Common nouns

 

Common nouns are nouns that you use to name people or things in general rather than specific ones (e.g., woman, city, dog, money, month).

Common Noun	Proper Noun
state	Michigan
city	New York
company	Samsung, Sony
month	February
ocean	Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean
mountain	Everest, Denali

 

Types of common nouns

Countable noun

a noun that you use to name things that can be counted and has a singular and a plural form (e.g., man/men, tree/trees, a dog/two dogs, two cars, three years)

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Uncountable noun

a noun that you use to name things that cannot be counted and does not have a plural form (e.g., air, gas, information, milk, snow, equipment, education)

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Collective noun

a noun that you use to name a group of things or people as a unit and has a singular form yet has a plural meaning (e.g., bunch, group, team, family, herd, flock, army).

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Concrete noun

a noun that you use to name things you can see, touch, taste, hear, or smell (e.g., rainbow, pen, sweetness, noise, scent)

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Abstract noun

a noun that you use to name things you cannot see, touch, taste, hear, or smell (e.g., pain, peace, love, beauty, opportunity, friendship, life).

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Verbal noun

a noun formed from a verb that refers to an action, process, or state (e.g., meeting, swimming, smoking, arrival, decision, happiness, flight, attack).

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Gender-specific noun

a noun that tells us about the gender of a person or animal (e.g., man/woman, husband/wife, king/queen, bull/cow, horse/mare, fox/vixen).

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– English Vocabulary