Nouns: Those You See and Those You Don't

Lesson Plan - Get It!

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The words cookies and joy are both nouns, but they don't seem quite the same.

Remember that a noun is a person, place, or thing.

The difference is that cookie is a concrete noun while joy is an abstract noun.

A cookie is something solid that you can smell AND eat! Joy is more of an idea or a feeling. It is not something you can hold in your hands and feel.

Concrete nouns are nouns that you can observe or identify using your five senses.

• smell
• taste
• touch
• sight
• hearing

Conversely, abstract nouns are nouns your five senses can NOT identify. Abstract nouns can be ideas or concepts.

Check out some examples of concrete and abstract nouns to better understand.

To determine if a noun is concrete or abstract, ask yourself the following questions.

• Would I be able to see it?
• Can I hear it?
• Could I touch it?
• Can I taste it?
• Could I smell it?

If you would be able to notice a noun using any one of your senses, then it is concrete!

For abstract nouns, you cannot sense the noun even if you can apply your senses to examples of it.

For example, strength is an abstract noun. You can't see strength, but you can see other nouns that show strength, such as an Olympian or a steel beam.

Head on over to the Got It? section for more!