noun

«noun» in Mova's school dictionary: a word that names a person, place, thing or idea, like… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a noun, nouns)

meaning for a pupil

1) A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea, like «girl», «London», «ball» or «happiness». tree →

2) A proper noun is the special name of one person, place or thing and starts with a capital letter, like «Emma» or «Canada». tree →

3) A common noun is a general name, like «dog» or «city», and has no capital unless it starts a sentence. tree →

sense in the lessons

In English grammar lessons pupils sort nouns into common and proper, countable and uncountable, singular and plural, and concrete (you can touch them: «table») and abstract (ideas: «courage»). Phrases: «noun phrase» («the big red bus»), «collective noun» («a flock of sheep», «a team»), «proper noun», «compound noun» («football»). In stories nouns tell the reader who and what the story is about.

examples

• «Cat» is a noun because it names an animal. tree →
• «Paris» is a proper noun, so it needs a capital letter. tree →
• Find all the nouns in this sentence. tree →
• «Love» and «fear» are abstract nouns. tree →
• «Flock» is a collective noun for a group of birds or sheep. tree →
• Add «s» to most nouns to make the plural: «book, books». tree →
• In «The old man smiled», the noun is «man». tree →
• My teacher calls nouns «naming words». tree →

note

Countable: one noun, two nouns. Many words are a noun in one sentence and a verb in another: «a drink» (noun) and «to drink» (verb). Some nouns have odd plurals: «child – children», «mouse – mice», «sheep – sheep». Uncountable nouns like «water», «rice», «advice» usually have no plural and take «some», not «a». Pronouns («he», «it») stand in for nouns.

In the corpora

• Most nouns just add -s: cat, cats.
• Most nouns add -s for the plural: cat, cats.
• Some nouns are the same in the plural: sheep, deer, moose, aircraft, and usually fish.
• Adding -tion often turns a verb into a noun: inform, information.
• «Affect» is usually a verb (to change something); «effect» is usually a noun (the result).

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «noun» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.