Grammar tip: The Noun

Nouns refer to persons, animals, places, things, ideas, or events, etc. Nouns can be:

1. A proper noun is a name which refers only to a single person, place, or thing and there is no common name for it. In written English, a proper noun always begins with capital letters.
Example: Melbourne (it refers to only one particular city), Steve (refers to a particular person)

2. A common noun is a name for something which is common for many things, person, or places. It encompasses a particular type of things, person, or places.
Example: Alex is a wonderful player

3. An abstract noun is a word for something that cannot be seen but is there. It has no physical existence. Generally, it refers to ideas, qualities, and conditions.
Example: Truth, lies, happiness, sorrow, time, friendship, humor, patriotism, etc.

4. A concrete noun is the exact opposite of abstract noun. It refers to the things we see and have physical existence.
Example: Chair, table, bat, ball, water, money, sugar, etc.

5. The nouns that can be counted are called countable nouns. Countable nouns can take an article: a, an, the.
Example: Chair, table, bat, ball, etc. (you can say 1 chair, 2 chairs, 3 chairs – so chairs are countable)

6. The nouns that cannot be counted are called non-countable nouns.
Example: Water, sugar, oil, salt, etc. (you cannot say “1 water, 2 water, 3 water” because water is not countable)

7. A collective noun is a word for a group of things, people, or animals, etc.
Example: family, team, jury, cattle, etc.

8. Sometimes two or three nouns appear together, or even with other parts of speech, and create idiomatic compound nouns. Idiomatic means that those nouns behave as a unit and, to a lesser or greater degree, amount to more than the sum of their parts.
Example: six-pack, five-year-old, and son-in-law, snowball, mailbox, etc.

Functions of Nouns
Nouns can be used as a subject, a direct object, and an indirect object of a verb; as an object of a preposition; and as an adverb or adjective in sentences. Nouns can also show possession.

Possessive Nouns
Possessive nouns expresses ownership. It shows a relationship of possession between two nouns. To form the possessive case, we add (-’s) or sometimes just an apostrophe (’) to a noun. We can also use the preposition of to express possession.
To express that something belongs to a person, animal or country, we use the possessive ’s.

Example:

This is Jim’s budgie.
The budgie’s name is Nibbles.
Jim is going on holiday to England’s south coast.

The possessive ’s is also used in time expressions.
Example: in a week’s time

In the plural, we only use the possessive ’s with irregular plural forms.
Example: He can whistle children’s songs.

We use the possessive form with of mostly for inanimate objects.
Example: When you open the door of his cage, …

If we’re referring to an inanimate thing that has a clear connection to people, then we can also use the possessive (’s).

Example:
Australia’s economy
the economy of Australia