Table of Contents
- What is the word that describes a noun?
- What is the beginning of a sentence called?
- What are the 8 kinds of speech?
- What kind of word is together?
- Is togetherness a word?
- Where do we use together in a sentence?
- What is together in grammar?
- What is needed for a complete sentence?
- What’s a complete sentence example?
An adjective is a word that describes a noun. An adjective usually comes before the noun it describes. They tell what kind of person, place, or thing the noun is.
What is the beginning of a sentence called?
The subject is what the sentence is about. Also called the naming part of the sentence, the subject answers the question, “Who or what?” when asked in connection with a verb. Usually when the subject is at the beginning of the sentence, it is a noun or pronoun.
What are the 8 kinds of speech?
There are eight parts of speech in the English language: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.
What kind of word is together?
adverb
Is togetherness a word?
Togetherness is a happy feeling of affection and closeness to other people, especially your friends and family.
Where do we use together in a sentence?
Together sentence example
- Together they led her away.
- Now that they were all together , it would be a good time to tell them.
- They studied together at the library on Wednesday evenings.
- I’m sorry I involved you but we’re in this together ; the five of us.
What is together in grammar?
All together vs. Altogether All together, two words, means “in a group.” Examples: We are all together in the photo. It is wonderful to be all together to celebrate your birthday.
What is needed for a complete sentence?
A complete sentence has three components: a subject (the actor in the sentence) a predicate (the verb or action), and. a complete thought (it can stand alone and make sense—it’s independent).
What’s a complete sentence example?
So, you might say, “Claire walks her dog.” In this complete sentence, “Claire” is the subject, “walks” is the verb, and “dog” is the object. (“Her” is simply a required pronoun in this example.) So, at the end of a complete sentence, we’ll need a period, question mark, exclamation mark, or even a semi-colon.
Articles, adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and pronouns can be used to describe or modify a noun.
The articles are:
DEFINITE ARTICLE: the (used to identify a specific noun).
INDEFINITE ARTICLES: a (used before a singular noun starting with a consonant sound), an (used before a singular noun starting with a vowel sound).
ADJECTIVES: An adjective describes or qualifies a noun (a big dog, a small dog); adjectives are used before the noun or after the verb (This is an easy subject. or This is hard.); two or more adjectives can be used together (a beautiful, young lady). There are hundreds of adjectives, some samples are: happy, sad, green, white, special, somber, chewy, dark, heavy, sweet, lucky, wonderful, etc.
ATTRIBUTIVE NOUNS are nouns used to describe other nouns (nouns used as adjectives), for example horse farm, vegetable broth, car wash, school books, etc.
ADVERBS: An adverb, which is used to modify verbs, also modify adjectives, which is additional information about a noun; for example a very happy birthday, his frequently long speeches, a simplydelicious dish, etc.
Pronouns used to modify nouns are:
PERSONAL PRONOUNS, my, your, his, her, their, its.
DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS, this, that, these, those, the former, etc.
DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUNS, each, either, none, neither, etc.
NUMERAL PRONOUNS, some, any, few, many, none, all, etc.
ADDITIONALLY: A predicate nominative or a predicate adjective restates a noun following a linking verb or the object of a verb, telling something about the noun.
The idea for the Describing Words engine came when I was building the engine for Related Words (it’s like a thesaurus, but gives you a much broader set of related words, rather than just synonyms). While playing around with word vectors and the «HasProperty» API of conceptnet, I had a bit of fun trying to get the adjectives which commonly describe a word. Eventually I realised that there’s a much better way of doing this: parse books!
Project Gutenberg was the initial corpus, but the parser got greedier and greedier and I ended up feeding it somewhere around 100 gigabytes of text files — mostly fiction, including many contemporary works. The parser simply looks through each book and pulls out the various descriptions of nouns.
Hopefully it’s more than just a novelty and some people will actually find it useful for their writing and brainstorming, but one neat little thing to try is to compare two nouns which are similar, but different in some significant way — for example, gender is interesting: «woman» versus «man» and «boy» versus «girl». On an inital quick analysis it seems that authors of fiction are at least 4x more likely to describe women (as opposed to men) with beauty-related terms (regarding their weight, features and general attractiveness). In fact, «beautiful» is possibly the most widely used adjective for women in all of the world’s literature, which is quite in line with the general unidimensional representation of women in many other media forms. If anyone wants to do further research into this, let me know and I can give you a lot more data (for example, there are about 25000 different entries for «woman» — too many to show here).
