In the English language, nouns are words that name persons (manager, uncle), animals (lion, dinosaur), places (bank, court), things (skateboard, frying pan), and concepts/ideas (beauty, rights).

   Nouns fall under various groups and can be categorized in two different ways:

     1. The first (and general) way is to classify nouns as common, proper, and collective nouns.

     2. The second identifies nouns in relation to how they are used: by their form (case, gender, and number), by their function (appositive, complement, modifier, object, and subject), and by their class (abstract, collective, common, concrete, and proper).

   In this essay the second method will be described, to give the reader a more comprehensive look at the role nouns play in formal speech/writing.

BY FORM

Three Cases of Nouns

   The case of a noun determines how a noun is used in relation to other words, phrases, or clauses. A noun can be identified as one under three cases. The three cases are as follows:

   In the nominative case (or subjective case), a noun, or a pronoun, is used as the subject of a verb. (The subject is the noun or pronoun that performs the action of the verb).

           Faisal sought the comfort of his mother after the accident.
           (The verb sought is performed by the nominative Faisal)

   A noun is also in the nominative when it is used as a predicate noun. (A predicate noun follows a linking verb [such as is, was, were, smells, appears] and repeats, or renames the subject).

           The group Outkast consists of Andre 3000 and Big Boi.
          (The series Andre 3000 and Big Boi is the predicate noun renaming Outkast.)


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