Music swells Siblings squabble Owls hoot I am Grammar is And just like that two words can become a SENTENCE The information in a short sentence can be expanded by adding more words that give vivid descriptions or specific reactions Where should those words be placed How does a writer know what PUNCTUATION to use What does all of that mean anyway Words fall into place more easily when one has an understanding of grammar a system of rules that gives writers the foun dation for producing acceptable formal expression It is that acceptable form that appropriate grammar which helps readers comprehend what has been written Look around you What do you see feel taste hear or smell All of your answers will fit into one category of grammatical identification the noun Our word noun is derived from the Latin word nomen meaning name When Roman armies journeyed over land and sea from 75 B C through the first century A D they spread their language far and wide Definitions of many other words have changed throughout the centuries but the meaning of noun has not It is still the name of something a person a thing a place a concept or an idea 4
Basic sentences have a subject someone or something and a PREDICATE or verb action or state of being Nouns are used in sentences as subjects or OBJECTS and they can also rename those words and show possession or ownership of something A noun may change its spelling to show different characteristics such as singular or plural form apple apples But if the same word is used over and over saying that noun would become monotonous To keep that from happening another word can act as its substitute That’s what a pronoun Latin pro meaning in place of does Pro nouns can be used in place of nouns in all the ways nouns are used in sentences And they have their own classifications and functions too Whether they name a person place or thing nouns and pronouns provide the reasons for writing sentences in the first place they’re the topics of discussion 5
NOUNS FOR ALL REASONS C lassifying nouns gives us many categories and ways to identify them in sentences The two basic types of nouns are common and proper A common noun starts with a lowercase letter as in at or writing with as well as other people brother unless it begins a sentence or appears in a title such as Band of Brothers A proper noun is a name for a specific noun who are nearby these are all concrete nouns Such nouns may be identified as count nouns because they can be counted one by one to and always begins with a capital letter no get a total and because they have singular matter where it occurs in a sentence See and plural forms as in chair chairs pen Table 1 for a comparison of some common and proper nouns pens student students Some concrete nouns are known as mass nouns because they are Common nouns can also be classified viewed as a quantity or a mass rather than as as being concrete or abstract Concrete individual parts Mass nouns such as food nouns physically exist they are visible and homework and sand have no precise shape touchable Whatever you’re sitting on looking or boundary and no one-word meaning but 6
they may be measured by count nouns boxes of With so many categories and possibilities food pages of homework buckets of sand is it any wonder that nouns decisively affect Not all count and mass nouns are concrete the sentences we write Remember that a though Abstract nouns can’t be physically sentence requires both a subject and a verb touched they’re just ideas or particular we need a doer and something for it to do features feelings and concepts represented unless the subject is just existing which verbs by words such as cowardice respect and greed can also do But the subject the theme of the Those are examples of abstract mass nouns that sentence demands careful consideration are used only in singular form Other abstract because it’s essential that readers know what nouns are countable such as goal goals belief we’re talking about beliefs and freedom freedoms Still another category of common nouns is the collective noun which names a group tribe flock or French author Victor Hugo 1802 85 vv wrote his historical novel Ninety-three 1874 about a COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY revolt in 1793 assembly And finally we have the compound France Twenty common nouns are part of the a noun that consists of more than one word and following excerpt describing just one weapon a sometimes uses hyphens passerby sister-in ship’s cannon Can you find all the nouns law and right of way COMMON NOUN author building cookie city dog month ocean school vehicle war PROPER NOUN Mark Twain Empire State Building Oreo San Francisco Snoopy February Atlantic Ocean Harvard University Jeep World War I TABLE 1 7
