Nouns: The Basics

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

A proper noun names a specific person, place, thing, or idea.

• Paris, France 

A common noun names a general person, place, thing, or idea.

• vacation 

A concrete noun names something that you can see or touch.

• luggage 

An abstract noun names ideas, feelings, qualities, and actions that can not be seen or touched.

• love

I would love to pack my luggage and take a summer long vacation to Paris, France.

 A possessive noun names who or what owns something.  Possessive nouns are formed by adding an -'s to the end of the word.  This rule applies to all singular nouns (this includes singular nouns that end in an -s.) and plural nouns that do not end in an -s.  To form the possessive of a plural that already ends in an -s, you simply add the appostrophe ('). 

A plural noun is formed by adding an -s, or an -es to the singular noun or by following the pattern of changed spelling of the singular noun.

Below are some more examples of nouns.

Person

• (common) woman, man, baker
• (proper) Marseille, Jean-Luc, Mr. Beau
• (plural) women, men, bakers
• (possessive singular) woman's, man's, baker's
• (possessive plural) women's, men's, bakers'

Place

• (common) street, city, business
• (proper) Champs-Elysées, Paris, Le Relais du Parc
• (plural) streets, cities, businesses
• (possessive singular) street's, city's, business's
• (possessive plural) streets' cities' businesses'

Thing

• (common) plane, newspaper, song
• (proper)  Air France Jet, Le Monde, Sur le pont d'Avignon
• (plural) planes, newspapers, songs
• (possessive singular) plane's, newpaper's, song's
• (possessive plural) planes', newspapers', songs'

Idea (can also be a quality or an action)

• (idea/concept) friendship, dream
• (quality) softness, beauty, freshness
• (action) eating, running, dreaming
• (plural) friendships, dreams
• (possessive singular) friendship's, dream's
• (possessive plural) friendships', dreams'