| Here is a handy one page guide to types of | | | | Countable: |
| nouns. It is designed to be used in a primary | | | | Things that can become plural. |
| elementary classroom. It is written in a simple | | | | (snakes, toads, chairs, tables, doors, handles) |
| language so that students can use it. Print out a | | | | Uncountable: |
| copy for yourself, or one for each student or a | | | | Things that can't become plural |
| larger A3 version for a group activity. | | | | (laughter, cutlery, people, furniture, anger) |
| Types of Nouns | | | | Concrete: |
| A noun is the name we give to a person, place, | | | | Things that can be observed by at least one of |
| thing, event, substance, quality, or idea. Nouns can | | | | the senses. |
| be sorted into a number of sub-categories. | | | | (grape, perfume, music, sand) |
| Common: | | | | Abstract: |
| The name of a thing. It represents one of a type | | | | Things that can't be observed by the senses. |
| of thing or all of the group. When used in a | | | | (hatred, love, jealousy, hope) |
| sentence it will have "the", "a" or "an" in front of it. | | | | Students can use this guide to categorize a list of |
| (a cat, an elephant, a book, a library) | | | | nouns. Write 20 or more nouns on the board and |
| Proper: | | | | ask students to decide which group they belong |
| Things that have a clear individual identity: they | | | | to. Of course, some nouns can belong to more |
| are one of a kind. | | | | than one group. Anger is a common noun and an |
| (Melissa, London, Cinderella, King Kong, Disney | | | | abstract noun: laughter is a common noun and an |
| Land) | | | | uncountable noun. |