NOUNS AND PRONOUNS

What are NOUNS?

A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing.

Example: Jimmy reads a book in the park.

Jimmy is a noun because it is a person’s name.

Book is a noun because it is a thing.
Park is a noun because it is a place.

KINDS OF NOUNS:
 Common Nouns – are names of people (e.g. man), things (e.g. books),
animals (e.g. monkey) and places (e.g. church).
 Proper Nouns – are special names of people (e.g. Isabella Swan), things
(e.g. Times Magazine), animals (e.g. King Kong), and places (e.g. Paris). A
proper noun begins with a Capital Letter.
 Abstract Nouns – An abstract noun is the name of something that we can
only think of or feel but cannot see (e.g. friendship, democracy).
 Collective Nouns – are names used for a number of people, things or
animals together and treated as one.

An album of autographs a line of cars an army of soldiers

A basket of fruit
A bunch of keys
A collection of relics
A galaxy of stars
A group of islands
a wreath of flowers a choir of singers
a tuft of hair a congregation of worshipers
a column of smokes a fall of snow
a crew of sailors a gang of crooks
a pride of lions an army

 Countable and Uncountable Nouns – Countable nouns are nouns

which can be counted (e.g. trees). Uncountable nouns are nouns
which cannot be counted (e.g. smoke).

Countable and Uncountable Nouns are used with the following:

Countable Noun Uncountable Noun
a, an, a few, several, many a little, much, some, plenty of
some, plenty of, a lot of a lot of, a large amount of
a large number of a great deal of

USES OF NOUNS
1. Nouns used as Subjects. The subject may be determined by placing who
or what before the verb.

Examples:
Manila and Cebu are big cities. (What are big cities? Manila and Cebu.)
April is writing a research proposal. (Who is writing? April.)
 2. Nouns used as Direct Object (DO). The direct object may be determined
by placing whom or what after the verb.

Examples:
Christian ate all the ice cream. (Christian ate what? Ice cream.)
Edward owns a silver car. (Edward owns what? A silver car.)

3. Nouns used as Objects of Prepositions. The object of a preposition may be

determined by placing whom or what after the preposition.

Examples:
The child played outside the room.
I finished my homework after dinner.

4. Nouns as Indirect Object (IO). The indirect object may be determined by

placing to whom or for whom after the verb.

Examples:
The police offered Mike a reward.
I gave the conductor our tickets.

SINGULAR AND PLURAL NOUNS – a noun that shows only one person (e.g. girl),
thing (e.g. pencil), animal (e.g. tiger), or place (e.g. market) is called a singular
noun.
A noun that shows more than one person (e.g. girls), thing (e.g. pencils),
animal (e.g. tigers), or place (e.g. markets) is called a plural noun.

HOW PLURAL NOUNS ARE FORMED

By adding –s.
By adding ‘es’ to nouns ending in –ch, –s, –sh, and –x.

Beach – Beaches Peach – Peaches

Branch – Branches Speech – Speeches
Ditch – Ditches Watch – Watches

Boss – Bosses Glass – Glasses

Bus – Buses Lens – Lenses
Chorus – Choruses Pass – Passes

Brush – Brushes Lash – Lashes

Bush – Bushes Wish – Wishes

Box – Boxes Hoax – Hoaxes

Fax – Faxes Six – Sixes
Fox – Foxes Tax – Taxes

By adding ‘es’ to nouns ending in –o.

Buffalo – Buffaloes Potato – Potatoes

Cargo – Cargoes Mosquito – Mosquitoes
Echo – Echoes Tomato – Tomatoes
By adding ‘s’ to nouns ending in –o.

Banjo – Banjos Patio – Patios

Bamboo – Bamboos Photo – Photos
Radio – Radios Video – Videos

By replacing ‘y’ with –ies.

Baby – Babies Lorrie – Lorries

Fly – Flies Navy – Navies
Hobby – Hobbies Puppy – Puppies

By adding ‘s’ to nouns ending in –y.

