Nouns

• Typically refers to:
• ♦ people
• ♦ animals
• ♦ places
• ♦ things
• ♦ abstractions

• a word which:
• 1) can occur as the subject or object of a verb or the object of a preposition

2) can be modified by an adjective,

3) can be used with determiners

Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. W. (2013). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics(4th ed.). Abingdonm Oxon, OX: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Routledge).

• 1) proper nouns
• 2) common nouns

(Liang)

• 1) Abstract noun
• 2) Adjectival noun
• 3) Animate noun
• 4) Collective noun
• 5) Common noun
• 6) Concrete noun
• 7) Countable noun
• 8) Proper noun
• 9) Uncountable noun (mass noun)

Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. W. (2013). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics(4th ed.). Abingdonm Oxon, OX: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Routledge).

an adjective used as a noun

the poor, the rich, the old

a.k.a. substantive

Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. W. (2013). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics(4th ed.). Abingdonm Oxon, OX: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Routledge).

nouns that material and can't be divided into individual units: cotton, milk, tea, air

a term sometimes used for a noun or any word which can function as a noun, e.g., pronouns, adjectives, gerunds, etc. 


Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. W. (2013). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics(4th ed.). Abingdonm Oxon, OX: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Routledge).

A noun which refers to a collection of people, animals or things as a group.

When collective nouns are used in a singular form, they may be used with either a singular or plural verb.

• The government is going to look into this matter.
• The government are looking into this matter.

• Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. W. (2013). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics(4th ed.). Abingdonm Oxon, OX: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Routledge).

The use of the plural verb suggests that the bound refers to something which is seen as a group of individuals, whereas the use of the singular verb suggests something seen as a single whole. 

Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. W. (2013). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics(4th ed.). Abingdonm Oxon, OX: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Routledge).

• A noun which refers to a physical thing, rather than a quality, state, or action. 
• book, house, and machine
• (Longman)

• A noun which refers to a quality, state or action: happiness, idea and punishment
• (Longman dictionary)
• Usually refers to:
• feelings (happiness)
• emotion (enthusiasm)
• a state of something (status)
• or a discipline (music)
• action (work)
• quality
• information?
• homework?

(Dr. Liang)

A noun which has both singular and plural forms.

word-words, machine-machines, bridge-bridges

Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. W. (2013). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics(4th ed.). Abingdonm Oxon, OX: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Routledge).

Nouns that are considered a whole and cannot be divided into parts. (Dr. Liang)

A noun which does not usually occur in the plural:education, homework, harm

Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. W. (2013). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics(4th ed.). Abingdonm Oxon, OX: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Routledge).

another word for uncountable noun

Richards, J. C., & Schmidt, R. W. (2013). Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics(4th ed.). Abingdonm Oxon, OX: Taylor & Francis Ltd (Routledge).

A nouns which is the name of a particular person, place or thing. Spelt with a capital letter. (Longman)

London, Richard, Rosella, Los Angeles

 refer to unique individuals, places or things. In most cases they are uncountable. But, they can be countable when they are used to refer to a group of people, such as: the Johnson's, the Liang's, the Henry's, Greeks, the Americans. (Liang)

Used to refer to a thing, kind of person, thing or idea. (Dr. Liang)

• A noun which is not the name of a particular person, place or thing. Spelt with a lower case letter.
• book, woman, sugar
• (Longman)

• 1) countable
• 2) uncountable 

(Dr. Liang)

• 1) unit noun
• 2) collectible noun

(Dr. Liang)

• a noun that refers to an individual unit of a whole group of people or things, lawyer, gun, a country. 
• lawyer: I am a lawyer
• gun: I have a gun

(Dr. Liang)

refers to the whole group of people or things. 

• the committee
• the family
• the staff
• the facility

Not all collective nouns are countable and not all are uncountable. You can say committees, families, but you can't say staffs.

Equipment, material, furniture are collective nouns. It refers to many of the things as a whole and cannot be separated.


The content determines if it is countable or not; therefore, they should be learned as different words.

(Dr. Liang)

• 1) abstract
• 2) substance
• 3) some collective nouns

(Dr. Liang)

• the noun which is the central part of a phrase. Other elements in the phrase are in some grammatical or semantic relationship to the head. 
• The fat lady in the floral dress.
•  
• lady is the head of the phrase.

(Longman)

1) a term used instead of a noun.

(Longman)

1) a group of words with a noun or pronoun as the main part (head). A NP may consist of one one word (Gina arrived yesterday) or it may be long and complex (for example all the words before must in: The students who enrolled late and who have not yet filled in their cards must do so by Friday.)

2) a participle or infinitive phrase which could be replaced by a noun or pronoun.

• Albert just hates mowing the lawn.
• Albert just hates it.

(Longman)

If the NP contains pronouns, they will usually be object pronouns. 

(Cowam, p. 269)