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00:00More chips? I think we have enough junk food already?
00:12Dear Tim and Moby, can you tell me about the different types of nouns?
00:17From Chotty.
00:19Nouns name a person, place, thing, or idea. They answer the question, who or what is it?
00:28There are several different types of nouns, and many of them fit into more than one category.
00:34The word chocolate is a common noun because it's a generic or non-specific name for something.
00:40It could mean any chocolate in the world.
00:43The opposite of a common noun is a proper noun, which is a specific name of a person,
00:48place, or thing. Like Yummo Chocolate, which is a specific brand of chocolate. Or Tim,
00:55which is a specific person's name. Proper nouns are almost always capitalized, which
00:59makes them easy to spot when you're reading. Listening is a bit trickier, since you can't
01:05really hear if a word is capitalized. But the context, or surrounding words, can give
01:10you some clues. Like if you heard me say, Bear is looking for a can of green beans.
01:16Bears don't normally hang out in supermarkets looking for canned goods. And if I had meant
01:21the big furry animal, I would have led with an article saying a bear or the bear. It's
01:27pretty clear from the context that Bear is someone's name.
01:30Wait! Ah! Obie, now we have to buy that!
01:35Oh well.
01:38Potato chips. Chips made from potatoes. That's what we call a compound noun. Compound nouns
01:44are two or more words that come together to make one noun. Like grocery store or supermarket.
01:50That's an example of where the two words have been squashed into a single word.
01:56Potato chips is also a plural noun, meaning there's more than one of something. Potato
02:01chip is a singular noun, since it's a single potato chip. Most nouns can be made plural
02:06by adding an S. Potato chip, potato chips.
02:11Then you've got collective nouns, which name a group of people or things. Like a bunch
02:16of grapes. Or a pack of pretzels.
02:19Collective nouns are singular, so you'd say the bunch of grapes is delicious. Not
02:24the bunch of grapes are delicious.
02:27All this talk about snacks is making me hungry.
02:31Hunger is an abstract noun, because it names something that you can't perceive with your
02:36five senses. If it's a noun, but you can't see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, or touch
02:42it, then it's an abstract noun. It's more of an idea, like love, or fear, or bravery.
02:49The opposite of an abstract noun is a concrete noun. Concrete nouns name things you can sense,
02:55like floor, or bag, or—ah!—mess. Or, to get a bit more specific, pile of crumbs and
03:04a troublemaker.
03:08Using more specific nouns can strengthen your language, because it gives a clearer picture
03:13of what you're talking about.
03:15Moby, why did you do that? Come back here!
03:20Attention! Clean up in aisle 5.
03:25Clean up in aisle 6.
03:28Uh-oh.
03:29Oh! Clean up in aisles 7 through 12.
03:35I can't take him anywhere.