What is a Noun? A Person, A Place, A Thing and More! English Grammar Lesson

English Grammar Lesson 8

This lesson is about nouns and we’ll focus on what is a noun.  The simple explanation is that a noun is a person, place or thing.  You’ve probably heard that a lot: person, place or thing.  Most of the time that is the easy way to identify a noun.

Let’s look at a sentence for the nouns, “The man has a book in the library”. Can you find the nouns? There are several in this one sentence. “The man” is a person so there is one noun. “A book” is a thing so there is another. The “library” is another noun because it’s a place.  Look at that, all the basic types of nouns in one sentence!

Nouns can be pretty easy.  Most of the time a noun is something that can be seen or touched. However, a noun doesn’t have to be something physical, it can also be an idea, thought or feeling. “The pain in his shoulder was terrible.”  His “shoulder” is an easy noun to find in that sentence but “pain” is also a noun.

Nouns can also be more than one word. An easy example of this is a name.  “BBQ is one of my favorite foods to eat in South Korea.”  In this sentence there are multiple nouns.  BBQ and food are easy to find but South Korea is a two word noun. You wouldn’t use just one of those words to describe the place, together they make the noun. (Also, the BBQ is awesome!)

Practice finding the nouns in each of the sentences below:

1. The students planned a party at school.
2. The teachers ordered pizza and snacks.
3. Mrs. Sanchez told the students to move the desks.
4. The children all felt excitement for the party.
5. One of the parents offered to bake cookies for the party.
6. Golden State Academy is a popular school for happy children.

“The students planned a party at school.” There are three nouns: students (people), party (thing) and school (place).

“The teachers ordered pizza and snacks.” Again there are three nouns: teachers (people), pizza (thing), and snacks (thing).

“Mrs. Sanchez told the students to move the desks.” In this sentence, one of the nouns is more than one word.  “Mrs. Sanchez” is a noun because it’s a person but her name is two words. The other nouns, students and desks, are single word nouns.

“The children all felt excitement for the party.” Although you can’t touch it, “excitement” is an idea that is a noun.

“One of the parents offered to bake cookies for the party.” Parents (people), cookies (thing) and party (thing) are all nouns.

“Golden State Academy is a popular school for happy children.” This sentence starts with a noun that has three words.  Golden State Academy is just one noun referring to a place. School (place) and children (people) are also nouns.