Boy – Boys Key – Keys

Day – Days Toy – Toys
Donkey – Donkeys Turkey – Turkeys

By replacing ‘f’ or ‘fe’ with –ves.

Calf – Calves Loaf – Loaves

Half – Halves Self – Selves
Life – Lives Wife – Wives

By adding ‘s’ to nouns ending in –f ir –fe.

Chief – Chiefs Hoof – Hoofs

Dwarf – Dwarfs Reef – Reefs
Gulf – Gulfs Roof – Roofs

By changing vowels.

Foot – Feet Louse – Lice

Goose – Geese Tooth – Teeth
Mouse – Mice Woman – Women

Some nouns have same words for plural and singular.

Aircraft – Aircraft Music – Music

Series – Series Crossroads – Crossroads
Furniture – Furniture Sheep – Sheep

Exceptional Plural

Child – Children Ox – Oxen

Crisis – Crises Passer-by – Passers-by

FORMING NOUNS
Nouns can be formed from nouns, verbs, and adjectives. They are formed by
adding certain letters to them.

Nouns Nouns
Widow Widowhood
Friend Friendship
King Kingdom
 Verbs Nouns
Add Addition
Fail Failure
Give Gift

Adjectives Nouns
Clean Cleanliness
Sad Sadness
Beautiful Beauty

GENDER OF NOUNS
Nouns have four genders:
1. Masculine Gender – is used for all males (e.g. boy, man).
2. Feminine Gender – is used for all females (e.g. girl, woman).
3. Common Gender – is used where the noun can be both male and female (e.g.
cousin, friend, child, student).
4. Neuter Gender – is used for things which have no life or sex (e.g. table, chair).

PRONOUNS

What are PRONOUNS?

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. It refers to a person or thing
without giving the name.

There are two types of Personal Pronouns:

1. Those used as subjects.
Example: She stays in the dormitory.
2. Those used as objects.
Example: The girls elected him the president of the class.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS

SINGULAR PLURAL

Subject Object Subject Object

First Person I Me We Us
Second Person You You You You
Third Person He She It Him
She Her It They
They They Them Them

REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS
We use the Reflexive Pronoun when the action of the doer goes back to himself
so that the Subject of the sentence is the same person as the object.
Example: He has hurt himself.
Pronouns like ‘himself’ are called Reflexive Pronouns. They always end in ‘self’.
Reflective Pronouns Singular Plural
First Person Myself Ourselves
Second Person Yourself Yourselves
Third Person Himself Herself
Itself Themselves

RELATIVE PRONOUNS
The Relative Pronouns take the place of nouns and pronouns; they are used to
join two sentences about the same person or thing.

Examples of relative pronouns: who, which, that, whom, and whose

In most cases, we use who, whose, and whom to make statements about people.
We use who to join two sentences.

Examples: The man is an artist. He drew that picture.

The man is an artist who drew that picture.

Whose is used to show possession or relationship.

Example: That is my uncle whose son is my cousin.

Which or That is used in almost the same way as who but it refers to things, not
human beings. There is one other difference in the way we use who and which.
After who we put a verb; after which we can put a verb, a pronoun or a noun.

Examples: That is the camera which costs fifty dollars.

That is the camera which he bought.
That is the camera which John likes.

Whom is used to make a statement about human beings. It is used in place of

who (a) when it is the object of a verb or (b) when it comes after a preposition.

Examples: The man whom they caught was sent to prison.

The man to whom you should speak is my uncle.

INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS
These are the pronouns that are used to ask a question.
These are: who, whom, whose, which, what.

Example: Which of the two contestants is more beautiful?

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS
These pronouns point out the person or thing referred to.
This, That, These, and Those are demonstrative pronouns.

Example: These apples are the best apples I have eaten.

