A noun is a word that functions as the name of a person or some specific thing, objects, places, actions, qualities or ideas. Generally, noun refers to a person (such as John or doctor), a place (such as Paris or city) or a thing, a quality or an activity.
The word ‘NOUN’ came from Latin ‘nōmen‘, which in literally means “name”.
Noun examples sentences
- Rajib is a scholar student.
- Her beauty pleased all.
- The school has a good cricket team.
- My brother lives in Australia.
- Albert Einstein was born in Germany.
- We enjoy the drama after dinner.
- Honesty is the best policy.
- A herd of cows is seen in the field.
- Cleanliness is next to godliness.
- Water has no colour.
Here all the bold words are Noun. They indicates a name of a living entity, objects, place or idea.
Noun examples for :
Name of person: Arjun, Nazrul, Lincoln, Mandela, Zhang, Putin, Phillip etc.
Name of living creature: dog, bactena, Afro-Caribbean, horse , tiger, including human etc
Name of physical object: hammer, pencils, Earth, guitar, atom, stones, boots etc.
Name of places: Dhaka, temple, river, Antarctica, houses, Grand Canyon, Utopia, etc.
Name of actions: swimming, exercise, diffusion, explosions, flight, electrification, etc.
Name of qualities: Truthfulness, color, length, deafness, weight, roundness, symmetry, warp speed, etc.
Name of mental states of existence:jealousy, sleep, heat, joy, stomachache, confusion, mind meld, etc.
Name of Ideas or abstract entities: musicianship, perfection, , mathematics, impossibility, etc.
Function of Noun :
A noun can function in a sentence as a subject of a verb, a direct object and indirect object of a verb, a complement of a subject, an object complement, an appositive, an adjective or an adverb.
Some grammatical functions of nouns are shown as follows.
- Subject of a verb
- Object of a verb
- Complement of a verb
- Object of a preposition
- Apposition of another noun
- Direct object of a verb
- Indirect object of a verb
- Noun as an adverb
- Noun as a modifier
- Noun as an absolute
1. Noun as the subject of a verb
A noun plays the function of a subject when it takes position in the subject of a sentence.
Example of Nou
Rohit plays cricket in the ICC world cup 2019.
Donald Trump of New York won the 2016 election of US
The jury are divided in their opinions.
2. Noun as an object of a verb
A noun plays the function of an object when it takes position in the object of a sentence.
Rohit plays cricket in the ICC world cup 2019.
Mr John was a teacher while living in London.
He takes breakfast at 8 am.
3. Noun as the complement of a verb
A noun plays the function of a complement of verb when it takes position after a linking verb of a sentence.
Mr. Rana is a doctor in the Apollo Hospital of Calcutta.
The nature looks beautiful in spring.
4. Noun as object of a preposition
A noun plays the functions of object of a preposition; when it comes after a preposition in a sentence.
I shall write an e-mail to my father.
I have visited Taj Mahal with my mother.
5. Noun as an apposition to another noun
Mr Harry, a university teacher, teaches his students sincerely.
His book, Animal Farm, is considered one of the greatest books
6. Noun as a direct object of verb
Structure: Subject + Verb + Indirect object + Direct object
I made some coffee for his friend. or I made his friend some coffee.
He bought a book for his sister. or He bought his sister a book.
7. Noun as an indirect object
I made some coffee for his friend. or I made his friend some coffee.
8. Noun as an adverb
Noun functions grammatically as adverbs to modify verbs.
We walked an hour out of town .
She’s going to be 20 next July .
9. Noun as a modifier
We have enjoyed a train journey last week.
10. Noun as an absolute
Supper having been finished, the family went to the ballgame.
How to identify a noun in a sentence
3 ways to identify noun in a sentence.
- By endings (suffixes) of word
- Position of word in a sentence
- Adjective/Determiners/preposition before them
1. Nouns have typical endings (suffixes) :
-er (driver), or (actor), -ant (servant), -ist (specialist), -ism (heroism), -age (coverage), -al (national), -ance (attendance), -ery (discovery), -ment (management), -sion (decision), -tion (invention), -ure (failure), -ence (absence), -ity (ability), -ness (darkness), -th (strength), -ty ( honesty), -dom (freedom), -hood (falsehood, boyhood).
2. Nouns have their own position in a sentence:
Generally, noun takes the position of subject of a verb, direct object of a verb, indirect object of a verb, a subject complement, an object complement, an appositive, an adjective or an adverb in a sentence.
It is possible to identify noun observing the position of noun in a sentence.
3. Adjective/Determiners/preposition before noun :
a. Determiners: Determiners like article, quantifier, numbers, distributives are placed before a noun to make it clear what the noun refers to.
Article: a,an,the ( an apple, the shirt, a book )
Quantifier: a few, a little, much, many, a lot of, most, some, any, enough
(many students, a few books, a little water, some potatoes etc.)
Numbers : one, ten, thirty
Distributives: all, both, half, either, neither, each, every ( every student, each item )
b. Adjective before Noun: Many adjectives come before nouns and tell us something about those nouns. Thus adjective helps us to identify a noun in a sentence.
Structure: Adjective + Noun ; (some people, golden ring, beautiful hat, white flowers, cold winter, etc.) We have found important news in this journal.
c. Possessive adjective before noun: Possessive adjective comes before a noun to describe the noun. Thus possessive adjective helps us to identify a noun in the sentence.
possessive adjectives: my , your , his , her , it’s , our , their.
Structure: Possessive adjective + noun; (my book, your purse, their bus, his bat, it’s colour etc.)
d. Demonstratives : When demonstratives are used as determiners, they come before a noun.
Structure: Demonstratives + noun; (These oranges, that sugar, this pencil, that time etc.)
These oranges are delicious.
e. Preposition: A preposition is used before a noun to express its relationship with other words in the sentence. So when we notice a preposition in a sentence, we can generally identify a noun.
Noun + Preposition + noun;
The book of Shakespeare is very interesting to read.
Now follow the example below to find a noun in a sentence.
Answer the following quiz to strengthen your knowledge on noun.
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