Nouns and nouns different types. You probably haven’t had to think about these since your school days. Suddenly, they’re popping up in your child’s homework. A big part of their English homework is nouns. Nouns different types will show up in your child’s homework and their classwork on a regular basis. So what are nouns and what are the different types? Let’s take a trip down memory lane, back to your school days and discuss all things nouns.
What are nouns?
Let’s get started with what nouns actually are. Nouns are a person, place or thing. So, nouns, they’re pretty easy and basic right? Well, if this is all your child needs to know, then yes. I hate to break it to you, but there are 6 types of nouns that your child should know before they leave primary school. Let’s take a deep dive into these different types of nouns and examples together!
Nouns Different Types
There are 6 types of nouns that your child will be working with throughout primary school. Firstly, before I give you some tips on how to teach nouns to your child, let’s go through the 6 types of nouns and examples together.
Common Nouns
Common nouns are just your normal nouns. They are what we discussed above, a person, place or thing. Common nouns are the generic name of a person, place or thing. Some examples of ‘person nouns’ are girl, boy, mum, dad, granny and grandad. Next, we have ‘place nouns’ which could be school, city, beach, cinema and shop. Next, we have ‘thing nouns’ which are table, pencil, bag, apple, orange and hat. Honestly, I could go on with these nouns all day as there are so many things that we use every day.
Proper Nouns
I like to remember proper nouns as the ‘proper’ name of a person, place or thing. The main thing with proper nouns is that they always have a capital letter at the beginning. Let’s go through some examples together.
I will use myself as the ‘person’ example. I am a woman, woman is the common noun. Therefore, the proper noun for ‘woman’ is Kerry as that is my ‘proper’ name.
The ‘place’ common noun could be ‘city.’ The proper noun would be Belfast as this is the ‘proper’ name of the city.
The ‘thing’ common noun would be ‘dog.’ The proper noun would be the name of the dog which could be Rex.
Use these examples and make them relatable to your child. They will remember proper nouns better if they connect them to their own life.
Collective Nouns
These are definitely not my favourite types of nouns. These don’t appear very often but when they do they will have you ‘Googling’ like crazy. Collective nouns are the names we give to groups of people, places or things.
Collective Nouns Different Types Animals Examples:
Your child’s homework or test questions will usually ask them about this type of collective nouns. Groups of animals are given different names. Some examples are, ‘a gaggle of geese,’ ‘a flock of sheep,’ ‘a pack of wolves,’ or ‘a herd of cows.’ The collective nouns are gaggle, flock, pack and herd. These are the most common collective nouns relating to animals. However, you do get some strange ones such as ‘a murder of crows.’ Seriously, who actually came up with that one?
Collective Nouns Different Types People Examples:
Collective nouns for people could be ‘a team of football players,’ ‘an army of soldiers,’ ‘a choir of singers,’ or a ‘band of musicians.’ The collective nouns to describe people are team, army, choir and band. You will use these collective nouns on a daily basis without even thinking of them.
Collective Nouns Different Types Thing Examples:
You will also use these collective nouns in everyday life. However, you just don’t think to yourself, “Look at that beautiful bouquet of flowers. I’ve just used a collective noun!” Some other examples are, ‘an array of colours,’ ‘a library of books,’ ‘a bowl of rice,’ or ‘a pair of shoes.’ The collective nouns to describe things are bouquet, array, library, bowl and pair.
Collective Nouns Different Types Proper Noun Examples:
Lastly, just to make things a bit more confusing, proper nouns can also be collective nouns. In fact, we use these in everyday life, we just don’t think about it when we are speaking, writing or reading. Some examples of proper collective nouns are ‘Manchester United,’ ‘One Direction,’ ‘Google,’ or ‘The Beatles.’ These are the ‘proper’ groups of footballer players, singers and organisations.
If you would like to explore a list of collective nouns, click here!
Abstract Nouns
Next on the list are abstract nouns. These are nouns that you cannot see or touch. Abstract nouns can be ideas, feelings, thoughts or emotions. Some examples are ‘happiness,’ ‘anger,’ ‘dream,’ ‘sleep’ and ‘love.’ These are all things you can feel but not see or touch. You may see that someone is angry because of their facial expression but you can’t actually touch the feeling of anger.
Compound Nouns
These are nouns that are created by combining two words together. For example, if we take the words ‘hair’ and ‘cut’ we can combine them to create ‘haircut.’ Another example is ‘arm’ and ‘chair,’ together they create ‘armchair.’ In addition, you can join these words together such as ‘classroom,’ hyphenate them such as ‘check-in’ or have a space such as ‘flower shop.’
Pronouns
These are used instead of nouns when the reader, listener or speaker is aware of the noun that is already being referred to. They can make sentences and speech shorter and easier to read or listen to. Here is an example of a sentence without the use of pronouns, ‘I have a dog. My dog is white with black spots. My dog loves going to the park where my dog jumps into the pond.’ Ok we get it, you are talking about your dog, you don’t need to keep telling us you are talking about your dog. This is where pronouns jump in to save the day and your ears!
Here is the same sentence using pronouns this time, ‘I have a dog. She is white with black spots. She loves going to the park where she jumps into the pond.’ That’s better, isn’t it? We know that the noun being referred to throughout the sentence is the dog because we are introduced to it at the beginning of the sentence. However, the version with pronouns is much easier to read or listen to.
