Many nouns have both countable and uncountable uses. There is usually a difference of meaning.

Gradable nouns

Some nouns are gradable. They can be used with degree modifiers.

She is a great nuisance. (= She is very annoying.)
The program was a relative success.

The label noun refers to the part of speech which includes the words dog, tree, house, number and honesty. The easiest way to identify nouns is to consider the following frames: The ————– was sweet; The —————— were sweet. Any single word which can fill one of the blanks to produce a grammatical sentence is a noun, because the English grammar permits nouns, and only nouns, to fill such positions. So for example, girl(s), boy(s), apple(s), mango(es) and several other similar words can fit into one of the blanks, and hence these words can be nouns in English.

Constructing a sentence having a noun clause is very simple. One of the easiest ways is to begin a sentence like this:

He said that…

A noun clause acts like a noun. It can serve all the purposes a noun serves in a sentence. In the following examples we are comparing the five functions of a noun with that of a noun clause. The sentences are patterned on a similar fashion, but in the first one we have used a noun and in the second one we have used a noun clause.

Point out the nouns in the following sentences and say whether they are common, proper, collective, material or abstract.

Correct the following sentences.