* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Parts of Speech Nouns and Pronouns Handout
Japanese grammar wikipedia , lookup
Sanskrit grammar wikipedia , lookup
Compound (linguistics) wikipedia , lookup
Ukrainian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Lithuanian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Portuguese grammar wikipedia , lookup
Latin syntax wikipedia , lookup
Modern Hebrew grammar wikipedia , lookup
Ojibwe grammar wikipedia , lookup
Old English grammar wikipedia , lookup
Old Norse morphology wikipedia , lookup
Yiddish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Ancient Greek grammar wikipedia , lookup
Arabic grammar wikipedia , lookup
Swedish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Grammatical number wikipedia , lookup
Zulu grammar wikipedia , lookup
Latvian declension wikipedia , lookup
Esperanto grammar wikipedia , lookup
Russian declension wikipedia , lookup
Sotho parts of speech wikipedia , lookup
Malay grammar wikipedia , lookup
Literary Welsh morphology wikipedia , lookup
Pipil grammar wikipedia , lookup
Spanish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Serbo-Croatian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Vietnamese grammar wikipedia , lookup
Turkish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Modern Greek grammar wikipedia , lookup
Scottish Gaelic grammar wikipedia , lookup
French grammar wikipedia , lookup
Parts of Speech Nouns & Pronouns Nouns Definition: A noun is a part of speech used to name a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns can function as the subject or object of other parts of speech such as verbs and prepositions. Nouns answer the questions “who,” “what,” “where,” and sometimes “when.” Nouns help provide specificity to your writing and make the writing more interesting. Compare the following two examples: Example 1: The man ran across the place with an object, driven by an idea. Example 2: The football player sprinted across the field with the ball clutched in the crook of his arm, driven by his love for the sport. Thinking exercise: Which example sounds more interesting? Create your own interesting sentence using the first example. Write out a list of interesting nouns: people, places, things, and ideas. TYPES OF NOUNS Common noun: A general noun that does NOT begin with a capital letter and explains a person, place, thing, or idea that is common. (examples: books, store, shoe, house) Proper noun: It names a specific person, place, or thing and DOES begin with a capital letter. (examples: Missouri Baptist University, Nike, Chicago, Christmas) common noun proper noun common noun Students at Missouri Baptist University work diligently the entire academic year. Collective noun: It is singular in form but names a group. (examples: family, company) proper noun collective noun Elizabeth decided to join the Writing Lab. OTHER ITEMS TO NOTE: Nouns can be abstract (love, wealth, happiness, religion) or concrete (cat, movie, viola, Aunt Lynn). Nouns can be countable (dog, book, phone) or uncountable (snow, rain, music). Nouns can be singular (horse, ship, baby) or plural (horses, ships, babies) or possessive (Dad’s horse, the student’s ship, the teacher’s baby). Pronouns Definition: A pronoun substitutes for nouns or other pronouns. Pronouns can be used as subjects or objects in a sentence and are used to make writing less repetitive. Personal pronoun: It refers to a specific individual. Personal pronouns have three different forms: (1) subject, (2) object, and (3) possessive. 1) Subject pronoun: Pronoun that is the subject of the sentence. 2) Object pronoun: Pronoun that is the one receiving the action. Subject and Object Pronouns Subject Pronouns Object Pronouns I Me We Us You You She Her He Him It It They Them (Table retrieved from Purdue OWL) 3) Possessive pronoun: Pronoun that shows ownership Examples: my, your, his/her/its, mine, yours, our, their, ours, theirs). subject pro. object pro. She asked him about the meaning of football. possessive pro. My book for English class was fun to read! Indefinite pronoun: It does not refer to specific people, places, or things. Singular indefinite pronouns: each, everyone, another, either, everybody, nobody, neither, everything, nothing, anyone, someone, anybody, somebody, anything, something Plural indefinite pronouns: both, few, many, several Singular or plural indefinite pronouns: some, none, any, most, all, more Everybody should study for the math test. Both speeches were identical. Most of the people were gone when I arrived at the bowling alley. Source: Arnold, George. Media Writer’s Handbook: A Guide to Common Writing and Editing Problems. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print. SHOULD I USE THE PRONOUN “I” OR “ME”? 1) Use “me” when referring to an action or verb that is being done to the person “me.” Mr. Smith wrote a haiku for Julie and I/me. Read the sentence without the proper noun “Julie.” It would then read: “Mr. Smith wrote a haiku for I” OR “Mr. Smith wrote a haiku for me.” It makes sense with the second option. 2) Use “I” when you are referring to the person “I” performing the action or verb. To determine the correct pronoun in comparison situations where words are omitted, read the sentence and mentally add the missing words. Bill is taller than I/me. Read the sentence and mentally add the omitted words “am tall.” The sentence would read: “Bill is taller than I am tall” OR “Bill is taller than me am tall.” Since “me am tall” does not make sense, “Bill is taller than I” is correct. PRONOUN AGREEMENT An applicant must submit all transcripts before he or she can be considered for the job. Since “applicant” is a singular, gender-neutral noun in this sentence, the singular pronouns “he or she” must both be used. The students must finish their work. Since “students” is a plural noun, the plural pronoun “their” must be used. poss. Pro. plural noun poss. plural pro. noun My intelligent friends and I finished our very difficult homework in The Perk. Since “friends and I” includes “friends” and the personal pronoun “I,” it is plural and the plural possessive pronoun “our” must be used. Source: Ashford University’s Academic and Career Success Handbook Noun and Pronoun Exercises Write a paragraph comparing something meaningful to you to something meaningful to one of your closest friends. Explain reasons why the objects are different from one another. Circle all uses of nouns and pronouns in the paragraph you wrote. Determine what types of nouns and pronouns you used and how each of those types affected the meaning of your sentence. Connection Center: Apply Your Knowledge to Your Writing Apply your understanding of these concepts from the definitions and exercises above and read your work of writing. 1. Choose a paragraph in your writing and circle the nouns and pronouns in the paragraph. 2. What types of nouns did you include? 3. What types of pronouns did you include? 4. How do the types of pronouns and nouns impact the sentences’ meanings? 5. How would changing your nouns and pronouns affect your sentences? 6. If you used “I” or “me” in your paragraph, look at your usage and compare your usage with the rules above. Did you use them properly? Check out the Writing Space at thembuwritingspace.wordpress.com to practice or to ask a question: Go to Writing Lab Handouts, and click on “Parts of Speech Nouns and Pronouns.” Click on “Parts of Speech Nouns and Pronouns Writing Exercise” or “Parts of Speech Nouns and Pronouns Question Forum.” Write a comment in the Leave a Reply section.