WHAT ARE NOUNS, PRONOUNS, AND PERSONAL PRONOUNS

Nouns

Nouns can be either proper or common. Proper nouns are names of a particular person, places, things, or ideas. Proper nouns are capitalized: America, George Washington, Mr. Neruda, and October.

Nouns that don’t refer to a particular person, place, thing, or idea are common nouns. They are not capitalized: land, girls, money, and test. Compare the subsequent list of proper and common nouns:

Proper Nouns	Common Nouns
Mexico	country
Ms. Finch	women
Eglish	language
McGraw-Hill	publisher
American Airline	company
December	month

Nouns may be used as the subject of a sentence. The subject is the word that’s an activity the action within the sentence. The subject may be a proper noun or a common noun, and it may be singular or plural:

Juanita is a friend of mine.
The boys like to play soccer.
Where is the school?

Nouns can also be used as direct objects. The direct object in a sentence is the noun that receives the action of the verb. To search out the direct object in an exceeding sentence do 3 things:

1. Find the subject of the sentence.

2. Find the verb in the sentence.

3. Ask whom or what with the subject and the verb.

“Sara likes my brother.”

1.  subject  Sara  2.  verb likes  3. ask whom  Whom does Sara like? The direct object is my brother

“The girls find a book.”

1. subject girls  2. verb find  3. ask what   What do the girls find?  The direct object is a book.

Nouns are sometimes indirect objects. They stand before the object within the sentence. It’s the person to whom or for whom one thing is provided. To search out the indirect object in an exceeding sentence do 3 things:

1. Find the subject of the sentence.

2. Find the verb in the sentence.

3. Ask to whom or for whom with the subject and the verb.

Look at these sample sentences:

“Justin buys the girl a magazine.”

1. subject Justin

2. verb buys

3. ask to whom or for whom or for whom does Justin buy a magazine?

The indirect object is a girl.

“Mother gives Nate five dollars.”

1. subject Mother

2. verb gives.

3. ask to whom or for whom    To whom does Mother give five dollars

The indirect object is Nate.

Note: It is rare that something inanimate is used as an indirect object.

When a noun is used as a predicate noun, it follows the predicate within the sentence. The predicate may be a single verb or a verb phrase:

Verb as the predicate: Maria helps us.

Verb phrase because of the predicate: Maria as the help with the farming.

Predicate nouns most often follow the verbs to be and to become :

• My mother wants to be a doctor.
• Celine became an actress.
• Are you the manager of this building?

Pronouns

Pronouns are words that are used in place of a noun. The English personal pronouns are:

	Singular	Plural
First Person	I	We
Second Person	You	You
Third Person	He, She, It	They

Notice that you are both singular and plural. When speaking to one person, say you. When speaking to two 2 or more persons, say you:

• Tim, you are a very good student.
• Bruno and Rene, you have to study more.

Just as nouns have gender, pronouns also do. I, we, and you may be used by males or females. He is invariably masculine, she invariably feminine, and it is invariably neuter. The plural of the third-person pronouns is usually they, whether or not masculine, feminine, or neuter. And just like nouns, pronouns may be used as:

1. the subject of a sentence
2. a direct object
3. an indirect object

But once used as a direct object or indirect object, some of the pronouns change:

Subject	Direct Object	Indirect Object
I	me	me
you	you	you
he	him	him
she	her	her
it	it	it
we	us	us
you (plural)	you	you
they	them	them

If a pronoun takes places of a noun in the sentence, it must have the same features as the noun: the same number (singular or plural), the same gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter), and the same user in the sentence (subject, direct object, or indirect object). Look at these samples where the pronoun replaces the italicized noun:

Joseph is a hard worker. (singular masculine noun/subject)	He is a hard worker. (singular masculine pronoun/subject)
Do you know the girls? (plural noun/direct object)	Do you know them? (plural pronoun/direct object)
I gave Mrs. Jones some flowers. (singular feminine noun/indirect object)	I gave her some flowers. (singular feminine pronoun/indirect object)

Notice that the nouns and pronouns are in the third person. This is true when a pronoun replaces a noun. But when a noun or pronoun is combined with the first-person singular pronoun I, it is replaced by the first-person plural pronoun we :

• You and I have work to do. ➞ We have work to do.
• He helps the girls and me. ➞ He helps us.

When you change a direct object noun to a direct object pronoun, you must add to or for before the indirect object noun or pronoun. The indirect object becomes the object of the preposition to or for. Place the prepositional phrase after the direct object. For example:

• I gave Jay a book. ➞ I gave it to Jay.
• We buy her flowers. ➞ We buy them for her.

Nouns or pronouns can be used to complete a prepositional phrase. That is a phrase made up of a  preposition and a noun or a pronoun. Here are some of the most commonly used prepositions:

after, behind, between, for, from, in, near, on, of, though, to, with, without

Look at these sample prepositional phrases:

after the concert	behind me
between the girls	for you
from a friend	in him
near the city	on it
of a book	through her
to a student	with us
without the money	without them

In a prepositional phrase, use the same form of the pronoun that is used as a direct or indirect object:

Subject Pronoun	Direct or Indirect Object	Prepositional Phrase
I	me	after me
you	you	behind you
he	him	for him
she	her	from her
it	it	in it
we	us	between us
they	them	near them

Verbs, Transitive Verbs, and Intransitive Verbs

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