Nouns

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A noun is defined as "a person, place, thing, or idea."

A noun is a person you can talk to, a place you can go, a thing you can touch, or an idea you can think about.

Examples:

Person nouns -- a student, the president, Abraham Lincoln, this astronaut (Notice that the proper noun Abraham Lincoln is capitalized.)

Place nouns -- a park, the school, Colorado, the P & D (Notice that the proper nouns Colorado and the P & D are capitalized.)

Thing nouns -- a dog, my toothbrush, that computer, a MacBook (Notice that the proper noun MacBook is capitalized.)

Idea nouns -- fashion, friendship, childhood, freedom (Idea nouns are also called "abstract nouns." A helpful way to identify abstract nouns is by their suffix. Some abstract nouns might end in -tion, -hood, -ness, -dom, but there are other endings as well.)

Here's where it gets complicated. Words can be different parts of speech depending on how they are used in a sentence. A helpful way to determine if something is being used as a noun in a sentence is by replacing the word in question with "it." If the sentence still makes sense, the replaced word is a noun.

Examples:

Love is the most beautiful thing in the world. It is the most beautiful thing in the world.

This sentence makes sense. "Love" is being used as a noun here.

I love you. I it you.

This does not make sense. In this case, "love" is not being used as a noun.

Running is good for you. It is good for you.

This sentence makes sense. "Walking" is being used as a noun here.

He is walking to the store. He is it to the store.

This does not make sense. In this case, "walking" is not being used as a noun.

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