The blueness of the results represents their relative frequency. You can hover over an item for a second and the frequency score should pop up. The «uniqueness» sorting is default, and thanks to my Complicated Algorithm™, it orders them by the adjectives’ uniqueness to that particular noun relative to other nouns (it’s actually pretty simple). As you’d expect, you can click the «Sort By Usage Frequency» button to adjectives by their usage frequency for that noun.
Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source mongodb which was used in this project.
Please note that Describing Words uses third party scripts (such as Google Analytics and advertisements) which use cookies. To learn more, see the privacy policy.
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Words don’t only mean something; they also do something. In the English language, words are grouped into word classes based on their function, i.e. what they do in a phrase or sentence. In total, there are nine word classes in English.
Word class meaning and example
All words can be categorised into classes within a language based on their function and purpose.
An example of various word classes is ‘The cat ate a cupcake quickly.’
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The = a determiner
-
cat = a noun
-
ate = a verb
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a = determiner
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cupcake = noun
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quickly = an adverb
Word class function
The function of a word class, also known as a part of speech, is to classify words according to their grammatical properties and the roles they play in sentences. By assigning words to different word classes, we can understand how they should be used in context and how they relate to other words in a sentence.
Each word class has its own unique set of characteristics and rules for usage, and understanding the function of word classes is essential for effective communication in English. Knowing our word classes allows us to create clear and grammatically correct sentences that convey our intended meaning.
Word classes in English
In English, there are four main word classes; nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. These are considered lexical words, and they provide the main meaning of a phrase or sentence.
The other five word classes are; prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These are considered functional words, and they provide structural and relational information in a sentence or phrase.
Don’t worry if it sounds a bit confusing right now. Read ahead and you’ll be a master of the different types of word classes in no time!
| All word classes | Definition | Examples of word classification |
| Noun | A word that represents a person, place, thing, or idea. | cat, house, plant |
| Pronoun | A word that is used in place of a noun to avoid repetition. | he, she, they, it |
| Verb | A word that expresses action, occurrence, or state of being. | run, sing, grow |
| Adjective | A word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun. | blue, tall, happy |
| Adverb | A word that describes or modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb. | quickly, very |
| Preposition | A word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. | in, on, at |
| Conjunction | A word that connects words, phrases, or clauses. | and, or, but |
| Interjection | A word that expresses strong emotions or feelings. | wow, oh, ouch |
| Determiners | A word that clarifies information about the quantity, location, or ownership of the noun | Articles like ‘the’ and ‘an’, and quantifiers like ‘some’ and ‘all’. |
The four main word classes
In the English language, there are four main word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Let’s look at all the word classes in detail.
Nouns
Nouns are the words we use to describe people, places, objects, feelings, concepts, etc. Usually, nouns are tangible (touchable) things, such as a table, a person, or a building.
However, we also have abstract nouns, which are things we can feel and describe but can’t necessarily see or touch, such as love, honour, or excitement. Proper nouns are the names we give to specific and official people, places, or things, such as England, Claire, or Hoover.
Cat
House
School
Britain
Harry
Book
Hatred
‘My sister went to school.‘
Verbs
Verbs are words that show action, event, feeling, or state of being. This can be a physical action or event, or it can be a feeling that is experienced.
Lexical verbs are considered one of the four main word classes, and auxiliary verbs are not. Lexical verbs are the main verb in a sentence that shows action, event, feeling, or state of being, such as walk, ran, felt, and want, whereas an auxiliary verb helps the main verb and expresses grammatical meaning, such as has, is, and do.
Run
Walk
Swim
Curse
Wish
Help
Leave
‘She wished for a sunny day.’
Adjectives
Adjectives are words used to modify nouns, usually by describing them. Adjectives describe an attribute, quality, or state of being of the noun.
Long
Short
Friendly
Broken
Loud
Embarrassed
Dull
Boring
‘The friendly woman wore a beautiful dress.’
