English Grammar Understanding the Basics - Evelyn P. Altenberg, Robert M. Vago 2010

Lesson 1: Identifying nouns
Unit 1: Identifying nouns
Part I: Kinds of words

Do you shudder when you hear the words noun or verb? Don’t worry - you already know all about word categories, also known as parts of speech, though you may not think you do. You know, for example, that you can say the idea and the boy but not *the about or *happy the. (As stated in the How to use this book section, an asterisk [*] is used to indicate that something is ungrammatical.) That is, you know that some words can go in some places ina sentence and others can’t. Aword category, or part of speech, is just a name given to a group of words that have something in common, such as where they can go ina sentence. Part I gives you a quick and easy guide to basic word categories.

Unit 1: Identifying nouns

Lesson 1: Identifying nouns

Nouns are commonly defined as words that refer to a person, place, thing, or idea. How can you identify a noun?

Quick tip 1.1

If you can put the word the in front of a word and it sounds like a unit, the word is a noun.

For example, the boy sounds like a unit, so boy is a noun. The chair sounds like a unit, so chair isa noun. Compare these nouns to *the very, *the walked, *the because. Very, walked, and because are not nouns. While you can easily put the and very together (for example, the very tall boy), the very, by itself, does not work as a unit while the chair does. So, chair is a noun; very is not. (There is one kind of noun that cannot always have the in front of it; see Lesson 6 later in this unit.)

Test yourself 1.1

Which of the following words are nouns? See if they sound like a unit when you put them here: the ... . Check the appropriate column.

Getting started (answers on p. 20)

1. tree

2. when

3. beds

4. glass

5. said

More practice (answers on the website)

6. slowly

7. factory

8. ticket

9. boxes

10. almost

Test yourself 1.2

Underline the nouns in these phrases. Test each word to see ifit sounds like a unit when you put it here: the ...

Sample: all my friends

Getting started (answers on p. 20)

1. your red sweater

2. those boxes

3. a few men

4. many digital photos

5. his very interesting article

More practice (answers on the website)

6. their carpets

7. a hand-painted plate

8. the court stenographer

9. our psychology professor

10. two interesting museums