Nouns and Pronouns

This lesson is on nouns and pronouns. Students will learn the difference between an common noun and a proper noun. They will also learn about pronouns.

Worksheets are also included in this lesson for teachers to copy and give their students.

Study Sheet - Nouns and Pronouns



This is the first lesson in the English Grammar Course. First, we'll look at nouns. There are common nouns and proper nouns. A noun names a person, place, or thing. For example, ball, bat, toy, boy, girl, Adam, Nancy, Kansas, building, and others. These are all nouns.

Common Nouns

A common noun names a person, place, or thing. You don’t capitalize common nouns. Let's look at some common nouns: boy, girl, toy, ball, football, game, cat, dog, mouse, garage, house, door, wall, building, school, church, etc. These nouns all name a person, place, or thing, but they do not name a specific person, place, or thing.



Proper Nouns

A proper noun names a specific person, place, or thing. Let’s look at some proper nouns: Mrs. Marks, Tony, Topeka, Kansas, Nancy, Bill, and so on. All of these name someone or something specifically.

Besides common and proper nouns, there are singular and plural nouns. Let's look at these.

Singular Nouns

Singular nouns are nouns that name one person, place, or thing. Here are some singular nouns: boy, girl, toy, game, cat, dog, and so on.

Plural Nouns

Plural Nouns are nouns that name more than one noun. These are plural nouns: boys, girls, toys, games, cats, dogs, etc.

Pronouns

Pronouns take the place of nouns.

Example

Sherry went to the store to buy some groceries. Then, she went to the gas station and back home.



Sherry is the noun. She is the personal pronoun. It takes the place of the noun, Sherry. That way you don’t have to use the word Sherry all the time. You need to use pronouns to break the repetition of the noun. However, you want to vary the words.

Example

In dialogue, you wouldn’t want to continue using the personal pronouns of more than one person.

Sherry went to the store. She met Kari there. “Hi Kari. How are you?”

“I’m okay. What about you?” She asked

“I’m doing great. How about getting together sometime?”

“Sounds good,” she replied

“Would you like to go to a movie?”

“Sure.”

“Okay. Give me a call sometime soon,” she said

“I will,” she replied.

When the conversation keeps going, readers tend to lose track of who’s talking.

This dialogue is confusing because you may don’t always know who’s speaking.

In this type of situation, you want to vary the nouns and pronouns. Occasionally, you need to use the nouns so readers will know who is speaking instead of having to go back to the beginning of the dialogue.

Other Pronouns

Other pronouns are she, he, it, him, her, himself, herself, them, themselves, and other pronouns.

These pronouns all stand for the nouns.

The word “it” is a pronoun that stands for a common noun such as in these sentences. The cat liked to play with a ball of yarn. The cat ran after it has it rolled across the floor. The word it stands for the noun, yarn.

First, you will teach the study sheet that I provided in the previous section.

Then, you will give the students the following exercises to see what they understand or don't understand.

Worksheet on Nouns

Part One - Common and Proper Nouns

Directions: Write common noun or proper noun in the blanks.

1. The mystery show was intriguing. _______________

2. School will soon start. ______________________

3. I enjoy creative writing. _____________________

4. The dogs bark when someone comes to the door. __________

5. The dogs bark when I am on the phone. _________________

Part Two - Common and Proper Nouns



Directions: Write common noun or proper noun in the blanks.

1. I enjoy reading Agatha Christie's books. __________________

2. I enjoy watching television every day. ____________________

3. I finally sent my book to the publisher.____________________

4. I lived in Kansas all of my life. ______________________

5. My dogs all like to play together. ____________________

Part Three - Singular and Plural Nouns

Directions: Mark S or P above the singular or plural nouns.

1. The television show was great last night.

2. The boys came over to our house to play basketball.

3. We went to the basketball game.

4. We got to adopt a puppy today.

5. The new girl in school was shy at first.

Directions: Underline the plural nouns in these sentences.



1. The boys went to the party today.

2. The basketball players were excited about playing in their first tournament.

3. The dogs chased each other around the house.

4. The birds were scattered all over the yard.

5. The squirrels like to come on the porch and eat their peanuts



Worksheet on Pronouns

Part One - Directions: For each of these nouns, write a pronoun.

1. Bob -

2. Carol -

3. toy -

4. cat -

5. dog -

100 to 90 = A

89 to 80 = B

79 to 70 = C

69 to 60 = D

Below 60 = F

You can grade the students according to the total number correct over the total number of questions.