INDEFINITE PRONOUNS
These pronouns do not definitely point out to persons or things and do not have
usually antecedents.

Indefinite Pronouns: each, either, neither, one, anyone, everyone, no one, nobody,
anyone, anybody, someone, somebody, both, few, several, many, some, any, none, all,
most.

Example: No one wants to be with him because he smokes.

PRONOUN-ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT

A pronoun is a word used to stand for (or take the place of) a noun.
A word can refer to an earlier noun or pronoun in the sentence.

Example: President Lincoln delivered Lincoln’s Gettysbrug Address in 1863.

We do not talk or write this way. Automatically, we replace the noun Lincoln’s
with a pronoun. More naturally, we say

President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address in 1863.

The pronoun his refers to President Lincoln.

In this sentence, the pronoun his is called the REFERENT because it “refers back.”
It refers back to President Lincoln, the ANTECEDENT. An antecedent is a word
for which a pronoun stands. (ante = “before”)

The pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number.

General rule: A singular pronoun must replace a singular noun; a plural pronoun
must replace a plural noun.

Thus, the mechanics of the sentence above look like this:

antecedent referent
| |
President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address in 1863.
| |
singular   singular
masculine   masculine

Here are nine pronoun-antecedent agreement rules. These rules are related to
the rules found in subject-verb agreement.

1. A phrase or clause between the subject and verb does not change the number
of the antecedent.
 Example:

The can of lima beans sits on its shelf.

| | |
singular prepositional phrase singular

2. Indefinite pronouns as antecedents

 Singular indefinite pronouns antecedents take singular pronoun

referents.

Example:

Each of the clerks does a good deal of work around his or her offce.
| \ /
singular singular

 Plural indefinite pronoun antecedents require plural referents.

PLURAL: several, few, both, many

Example:

Both do a good job in their office.

| |
plural plural

 Some indefinite pronouns that are modified by a prepositional

phrase may be either singular or plural.

EITHER SINGULAR OR PLURAL: some, any, none, all, most

When the object of the preposition is uncountable  use a singular

referent pronoun
Examples:

Some of the sugar fell out of its bag.

| |
singular singular

Sugar is uncountable; therefore, the sentence has a singular

referent pronoun.

All of the jewelry has lost its glow.

| |
singular singular

Jewelry is uncountable; therefore, the sentence has a singular

referent pronoun.
When the object of the preposition is countable  use a plural referent pronoun.
 Examples:

Some of the marbles fell out of their bag.

| |
plural plural

Marbles are countable; therefore, the sentence has a plural referent pronoun.

All of the jewels have lost their glow.

| |
plural plural

Jewels are countable; therefore, the sentence has a plural referent pronoun.

3. Compound subjects joined by and always take a plural referent.

Example:

Jones and Smith made their presentation.

\ / |
plural plural

4. With compound subjects joined by or/nor, the referent pronoun agrees with
the antecedent closer to the pronoun.

Example #1 (plural antecedent closer to pronoun):

Neither the director nor the actors did their jobs.

| | |
singular plural plural

Example #2 (singular antecedent closer to pronoun):

Neither the actors nor the director did his or her job.
| | \ /
plural singular singular

Note: Example #1, with the plural antecedent closer to the pronoun, creates a smoother
sentence than example #2, which forces the use of the singular “his or her.”

5. Collective Nouns (group, jury, crowd, team, etc.) may be singular or plural,
depending on meaning.

Example:

The jury read its verdict.

| |
singular singular

In this example, the jury is acting as one unit; therefore, the referent pronoun is singular.
 The jury members gave their individual opinions.
| |
plural plural

In this example, the jury members are acting as twelve individuals; therefore the
referent pronoun is plural.

6. Titles of single entities. (Books, organizations, countries, etc.) take a singular

referent.

