What is Noun with Examples

The noun is the name of something. The 'Noun' means name. Everything has a name. What has a name is a noun.  Anything around us is a noun.

For example, book, table, computer, pen, paper, Catherine,  John, New York, USA, laughter, pain, thought etc.

Yes, what we think or feel with our senses are also nouns. Even the word ' Noun' itself is a noun because it is the name of a part of speech. Similarly, the other parts of speech like the pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction are also nouns.

Basically,we see nouns in the form of person, place and things. 

Person:  Harry Potter, William Shakespeare,  Bill Gates, 

Place: London, England, World

Things:   Pencil, car, Shirt

But, all the nouns don't fall into the category of person, place or things. 

In fact, what feel with our mind or senses are also nouns.

For example, laughter, pain, joy etc.

For example, usefulness, clarity, introduction.

Again, there are also nouns that we can form by adding suffixes with other parts of speech, mostly, adjective, verb, and adverb.

In this way, we can identify many nouns by the suffix or ending of the words.

How to identify nouns by the ending of the words.

Nouns have typical suffixes. For example, 

-ment. Excite+ment= Excitement, similarly, encouragement, procurement, establishment

-ness  weak+mess=weakness, similarly, fitness, stubbornness, cleanliness.

-tion introduce+tion=introduction, similarly, action, examination, function.

-ty human+ity=humanity, similarly, purity, insanity,  curiosity, generosity.

-sion conclude+sion= conclusion, similarly,expansion, fusion, illusion.

Also, we can find nouns in a sentence by their position

How to find a noun by the position of a word in a sentence.

A noun can act like a subject, object and compliment.

Noun as a subject of a Verb:

a.Serena plays tennis.

b.London is a city.

c.The car was running fast.

Here, the words Serena, London, Car all are subjects of the verbs 'plays', 'is' and 'was running' respectively and so, they are all nouns.

These subject nouns come at the beginning of a sentence.

Noun as an object of a Verb:

If we ask the  'transitive verb' of a sentence by 'What' or 'Whom' and find an answer to these questions, then we have an object.

What is a transitive verb? The verb that takes an object to complete its meaning is called a transitive verb. For example, if  I say, ‘Serena plays,’ it does not complete the meaning of the sentence. So, ‘Serena plays tennis’ makes complete sense, and therefore, the verb ‘plays’ is a transitive verb because it takes an object ‘ tennis’ to complete its meaning.

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For example,

Serena plays tennis.

What does Serena play? Answer: tennis.

So, 'tennis' is the object of the verb 'play'.

Let us take another example:

We all love our parents.

Whom do we love? Answer: parents.

So, ' parents' is the object of the verb 'love'

Noun As a complement of a Verb:

In the following example: 

Ravi is going to market.

What or whom is Ravi going?

Answer: nil

So, there is no object. 

But, what is the function of the word 'market'?

Actually, the word 'market' is a compliment. 

So, Noun can also act as a complement also.

What is a Complement? A Complement is something that is needed to complete the meaning of a sentence or expression.

Conclusion:

Nouns are the easiest of the parts of speech we can single out. It will be easier if we classify the nouns, such as proper nouns, common nouns, collective nouns, material nouns and abstract nouns.

We will discuss them in our next lesson.