Fig 1. Adjectives can describe the woman and the dress
Adverbs
Adverbs are words that work alongside verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They provide further descriptions of how, where, when, and how often something is done.
Quickly
Softly
Very
More
Too
Loudly
‘The music was too loud.’
All of the above examples are lexical word classes and carry most of the meaning in a sentence. They make up the majority of the words in the English language.
The other five word classes
The other five remaining word classes are; prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These words are considered functional words and are used to explain grammatical and structural relationships between words.
For example, prepositions can be used to explain where one object is in relation to another.
Prepositions
Prepositions are used to show the relationship between words in terms of place, time, direction, and agency.
In
At
On
Towards
To
Through
Into
By
With
‘They went through the tunnel.’
Pronouns
Pronouns take the place of a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence. They often refer to a noun that has already been mentioned and are commonly used to avoid repetition.
Chloe (noun) → she (pronoun)
Chloe’s dog → her dog (possessive pronoun)
There are several different types of pronouns; let’s look at some examples of each.
- He, she, it, they — personal pronouns
- His, hers, its, theirs, mine, ours — possessive pronouns
- Himself, herself, myself, ourselves, themselves — reflexive pronouns
- This, that, those, these — demonstrative pronouns
- Anyone, somebody, everyone, anything, something — Indefinite pronouns
- Which, what, that, who, who — Relative pronouns
‘She sat on the chair which was broken.’
Determiners
Determiners work alongside nouns to clarify information about the quantity, location, or ownership of the noun. It ‘determines’ exactly what is being referred to. Much like pronouns, there are also several different types of determiners.
- The, a, an — articles
- This, that, those — you might recognise these for demonstrative pronouns are also determiners
- One, two, three etc. — cardinal numbers
- First, second, third etc. — ordinal numbers
- Some, most, all — quantifiers
- Other, another — difference words
‘The first restaurant is better than the other.’
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are words that connect other words, phrases, and clauses together within a sentence. There are three main types of conjunctions;
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Coordinating conjunctions — these link independent clauses together.
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Subordinating conjunctions — these link dependent clauses to independent clauses.
- Correlative conjunctions — words that work in pairs to join two parts of a sentence of equal importance.
For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so — coordinating conjunctions
After, as, because, when, while, before, if, even though — subordinating conjunctions
Either/or, neither/nor, both/and — correlative conjunctions
‘If it rains, I’m not going out.’
Interjections
Interjections are exclamatory words used to express an emotion or a reaction. They often stand alone from the rest of the sentence and are accompanied by an exclamation mark.
Oh
Oops!
Phew!
Ahh!
‘Oh, what a surprise!’
Word class: lexical classes and function classes
A helpful way to understand lexical word classes is to see them as the building blocks of sentences. If the lexical word classes are the blocks themselves, then the function word classes are the cement holding the words together and giving structure to the sentence.
Fig 2. Lexical and functional word classes
In this diagram, the lexical classes are in blue and the function classes are in yellow. We can see that the words in blue provide the key information, and the words in yellow bring this information together in a structured way.
Word class examples
Sometimes it can be tricky to know exactly which word class a word belongs to. Some words can function as more than one word class depending on how they are used in a sentence. For this reason, we must look at words in context, i.e. how a word works within the sentence. Take a look at the following examples of word classes to see the importance of word class categorisation.
The dog will bark if you open the door.
The tree bark was dark and rugged.
Here we can see that the same word (bark) has a different meaning and different word class in each sentence. In the first example, ‘bark’ is used as a verb, and in the second as a noun (an object in this case).
I left my sunglasses on the beach.
The horse stood on Sarah’s left foot.
In the first sentence, the word ‘left’ is used as a verb (an action), and in the second, it is used to modify the noun (foot). In this case, it is an adjective.
I run every day
I went for a run
In this example, ‘run’ can be a verb or a noun.
Word Class — Key takeaways
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We group words into word classes based on the function they perform in a sentence.
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The four main word classes are nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. These are lexical classes that give meaning to a sentence.
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The other five word classes are prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These are function classes that are used to explain grammatical and structural relationships between words.
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It is important to look at the context of a sentence in order to work out which word class a word belongs to.
