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Basic Nouns

The gortch rocks

We have said what a subject is, though we'll have to refine our definition later, but what is a noun? By this time you should not be surprised to hear that a noun is a word which regularly serves certain functions in a sentence. One good answer, then, is that a noun is a single word which can be the subject of a sentence. There are some other functions usually served by a noun or a phrase headed by a noun.

Identifying a "Noun" by Nominal Functions. In addition to serving as the subject of a verb, as in our test sentence (1), a noun is a word that can be an object of a verb, as in sentence (2). Some nouns need a word like the in front of them to be used in either way, so we'll stick in a parenthetical the or two:

(1) (The) _____________ will be here.
(2) I hate (the) _______________.

Nouns can also serve as the objects of a special class of words called prepositions. We are not ready to discuss them yet, but we can use them in a sentence to test possible nouns:

(3) I am afraid of ____________

You will see at once that grammar can fill all of these blanks with no problem at all, with or without a "the" in front. Because these subject and object positions are usually filled by nouns, they are called nominal functions, and other expressions which can serve these functions are called nominals when they are doing so.

Identifying a "Noun" by Inflections. As with verbs, we can also identify nouns by the endings they can take. Nouns can generally be inflected for number. What we think of as the basic form of a noun is its singular form, but nouns can also be plural, usually by adding -s or -es. A few nouns have irregular plurals, and a handful show no change at all:

(4) one grammar, many grammars
(5) one guess, many guesses
(6) one child, many children
(7) one mouse, many mice
(8) one deer, many deer
A noun can also be inflected for the possessive, usually by adding an apostrophe and an "s." Although spelled differently, in speech this is the same ending as for the plural, another example of how economical English can be--and how hard for non-native speakers
(9) Grammar's problem is being boring.
There are quite a few word-endings which also help us identify nouns but these are much less reliable than the tests we have just mentioned. You will probably be able to think of other nouns which have the same endings as these:
(10) citizenship
(11) government
(12) innovation
(13) velocity

Pronouns. There is also a special set of words called pronouns, which take the place of nouns and refer to them. We'll talk more about them later, but we should note that they also have plural and possessive forms, though they are not inflected in the same way as most nouns. We can use them, in fact, to help define nouns. A noun would be a single word which could answer a question like (14), which uses the pronoun it:

(14) Who or what is it?
Or we could say that a noun is what we would refer to as "someone" or "something," though I myself usually use "whatsthename" or "thingamajig," which are not pronouns but other nouns, if they are legitimate words at all.

Proper and Common Nouns. The category of noun can be subdivided in various ways, some of which we'll take up later. One common distinction is between proper and common nouns. If you try to think of other single nouns that can make a sentence with rocks or stinks without having a word like the in front of them, a lot of them are probably going to be names of persons or places, giving you sentences like these:

(15) George rocks.
(16) France stinks
Coming up with a lot of names makes sense. One of the traditional definitions for a noun, in fact, is that it is the name of "a person, place, or thing."

Nouns that give the names or titles of individual things are called proper nouns, and singular proper nouns can make a sentence by themselves with a verb like stinks. In English, we capitalize proper nouns, even in their adjectival form (e.g. "English"). Most nouns are common nouns and should only be capitalized at the beginning of sentences. Contemporary writers who write about "the Truth" should probably be avoided. Internet writers who describe themselves as "SeXy aND sASSy" should certainly be avoided. Watch out for words which can be used both ways--for example, to refer to a title or a direction and to refer to individual people and places:

(13) He became a company president.
(14) The President visited our town.
(15) We walked south toward the bank.
(16) He comes from the South

Exercise 1: Proper vs. Common Nouns

In the sentences below, identify the nouns which can or do function as proper nouns, and say which are being used as proper nouns in these sentences, and say how they are functioning in the sentence:
1.01 They have a house by the Pacific.
1.02 We get a lot of traffic here on a Sunday.
1.03 Put not your trust in princes.
1.04 He is a bush league Howard Stern.
1.05 Tim McGraw sang that song real purty.
1.06 He's a cross between a Russell Crowe and a Jim Carrey.
1.07 He went to a high school full of Britneys.
1.08 I'll see you Thursday.
1.09 He's speaking at the Student Union tonight.
1.10 We spent spring break in Cozumel.

Derivational Affixes as Clues. As with verbs, there are certain endings which are used to make other kinds of words into nouns. The verb govern, for example, becomes the noun government when we add the -ment, which is also used with many other verbs. As readers, we use such endings as clues to what kind of word we are dealing with when we encounter new words that are not in our regular vocabulary.

How Much of This Will be on the Test?
This section has been mainly devoted to learning how do identify nouns by meaning, by inflections, and by sentence functions served. You should now be able to identify four kinds of parts of speech--nouns, verbs, intensifying adverbs, and interjections. We need to talk a bit more about pronouns.You should also be able to tell whether a given noun is serving as a common noun or as a proper noun which should be capitalized.