What is a concrete noun?
A noun is a word that describes a person, place, or thing. A concrete noun is a noun that can be physically experienced through one of the five senses. They are also known as proper nouns. Nouns are an essential part of a sentence, along with verbs and adjectives.
What’s the difference between a concrete noun and an abstract noun?
Nouns can be split into two categories: concrete nouns and abstract nouns. While concrete nouns are things you can experience through your senses, abstract nouns are ideas and concepts that can be understood but not physically experienced through the senses, such as love, justice, and happiness.
You can determine if a noun is concrete or abstract by asking yourself: is this something I can experience through one of the five senses?
Concrete noun examples
Sight:
- Flower
- Bridge
- Sky
- Building
- Traffic Light
Smell:
- Bread
- The sea
- Burgers
- Perfume
- Sweat
Taste:
- Pizza
- Medicine
- Apple
- Sweets
- Cakes
Hearing:
- Alarm
- Rain
- Singing
- Television
- Thunder
Touch:
- Skin
- Fur
- Leather
- Chair
- Money
How can I use a concrete noun in a sentence?
Here are some examples of sentences that include a concrete noun. In each sentence, the noun is highlighted in bold.
Lucy tied her shoe.
Yasmine ate her sandwich.
I went and answered the phone.
In these examples, the people (Lucy and Yasmine) and objects (sandwich, shoe, phone) are concrete nouns. They can all be physically experienced.
