The next step in the methodology is to identify the types of facts about the entities and relationships that we have chosen to be represented in the database. In a similar way to identifying entities, we look for nouns or noun phrases in the users’ requirements speci- fication. The attributes can be identified where the noun or noun phrase is a property, qual- ity, identifier, or characteristic of one of these entities or relationships (see Section 11.3). By far the easiest thing to do when we have identified an entity (x) or a relationship (y) in the requirements specification is to ask ‘What information are we required to hold on x or y?’ The answer to this question should be described in the specification. However, in some cases it may be necessary to ask the users to clarify the requirements. Unfortunately, they may give answers to this question that also contain other concepts, so that the users’ responses must be carefully considered.