• What is a noun?
• Types of nouns
• Gender and number of nouns
• Examples of nouns
• Sentences with nouns
• The noun within the sentence
• Nouns and adjectives

We explain what a noun is and how this grammatical category can be classified. Also, the gender and number of the nouns.

Common nouns designate all the objects around us, such as balls.

What is a noun?

A noun is a grammatical category or class of word that is used to name an object, subject, place, concept. For example: Juan, car, house, Buenos Aires.

Types of nouns

The noun can be classified according to what it names in:

• Nouns. They name an object or subject in a concrete and particular way and are always capitalized. They are used to name: persons (María, Juan), countries, cities Y continents (Colombia, Montevideo, Asia), brands (Bimbo, Sony), organizations or institutions (Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​Greenpeace), festivities (Christmas, Pesach), musical groups (Nirvana, The Beatles), literary works (Don Quixote de la Mancha, La Gioconda).
• Common nouns. They designate a person, animal or thing in a general way. For example: table, chair, cow, dog, mountain, love. Common nouns are always lowercase and are classified in different ways.

Common nouns are classified into:

• Abstract nouns. They designate ideas, concepts and feelings that cannot be perceived by the senses. For example: freedom, happiness, hatred, compassion.
• Concrete nouns. They name things and objects that can be perceived by the senses. For example: house, cat, tree, ball.

Concrete nouns are classified into:

• Countable nouns. They can be numbered. For example: apple, table, friend.
• Non-countable nouns. They cannot be numbered, but they can be measured. For example: water, sugar. In the latter case, you cannot say two sugars, but you can say a kilo of sugar. Uncountable nouns do not have a plural.

Countable nouns can be classified into:

• Individual nouns. They name a particular being in the singular. For example: fish, dog.
• Collective nouns. They name in a global or group way a set of people, animals, objects. For example: "fish" is individual and "school" is collective, since it refers to a group of fish.

Another classification that can be used within common nouns is to divide between primitive and derived nouns (they derive from another noun, such as “shoe shop”, “ice cream shop”, “bakery”). It is also possible to indicate whether a noun is simple orcompound (in the case of "washing machine", "umbrella" for example).

Gender and number of nouns

The nouns have:

• Gender: female or male. Most feminine nouns end with the vowel -a while masculine nouns end with the vowel -o. That is why we can, for example, say cat and cat, dog and bitch. However, in some cases, the meaning is changed, such as basket and basket (change the size of the object).
• Number: singular or plural. Some nouns are written the same in singular and plural as: thorax, climax, cavities.

Most nouns can be modified from masculine to feminine and vice versa, as well as from singular to plural and vice versa. Some females are completely different from their male, such is the case of: horse and mare or actor and actress.

Examples of nouns

Nouns

• Proper names: Mateo Olivero, Karina Sánchez, Osvaldo Cortez.
• Urban places and spaces: Algeria, Tijuana, Oceania, Avenida del Libertador.
• Organizations or institutions: World Health Organization, Club Deportivo Guadalajara.
• Works of art: Las meninas, One Hundred Years of Solitude.
• Holidays: New Year, Ramadan, Day of the Dead.

Common nouns

Table, dog, mattress, car, drill, mother, plate, T-shirt, saxophone, rice, phone.

Abstract nouns

Love, passion, lust, fear, freedom, friendship, pain, anxiety, religion, justice, lies, compassion, time.

Concrete nouns

Earth, bottle, thumb, library, ball, sand, clock, brush, building, monkey, oil, candle, water.

Individual and collective nouns

Individual	Collective
Book	library
Dog	Pack
Bird	Flock
Fish	Shoal
Country	Continent
Family	Clan
Star	Constellation
Lyrics	Alphabet

Countable nouns

Book, ball, banana, boy, duck.

Non-countable nouns

Flour, sugar, blood, money, garbage, gasoline

Sentences with nouns

Place names are examples of proper nouns.