Examples:

The Grapes of Wrath made its characters seem real.

| |
singular singular

The Philippines cherishes its democracy.

| |
singular singular

7. Plural form subjects with a singular meaning take a singular referent. (News,
measles, mumps, physics, etc).

Example:

The news has lost much of its sting two days later.
| |
singular singular

8. Every or Many a before a noun or a series of nouns requires a singular

referent.

Examples:

Every cow, pig, and horse had lost its life in the fire.
| |
singular singular

Many a girl wishes she could sing like Taylor Swift.

| |
singular singular

9. The number of vs A number of before a subject:

The number of is singular.

The number of volunteers increases its ranks daily.

| |
singular singular

A number of is plural.
 A number of volunteers are offering their help.
| |
plural plural

VERBS

What are VERBS?

Verbs are words that express time while showing an action, a condition,
or the fact that something exists.

If you say, “Colbie Caillat sings the song,” the verb sings shows an action.
If you say, “Morris will be happy,” the verb will be shows a condition.
If you say, “They were here,” the verb were expresses existence.

TYPES OF VERBS

ACTION VERBS
An action verb is a verb that tells what action someone or something is
doing.
Examples: Mary sleeps on the couch.
Jason’s best friend thinks of a plan.
Ken and his mother cook dinner.

Action verbs show mental action (actions that are not easily seen) as well as
visible action (actions that are easily seen).

VISIBLE ACTION: They jog two miles every morning.

The flag flutters in the breeze.

MENTAL ACTION: Ann remembers you.

I believe she said it.

The verbs in the chart are other examples of verbs that show visible and
mental action.

Visible Action Mental Action

run cook think learn
cry sleep worry hope

TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE VERBS

The verb which needs an object to make its meaning clear or complete is
called a transitive verb. The receiver of the action of a transitive verb is
called the object of the verb.

Example: He feeds a cat.

The word ‘cat’ is called the object of the verb ‘feeds’. The object can be a
noun or a pronoun.

The intransitive verb does not need an object but the meaning is clear or
complete.

Example: He ran. (The verb ‘ran’ does not need an object)

She reads every day. (No object)
He eats quickly. (No object)

To determine whether a verb used in a sentence is transitive or intransitive, ask

whom? or what? after the verb. If you can find the answer in the sentence, the
verb is transitive. If you cannot find the answer, the verb is intransitive.

LINKING VERBS
LINKING verb or COPULATIVE verb is a verb that connects a word at or
near the beginning of a sentence with a word at or near the end.

Linking verbs help one word in a sentence name or describe the condition
of another word in the sentence.

Example: The children are noisy.

The key should be small.

The linking verb that is used most of is be.

The chart below lists the many forms of the verb be

THE FORMS OF BE
am am being can be have been
are are being could be has been
is is being may be had been
was was being might be could have been
were were being must be may have been
shall be might have been
should be must have been
will be should have been
would be will have been
would have been
A few verbs can also serve as linking verbs.

OTHER LINKING VERBS

appear look sound

become remain stay
feel seem taste
grow smell turn

Example: The sheets smelled fresh and clean.

The driver stayed alert.
 Most often, the forms of be will function as linking verbs and express the
condition of the subject. Occasionally, however, they may have express
existence, usually by showing, with other words, where the subject is
located.

Example: The catsup is in the refrigerator.

The keys must be here.

HELPING VERBS
Helping verbs are verbs that can be added to another verb to make a
single verb phrase.

Any of the many forms of be as well as some other verbs can be used as
helping verbs.

Besides the verb be, the verbs below can be used as helping verbs.

HELPING VERBS OTHER THAN THE FORMS OF BE

do have shall can

does has should could
did had will may
would might
must

Verb phrases are created by the addition of helping verbs to other verbs. The chart
below lists six examples, but the possibilities are almost endless.

VERB PHRASES
Helping Verbs Verbs
am reading
did sing
can Compute
will be trying
should have written
might have been considered

Helping verbs are sometimes called auxiliary verbs or auxiliaries because they add
meaning to other verbs.