Frequently Asked Questions about Word Class
A word class is a group of words that have similar properties and play a similar role in a sentence.
Some examples of how some words can function as more than one word class include the way ‘run’ can be a verb (‘I run every day’) or a noun (‘I went for a run’). Similarly, ‘well’ can be an adverb (‘He plays the guitar well’) or an adjective (‘She’s feeling well today’).
The nine word classes are; Nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, interjections.
Categorising words into word classes helps us to understand the function the word is playing within a sentence.
Parts of speech is another term for word classes.
The different groups of word classes include lexical classes that act as the building blocks of a sentence e.g. nouns. The other word classes are function classes that act as the ‘glue’ and give grammatical information in a sentence e.g. prepositions.
The word classes for all, that, and the is:
‘All’ = determiner (quantifier)
‘That’ = pronoun and/or determiner (demonstrative pronoun)
‘The’ = determiner (article)
Final Word Class Quiz
Word Class Quiz — Teste dein Wissen
Question
A word can only belong to one type of noun. True or false?
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Answer
This is false. A word can belong to multiple categories of nouns and this may change according to the context of the word.
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Question
Name the two principal categories of nouns.
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Answer
The two principal types of nouns are ‘common nouns’ and ‘proper nouns’.
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Question
Which of the following is an example of a proper noun?
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Question
Name the 6 types of common nouns discussed in the text.
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Answer
Concrete nouns, abstract nouns, countable nouns, uncountable nouns, collective nouns, and compound nouns.
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Question
What is the difference between a concrete noun and an abstract noun?
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Answer
A concrete noun is a thing that physically exists. We can usually touch this thing and measure its proportions. An abstract noun, however, does not physically exist. It is a concept, idea, or feeling that only exists within the mind.
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Question
Pick out the concrete noun from the following:
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Pick out the abstract noun from the following:
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Question
What is the difference between a countable and an uncountable noun? Can you think of an example for each?
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Answer
A countable noun is a thing that can be ‘counted’, i.e. it can exist in the plural. Some examples include ‘bottle’, ‘dog’ and ‘boy’. These are often concrete nouns.
An uncountable noun is something that can not be counted, so you often cannot place a number in front of it. Examples include ‘love’, ‘joy’, and ‘milk’.
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Question
Pick out the collective noun from the following:
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Question
What is the collective noun for a group of sheep?
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Answer
The collective noun is a ‘flock’, as in ‘flock of sheep’.
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Question
The word ‘greenhouse’ is a compound noun. True or false?
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Answer
This is true. The word ‘greenhouse’ is a compound noun as it is made up of two separate words ‘green’ and ‘house’. These come together to form a new word.
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Question
What are the adjectives in this sentence?: ‘The little boy climbed up the big, green tree’
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Answer
The adjectives are ‘little’ and ‘big’, and ‘green’ as they describe features about the nouns.
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Question
Place the adjectives in this sentence into the correct order: the wooden blue big ship sailed across the Indian vast scary ocean.
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Answer
The big, blue, wooden ship sailed across the vast, scary, Indian ocean.
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Question
What are the 3 different positions in which an adjective can be placed?
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Answer
An adjective can be placed before a noun (pre-modification), after a noun (post-modification), or following a verb as a complement.
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Question
In this sentence, does the adjective pre-modify or post-modify the noun? ‘The unicorn is angry’.
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Answer
The adjective ‘angry’ post-modifies the noun ‘unicorn’.
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In this sentence, does the adjective pre-modify or post-modify the noun? ‘It is a scary unicorn’.
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Answer
The adjective ‘scary’ pre-modifies the noun ‘unicorn’.
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Question
What kind of adjectives are ‘purple’ and ‘shiny’?
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Answer
‘Purple’ and ‘Shiny’ are qualitative adjectives as they describe a quality or feature of a noun
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What kind of adjectives are ‘ugly’ and ‘easy’?
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Answer
The words ‘ugly’ and ‘easy’ are evaluative adjectives as they give a subjective opinion on the noun.
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Which of the following adjectives is an absolute adjective?
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Which of these adjectives is a classifying adjective?
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Question
Convert the noun ‘quick’ to its comparative form.
