Writing Blog Number 2

20240923 Nouns

NOUNS

I was surprised that I was asked what “exactly” is a noun here, on a writing site, but I am nothing if not amenable to that sort of request (it’s the teacher in me), so I found my old notes. Okay, I can see why I was asked this. As such, here is a run-down on nouns.


What is a noun?
Simply put, a noun is a word we give to a thing. Now, that should be simple, but going through my teaching notes, there are actually some types of noun that can confuse people. Still, if a word relates to a thing, not an action or a descriptor, then it is a noun.
         Unfortunately, what a “thing” is, that is where the confusion comes.


Types of nouns
Basically, there are 6 types of noun.

(1) Common nouns
These are the things that you can see, feel, touch, or hear.
         e.g. cat, dog, lamp, light, shadow

(2) Proper nouns:
The names of things, people or places. These always start with a capital letter.
         e.g. Jane, Adelaide, South Africa, Mount Everest, Mars, Melbourne
This also includes titles – Mount Lofty, Mr Smith, Lord Snooty – and this is where some confusion comes in. A word is only a proper noun and takes a capital letter if it is the exact name of something. However, in UK English (not US nor Australian) a title of a peer or royal maintains its capital without being part of a name. We would say, “The king went to Oxford.” The UK would say, “The King went to Oxford.”
         There is confusion when it comes to the names of things like monsters. Is it a name or a type of monster? Does Gorgon have a capital ‘G’ and be a proper noun, when the individual Gorgons have names (Medusa, Stheno, Euryale)? There is no consensus on this.

(3) Abstract nouns
These are the things that you cannot see, feel or touch, but are still things.
         e.g. idea, thought, emotion, anger, sadness
Months and days of the week are considered abstract nouns, and yet follow the dictates of the Proper Noun, having capital letters. I have read that these are considered Proper Abstract Nouns (and this can also include God in the Abrahamic context), but that is not recognised in many places.

(4) Pronouns:
Pronouns are the words that indicate a specific person or people or thing or things that are being referred to, though not by name.
         e.g. I, me, you, he, she, it, they, them, us, we
Note that “I” referring to the person speaking, the narrator, etc., is a capital. This is a hold-over from Norse runes via Germanic words. It’s complicated, and we just accept it, nod and get on with our lives.

(5) Collective nouns
These are words that indicate a group of things.
         e.g. crowd (of people), pod (of whales), herd (of cows), troop (of kangaroos)
These are often fun, and a full list of them reveals some weird ones.

(6) Gerund verbs:
The final group is where things get complicated. A Gerund verb is a verb where the “-ing” ending makes a verb into a noun. However, while a noun, it does can take not only adjectives but also adverbs as qualifiers.
         e.g. “I enjoy swimming.”
         ”I find shopping stressful.”
We need to be careful that the word is actually used as a noun, and is not part of a verb. “I was swimming in the river last weekend.” This is a verb form.
         Generally, if there is a form of the verb “to be” involved, it is a verb, if not it is usually a noun.
         Yes, I know, complicated.


Conclusion
Being asked about nouns was intriguing to me, but looking back on my teaching notes, I can see why people are confused about it. Nouns are things, sure… but define what a “thing” is.

So, I hope this helps!