Example:
Without helping verbs: They watch the show.
With helping verbs: They will watch the show.
They might watch the show.
 PRINCIPAL PARTS OF THE VERB

A verb has four principal parts: the present, the present participle, the past, and
the past participle.

THE FOUR PRINCIPAL PARTS

Present Present Participle Past Past Participle
Talk Talking Talked Talked
Sing Singing Sang Sung

Depending on their principal parts, verbs are classified into two types: regular
and irregular.

REGULAR VERBS

A regular verb is one whose past and past participle are formed by adding –ed or
–d to the present form. The past is the same as the past, but it is always used with
a form of the helping verb have or be.

Present Present Participle Past Past Participle

Play Playing Played (have) played
Skip Skipping Skipped (have) skipped
Clap Clapping Clapped (have) clapped
Wave Waving Waved (have) waved

IRREGULAR VERBS

An irregular verb is one whose past and present participle are not formed by
adding –ed or –d to the present form.

Present Past Past Participle

Arise Arose Arisen
Be Were (singular was) Been
Beat Beat Beaten
Become Became Become
Begin Began Begun
Bend Bent Bent
Bite Bit Bitten
Bleed Bled Bled
Blow Blew Blown
Break Broke Broken
Bring Brought Brought
Come Came Come
Cost Cost Cost
Draw Drew Drawn
Deal Dealt Dealt
Dig Dug Dug
Dive Dove Dived
Do Did Done
Feed Fed Fed
Feel Felt Felt
Fight Fought Fought
Find Found Found
Fly Flew Flown
Forget Forgot Forgotten
Freeze Froze Frozen
Get Got Got (or gotten)
Give Gave Given
Go Went Gone
Grow Grew Grown

VERB TENSE

A tense is a form of a verb that shows the time of an action or a condition.

Verbs have six tenses, each of which can be expressed in two different forms –
the basic and the progressive form.

The first chart gives examples of the six tenses in their basic forms.

THE BASIC FORMS OF THE SIX TENSES

Present She composes songs.
Past She composed songs last year.
Future She will compose songs for the new singer tomorrow.
Present Perfect She has composed songs for children.
Past Perfect She had composed her first song by the time she was twelve.
Future Perfect She will have composed two children songs by December.

The second chart gives examples of the six tenses in their progressive forms.
Note that these forms end in –ing.

THE PROGRESSIVE FORMS OF THE SIX TENSES

Present Progressive
Past Progressive
Future Progressive
Present Perfect Progressive
Past Perfect Progressive
Future Perfect Progressive
She is composing a song now.
She was composing her best composition.
She will be composing a wedding song soon.
She has been composing for years.
She had been composing poems when her first
composition was recorded.
She will have been composing sings for a decade by the
end of 2010.

PRESENT

The Simple Present

1. Used for a habitual or repeated action, that is, for something that we do
always, every day, often, usually, etc.
 Example: He plays football on Sundays.

2. Used for a general truth or a fact, that is, for something that is true.
Example: Night follows day.

3. Used for something or an action happening now.

Example: See how she walks.

4. Used instead of the future tense.

Example: He arrives tomorrow.

5. Used instead of the past tense, to make something look more real.
Example: The tiger comes; it catches the boy.

6. Used instead of the present perfect tense.

Example: We hear that the king is dead.

7. Used to introduce a quotation, that is, to repeat words spoken or written

by someone else.
Example: Shakespeare says: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”

The Present Progressive Tense

1. Used to show that something is still happening, that is, an action is still
going on at the time of speaking. It shows that the action is not yet
complete.
Example: He is writing a letter.

2. Used instead of the future tense. We usually say the time when this future
action will take place.
Example: He is going to Japan next week.

3. Used to use the phrase ‘is going’ which means ‘about to’.
Example: It is going to rain.

4. Used to show an action which happens many times. We often use ‘always’
with this expression.
Example: He is always getting into trouble.