Home » Word classes » Noun » Common Noun

Topic: Common noun

Nouns and vocabulary

Lesson

Objective

To explore the meaning of simple, everyday nouns, and how they relate to your experience of the world.

Activity 1

Look at this list of nouns: chair, fork, dog, house, person, football player

What do they all have in common?

»

Nouns and Vocabulary (Stein)

Plan

Activity 1

Show the leaners the the list of nouns. After hearing their ideas, explain what concrete nouns are, and ask leaners if they can see or find any other examples in the classroom. Explain what abstract nouns are and ask for any other examples. 

Next, ask the learners to work in pairs and small groups. Copy down the table and decide which nouns are concrete or abstract. Check the answers as a whole class. 

Concrete: spoon, bed, grass, snow, clock, panda, pillar  

»

Part and Whole (Stein)

Plan

Activity 1

Ask the learners to read the five sentences. In small groups, ask them to discuss what the words in blue have in common. Guide the discussion towards: 

  • They are nouns
  • They refer to different animals 
  • They describe parts of animals

After the discussion, show the learners the solution in the next slide to check their answers. 

»

Part and whole (Stein)

Lesson

Objective

To explore the way that nouns can point to parts and wholes of things.

Activity 1

Read the five sentences below: what do the words in blue have in common?

»

Nouns

In terms of meaning, nouns are sometimes described as ‘naming words’ – words for people, animals and things. The noun class does include many words of this kind: brother, baby, rabbit, horse, handbag, chair. These all refer to physical beings or objects – they are concrete nouns. But there are also many abstract nouns – nouns with abstract (non-material) meanings, like pleasure, sight, kindness.

»
»

Englicious contains many resources for English language in schools, but the vast majority of them require you to register and log in first. For more information, see What is Englicious?

Englicious (C) Survey of English Usage, UCL, 2012-21 | Supported by the AHRC and EPSRC. | Privacy | Cookies