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Answer
The comparative form of ‘quick’ is ‘quicker’.
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Question
Convert the noun ‘slow’ to its superlative form.
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Answer
The comparative form of ‘slow’ is ‘slowest’.
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Question
What is an adjective phrase?
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Answer
An adjective phrase is a group of words that is ‘built’ around the adjective (it takes centre stage in the sentence). For example, in the phrase ‘the dog is big’ the word ‘big’ is the most important information.
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Question
Give 2 examples of suffixes that are typical of adjectives.
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Answer
Suffixes typical of adjectives include -able, -ible, -ful, -y, -less, -ous, -some, -ive, -ish, -al.
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Question
What is the difference between a main verb and an auxiliary verb?
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Answer
A main verb is a verb that can stand on its own and carries most of the meaning in a verb phrase. For example, ‘run’, ‘find’. Auxiliary verbs cannot stand alone, instead, they work alongside a main verb and ‘help’ the verb to express more grammatical information e.g. tense, mood, possibility.
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Question
What is the difference between a primary auxiliary verb and a modal auxiliary verb?
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Answer
Primary auxiliary verbs consist of the various forms of ‘to have’, ‘to be’, and ‘to do’ e.g. ‘had’, ‘was’, ‘done’. They help to express a verb’s tense, voice, or mood. Modal auxiliary verbs show possibility, ability, permission, or obligation. There are 9 auxiliary verbs including ‘could’, ‘will’, might’.
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Question
Which of the following are primary auxiliary verbs?
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Is
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Play
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Have
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Run
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Does
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Could
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Answer
The primary auxiliary verbs in this list are ‘is’, ‘have’, and ‘does’. They are all forms of the main primary auxiliary verbs ‘to have’, ‘to be’, and ‘to do’. ‘Play’ and ‘run’ are main verbs and ‘could’ is a modal auxiliary verb.
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Question
Name 6 out of the 9 modal auxiliary verbs.
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Answer
Answers include: Could, would, should, may, might, can, will, must, shall
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Question
‘The fairies were asleep’. In this sentence, is the verb ‘were’ a linking verb or an auxiliary verb?
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Answer
The word ‘were’ is used as a linking verb as it stands alone in the sentence. It is used to link the subject (fairies) and the adjective (asleep).
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Question
What is the difference between dynamic verbs and stative verbs?
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Answer
A dynamic verb describes an action or process done by a noun or subject. They are thought of as ‘action verbs’ e.g. ‘kick’, ‘run’, ‘eat’. Stative verbs describe the state of being of a person or thing. These are states that are not necessarily physical action e.g. ‘know’, ‘love’, ‘suppose’.
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Question
Which of the following are dynamic verbs and which are stative verbs?
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Drink
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Prefer
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Talk
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Seem
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Understand
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Write
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Answer
The dynamic verbs are ‘drink’, ‘talk’, and ‘write’ as they all describe an action. The stative verbs are ‘prefer’, ‘seem’, and ‘understand’ as they all describe a state of being.
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Question
What is an imperative verb?
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Answer
Imperative verbs are verbs used to give orders, give instructions, make a request or give warning. They tell someone to do something. For example, ‘clean your room!’.
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Inflections give information about tense, person, number, mood, or voice. True or false?
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What information does the inflection ‘-ing’ give for a verb?
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Answer
The inflection ‘-ing’ is often used to show that an action or state is continuous and ongoing.
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How do you know if a verb is irregular?
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Answer
An irregular verb does not take the regular inflections, instead the whole word is spelt a different way. For example, begin becomes ‘began’ or ‘begun’. We can’t add the regular past tense inflection -ed as this would become ‘beginned’ which doesn’t make sense.
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Question
Suffixes can never signal what word class a word belongs to. True or false?
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Answer
False. Suffixes can signal what word class a word belongs to. For example, ‘-ify’ is a common suffix for verbs (‘identity’, ‘simplify’)
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A verb phrase is built around a noun. True or false?
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Answer
False. A verb phrase is a group of words that has a main verb along with any other auxiliary verbs that ‘help’ the main verb. For example, ‘could eat’ is a verb phrase as it contains a main verb (‘could’) and an auxiliary verb (‘could’).
