Nouns and Articles: Categories of Nouns

Nouns and Articles: Categories of Nouns

Nouns fall into various categories.

Proper Noun

A noun that names a unique person, place, or object; begins with a capital letter: Walt Whitman, Lake Superior, Grand Canyon, Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Common Noun

A noun that does not name a unique person, place, object, or idea: bicycle, furniture, plan, daughter, home, happiness.

Common nouns can be further categorized: countable and uncountable.

Countable Noun

A common noun that can be counted (one, two, three, and so on) can be used after a word like many or several. Countable nouns can be used in singular and plural forms: bicycle, bicycles; plan, plans.

Uncountable Noun

A common noun that in a specific context is not used with words expressing quantity and has no plural form: furniture, advice, information.

The type of a common noun is closely linked to the article that precedes it: a, an, the, or no article at all.