mistake of believing that everyone is like me—and therefore falls into the category of people whom I cut the least slack.

The slangs that I grew up with—the skater expressions I adopted even though I never ollied , the Spanish lingo we learned from Blood In, Blood Out and were just worldly enough to realize we shouldn’t use, the East Coast and SoCal expressions that kept new kids at our school from successfully buying drugs—all these clues I spent years learning to interpret have burned up in the wildfire spread of Phone. The crisis in American slang is that we grasp what everyone is saying so well that we think we know one another, when in fact we understand less and less.

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• What Is a Pronoun? | Definition, Types & Examples

What Is a Pronoun? | Definition, Types & Examples

Published on October 17, 2022 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on March 2, 2023.

A pronoun is a word that stands in for a noun , often to avoid the need to repeat the same noun over and over. Like nouns, pronouns can refer to people, things, concepts, and places. Most sentences contain at least one noun or pronoun.

People tend to use “pronouns” to mean personal pronouns specifically, but there are many other kinds of pronouns that are just as important to English grammar. The words highlighted in bold below are all pronouns.

It might rain tomorrow, but there isn’t much we can do about that .

These are the days that I like best.

Table of contents

How are pronouns used in sentences, pronouns vs. nouns, pronouns vs. determiners, personal pronouns (first-, second-, and third-person).

• Demonstrative pronouns
• Interrogative pronouns
• Relative pronouns
• Indefinite pronouns
• Reciprocal pronouns
• Dummy pronouns (expletives)

Other interesting language articles

Frequently asked questions.

The main function of pronouns is to replace nouns. Because of this, they are used in sentences in similar ways to nouns.

Like nouns, pronouns commonly serve as the subject of a sentence, followed by a verb (a word expressing an action).

We have never been to Germany before.

A pronoun can also function as the object in a sentence—either a direct or indirect object:

• The direct object is something or someone that is directly acted upon by the verb.
• The indirect object is someone or something that receives the direct object.

Can you promise her this ? Note A noun phrase is a noun or pronoun in combination with any determiners applied to it. Despite the name, noun phrases can just as well consist of pronouns as of nouns.

Pronoun antecedents

The antecedent of a pronoun is the noun that it refers back to. It’s usually mentioned in the text before the pronoun, but sometimes it comes just after it in a sentence. The antecedent may also be something the person you’re speaking to said. Pronoun-antecedent agreement means ensuring that the pronoun you use matches its antecedent in number, person, and gender.

As they debated the point, the students became increasingly animated.

Person A: What do you think of Julian ?

When you use any type of pronoun, it’s important to ensure that the antecedent is clear and unambiguous. If there is any ambiguity, use the noun instead. For example, below, “it” would be unclear, as it could refer to either the interview or the test.

• After the interview and the written test were completed, it was checked for incomplete answers.
• After the interview and the written test were completed, the test was checked for incomplete answers.

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While pronouns constitute a relatively small class of words that tends not to change over time, nouns are a much broader class that is constantly expanding. Like pronouns, nouns refer to things, people, places, and concepts, but they do so with much greater specificity.

Like pronouns, nouns can function as the head of a noun phrase and as the object or subject of a verb . A complete sentence may consist of just a noun and a verb (“Jeremy spoke.”), just as it could of a pronoun and a verb (“He spoke.”).

Unlike pronouns, nouns are fixed in form—they don’t change spellings depending on their grammatical role in a sentence. For example, while the third-person masculine pronoun “he” becomes “him” when used as an object, the noun “man” doesn’t change.

Many pronouns are closely related to determiners, being spelled similarly (or identically) and expressing related meanings. For example, possessive pronouns like “yours” are closely related to possessive determiners like “your”; and demonstrative pronouns like “that” are identical to the demonstrative determiners.

The grammatical distinction between the two is that pronouns stand on their own as the subject or object of a verb, whereas determiners are only used to modify nouns, not acting as subjects or objects in their own right.

Personal pronouns are words like “he” that refer to yourself, the person you’re addressing, or other people and things. They usually refer to an antecedent but may occur without one when the reference is self-evident (e.g., “I” always refers to the person saying or writing it).

Personal pronouns can change their form based on:

• Person ( first- , second- , or third-person )
• Number (singular or plural)
• Gender (masculine, feminine, neuter, or epicene)
• Case ( subject , object , possessive , or reflexive / intensive )

The impersonal pronoun “one” is used in general statements about no particular person. It has fewer forms than the personal pronouns but is otherwise used in the same way.

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The four demonstrative pronouns ( this , that , these , and those ) are used to indicate something previously mentioned or, in conversation, something that is clear from the context. For example, in the sentence “Take this,” “this” has no explicit antecedent, but it would be clear in context that it referred to whatever object you were being given.

