Nouns

Name_________________________________-

A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing or idea.

PERSONS PLACES THINGS IDEAS

teacher cities baseball leadership

Mrs. Chan Ontario pole cowardice

family Ivory Coast Ivanhoe liberty

There are several kinds of nouns: proper and common, compound and collective.

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A proper noun is the name or title of a particular person, place, thing or idea; it always begins with a capital letter. A common noun refers to a category or a class of people, places, things or ideas. You do not capitalize a common noun unless it begins a sentence.

COMMON NOUN: She is going to school.

PROPER NOUN: She is going to Broadmoor School.

On your paper, label the following nouns common or proper. For each common noun, write a related proper noun. For each proper noun, write a related common noun.

SAMPLE: city

ANSWER: common--Atlanta

1. river 6. October
2. Nebraska 7. Lassie
3. newspaper 8. film
4. town 9. orchestra
5. automobile 10. Franklin D. Roosevelt

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A compound noun consists of two or more words used together to form a single noun. One kind of compound noun consists of two or more words joined together.

blue+print blueprint

base+ball baseball

Another kind of compound word consists of words joined by one or more hyphens.

son-in-law passer-by

A third kind of compound noun consists of two words often used together even though they are not joined.

mountain lion ice cream

A fourth kind of compound noun is a proper name that consists of more than one word.

Mrs. Hasley Gulf Stream

A collective noun refers to a group of people, places, things, or ideas.

The herd moved slowly across the prairie.

Our family discussed vacation plans.

[Herd and family are collective nouns.]

On your paper, write your nouns in the following sentences. There are thirty nouns in all.

SAMPLE: The airliner descended through the clouds.

ANSWER: airliner, clouds

1. The wheels of the jet touched the runway at the airport.
2. Soon the first passenger walked down the steps.
3. He was a fellow named Bill.
4. The young man had just completed his tour of duty in the army.
5. Inside his pocket was his discharge from the army.
6. For a moment he paused to enjoy the salty air blowing in from the nearby ocean.
7. However, Bill had little patience on this day, for he was in a hurry to get away from the airport.
8. He headed for the line of taxis outside the terminal.
9. Inside the cab, the former solider grinned.
10. "The ballpark, please," he said to the driver.

Rewrite each of the following sentences by replacing the blank with a noun. Use the kind of noun indicated in the parentheses. Underline the noun that you use.

SAMPLE: The two ______ were loyal to each other. (common)

ANSWER: The two sisters were loyal to each other.

1. Jean was surrounded by a _____ of strangers. (collective)
2. _________ reminded the citizens to vote on election day. (proper)
3. Glen overcame his fear of playing __________. (compound)
4. Wendy looked with pride at her new _________. (common)
5. Winters in ________ were harsh in the 1970's. (proper)
6. Bess worked with a great _______ of doctors. (collective)
7. Mr. Benson makes his living as a ________. (compound)
8. The _______ put all of her creativity into the project. (common)