What are nouns?
Nouns are naming words for people, places and things.
You see and meet people, visit places and use things every day.
Nouns tell you what these are called, so you can talk about the world and understand each other.
Lady Lettuce from Nountown Abbey has lost her spoon.
This sentence shows three nouns:
- 'Lady Lettuce' is a person.
- 'Nountown Abbey' is a place.
- 'Spoon' is a thing.
What is a noun?
Learn about nouns and find out if the butler can locate Lady Lettuce's special spoon in time for breakfast. Then, put your knowledge to the test in a quiz!
What are proper nouns?
Nouns are words that name people, places or things.
If a person, place or thing has a specific name, it is called a proper noun.
For example:
Mr Ree is the shopkeeper.
The word 'shopkeeper' is a noun because it refers to a type of person.
'Mr Ree' is a proper noun because it is the specific name of that shopkeeper.
Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter, no matter where they are in a sentence.
Example 1
Can you spot three nouns in this sentence? Which one is a proper noun?
Mr Tray went to the school to look for the spoon.
✓ The nouns are 'Mr Tray' (a person), 'school' (a place) and 'spoon' (a thing).
The proper noun is 'Mr Tray'. This is the butler’s name, which makes it a proper noun. Proper nouns always need a capital letter.
Example 2
Look at these two sentences below. The word ‘school’ appears twice in these examples, once with a capital letter and once without.
It’s Nountown Abbey School’s famous fun sports day!
I’m in school today!
Why does the same word have a capital letter in one sentence but not the other?
✓ In the first example, the word 'School' is part of a specific place name – 'Nountown Abbey School'. That makes it a proper noun, so it needs a capital letter.
In the second example, 'school' is used as a general place where you go to learn, so it doesn't need a capital letter.
Task
Picture reading!
Pick up a picture book, but don’t read the words! Instead, look at the pictures.
How many nouns can you find?
Don’t forget you're looking for people, places or things!
Karate Cats English game! game
Head to the dojo to become an expert in spelling, punctuation and grammar.
More on Writing
Find out more by working through a topic
- count39 of 94
- count40 of 94
- count41 of 94
- count42 of 94