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Question
Which of the following are multi-word verbs?
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Shake
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Rely on
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Dancing
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Look up to
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Answer
The verbs ‘rely on’ and ‘look up to’ are multi-word verbs as they consist of a verb that has one or more prepositions or particles linked to it.
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What is the difference between a transition verb and an intransitive verb?
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Answer
Transitive verbs are verbs that require an object in order to make sense. For example, the word ‘bring’ requires an object that is brought (‘I bring news’). Intransitive verbs do not require an object to complete the meaning of the sentence e.g. ‘exist’ (‘I exist’).
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Answer
An adverb is a word that gives more information about a verb, adjective, another adverb, or a full clause.
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What are the 3 ways we can use adverbs?
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We can use adverbs to modify a word (modifying adverbs), to intensify a word (intensifying adverbs), or to connect two clauses (connecting adverbs).
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What are modifying adverbs?
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Modifying adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They add further information about the word.
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‘Additionally’, ‘likewise’, and ‘consequently’ are examples of connecting adverbs. True or false?
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Answer
True! Connecting adverbs are words used to connect two independent clauses.
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What are intensifying adverbs?
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Answer
Intensifying adverbs are words used to strengthen the meaning of an adjective, another adverb, or a verb. In other words, they ‘intensify’ another word.
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Question
Which of the following are intensifying adverbs?
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Calmly
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Incredibly
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Enough
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Greatly
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Answer
The intensifying adverbs are ‘incredibly’ and ‘greatly’. These strengthen the meaning of a word.
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Question
Name the main types of adverbs
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Answer
The main adverbs are; adverbs of place, adverbs of time, adverbs of manner, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of degree, adverbs of probability, and adverbs of purpose.
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Question
What are adverbs of time?
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Answer
Adverbs of time are the ‘when?’ adverbs. They answer the question ‘when is the action done?’ e.g. ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’
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Question
Which of the following are adverbs of frequency?
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Usually
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Patiently
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Occasionally
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Nowhere
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Answer
The adverbs of frequency are ‘usually’ and ‘occasionally’. They are the ‘how often?’ adverbs. They answer the question ‘how often is the action done?’.
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Question
What are adverbs of place?
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Answer
Adverbs of place are the ‘where?’ adverbs. They answer the question ‘where is the action done?’. For example, ‘outside’ or ‘elsewhere’.
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Question
Which of the following are adverbs of manner?
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Never
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Carelessly
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Kindly
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Inside
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Answer
The words ‘carelessly’ and ‘kindly’ are adverbs of manner. They are the ‘how?’ adverbs that answer the question ‘how is the action done?’.
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A noun is a word that depicts a person, place, thing, or idea. Common nouns are things like house and tree, and they are not capitalized. Proper nouns are specific names, like Brooklyn or Joe, and they are always capitalized. To find a noun within a sentence, try to identify the verb, look for capitalized names, and see if there is an article within the sentence to base your identification on.
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1
Locate the main verb in the sentence to identify the connected noun. A verb is an action word that usually describes the act of doing. Grabbing, singing, and playing are all verbs. More often than not, the verb in the sentence is directly linked to the subject of the sentence. Identify who or what is completing the action in the sentence.[1]
- In the sentence “She lifts weights,” “lifts” is the verb, and “she” is the noun.
- In “The dog ran away,” “ran” is the verb, so “dog” is the noun.
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2
Find words that are capitalized as a clue that they might be nouns. Words that are capitalized in a sentence are almost always proper nouns, since they are usually the names of people, places, or things. Look for any words in the middle of a sentence that are capitalized and see if they could be a noun.[2]
- In the sentence “Agatha Christie wrote a lot of books,” “Agatha Christie” is the noun since it is a name.
- In the sentence “Do you think the Red Sox will win?” “Red Sox” is the noun, since it is the name of a team.
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3
See if the word follows “a,” “and,” or “the.” These words are called articles. If a word follows an article, it is almost certainly a noun. Try to identify any articles in your sentence and see if there is a noun that follows directly after it.[3]
- In the sentence “The dance was held on Saturday,” “dance” is the noun since it follows “the.”
