Do you know what a noun is?

It’s a word that indicates a person, a thing, an animal, a feeling, or an idea.

For instance: woman, lamp, dog, joy, honesty.

To make sure you’ve found a noun, put an adjective before it, such as “beautiful” or “stupid,” and check that they will work together — grammatically at least. So in the above examples: beautiful woman, stupid lamp, beautiful dog, stupid joy, beautiful honesty.

Here’s an Exercise

Which words are nouns?

Cat, telephone, happy, computer, pen, big, fitness, darling, chair, notepad, twenty, address, shop, would, write, book, job, working, menu, waiter, serve, meet, chicken, phoning, bus, flight, next, grandson, tall, years, any, office, sunny, weather, straight, little, desk, direct, eyes, reason, trust, immediate.

You should have found 25 nouns.

Answers underneath: scroll down to the bottom of the page!

Answers: 

The following words are nouns:

Cat, telephone, computer, pen, fitness, darling, chair, notepad, address, shop, book, job, menu, waiter, chicken, bus, flight, grandson, years, office, weather, desk, eyes, reason, trust.

There was one ambivalent word in the quiz, and that was “fat.” It can be an adjective, as in “fat cat”, but when you talk about the fat in the body it’s a noun.