Explanation and Roles of Nouns
A noun is a word that refers to the name of a thing, place, or person, such as 'dog', 'Tokyo', or 'I'. It is a word that indicates the name of an object, like 'house', 'Mount Fuji', or 'you'. Nouns are independent words that do not change their form and can act as the subject by themselves.
Conjugation (katsuyou) means the change in the form of the end of a word. Conversely, not conjugating means that the end of the word does not change. Independent words are words that have meaning by themselves. Examples:
- 楽しみにしていた新刊が発売された
- このお菓子は本当に美味しい
新刊('New book') and お菓子('snack') are nouns.
Below are examples of Japanese nouns:
辞書、漢字、内容、客船、富士山、東京湾、イタリア、エベレスト、南北戦争、21世紀、100平方メートル、ぼく、君、こちら、それ、
Roles of Nouns
Nouns have five roles. Especially, the most important characteristic of a noun is that it can become the subject.
Becoming the subject
Nouns can become the subject by accompanying particles such as 'ha', 'ga', 'mo'. Examples:
Mr. Kadokawa writes characters very quickly. Miso soup warms the heart.
Becoming the predicate
Nouns can become the predicate by accompanying auxiliary verbs or particles such as 'da', 'desu', 'ka'. Examples:
The highest mountain in Japan is Mount Fuji. This is the famous Great Lakes.
Becoming an independent word
Nouns can become independent words for presentation or calling out. In the case of calling out, it may be accompanied by particles such as 'ya', 'yo'. Examples:
Oh Romeo, why are you Romeo? Sky, why are you so wide and big?
Becoming an adverbial modifier
Nouns can become adverbial modifiers by accompanying particles such as 'ni', 'wo', 'he', 'to', 'de', 'kara', 'yori'. Adverbial modifiers are phrases that modify verb, adjective, or adverbial verb phrases. Examples:
Eat an apple. Lies come out of the mouth.
Becoming an attributive modifier
Nouns can become attributive modifiers by accompanying particles such as 'no', 'ni', 'wo'. Attributive modifiers are phrases that modify noun phrases. Examples:
There is a park near Mr. Yamano's house. There is a lodge at the bottom of the slope.
Types of Nouns
In the Japanese language, nouns can generally be classified into five categories: common nouns, proper nouns, numerals, formal nouns, and pronouns.
Types of Nouns (1) Common Nouns
General terms for things and concepts.
Example: airplane, desk, heart, knowledge, time, love
Types of Nouns (2) Proper Nouns
Names of specific people, things, places, etc., that are essentially unique.
Example: Yoshimoto Banana, Bali, Eiffel Tower, Nikkei Newspaper
Types of Nouns (3) Numerals
Nouns that represent numbers, quantities, or orders.
Example: one, fifth, two people
Types of Nouns (4) Formal Nouns
Nouns that always require modifiers to express meaning. Typical examples include "thing", "place", "purpose", "intention", "expectation".
Example: going (thing), wearing (thing), coming (expectation)
Types of Nouns (5) Pronouns
Nouns that point to people, things, places, directions, etc.
Example: I, you, this, who, that, over there
Note: There are two ways to explain pronouns: as a subset of nouns, or as a separate category. Here, we introduce them as a subset of nouns.
Types of Pronouns
Let's explain in more detail about pronouns, which are a subset of nouns. Pronouns are words that represent people, things, or concepts instead of nouns.
There are two main types of pronouns: personal pronouns and demonstrative pronouns.
Types of Pronouns (1) Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns are pronouns that point to people.
Example: I, you, this guy, he, who
Types of Pronouns (2) Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns are pronouns that point to things, places, or directions.
Example: here, there, over there, where, over yonder
List of Main Types of Pronouns
Here is a list of the main types of pronouns.
- Self-reference refers to the first person, e.g., "I", referring to oneself.
- Addressing refers to the second person, e.g., "you", referring to others.
- Third-person reference refers to the third person, e.g., "they", referring to multiple third parties.
| Type | Self-reference | Addressing | Near third-person reference | Middle third-person reference | Far third-person reference | Indefinite reference | | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | | Personal pronouns | I・me | you | this person・this one | that person・that one | that person over there・he・that one over there | who・whom | | Demonstrative pronouns (things) | - | - | this | that | that over there | which | | Places | - | - | here | there | over there | where | | Things | - | - | this side | that side | that side over there | which side |
The Most Common Part of Speech in Sentences is Nouns
Nouns are the most common part of speech in sentences. For example, let's extract the nouns from the following sentences.
Living with him has increased my daily joy. These cookies lack a bit of sweetness. Please give me one of those fish. The person sitting facing this way should be Mr. Murakami.
Extracted list of nouns
- Common nouns: daily, joy, cookies, sweetness
- Proper nouns: Mr. Murakami
- Pronouns: he, that, this side
- Numerals: one
- Formal nouns: expectation
Nouns account for 30% of the sentence. Next are particles at 28%, followed by verbs at 16%. Nouns are the most common part of speech in sentences. For example, even if you analyze the text on Apple's website by part of speech and collect statistics, nouns are still the most common. (Reference: Research results of Apple's text analyzed by part of speech)
Therefore, if your noun vocabulary is insufficient, it will inevitably become difficult to write sentences. It's natural because the vocabulary of the most used part of speech is scarce. Therefore, you will want to read various sentences and increase your noun vocabulary.
Key Points for Distinguishing Nouns
Remembering how to distinguish nouns will make it easier to distinguish other parts of speech as well.
- Find words that play the role of nouns and further classify them.
- Unlike verbs and adjectives, nouns have meanings that are not influenced by the context before and after them, so they are the basic units for creating compound words and derived words.
Example Sentences of Nouns to Remember
Here are some example sentences to understand the usage and identification of nouns.
Example Sentence 1
The ball fell, and as a result, the window broke.
- Ball (common noun)
- Impact (common noun)
- Window (common noun)
Example Sentence 2
He is from Kochi Prefecture and will turn 36 this year.
- He (pronoun)
- Kochi Prefecture (proper noun)
- This year (common noun)
- 36 years old (numeral)
Example Sentence 3
I take time for reading on weekends.
- I (pronoun)
- Weekend (common noun)
- Reading (common noun)
- Time (common noun)
- Purpose (formal noun)