Warning: Sometimes an adjective will precede the noun. Watch out for sentences like “Some hot peppers were eaten.” “Peppers” is the noun in this sentence, not “hot.”
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4
See if the word follows “some,” “a lot,” or a specific number. Words that describe quantities almost always precede a noun. If the sentence has a quantity word in it, look at the word that is directly after it to see if it could be a noun.[4]
- In “Some computers in here are broken,” “computers” is the noun since it follows “some.”
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5
Determine if the word has a descriptor in front of it. Descriptive words, or adjectives, almost always are describing a noun. If you are questioning whether a word is a noun or not, see if there is an adjective in front of it. If there is, chances are the word is a noun.[5]
- For example, in the sentence “The stinky socks were gross,” “stinky” is the adjective, and “socks” is the noun.
- In “A dead tree fell down,” “dead” is the adjective and “tree” is the noun.
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1
Identify words that are a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns are words that depict specific objects, ideas, or people, that the sentence is built around. Look out for words in a sentence that are not actionable or descriptive, and instead only state exactly what something is.[6]
- In the sentence “She walked home,” “She” is the noun because she is a person.
- In “Portland is a cool city,” “Portland” is the noun because it is a place.
- In “The windows need to be open,” “windows” is the noun because it is a thing.
- In “Your courage is inspiring,” “courage” is the noun because it is an idea.
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2
Recognize common endings that indicate a word is a noun. Sometimes, the ending of a word, or the suffix, can clue you in as to what function it serves in a sentence. Often, nouns end in -ity, -ness, and -hood. Some other common examples of noun suffixes are:[7]
- -tion (population)
- -ance/-ence (permanence)
- -ar/-or (doctor)
- -ism (socialism)
- -ist (dentist)
- -ment (government)
- -y (beauty)
- -acy (accuracy)
- -age (image)
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3
Test to see if the word can be pluralized. If you can add a plural modifier onto the back of a word, it is most likely a noun. Choose the word that you believe to be a noun and add a letter or letters on the end of it to make it plural. Most often, the plural version of a word has an “s” on the end of it.[8]
- For example, “My shirt doesn’t fit.” “Shirt” can be pluralized by adding an “s” to the end of it to make “shirts.” “Shirt” is the noun in this sentence.
- If a noun is plural in a sentence, it is a plural noun.
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4
Spot possessive nouns by looking for an apostrophe and an “s.” Possessive nouns add ownership to a person, place, thing, or idea by adding an apostrophe and an “s” after the word. Theses nouns usually stand right in front of the thing that they are possessing. If a person, place, thing, or idea owns something, that word is a noun.[9]
- In “The book’s cover is gold,” “book’s” is the possessive noun.
- In “The laundry’s smell was enticing,” “laundry’s” is the possessive noun.
- In “My lawyer’s fee was too much,” “lawyer’s” is the possessive noun.
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5
Look for nouns that describe groups as a single entity. Collective nouns, or nouns that give a name to a large group of people, things, objects, or ideas, can be hard to spot, since they may not seem like nouns at first glance. Watch out for words like “array,” “choir,” and “class” to find collective nouns in a sentence.[10]
More common collective nouns include:- Department of technology
- Crowd of fans
- String of pearls
- School of fish
- Brood of chickens
- Deck of cards
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6
Look up the word in the dictionary to see if it is a noun. If all else fails, take a peek inside of a dictionary to find out what part of a sentence that word usually is. Dictionaries have symbols next to each definition of a word. A lowercase “n” signifies that a word is a noun.[11]
Warning: You will not be able to find slang words or most proper nouns in a dictionary.
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Question
How do you spot a noun in a piece of writing?
Language Academia is a private, online language school founded by Kordilia Foxstone. Kordilia and her team specialize in teaching foreign languages and accent reduction. Language Academia offers courses in several languages, including English, Spanish, and Mandarin.
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Expert Answer
Take a look at the suspected noun in the sentence and ask «What is this?» or «Who is this?» A noun should easily be able to answer these questions. For example, if you were reading a sentence about a dog, you could ask the question «What is this?» and get «dog» as your answer. Through this process, you’d confirm that «dog» is a noun.
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Grammar rules are not always set in stone, and you will probably encounter sentences that break those rules.
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