= a word that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality (archaeologist, university, laptop, convention, timber, beauty). If they refer to physical phenomena (people, objects, places, substances) they are called concrete nouns whereas abstract nouns refer to events, states, activities, occasions (birth, happiness).
Some words are used only as nouns (desk, hat, tree), other are derived words with suffixes or prefixes (er → player, -ity → activity), some nouns have the same form as verbs (act, attempt, blame, book, call, copy, cost, dance, fall, fear), some nouns and verbs have the same spelling but different stress (N: ‘export x V: ex’port) and some were created by compounding (dancing shoes, classroom).
Determiners = function words to specify the noun. Indefinite article (a/an), definite article (the), possessive (my), demonstrative (this book), quantifier (every book, many books), numeral (one book). Zero article for meals (dinner), places (church, jail), travelling (by car), times of the day (at dawn, winter), parallel structures (from country to country), vocatives (Move, kid!).