Random Noun Generator

How the random noun generator picks nouns

The list holds 120 common nouns (apple, river, bicycle) and 100 proper nouns. A proper noun names one particular person, place or thing, while a common noun names a kind of thing. The proper nouns here come in ten groups of ten: cities, companies, famous people, geographic features, bodies in the solar system, holidays, universities, countries, languages, and days and months.

On “All Types” each noun has a 1 in 220 chance on a single draw, so a common noun comes up about 55% of the time. Nouns already drawn are skipped for the rest of the set.

The form setting applies to common nouns only. “Plural” makes every common noun plural, and “Mixed” gives each one an even chance of being made plural. Each pick is an unbiased draw from the browser's cryptographic random generator, as described in how our randomness works.

How the noun generator makes plurals

Plurals follow the usual spelling rules for English nouns: add -s, add -es after -s, -x, -z, -ch or -sh, and change a consonant plus -y to -ies. It also turns a final -f or -fe into -ves (scarf → scarves), and a short table covers irregular forms such as mouse → mice and sheep → sheep.

A noun that is already plural, such as pants, is left as it is.

Example: sorting nouns in a grammar lesson

Set the number to 10, the type to “All Types” and the form to “Singular”. The class sorts the ten nouns into two columns, common and proper, and checks which ones need a capital letter.

For a second round, switch the form to “Mixed” and ask which words are plural. Add a verb from the random verb generator to each noun, and the class has ten short sentences to write.

Ways to use random nouns

• Grammar practice: draw nouns and sort them into common and proper, or countable and uncountable.
• Drawing games: common nouns make good sketch prompts. Pair one with a word from the random adjective generator for a harder round.
• Story dice: draw three nouns and write a paragraph that uses all of them.

For nouns, verbs and adjectives mixed in one list, use the random word generator.