Concrete Nouns

What are concrete nouns?

Concrete nouns are a category of nouns that you can experience with your five senses:

• sight—You can see them.
• hearing—You can hear them.
• touch—You can touch them.
• taste—You can taste them.
• smell—You can smell them.

These nouns are things that you can see, touch, hear, taste or smell in the real world. For example, apple, dog and music are all concrete nouns because you can:

• see and taste an apple
• touch and smell a dog
• hear music

Here are some examples of concrete nouns with sentences using them:

• table: A table is a piece of furniture with a flat top and one or more legs. It is something you can see and touch. —She placed the vase carefully on the wooden table.
• mountain: A mountain is a large, steep rise of the earth’s surface, often with a peak. —We hiked up the mountain and admired the breathtaking view from the top.
• chocolate: Chocolate is a sweet, often brown food made from roasted and ground cacao seeds. —He savored every bite of the rich, dark chocolate.
• dog: A dog is a domesticated animal with four legs, often kept as a pet. —The dog wagged its tail excitedly when it saw its owner.
• beach: A beach is a sandy or pebbly shore by the sea or a lake. —The children built sandcastles on the warm, sunny beach.

Even invisible things can be concrete nouns. Air is invisible, but you can feel it—so it is concrete! Music is invisible, but you can hear it—so it is concrete! Microscopic things like atoms and viruses, which are too small to see, are concrete because we know they exist and we can measure them with scientific instruments. Even fantasy things like flying saucers or Martians are concrete nouns because we could experience them with our senses.

Here are some more examples of concrete nouns:

• person: man, lady, teacher, Matt, Mary, President Trump, Vladimir Putin
• place: home, office, city, seaside, Russia, Cambridge, universe, island
• thing: bed, plane, banana, money, piano, heart, monkey, virus, email

Concrete nouns are important because they help create vivid, sensory images in our minds. We contrast them with abstract nouns, which refer to ideas, concepts or feelings that we cannot see or touch, such as love, freedom, or happiness.

In summary, concrete nouns are tangible and can be experienced through the senses, making them easy to picture and relate to in everyday life.