Nouns & Pronouns

Lesson on nouns and pronouns--chapter 3.

Nouns, along with verbs, form the core of our sentences.  They tell us who or what is doing the action.
Nouns name a person, place, thing, or idea.
Pronouns are words that stand in the place of nouns.

Commonly used pronouns include:
I     you     he     she     it     they     all     everyone     many      someone
who     this     that     my     your     his     hers     its     their

Proper nouns are the names of specific person, places, and things.  All other nouns are common nouns. 

Proper Nouns might include:

Lake Superior
Johnson County Community College
Stacey Lillich
Lincoln Memorial
Shawnee Mission Medical Center

Common Nouns
a lake
community college
my teacher
monument
hospital
(**note that you only capitalize when you are referring to a specific person, place, or thing***)

In looking at your freewrite, what are some nouns that you found? Verbs?

Insert a noun into each of the following sentences.

After I graduate from high school, I plan to attend _________________.

The shoplifter stole a __________________from the sports store.

I'm having my surgery done at ________________________.

_______________ threw the football to me.


Give the _____________________ to Jennifer.

What is the correct pronouns in the following sentences?

When Richard and (I/me) went to apply for jobs, we looked for (them/they) in the newspaper advertisements.

Cecilia said that she wanted to be a word processor, but (I/me) was more interested in jobs that might take (I/me) overseas.

(She/her) applied for a computer job when (I/me) found (it/them) in an advertisement.


Both Cecelia and (I/me) had excellent training in our business classes.
(Note, one way to test this is to cross out the other name and see how it sounds.  Can "me" have excellent training in our business classes? Try it in "She had a great time with Cecilia and I/me.") Also check out this link for a good explanation.

Nouns are often subjects in sentences.  After you have located the verb in a sentence, next look for the subject.  The subject either does the action or is linked by a verb to a describing word.

1. Subject with action verb: Mariano Rivera pitches for the Yankees.  (Who pitches?)
2. Subject with helping and linking verbs: Rivera may be the best closing pitcher in baseball. (Who may be the best pitcher?)
In most cases we can find the subject in a sentence by asking who or what is doing the action.

Subjects can be nouns or pronouns. Other possible subjects could be gerunds (verbs with an -ing on the end that act as a noun) and infinitives (verb forms that begin with to and can be nouns).
Examples:
Gerund subject: Laughing is good for the spirit. (What is good for the spirit?)
Infinitive subject: To succeed requires hard work. (What requires hard work?)