Nouns and Personal Pronouns

Grammar is infinite. The fox jumps. The brown fox jumps over the dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog, and then... The fox jumps over the dog.

Nouns A noun is a word that represents a person, place, or thing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2iLAI0gUW0

Common or Proper? Common nouns are used to refer to things, people or places in general. Not capitalized. band, writer, teacher, month Proper nouns are used to refer to specific things, people or places. Capitalized. The Beatles, J.K. Rowling, Mr. Schempp, February

Singular or Plural? A noun can either be singular or plural.* Singular means one noun. E.g. singer Plural means more than one noun. E.g. singers *Watch out for collective nouns* Singular nouns that refer to a group. Choir, Class, Crew, etc. The singers sing a song, but the choir sings a song.

How to identify nouns A noun is always the subject of a sentence. The man walked slowly. If it’s preceded by an article (“The or “a/an”) The man, an apple, a microscope Watch out for adjectives, however (the short man) If it’s preceded by a preposition I talked to Ms. Waddick. Again, watch out for adjectives (made from tasty honey) The direct object of a verb Mr. Schempp baked cookies.

Pronouns A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun or another pronoun. The word the pronoun replaces is called the pronoun’s antecedent First and second person pronouns (“I” or “you”) usually don’t take antecedents. All others do. They are out to get me. (Who are they?) Pronouns can also show ownership or relationship, these are possessive pronouns Ray said he wanted to audition for the play. Ray said Ray wanted to audition for the play.

Types of personal pronouns Singular Plural First person I, me, my, mine We, us, our, ours Second person You, your, yours Third person He, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its They, them, their, theirs