A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. Your name is a noun. So is your school, your bicycle, and your favorite book. Nouns are the building blocks of sentences: they tell us who or what we're talking about.

Nouns come in different types. Common nouns name general things like “teacher,” “city,” or “dog.” Proper nouns name specific things and usually start with a capital letter: “Ms. Rodriguez,” “Chicago,” or “Fido.” Some nouns name things you can touch, like “pencil” or “elephant,” while others name ideas or feelings you can't physically hold, like “courage,” “friendship,” or “mathematics.”

Many sentences need at least one noun to make sense. In the sentence “The cat jumped,” cat is the noun doing the action. In “Sarah loves pizza,” both Sarah and pizza are nouns.

When you're learning another language, nouns are often the first words you master because they're concrete: you can point to a chair or a tree and know exactly what those words mean. Understanding nouns helps you understand how language works, since they anchor almost everything we say and write.