Nouns are naming words. There are four types of noun:

• A proper noun names a person, group of people, place, or thing. All proper nouns begin with a capital letter. Mickey Mouse, New York, The Beatles
• Where a proper noun tells you about one thing only, a common noun names one of many things of the same ilk. dog, country, potato
• A collective noun is the name of a group of people or things. These can be used in either the singular or the plural, befitting. band, herd, audience
• An abstract noun names something we can understand in our minds but is intangible. excitement, pride, possibility

Nouns are generally preceded by pronouns (a, an, the, some, any, my, his, her, their, this, that, those) and have three chief features:

• Countability (or non-). A countable noun can be made singular and plural car, cars; an uncountable noun is singular only happiness, sunlight
  
• Gender. Masculine man, boy, bull, actor; feminine woman, girl, cow, actress; neuter music, bucket, coffee; common child, person, athlete
• Case. Subjective (or nominative) case the pencil broke; object (or accusative) case read the notice; possessive (or genitive) case the team’s kit