SMARTHINKING Writer's Handbook

Chapter 5, Lesson 1

Nouns, Pronouns, and Subjects

Objective

In this lesson, you'll learn about nouns and pronouns and how both can function as the subject of a sentence. In addition, you'll learn how to make the noun part of a sentence agree with the verb part.

Noun

A noun is a word that identifies a person, place, thing, or idea. Words such as brother, neighborhood, baseball, and fairness are all nouns.

A singular noun is a word that refers to one person, place, thing, or idea, while a plural noun refers to two or more persons, places, things, or ideas. To make a singular noun into a plural noun, add the ending "-s" or "-es." For example:

Singular Noun
(person) teacher
(place) school
(thing) box

Plural Noun
(person) teachers
(place) schools
(thing) boxes

Pronoun

A pronoun is a word that is used in place of a noun. A pronoun is used to avoid unnecessary or confusing repetition of a noun:

(nouns) Mary and Tim walked to the store. Mary and Tim bought groceries.

(nouns and pronouns) Mary and Tim walked to the store. They bought groceries.

There are many different types of pronouns. Personal pronouns are used to refer to people or things:

(singular) I, you, he, she, it, me, he, her
(plural) we, you, they, them

Possessive pronouns are used to indicate ownership of something:

(singular) my, mine, your, yours, his, hers, its
my cat, her book

(plural) our, you, yours, their, theirs
our cat, their book

Note: Possessive pronouns do not contain apostrophes.

Demonstrative pronouns are used to refer to persons, places, things, or ideas:

(singular) this, that
this cat, that book

(plural) these, those
these cats, those books

Relative pronouns—such as who, whose, whom, which, and that—are used to relate a group of words to a noun:

The girl whose bike was green took first place.
The ledge, which was six stories up, held beautiful geraniums.

Indefinite pronouns—such as all, any, anything, both, each, everyone, everything, few, many, none, nothing, several, some, and something—are used to refer to persons or things that are not specific:

Anything you do is better than doing nothing.
Each student is required to take several classes.

Note: Most indefinite pronouns are singular; however, the pronouns both, few, many, and several are always plural. Whether an indefinite pronoun is singular or plural ultimately depends upon its use in a sentence.

Nouns and Pronouns as the Subject of a Sentence

A subject is the word or words in a sentence that tells who or what the sentence is about. A subject consists of a noun or a pronoun:

The cat used its paw to scratch its ear.
(This sentence is about the cat, so "cat" is the subject.)

They walked all over the downtown area.
(This sentence is about the people who walked, so "they" is the subject.)

Sometimes, however, the subject of the sentence is a little harder to identify:

Cookies, cake, and ice cream are delicious desserts.
(This sentence is about all of these desserts, so cookies, cake, and ice cream all together are the subject of the sentence.)

There is fog blanketing the entire area.
(This sentence is about the fog; so, although it's not the first word, fog is the subject. Whenever a sentence begins with there is, there are, or it is, the subject will follow that phrase.)

The greatest achievement of her entire life was completing her autobiographical sketch.
(This sentence is about what she achieved, so achievement is the subject.)

Are they also coming with us?
(This sentence is about who is also coming along, so they is the subject. Whenever a sentence is written in question form, try rewriting it as a statement (e.g., They are also coming with us.) This rewritten statement should make it easier to identify the subject.)

Go get that for me.
(This sentence is about the person who is being told to get something, so the subject is the "understood you." Although the word you isn't contained in the sentence, readers understand that the speaker is telling you to do something.)

Exercise 1:

In the following paragraph, identify each underlined word as a noun or a pronoun; and, if a word is a pronoun, identify its type. Enter your answers in the text box provided, then click compare to check your answers against ours.

(1) Penny decided to go to the store to get milk. (2) So, she grabbed her keys from the desk and headed out the door. (3) On the driveway, she saw something unusual. (4) Five helium balloons were tied to the antenna of her car. (5) Then, she remembered that it was her birthday.

Exercise 2:

Using your answers from Exercise 1, identify the noun or pronoun that functions as the subject of the sentence.

Summary

Nouns name the people, places, things, and ideas that we encounter in everyday life. To avoid repetition or confusion, we often use pronouns as substitutes for nouns. Both nouns and pronouns can function as the subject of a sentence. As writers, it's important to be able to identify the subject of a sentence so we're sure it accurately describes the "who" or "what" of our sentence; this way, we can be certain that our sentences will focus on what we want them to.