Nouns are like the building blocks of language. They represent the names for people, places, things, or ideas. When you understand the various types of nouns, it will greatly improve your use of the English language. We are going to look into the 10 types of nouns and their examples both at the word and sentence levels.

Types of Nouns and Examples 

There are about ten types of nouns. Let’s explain them one after the other.

Proper Nouns

Proper nouns are nouns that refer to specific names of people, places, and things. Usually, proper nouns start with a capital letter. Examples of proper nouns are Mary, Aamir, Toby, Amanda, America, France, Egypt, India, Christmas etc.

Examples in sentence

1. James is going to Paris next week.

2. My favorite actor is Salman Khan.

3. We visited Egypt during our trip.

4. Mary has a little lamb.

5. Ukraine forces are fighting back the invaders.

Common Nouns

Common nouns are nouns that refer to general, everyday items. Unlike proper nouns, common nouns are not specific, and they don’t start with capitalized, except when they appear at the beginning of a sentence. Examples of common nouns are boy, girl, man, woman, school, animal, house, country, town, city etc.

Examples in sentences

1. The cat ate the dry fish.
2. We bought a new car.
3. She loves food.
4. Some schools are good at sciences.
5. He built a new house next to his brother’s.

Concrete Nouns

Concrete nouns are nouns that refer to tangible items that you can perceive through the senses of sight, touch, taste, smell or hear.or feeling. Examples of concrete nouns are hand, table, pen, cup, shoe, book etc.

Examples in sentences 

1. The ball flew over the fence.

2. I can smell the cake from here.

3. She enjoys playing the guitar.

4. Sam gave me a new pen.

5. You need to change your clothes now.

Abstract Nouns

Abstract nouns are nouns that represent the things we don’t see with our eyes or perceive with our senses. These include ideas, qualities, or emotions. Abstract nouns are the opposite of concrete nouns. Examples of abstract nouns are love, beauty, honesty, goodness, patience, anger, hate, evil, laziness etc.

Examples in sentences 

1.  Love is no excuse for what we did.
2.  Honesty is always a good virtue.
3.  Her beauty opened a way for her.
4. He helps strangers from the goodness in his heart.
5. Your hate is getting out of hand.

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns are nouns that you can count. That means these nouns can be one or more than one in number. In other words, countable nouns can be either singular or plural. Examples of countable nouns are mango, orange, book, bag, cap, chair, room, dress etc.

Examples in sentences 

1. I have three oranges in my bag.
2. There are only five chairs.
3.  Keep these books on the table.
4. He came in with a cap in his hand.
5. 5. She has a new red dress.

Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns, also called mass nouns, are nouns that refer to substances, concepts, or qualities that you cannot count. Because you cannot count them, they do not have plural forms. Examples of uncountable nouns are milk, oil, traffic, water, advice, sand etc.

Examples in sentences 

1. Put some milk in my tea.
2. He was given some advice and let go.
3. Give me water, please.
4. We were held up in traffic for three hours.
5. The children played in the sand.

Collective Nouns

Collective nouns are nouns that refer to groups of people, animals, or things. These nouns can be either singular or plural, depending on when you refer to them as a single group working together or different individuals in a group working separately. Examples of collective nouns are family, congregation, flock, herd, team, fleet, pack, den etc.

Examples in sentences 

1. The flock of birds flew across the blue sky.
2.  The congregation listened to the clergy.
3.  Our team won the football match.
4. He drove into a herd of cows.
5. We saw a fleet of ships at sea.

Compound Nouns

Compound nouns that form when you combine two or more words to create a new word that has a different meaning. They can be written as one word, separate words or hyphenated. Examples of compound words are:

Bedroom (bed + room)

Blackberry (black+ berry)

Get-together (get + together)

Full-time (full + time)

Bathroom (bath+ room)

Examples in sentences 

1. She walked to the bedroom.
2. We love blackberries.
3. Our family is planning a get-together next week.
4. She’s a full-time nurse.
5. He’s in the bathroom at the moment.

Possessive Nouns

Possessive nouns are nouns that show ownership or possession of something. You form possessive nouns formed by adding an apostrophe (‘) and the letter (‘s) to nouns. Examples of possessive nouns are John’s, Mary’s, America’s, Germany’s, London’s, governor’s, president’s etc.

Examples in sentences 

1. This is John’s book.
2. The cat’s leg is bleeding.
3. The company’s workers are dissatisfied.
4. Mary’s bag was found in the woods.
5. I was surprised to see the president’s car outside my office.

Compound Possessive Nouns

Compound possessive nouns are nouns you use when you want to indicate that something is owned by more than one person. Usually, compound possessive nouns involve two or more nouns that possess an item owned together. Examples of compound possessive nouns are John and Mary’s, Sarah and Sam’s, Debbie and David’s, Mark and Martha’s, Philip and Sandra’s etc.

Examples in sentences

1. Debbie and David’s house is one of the biggest in town.
2. This is Sarah and Sam’s lodge.
3. Philip and Sandra’s real estate is successful.
4. We visited John and Mary’s house yesterday.
5. Mark and Martha’s shipping company is a multimillion business venture.

Practice Exercises on Types of Nouns

Identify the type of noun in the following sentences 

The boy is good.

Emily went to London to study Law.

I can smell the aroma of freshly baked cakes. Happiness is really contagious.

There are five apples on the table.

Name the type of noun for each item

Idea

School

Team

Money

Kate

Fill in the blanks with the appropriate type of noun

My ___________ is a doctor.

I love to read ___________.

He drank a glass of ___________.

The ___________ of students is excited for the field trip. (class)

Her parents gave her some good ________ before she left for college.

Rewrite the sentences, changing the underlined nouns to their singular forms

She bought two dresses for the party.

I have three apples in my bag.

There are five chairs in the room.

The teams won the championship.

Fill in the blank spaces with the correct collective noun:

A ___________ of birds flew overhead.

My ___________ is going on vacation.

The ___________ won the championship.

The ___________ of students is excited for the field trip.

Answers

Common noun

Proper noun

Concrete noun

Abstract noun

Countable noun

Idea (Abstract noun

School (Concrete noun)

Team (Collective noun)

Money (Uncountable noun)

Kate (Proper noun)

father

books

water

students

advice

She bought a dress for the party.

I have an apple in my bag.

There is a chair in the room.

The team won the championship.

flock

family

team

class