Main Difference – Noun vs Verb
Nouns and verbs are two of the major categories of parts of speech. It is impossible to create a meaningful sentence without identifying the difference between noun and verb. The main difference between noun and verb is that noun refers to a person, place, thing or idea whereas verb refers to an action.
What is a Noun
Nouns are words that name things. Nouns include people (girl, baby, teacher), objects (chair, pen, computer), places (Milan, hospital, garden), animals (tiger, kangaroo, cat), materials (wood, glass, plastic) and qualities (cowardice, kindness, intelligence). Nouns act as subjects and objects of sentences.
Nouns can be classified into different groups based on various characteristics. Given below are some of these categories.
Common Nouns: nouns that indicate the class of a person, place or thing.
Ex: lion, child, milk, plant, television, umbrella
Proper Nouns: nouns that indicate the specific name of a person, place or thing.
Ex: Italy, Charlie Chaplin, Moscow, Nokia, Porsche, Toyota, Tom Sawyer
Concrete Nouns: nouns that refer to things that can be perceived through the five senses.
Ex: ocean, cake, girl, boat, bottle, mouse, car
Abstract Nouns: nouns that refer to things that cannot be perceived by the five senses; they refer to ideas, concepts or state of things.
Ex: friendship, intelligence, cowardice, beauty, taste, education
Collective Nouns: nouns that indicate a group
Ex: group herd, jury, staff, pack, team
Countable nouns: nouns that can be counted using numbers.
Ex: children, buffaloes, teachers, books, teeth, eggs
Uncountable Nouns: nouns that cannot be counted using numbers.
Ex: research, salt, milk, water, information, knowledge
What are Verbs
Verb is one of the most important components of a sentence. Verbs always express activity; they express action, occurrence or state of being. Verbs too can be categorized into different groups. Given below are some of these verb groups.
Transitive verbs: verbs that require an object
Ex: give, tell, kill, eat, tell
Intransitive verbs: verbs that do not require an object
Ex: rain, bark, cry
Regular verbs: verbs that follow a regular conjugation pattern
Ex: work, educate, talk, laugh, kill, walk
Irregular verbs: verbs that do not follow a regular conjugation pattern
Ex: eat, buy, swim, fly, drink, wake, say
Linking verbs: verbs that link a subject with its predicate
Ex: seem, feel, be, become
Action verbs: verbs that express specific actions
Ex: run, walk, bite, fight, talk, shout, dance, wag, sing
Sometimes it is difficult to identify the difference between noun and verb when the same word can be used as both. For example, let us look at the word cook. It can be a noun as well as a verb.
The cook made a delicious apple pie.
He can cook some Italian dishes.
But if you read carefully, it is not difficult to note that their functions are different.
Difference Between Noun and Verb
Definition
Noun is a word that is used to identify a person, place, object or concept.
Verb is a word that is used to describe an action, occurrence or a state of being.
Role
Nouns can be subjects or objects in a sentence.
Verbs form the main part of the predicate.
Inflections
Nouns are inflected according to the grammatical number.
Verbs are inflected according to tense, case, number and person.
