#2542. Instruction on Nouns

Reading/Writing, level: all
Posted Mon Apr 1 13:24:15 PST 2002 by Melinda Hershey (mhers111@aol.com).
Instruction on Nouns
St. Petersburg College, St. Petersburg USA
Materials Required: none
Activity Time: 30 minutes plus pretest and posttest
Concepts Taught: Common and proper nouns

Instruction on Nouns

Name: ___________________________

What you will learn...

After completing this instruction, you will be able to recognize nouns, effectively use nouns, and produce a list of nouns. This will include more advanced concepts such as distinguishing between common, proper, abstract, and concrete nouns.

Why it is important...

English is important because it helps us communicate well, read well, and know how to express ourselves.

Part 1: What Is A Noun?

Objective: You will learn what a noun is and different types of nouns.

A noun is a person, place, thing, quality or idea. It is a part of speech that acts as a naming word. Some examples of nouns are:

Man (person)

Tampa (place)

Desk (thing)

Now it's your turn. Can you think of three nouns?

1. A person _______________

2. A place ________________

3. A thing ________________

If you were able to choose the three different types of nouns, good work!

If you weren't able to come up with three types of nouns, continue through with the lesson and at the end you should be able to go back and think of some nouns. Making good word choices will help you in your writing.

Part 2: Common and Proper Nouns

Objective: Learn two types of nouns.

Two types of nouns are - common and proper.

Common nouns are not capitalized.

Proper nouns are capitalized.

A proper noun is a specific member of a class or a group. An example of a proper noun is: Learners' Preparatory School. Just the word school; however, is NOT a proper noun, because it does not identify a specific school. Another example of a proper noun is: Ms. Smith. Just the word principal; however, is NOT a proper noun, because it doesn't identify or name the specific principal. Common nouns do not have to be capitalized, and they do not indicate a specific person, place, or thing. For example, Learners' Preparatory School is a proper noun--but school is a common noun.

Now you try. Can you think of two common nouns and one proper noun?

1. __________________

2. __________________

3. __________________

Unit 3: Making Nouns Plural

Objective: Correctly relate that adding s or es to the endings of the nouns can *pluralize some nouns.
* plural means more than one

Some nouns can be placed in the plural form and others cannot. For example, to make the noun car plural - add an s to the end. The plural form of the noun is cars. A noun such as sweetness, however, cannot be made into a plural noun. Sweetnesses is not a real word.

Now you try. Please provide the plural form for three nouns (you can use some of the previous nouns that you chose).

1. ______________________

2. ______________________

3. ______________________

Unit 4: Concrete and Abstract Nouns

Objective: Know that some nouns can be described as concrete.

This will help you identify nouns that may NOT appear to be a noun.

A concrete noun can be described as a noun that you can look at, visualize, or see. An example of a concrete noun is a chair.

Now you try. Please provide an example of a concrete noun in the space below.

1. __________________

Objective: Recognize that some nouns can be described as abstract.

This will also help you identify nouns that may not (at first glance) appear to be a noun.

Abstract nouns are generally more difficult to identify. Abstract nouns are those nouns that fall into the categories of ideas or qualities. An example of an abstract noun is kindness, which is considered to be a quality. Another example of an abstract noun is freedom, which is considered to be an idea.

It's your turn. Please provide an example of an abstract noun.

1. ____________________

Good work! Identifying concrete and abstract nouns is a very difficult part of working with nouns.

Created by Melinda Hershey - http://www.designec.com/
Please send me an email - mailto:mhers111@aol.com if you used this instruction.