Nouns

• Mateo Olivero is my mother's cousin.
• Yesterday I ran into Karina Sánchez on the street.
• Osvaldo Cortez was discharged from the hospital.
• His sister went to live in Algeria.
• In Tijuana we visit Avenida Revolución.
• Oceania is the smallest continent on planet Earth.
• The gift shop is on Avenida del Libertador.
• The World Health Organization banned the use of the vaccine.
• Club Deportivo Guadalajara won the zonal championship.
• Diego Velázquez is the author of Las meninas.
• María is reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by the Colombian writer, Gabriel García Márquez.

Common nouns

• Sonia bought the table in the village store.
• My dog ​​barks when he hears thunder.
• Marisa's mattress didn't go into the moving truck.
• The car loads 50 liters of gasoline.
• The drill cannot be used at night.
• Pedro's mother visited him for Christmas.
• Don't throw all the food off the plate!
• The board changed the design of the club's jersey.
• Luis bought a second-hand saxophone.
• You don't need to buy more rice.
• The phone rang just at dinner time.

Abstract nouns

• The book talks about love and passion between two lovers.
• Lust is one of the seven deadly sins.
• Do not let yourself be carried away by fear alone.
• Freedom is a wish of all men and women.
• Nothing can break this friendship.
• The pain in her leg persists despite the medications she was given.
• His departure generated a lot of anxiety.
• Miguel Ángel is faithful to his religion.
• The court did justice to Paola and ruled in her favor.
• Pedro is not carried away by the lies of his supervisor.
• He had compassion on his neighbor and forgave him the debt.
• It's just a matter of time.

Collective nouns

• I kept the book you gave me in the library.
• She was not intimidated and faced the pack that was chasing her.
• A flock crossed the Andes at dawn.
• The shoal traveled the shores of the Dead Sea.
• Solidarity does not recognize country borders on this continent.
• His family and the Gomez are a clan.
• Julian stayed awake contemplating the constellation.
• They are ready? Time to learn the alphabet!

The noun within the sentence

The noun is the nucleus of the noun phrase (set of words with a nucleus), mainly of the subject of theprayer.

Next to the nucleus we find: the direct modifiers (adjectives and articles), the indirect modifier (preposition plus substantive or substantive construction), the apposition (noun or substantive construction that clarifies the nucleus or repeats it) and the comparative construction (introduced by “as” or “which”).

For example:

• Juan, my brother, recently moved. ("Juan" is the nucleus of the subject and "brother" is the nucleus of the explanatory apposition)
• The school teacher teaches us very well. ("Teacher" is the nucleus of the subject and "school" is the nucleus of the indirect modifier)

In a sentence there can be one or more substantive nuclei within a subject (simple or compound) and they must agree with the conjugated verb of the predicate (singular or plural). The same happens with adjectives, which must agree with the noun in gender and number so that the cohesion of the sentence is correct.

For example:

• Clara and Andrea run every morning. ("Clara" and "Andrea" are the two nuclei of the composite subject)
• Employees and managers met in the hall. ("Employees" and "managers" are the two nuclei of the composite subject)

In addition, the noun can be present in noun constructions of the predicate, within a direct object, indirect object, circumstantial, complement or predicative.

For example:

• We are preparing a surprise for Javier. ("Javier" is the nucleus of the indirect object and "surprise" is the nucleus of the direct object)
• The show will be on the main stage. ("Stage" is the nucleus of the circumstantial complement of place)
• The mystery was discovered by the detective. ("Detective" is the core of the agent complement)

Nouns and adjectives

The adjective is a class of word that has the function of qualifying the noun. The adjective expresses characteristics or properties attributed to a noun and provides information about it.

Both are categories of words that are closely linked, since the noun names a thing (object, place, animal, person, emotion) and the adjective characterizes it. For example: The sea (noun) is deep (adjective). Noun and adjective must agree in gender and number.

Adjectives fall into two main categories:

• Adjectives. They are those that detail characteristics or properties of the noun they qualify for, and can be specific or explanatory.
• Determining adjectives. They indicate quantity, position or number of the noun, and can be demonstrative, indefinite and possessive.