Nouns

    I will begin discussing nouns by starting with the basics. Nouns are people, places, things, and ideas. I grew up with the Schoolhouse Rocks series of cartoons. These were short (2-5 minute) cartoons  that came on in between the Saturday morning cartoons of my youth. They were educational on a variety of topics: math, science, history, and language arts. Even though they were educational, they were fun because they were always catchy songs. And these songs actually taught you something, I still remember the song for nouns: A noun's a special kind of word/ it's any name you ever heard/ I find it quite interesting/ a noun's a person, place,or thing. I highly suggesting digging it up on youtube.

    The person, place,or thing concept is easy enough. It's the idea concept that is tricky. Things like love, hate, freedom, democracy and rebellion are nouns - it's just that they are not things you can easily see. Try this tip: put the article a or an in front of the word. If it makes sense, you more than likely have a noun.
Example: They have a love of a lifetime.
               The United States is a democracy.
               They are planning a rebellion.
True it may not always work (They have a freedom?), but it will help you to spot a lot of those tricky idea nouns.