Question

Identify the noun:
Sarah looks like her grandmother.
(This question has multiple correct options.)
a. Sarah
b. grandmother
c. looks
d. like

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given sentence and point out what is the subject in the sentence, that is, whom/what the sentence is about and what it tells about that subject, that is, the predicate. Point out the nouns present in the sentence and choose the correct option accordingly.

Complete answer: A noun is a word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas. Proper nouns are names of things which are specific in nature- such as the name of a person, place or thing. Common nouns refer to the names of common things like “tree”, “birds”, “animals”, etc. Now, let us go through the options- (a) Sarah- This is the name of a person and refers to a particular person. Thus, it is a proper noun.
(b) grandmother- It is a common noun because it does not refer to any specific grandmother. A grandmother is a blood relation- your father’s mother or your mother’s mother is your grandmother. It refers to the broad class of grandmothers. It could be anyone’s grandmother. No name has been mentioned to make it specific.
(c) looks- Looks is a verb. It means that Sarah resembles her grandmother. To change it into a noun, we have to write: Sarah has the same looks as that of her grandmother.
(d) like- This is a preposition. Like means “similar to”.
The correct options are options (a) and (b).

Note: If you are confused about a word being a noun or verb, try to find out the noun form of the word. If you get a noun form, the word was not a noun and if you don’t get a noun form, the word is a noun.