Nouns and Pronouns

1. Nouns and Pronouns

2. What is a noun? • A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. • A common noun is a general name for a person, place, thing, or idea. Common nouns are not capitalized. • A proper noun is the name of a particular noun. Proper nouns are always capitalized.

3. Common vs. Proper • Proper nouns make writing clear and precise. People abandon their home in the state. Ancient Pueblo Indians abandoned the Cliff Palace in Colorado.

4. Singular and Plural Nouns A tourist walked down the cobbled street. (singular) Tourists walked down the streets. (plural)

5. Quick-Fix: Plurals of Nouns

6. Irregular Nouns • The plural of some nouns are formed in irregular ways.

7. Possessive Nouns • The possessive form of a noun shows ownership or relationship. The diver waited outside the archaeologist’s tent. The archaeologist’s family had come to visit. • You may use possessives in place of longer phrases. The divers used a robot to find the location of the ship. ship’s location.

8. Quick-Fix: Possessives

9. Why It Matters in Writing • A misplaced apostrophe can confuse the reader. When the archaeologists opened the wooden chests, they found priceless relics. The explorer’s discovery made headlines in newspapers across the country.

10. Nouns and Their Jobs • A subject tells whom or what the sentence is about. • The Aztec Empire was located in the area now known as Mexico. • Tenochtitlan was the capital of the Aztec Empire.

11. Nouns and Their Jobs • A complement is a word that completes the meaning of a verb. Complements may be a predicate noun, direct object, or indirect object.

12. Nouns as Objects of Prepositions • An object of a preposition is the noun or pronoun that follows the preposition. Nouns often appear in sentences as objects of prepositions. The Aztec people settled in central Mexico. Aztec merchants traded with distant lands. Among their valuable goods were gold and silver.

13. Pronouns