There are two main ways of classifying nouns - concrete versus abstract, and common versus proper nouns.
Starting with concrete and abstract: a concrete noun is the name of anything which can be detected by the senses; that is, seen, heard, smelled. touched or tasted. So for example, fish, table, pen and food are all concrete nouns. Abstract nouns refer to ideas and things which don't have a physical existence, like fear, intelligence, philosophy and so on.
All the examples I've just written are also common nouns. Most nouns are; it just means the names of things in general, whereas proper nouns are the names of particular things, places or people. For instance, John, London and Atlantic are all proper nouns; so is your name. (If you think of the word property, you can see why proper nouns are so called; a proper noun gives someone or something his/ her/ its OWN name, just as property is always owned by someone.
Starting with concrete and abstract: a concrete noun is the name of anything which can be detected by the senses; that is, seen, heard, smelled. touched or tasted. So for example, fish, table, pen and food are all concrete nouns. Abstract nouns refer to ideas and things which don't have a physical existence, like fear, intelligence, philosophy and so on.
All the examples I've just written are also common nouns. Most nouns are; it just means the names of things in general, whereas proper nouns are the names of particular things, places or people. For instance, John, London and Atlantic are all proper nouns; so is your name. (If you think of the word property, you can see why proper nouns are so called; a proper noun gives someone or something his/ her/ its OWN name, just as property is always owned by someone.
