how many kinds of nouns are there
There are several different kinds of nouns.
1. Common Nouns
A common noun is the word used for a class of person, place or thing.
Examples:
Car
Man
Bridge
Town
Water
Metal
Ammonia
Proper Nouns
A proper noun is the name of a person, place or thing (i.e., its own name). A proper noun always starts with a capital letter.
Examples:
Michael
Africa
Peking
Dayton Peace Accord
United Nations
The Tower of London
Uncle George
("Uncle" is written with a capital letter because it is part of his name.)
My favourite auntie is Auntie Sally.
(In this example, the first "auntie" is a common noun; whereas, the
second "Auntie" is part of a proper noun.)
The Red Lion
Collective Nouns
A collective noun is the word used for a group of people or things.
Examples:
Choir
Team
Jury
Shoal
Cabinet (of ministers)
Regiment
Pronouns
A pronoun is a word used to replace a noun.
James is the first choice for the post. He has applied for it twice already.
("He" is a pronoun. In this example, it replaces the proper noun "James".)
("It" is a pronoun. Here, it replaces the common noun "post".)
Some / Who / This
(The term 'pronoun' covers lots of words, and all three words above are classified as pronouns. There is whole section dedicated to pronouns.
Verbal Nouns
Verbal nouns are formed from verbs. They are a type of common noun.
I love swimming.
("swimming" - the name of an activity; it is formed from the verb 'to swim'.)
Lateral thinking is required to solve this problem.
("thinking" - the name of an activity; it is formed from the verb 'to think'.)
Compound Nouns
Compound nouns are nouns made up of two or more words. Some compound nouns are hyphenated.
Mother-in-law
Board of members
Court-martial
Forget-me-not
Manservant
Paper-clip