1 Nouns and Pronouns
We begin with the parts of speech that express the “things” in a sentence: nouns and pronouns.
Nouns
Nouns, as we probably know from our high school English classes, are people, places, things, and also concepts.
| People | Places | Things | Concepts |
| Tracy | Alaska | fork | love |
| actors | home | internet | jogging |
| Mrs. Doubtfire | Mars | unicorn | football |
In a sentence, it is the noun’s job to act as a subject, an object, or a subject complement. You’ll learn more about these terms in Chapter 2.
Football is very entertaining. (underlined noun is the subject)
Gracy challenged Carl to a race. (underlined noun is the object of the verb)
Karmandeep is a chef. (underlined noun is a subject complement)
PRACTICE: Identifying Nouns
Pronouns
Pronouns are amazing. Without them, English would look and sound silly, and it would be really inefficient. The clue to remembering the function of pronouns is right in the name. Pronouns stand in for nouns; they are substitutes.
Let’s examine two short sentences to illustrate this function.
The bus veered sharply toward the crowd of people. It nearly hit them!
In that second sentence, the underlined pronouns substituted for nouns in the first sentence (we call those nouns antecedents). Instead of bus, I wrote it. Instead of crowd of people I wrote them. Using pronouns clarifies writing and makes it more efficient. Instead of using four words to describe “the crowd of people” I can use just one short pronoun.
In case the previous example wasn’t clear, I’ll offer a short passage to illustrate just how irritating and confusing English would be without pronouns.
With Pronouns:
My name is Tom and I am a teacher. I pursued that career because I like to interact with students and help them learn to communicate. I hope I help them live happier, more successful lives.
Without Pronouns:
Tom’s name is Tom and Tom is a teacher. Tom pursued the career of teaching because Tom likes to interact with students and help students learn to communicate. Tom hopes Tom helps students live happier, more successful lives.
See what I mean? That second passage was painful to read (and write — believe me). Pronouns are vital to communication.
Types of Pronouns
Pronouns come in several different forms, depending on their specific function. In this chapter we’ll learn about personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, relative pronouns, and reflexive pronouns.
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns stand in for people’s names. They change depending on whose name is being replaced.
- If the pronoun replaces the name of the speaker, you use first person pronouns: I, me, we, us
- If the pronoun replaces the name of the person being spoken to, you use a second person pronoun: you
- If the pronoun replaces the name of someone who is neither speaking nor being spoken to, you use a third person pronoun: he, she, they, it, him, her, them
Other Pronouns
The discussion of other types of pronouns would get pretty long, so I’ve organized them in an accordion below. Click on any of the types of pronoun to open up an explanation and list.
PRACTICE: Identifying Pronouns
The subject can be thought of a few ways:
1. In a sentence with an action verb, the subject is the person or thing that does the action (it's the "doer").
2. In a sentence with a linking verb rather than an action verb, the subject is the focus of the sentence -- the thing being described.
Every verb in a sentence needs a subject.
Subjects are either nouns or pronouns.
Objects are tricky to define, so for a full picture you should look up a proper definition.
Let's think of them as kind of like an opposite of a subject. If a subject is the thing that is "doing" an action, the object is the thing "receiving" an action.
Prepositions have objects too. In that case, the object helps complete the meaning of the preposition. For a preposition, eg., "in", the object answers the question, "in what?"
Because objects are "things," they are nouns or pronouns.
An antecedent is the thing being replaced by a pronoun.
eg., "Jeremy fainted because he hated the sight of blood."
The pronoun "he" replaces the antecedent "Jeremy" (because it would be weird if we used his name twice in a row like that).
First person is the perspective of the person speaking. It uses pronouns like I, me, we, and us.
Second person writing is directed at the reader. It uses pronouns like "you" and "your."
Third person writing refers to people and things who are not the writer nor the reader. It uses pronouns like "he, "she," "they," and "it."