The demonstrative pronouns give information about the relative closeness (literal or figurative) of the things they refer to, especially when they’re contrasted with each other:

• The “near” demonstrative this (singular) or these (plural) indicates something close to you.
• The “far” demonstrative that (singular) or those (plural) indicates something farther from you.

Interrogative pronouns are used (along with other types of interrogative words) to introduce questions. The interrogative pronouns are:

• What and which , used to ask questions about things
• Who and whom , used to ask about people
• Whose , used to ask about ownership

What were your favorite classes at school?

A relative pronoun is used to introduce a relative clause—a phrase that usually supplies more information about the preceding noun. They have a lot in common with interrogative pronouns. The relative pronouns are:

• Which(ever) , that , and what(ever) , used in relation to things
• Who(ever) and whom(ever) , used in relation to people
• Whose , used to indicate ownership

Relative pronouns are often omitted in practice (e.g., “the book [that] I read”). There’s nothing wrong with doing this as long as it doesn’t create ambiguity.

It doesn’t matter whose it was; it’s ours now!

Indefinite pronouns are words like “somebody” that refer to an unspecified person or thing. Many of them are formed using some combination of some- , any- , every- , or no- with -thing , -one , -where , or -body .

There are also various indefinite pronouns used to describe quantity, such as “little,” “many,” “none,” and “enough.” And there are distributive pronouns like “neither” and “each” that allow you to distinguish between options.

The impersonal pronoun “one” can also be regarded as indefinite.

No one likes him, and he doesn’t like anyone .

Some are born lucky, while others have to work hard for everything they get.

Reciprocal pronouns are used to indicate a reciprocal relationship between two people or things, where the members of a group each perform the same action relative to the other(s). The English reciprocal pronouns are each other and one another .

Some writers claim that “each other” should only be used to refer to groups of two and “one another” to groups of three or more. But this distinction is rejected by most style guides and not borne out in practice; you can use the two interchangeably.

A dummy pronoun (also called an expletive ) is a pronoun that doesn’t have any explicit meaning but is necessary to the sentence structure . Unlike other pronouns, dummy pronouns don’t actually replace a noun.

The two words used as dummy pronouns in English are it and there . Note that both words can also fulfill other grammatical roles. Dummy pronouns are commonly used to talk about the weather, to emphasize certain elements in a sentence, or to introduce the existence of something.

There are thousands of different species of birds in the world.

If you want to know more about nouns , pronouns, verbs , and other parts of speech , make sure to check out some of our other language articles with explanations and examples.

Nouns & pronouns

• Common nouns
• Proper nouns
• Collective nouns
• Personal pronouns
• Uncountable and countable nouns
• Verb tenses
• Phrasal verbs
• Types of verbs
• Active vs passive voice
• Subject-verb agreement
• Interjections
• Determiners
• Prepositions

The term preferred pronouns is used to mean the (third-person) personal pronouns a person identifies with and would like to be referred to by. People usually state the subject and object pronoun (e.g., “she/her”) but may also include the possessive (e.g., “she/her/hers”).

Most people go by the masculine “he/him,” the feminine “she/her,” the gender-neutral singular “they/them,” or some combination of these. There are also neopronouns used to express nonbinary gender identity, such as “xe/xem.” These are less common than the singular “they.”

The practice of stating one’s preferred pronouns (e.g., in a professional context or on a social media profile) is meant to promote inclusion for transgender and gender-nonconforming people. The first- and second-person pronouns (“I” and “you”) are not included, since they’re the same for everyone.

A pronoun is a word that stands in for a noun. Like nouns, pronouns refer to people, things, concepts, or places. Most sentences contain at least one noun or pronoun.

A pronoun can serve as the subject or object in a sentence, and it will usually refer back (or sometimes forward) to an antecedent—the noun that the pronoun stands in for. Pronouns are used to avoid the need to repeat the same nouns over and over.

Pronouns can be categorized into many types, all of which are very commonly used in English:

• Subject and object pronouns
• Possessive pronouns
• Reflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns
• Impersonal pronouns

Pronouns are words like “I,” “she,” and “they” that are used in a similar way to nouns . They stand in for a noun that has already been mentioned or refer to yourself and other people.

Pronouns can function just like nouns as the head of a noun phrase and as the subject or object of a verb . However, pronouns change their forms (e.g., from “I” to “me”) depending on the grammatical context they’re used in, whereas nouns usually don’t.

Sources in this article

We strongly encourage students to use sources in their work. You can cite our article (APA Style) or take a deep dive into the articles below.

Caulfield, J. (2023, March 02). What Is a Pronoun? | Definition, Types & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved June 24, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/nouns-and-pronouns/pronouns/

Aarts, B. (2011).  Oxford modern English grammar . Oxford University Press.

Butterfield, J. (Ed.). (2015).  Fowler’s dictionary of modern English usage  (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Garner, B. A. (2016).  Garner’s modern English usage (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.

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