concrete nouns

These are things we CAN physically see, hear, smell, taste and feel. They are things that physically affect one or more of our five senses. They are quite easy to identify since they are usually preceded by one of the following articles: a, an or the. If one of these articles can be placed before the word, and when spoken it sounds good, then a concrete noun has almost certainly been found. However, there are always exceptions to the rule!

Veronica licked a strawberry ice cream.

Ice cream is a concrete noun, since we can see its color, we can taste the flavor of the strawberry and we can feel its coldness on our tongue.

He sat down at the table for dinner.

Table is a concrete noun, as we can see and feel it when we sit down for dinner.

Less obvious concrete nouns are things like: heat, electricity, and air, since we can’t see them, although they affect us physically. These are also harder to identify since we can’t use all of the items above. A heat, an electricity and an air, for example, do not sound correctly and do not comply with the grammar rules of English, although we can use the article that is before them.

abstract nouns

These are things we CANNOT physically see, hear, smell, taste or feel, even though they DO affect our lives in some way.

Beauty, Truth, Lies, Knowledge, Understanding, Justice, Fairness, Dignity, Strength, Wisdom, Love, and Hate are all abstract nouns, which can be classified into three different categories.

1. Nouns that describe a Quality.

(a) Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

(b) I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

(c) There is not always justice in the world.

2. Nouns that describe a state.

(a) A good professional has a lot of knowledge.

(b) I need to sleep for an hour every day in the afternoon.

(c) I think she was here.

3. Nouns that describe an event or an action.

(a) The boxers are going to fight tonight.

(b) I will answer later today.

(c) They heard the girl whisper to me.

What color is beauty? We don’t know because we can’t see it. What sound does justice make? We don’t know because we can’t hear it. What does the dream smell like? We don’t know because we can’t smell it. What do you know the answer to? We don’t know because we can’t taste it. How does a whisper feel? We don’t know because we can’t feel a whisper.

Remember: If we CAN physically, see, hear, smell, taste or feel something, then it is probably a concrete noun, however, if we cannot use one of our five senses, even though it affects our life in some way, then it is probably an abstract noun .