Nouns

In a nutshell

Nouns are words used to name things. In this summary, you'll learn about different types of nouns, or naming words, and how to spot and use them in a sentence.

Common nouns

Common nouns are general names for things, ideas or objects. They can be singular or plural.

Examples

girl

planet

building

city

month

Proper nouns

Proper nouns are names for specific people, places or things. Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter.

Examples

Becky

Saturn

Big Ben

London

February

Tip: The days and months of the year are specific names, which means they are proper nouns and should always have a capital letter.

Collective nouns

Collective nouns are names for groups of things.

Example

A pair of shoes.

In this example, shoes is a common noun and pair is the collective noun.

Examples

A bunch of flowers
A flock of sheep
A deck of cards

Countable and uncountable nouns

Another distinction between nouns is countable and uncountable nouns.

Countable nouns can be counted, for example an egg, two eggs, five eggs.
Uncountable nouns can't be counted, for example money and air.

Example

Countable	Uncountable
dog	water
book	rice
tree	sand