Your Randomly Generated Words
What is a Noun?
Nouns were probably the first part of speech that developed in human language. Nouns are naming words used to identify things, places, or people.
Canonical examples include words like “bus,” “cat” and “England.”
Types Of Nouns
Linguists subdivide nouns into various subcategories. The most common
divider is between proper nouns and common nouns.
Common Nouns
Common nouns refer to general places, concepts, people or things. For
instance, “town,” “love,” “men” and “shoe” are all examples of common
nouns. They do not refer to any specific instance of the category they
describe and, therefore, are not capitalized.
Sometimes, you may see further subdivision of common nouns into the
following categories: concrete, abstract, and collective.
Concrete Common Nouns
Concrete nouns are things that you can sense. They are parts of the
physical environment.
Examples of sentences with concrete nouns are given below, with the noun in
bold:
Abstract Common Nouns
By contrast, abstract common nouns cannot be detected by the senses.
Here are some sentence examples of abstract nouns, highlighted in bold:
-
The captain’s bravery was unsurpassed
-
I feel so much love for you right now
-
I am a proponent of antidisestablishmentarianism
Collective Common Nouns
Collective common nouns are nouns that describe a collection of people or
things. They are similar to concrete nouns.
Examples of sentences containing collective nouns include:
-
I saw a flock of sheep flying in my dream last night
-
The bee colony was more active in the summer
-
A shoal of fish moved in unison under the azure waves
In many cases, collective nouns are remnants of archaic English where
specific words were used to indicate a group, usually of animals.
Proper Nouns
Proper nouns refer to specific places, concepts, people, or things. For
instance, “Boston,” “Hinduism,” “Jason,” and “Nike.”
Sometimes, proper nouns are called “proper names.” They are always
capitalized in English, even if they do not fall at the start of a
sentence.
Here are some examples of proper nouns, by subcategory:
-
Human names: John, Susan, Margaret, Mary, Gurmit, Francois
-
Nations, tribes, and religious orders: Mongolia, Eritrea, Haiti,
Armenian, Zulu, Norwegian, Jainism, Islam, Daoism
-
Places and districts: Florida, Santa Fe, Brussels, The Bronx,
Chinatown, Greenwich Village
-
Language and dialect nouns: Turkish, Cantonese, Urdu, Bisaya, Welsh
Nouns As Subjects And Objects
English sentences have both subjects and objects, and these are always
nouns. A subject is the person, place or thing that is acting out the verb
in the sentence, while the object is the person, place or thing the verb is
happening to.
In the following sentences, the subject is highlighted in bold:
In the first sentence, “cat” is the subject because it is the subject that
is doing the verb – sitting on the mat. In the second sentence, “people” is
the subject, because they are going to the carnival.
Nouns can be both direct and indirect objects in sentences. A direct object
is a noun that has something done to it by the subject while an indirect
object is a recipient of a direct object.
In this sentence, “food” is the direct object because it is what is being
given. “Him” is the indirect object because it represents the recipient of
the direct object.
Appositive Nouns
Appositive nouns are nouns that immediately follow from other nouns to
define or identify them.
In this sentence, “sister” is the common noun, and “Janice” is the
appositive noun, since the inclusion of the latter adds information to the
former
Nouns As Modifiers
In some instances, nouns can act as adjectives, modifying the noun to
provide extra description or information:
-
He is a adrenaline junkie
-
She is a sports car driver
-
We have an incredible love story
In most sentences, “adrenaline,” “sports” and “love” are nouns. However, in
the preceding examples, they serve as modifiers for “junkie,” “car” and
“story.”
Plural Nouns
In English, you can make most nouns plural by adding “s” or “es” to the end
of the word. For instance, “dog” becomes “dogs” or “wage” becomes “wages.”
There are, however, some exceptions. “Criterion” becomes “criteria” and
“child” becomes “children.” In British English, “penny” becomes “pence”
instead of “pennies.”
Nouns Versus Pronouns
While nouns identify a person, place or thing, pronouns refer to nouns, or
fill the position of nouns in a sentence.
For example:
-
Jennifer at the cake
-
She ate the cake
In this example, Jennifer is the proper noun, while “she,” in the second
sentence, is the pronoun.
Other examples of pronouns in sentences include:
More Random Word Generators
Here are more word generators that will help you find the words you are looking for. You can export your lists and use them in word games, studying, and just about any way you see fit!