English Noun

A noun is any word that defines a person, place, or 
thing in a sentence.
 
Nouns give names to:

Concrete Things:  Mary lost her books.
Abstract Ideas:  His philosophy is really odd.
Abstract Qualities:  He says that he lacks sensitivity.
Feelings:  She feels great joy when she watches TV.
Actions:  Parking won't be difficult in Toronto.
People:  Mary Smith is project manager.
Animals: What kind of bear is Teddy Bear?
Places:  University of Toronto is located in Toronto.

Common and Proper Nouns  

Nouns can be divided into two categories: common nouns 
and proper nouns. 

Common Nouns are the name for ordinary things. Common nouns 
refer to any of a class of people, places, or things. For 
example, table, cat, tree, and country.

Proper Nouns are the name of someone or something that is 
usually imagined as UNIQUE and they are ALWAYS CAPITALIZED. 
For example, President Bush, Toronto, Wall Street, Toshiba, 
and McDonalds.


Mass and Count Nouns  

Every noun can be divided into count noun (or countable noun) 
and mass noun (or uncountable noun).
 
Count Nouns are nouns that can be quantified or counted 
with a number. Here are some examples:

Names of persons, animals, plants, insects, and their parts: 
a girl, a cat, a rose, an ear, three girls, five cats, twelve 
roses, and two ears.

Objects with a definite shape: a building, a balloon, a house, 
an octopus, four buildings, six balloons, four houses, and two 
octopi.

Units of measurement and words of classification: a gram, a pound, 
a piece, a lump, an item, a bit, a family, a state, a language, 
a phrase, and  a word.

Some abstract words: a hindrance, a scheme, an idea, a plan, a 
taboo, and a rest.
 

Mass Nouns

Mass Nouns are uncountable by a number. Mass nouns are quantified 
by a word that indicates amount. 
 
Some examples:

Materials, Food, Metals, and natural qualities: bread, cotton, 
wood, lightness, adolescence

Names of liquids, gases, and substances made of many small 
particles: cappuccino, oil, smoke, oxygen, rice, sugar, salt, 
cement, gravel

Names of Languages: English, Spanish, French, Latin, Japanese, 
Chinese

Most gerunds : looking, listening, swimming, running, anticipating

Remember that a number cannot be used to quantify a mass noun. 
Incorrect: four woods, one rice

To measure or classify mass nouns use "of" after a measurement: a 
foot of wood, a pound of rice, a bar of chocolate, a piece of music, 
a bag of money

Noun and Pronoun Case  

Case refers to how nouns and pronouns are used in relation to 
the other words in a sentence. The three cases are subjective, 
objective, and possessive. 

 
Subjective Case is sometimes called the nominative case. A noun 
or pronoun is in the subjective when it is used as the subject 
of the sentence or as a predicate noun. A predicate noun follows 
a form of the "be" verb, and it renames the subject of the 
sentence. Here are some examples:

Mary hopes to finish her homework tonight.

Joe danced in the statewide competition.

She is a clown. (The word clown is a predicate noun)   


Objective Case is a noun or pronoun that is used as a direct 
object, an indirect object, or an object of the preposition.

My sister prepared the dinner.

His cat crawled under the table.

The teacher gave us the money back. 


Possessive Case is a noun or pronoun that is used to show 
ownership of an object. Here are two examples:

Tom washed Mary's bag.

Where did you find his pen? 


        A Chart of Pronoun Cases 
---------------------------------------
Subjective   Objective    Possessive 
--------------------------------------- 
I            Me           My, Mine 
You          You          Your, Yours 
He           Him          His 
She          Her          Her, Hers 
It           It           Its 
We           Us           Our, Ours  
They         Them         Their, Theirs 
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