Notes on Nouns

We use nouns all of the time when we write s to friends or papers for class. (For example, there are many nouns in this paragraph). We will look at some mistakes that students frequently make with nouns- and I’ll give you some pointers on how to avoid making those mistakes when you write.

 Person, place, thing, idea, or quality Idea: democracy, truth, illusion, fantasy Quality: beauty, hatred, boredom

 Common: begins with a lower case letter  Proper: begins with a capital letter  Rules for when to capitalize certain words: Names of specific people  Caps: Tucker, Tori, Juanita  No Caps: family, boy girl, sister, cousin WHAT ABOUT MOM AND DAD? Capitalize them when you’re calling your parent’s name but not when you refer to them as “my mom” or “my dad”

Days of the week, months, and holidays, but not seasons  Caps: Monday, December, Passover, Easter  No Caps: autumn, fall, spring, winter Ranks and titles, but only when used with a particular person’s name  Caps: This is Doctor Smith and this is Aunt Anne.  No Caps: That man is my doctor and that woman is my aunt. Specific geographic areas: cities, states, countries, counties, rivers, oceans, streets, parks, etc.  Caps: North Dakota, Ohio River, Atlantic Ocean  No Caps: The ocean is deep. Regions of the U.S., but not simple directions  Caps: I was born in the Midwest, but I grew up in the North.  No Caps: I live on the north side of town.

Historical periods  Caps: the Renaissance, World War II, the Middle Ages  No Caps: It was a long war. We live in the age of computers. Religions, nationalities, races of people, languages, countries Various names for God and the names of sacred books  Caps: God, Jehovah, Allah, the Bible, the Koran  No Caps: There are many gods and goddesses in “The Odyssey” Specific school courses, but not general subjects  Caps: I am taking Algebra 101.  No Caps: I am taking algebra and history. Names of specific schools, businesses, buildings, organizations, etc.  Caps: Apple Computer, Western Sierra Collegiate Academy  No Caps: I want a new computer. That building is the middle school.

Brand names Names of planets, but not sun and moon and sometimes not earth  Caps: Jupiter, Mars, Venus…  No Caps: The moon is bright tonight. More than six billion people live on the earth. Letters that stand alone  T-shirt, X-ray Names of specific teams and clubs and their members  Caps: the Atlanta Braves, the Republican Party  No Caps: I play on a baseball team Titles of movies, books, chapters, and articles

 Possessive: shows ownership (Mr. Odell’s wrath, dog’s toy, sun’s beauty)  Concrete: You can experience this group of nouns and you see them and feel them (tangible).  Abstract: You cannot experience abstract nouns (disapproval, anger, hope, sweetness).

 Turn to the person sitting next to you and create two sentences using all of the types of nouns in each one.  Make sure the sentences are challenging because you will be giving them to another partnership to figure out.

 A common, abstract noun  A possessive, proper noun  A common, concrete noun  Another abstract noun

 A possessive, common noun  A common noun that is commonly mistaken for a proper noun  Write out a noun and, next to it, write out the type