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Share this pageTHIS EMPTY H2 IS TO CORRECT AN ERROR FOR THE H3 IN THE POPUP WINDOW
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Parts of Speech: Nouns
Nouns are the first words most of us learn. When two-year-olds point at objects and ask Whazzat?, they are compiling a vocabulary of nouns.
A noun is a naming word. It names a person, place, thing, quality or idea. Here are some examples.
Person: Wayne Gretzky, Céline Dion, firefighter, mystic, child
Place: Charlottetown, Canada, CN Tower, mall, beach, attic
Thing: cellphone, computer, cup, SUV, tree, dog, BlackBerry
Quality: kindness, honesty, intelligence, patience, humour
Idea: freedom, culture, community, dialogue, reaction
Some of the nouns above start with capital letters. These are proper nouns because they name someone or something specific. Non-specific nouns are called common nouns; they do not take a capital.
Nouns are used in sentences in the following ways:
1. as subjects:
John and his sister are both Trekkies.
John and sister are the subjects of the sentence: the sentence is about them.
2. as direct objects of action verbs:
Kim walked her pink poodle home from the pub.
Poodle is the direct object of the verb walked. In other words, the poodle is the receiver of the walking action.
3. as indirect objects of action verbs:
The sight of a pink poodle gave Hafiz a shock.
Hafiz is the indirect object of the action verb gave. A noun between an action verb and its direct object is usually an indirect object. If you can reword the sentence using for or to in front of that noun (e.g. gave a shock to Hafiz), then you have identified the indirect object.
4. as subject complements after linking verbs:
Jeanne is an engineer.
Engineer is the subject complement: it follows the linking verb is and gives information about the subject.
5. as object complements:
Carl called Regina a fascinating city.
The direct object of the action verb called is the noun Regina. But the sentence wouldn’t be complete without the words a fascinating city to tell what Regina was called. City is the object complement because this noun and its modifiers complete our idea of the object Regina.
6. as objects of prepositions:
Matt put his ski boots into the trunk.
Trunk is the object of the preposition into.
7. as appositives:
My sister-in-law, Valentina, comes from Romania.
Valentina is an appositive—a noun placed next to the noun sister-in-law to explain who she is.
Nouns are very versatile words with many different functions. We use one or more nouns in almost every sentence. Recognizing nouns and learning to use them properly will give you a much better understanding of sentence structure in English.
Note: For help understanding any unfamiliar grammar terms in this article, see Grammar-Ease: Terms and Definitions.