Another example without pronouns is, ‘Sasha, Jack and Edith went to the shopping centre after school. Sasha, Jack and Edith love going to the bargain shop. Sasha, Jack and Edith bought chocolate, sweets, felt tips and a craft set. Sasha, Jack and Edith are going to create birthday cards for their friends.’ Now let’s take a look at the same sentence again with pronouns, ‘Sasha, Jack and Edith went to the shopping centre after school. They love going to the bargain shop. They bought chocolate, sweets, felt tips and a craft set. They are going to create birthday cards for their friends.’
What will my child’s noun different types homework look like?
Now that we have covered the different types of nouns list, let’s look at what your child’s noun homework might look like. Nouns all types can make an appearance in your child’s homework in a number of ways. Some of these ways are:
- Identifying Nouns
- Write Sentences with Nouns
- Comprehensions
I will give you some examples of how your child may be asked to interact with nouns. Please note all schools and teachers are different. Your child may be asked different questions with nouns. However, these are the types of questions that I give to my students.
Identify Nouns
The first example is your child could be given sentences, a paragraph or a story where they have to identify the various parts of speech. Parts of what? Parts of speech is the name given to nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Let’s complete an example together.
Colour the nouns in the following sentence in blue.
Julie went to the supermarket to buy some fruit for her lunch. She bought strawberries, apples, bananas and a spiky pineapple. She was so hungry, she couldn’t wait to eat all her delicious fruit.
If we strip away all the other words in the sentence we are left with the nouns, Julie, supermarket, fruit, lunch, she, strawberries, apples, bananas, pineapple, hungry and fruit. With this sentence, we have a proper noun, common nouns and an abstract noun.
Write sentences
Additionally, your child may be asked to use nouns in their homework is to write their own sentences which include nouns. For example, ‘Write a sentence which has two proper nouns.’
Jessica and Ryan went to the cinema. They had popcorn, chocolate and fizzy juice while watching the movie.
Your child may be asked to write a sentence with nouns, they can choose any type of noun for the sentence. Furthermore, they may be asked to use a specific noun such as proper nouns, abstract nouns or pronouns.
Comprehensions
As your child progresses through primary school, the type of comprehension questions they are asked changes. Rather than just being asked questions about the story or text they have read, they will be asked to find words with similar meanings, synonyms, antonyms, and true/false statements. In addition, they will also be required to find parts of speech in the text or identify what part of speech a particular word from the text is.
Additionally, these types of questions are particularly popular with transfer test style comprehensions. Let’s take a look at an example together.
The word ‘Paris’ is used in line 10 of the text. What part of speech is the word ‘Paris?’
Your child must select the correct answer from multiple answers or write down ‘Proper Noun.’
How to teach your child nouns different types
Now that you know the different types of nouns and their examples you can help make nouns easier for your child during homework time and for their work within the classroom. Here are some ways I recommend for teaching your child nouns.
Nature
I love being outdoors so I am always going to have a nature option for learning. Being outdoors is a great place to explore all the different types of nouns in English. Take a trip to the beach or the park and explore all of the nouns around you. Here are some questions you could ask your child:
- What nouns can you see?
- Who are you here with?
- What are their names? What type of nouns are these?
- How do you feel when you are at the park/beach? What type of nouns are your feelings?
You can also get some great themed ‘Noun Hunt’ sheets online and take these out and about with you. Your child checks off the nouns on the list as they spot them.
Everyday Life
If you aren’t able to take a trip to the park, you can take a trip to the supermarket. Additionally, you can complete activities in your own home such as baking buns or asking your child to help with the dinner. There are nouns all around us. For example, if you are in the supermarket with your child, everything you put in your trolley is a common noun and the brands are proper nouns.
Games
Of course, there will always be games in my teaching tips as this helps keep learning fun for your child. There are lots of online and printable games you can play with your child to teach them nouns different types. Some of my favourites are noun memory games, where your child has to turn the cards over and remember where they are until they find a pair, noun snap and this board game, ‘Noun Nation’ is a great family board game to reinforce nouns.
You don’t have to spend money to get noun games for your home, you can create your own by writing nouns on cards or post-it notes and turn it into your own memory game or snap game. Additionally, you can also write down every letter of the alphabet and have your child come up with a noun for each letter. Have your child make a poster for each of the different types of nouns. They can keep this to use with their homework if they need some help.
When your child is completing activities like this, they don’t feel like they are learning because they are having fun along the way.
Different Types of Nouns Worksheet KS2
Whether we like it or not, your child will always have a worksheet to complete in school or at home. While some teachers or parents aren’t a fan of worksheets, I think they are great for solidifying knowledge, if used at the correct time. Before your child can complete a worksheet on nouns, they need to have a solid base of what nouns are. The best way to do this is to complete fun, hands-on activities and then complete a worksheet.
There are lots of fun different types of nouns worksheet out there, it doesn’t have to be writing sentences upon sentences. A noun cut and stick, colouring the nouns, themed noun worksheets for the time of year and noun word searches are some fun examples of noun worksheets.
More Information on Nouns Different Types
What Is a Noun? Definition, Types, and Examples
25 Intriguing Noun Activities for Middle School
Are you preparing your child for the transfer test? Check out my blog post 5 fantastic, simple ways to prepare your child for the SEAG Transfer Test.
So nouns, aren’t so bad, are they? I hope these different noun types examples have made teaching your child nouns a bit easier. Save this blog post so that you have easy access to nouns of different types anytime you need them.
