This is the largest word class, as so many different words can be used as nouns. The most important thing to understand about any word class is its function: the function of a noun is to name things. There are different types of nouns, although that name applies to different types of things.

Common nouns are words that name general items rather than specific ones. They are everywhere and we use these words all the time without even thinking about them. If you look around, you will see countless examples of common nouns: chairs, tables, books, pens, mugs, walls, carpets, windows, doors, and so on. Unsurprisingly, it is this word class that children generally start to use first when learning to speak.

These common nouns can either be classified as countable or non-countable.

Countable nouns are like the ones listed above and, fairly obviously, they can be counted. You may have one book or two, or 20 or even hundreds or thousands of them. These countable nouns can be either singular or plural, which has implications for learning a variety of spelling rules. By contrast, non-countable nouns cannot be counted in the same way. Some examples of non-countable nouns are stuff, money, water, sugar, etc.

Although the National Curriculum (DfE, 2014) does not actually state when common nouns should be introduced, children will be using them constantly in their speech and their writing from a very early age. The term ‘noun’ is introduced in Year 2.

Proper nouns are the words that name specific people and places as well as days of the week and months of the year. Children should be taught that these specific people, places, days and months should be written using capital letters at the beginning of each word. This is introduced in Year 1, although there is no suggestion that the term ‘proper noun’ is introduced at this time.

The name of a person or a place can sometimes be a difficult thing to work out. The names of people are perhaps not so difficult when writing a first and second name. However, it is more complicated when writing about Mum or Dad, or an auntie or uncle.

I have just written Mum and Dad using capital letters because I have used them as names. However, the moment I start talking about your dad or Serena’s mum, they are no longer specific names and therefore are relegated to common nouns, which means that they do not require capital letters. It’s the same with aunts and uncles: Uncle Steve and Auntie Shirley are specific names and need capital letters, whereas my aunt and her uncle do not.

It gets even more complicated when we start thinking about places. The reason for this is that many place names contain multiple words. It’s generally straightforward when we think of a country or a city, such as France or Paris, as these are single words. However, when we start naming schools or parks, for example, it becomes more difficult. The first school I taught at was Chapel End Junior School; its name consists of four words and each word requires its own capital letter. Nearby was Lloyd Park. This only requires two capital letters, but many parks have much longer names with many more words. What is perhaps more confusing, though, is that we often talk about going to school or going to the park. On these occasions, we are not providing the specific names, which means that they become common nouns that do not need capital letters.

In order that children capitalise proper nouns correctly, it is essential to ensure that they can recognise the specific names of people and places.

There are also collective nouns, which are words that refer to groups – for example, team, flock, herd, congregation, troop.

The final type of noun is the abstract noun, which refers to an intangible concept such as an emotion, a theme, an idea or a quality. An abstract noun does not refer to a physical object. Examples of abstract nouns are enjoyment, carelessness, chaos, danger, solitude.

Neither collective nor abstract nouns are referred to explicitly within the National Curriculum (DfE, 2014). However, it is interesting to note that they are implicit within the spelling curriculum for Year 2, with the expectation that many children will be able to spell words with the following suffixes: -ness and -ment. It is difficult to think of many words that end with these suffixes that are not abstract nouns.