Nouns — Parts of Speech
What Is It?
A noun names a person, place, thing, or idea.
Canonical pattern: Det → Noun Phrase.
Why Use Nouns?
- Clarity – gives each concept a stable label.
- Conciseness – avoids wordy explanations (“cache” vs. “the place where data is temporarily stored”).
- Indexing – anchors database columns and API fields.
- Reusability – lets writers reference the same entity across docs.
When to Choose Nouns
- User stories and acceptance criteria.
- Database schema and ER diagrams.
- Menu labels, button text, log categories.
Forming Noun Sentences
| Tense / Aspect | Formula (bold = clause core) | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Present Simple | S → V → O | The server restarts daily. |
| Past Simple | S → V-ed → O | That migration failed yesterday. |
| Future Simple | S → will → V → O | The release will roll out tonight. |
| Present Continuous | S → am/is/are → V-ing | Our container is scaling now. |
Tips for Writing with Nouns
- Prefer specific nouns; swap “thing” for “microservice.”
- Pair count nouns with correct articles (“a commit,” “an issue”).
- Check singular/plural agreement in error messages.
- Avoid doubling nouns (“API interface” → “API”).
- Replace jargon with plain nouns when onboarding newcomers.
Exceptions & Nuances
“Data” can act as count or non‑count (“the data are inconsistent” vs. “the data is loading”). Domain glossaries may intentionally coin abstract nouns like observability.