EP 29: English Grammar 101: Nouns and Pronouns
This week we continue our weekly mini series. We are investigating the foundations of English grammar, starting with the basics and moving on from there. This week we discuss two parts of the sentence: nouns and pronouns. Join Cath Anne as she explores these two fundamental components of English grammar.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Cath Anne: [00:00:05] Hi there. My name is Cath Anne and welcome to The Homework Help Show. We present you with valuable content for your academic life. This week we continue our series on Grammar 101.
Cath Anne: [00:00:19] Last week we discussed the sentence. This week we’re going to discuss one of the common components of a sentence, which are nouns. We’ll also talk a little bit about pronouns.
Cath Anne: [00:00:33] Let’s begin.
Cath Anne: [00:00:36] A noun is a word used to describe a person, place, or thing, event, idea, and so on. Nouns represent one of the main elements in the sentence along with verbs, adjectives, prepositions, and articles.
Cath Anne: [00:00:52] Nouns usually function as subjects or objects within sentences although they can also act as adjectives and adverbs. This week we will only talk about nouns that act as subjects or objects.
Cath Anne: [00:01:07] There are many different types of nouns. Let me give you a list with the different types of nouns.
Cath Anne: [00:01:16] We have proper nouns. Proper nouns are used to describe a unique person or thing.
Cath Anne: [00:01:40] Proper nouns also always start with a capital letter. That’s a really good way to remember what a proper noun is. So some examples may be my name Cath Anne. We may talk about a country as a proper noun such as Canada or may refer to a locale such as a church, for example St. Andrew’s Church, a city, anything that has to be capitalized in that does fulfill the role of a noun in a sentence would be considered a proper noun.
Cath Anne: [00:02:14] Second we have common nouns. Common nouns are used to describe persons or things in general.
Cath Anne: [00:02:32] So examples of this would be: girl, country, team, cat, chair. They are just general nouns that we use in everyday speech.
Cath Anne: [00:02:46] Thirdly, we have concrete nouns. Nouns that can be perceived through the five sentences. These are what are called concrete nouns and these can also be considered common nouns. For example: ball, rainbow, and melody or rhythm could be considered concrete nouns because you can feel them through one of your five senses.
Cath Anne: [00:03:27] In contrast, we then have abstract nouns. Abstract nouns cannot be perceived through the five senses and that is why they are called abstract because they are not concrete. So examples, of these nouns would be: love, courage, childhood. They present ideas, but they’re not necessarily concrete. However, they’re still considered nouns.
Cath Anne: [00:04:02] We then have countable nouns. Of course you probably guessed these nouns can be counted. They also have both singular and plural forms. So examples might be toys, chairs, children, books. So, as you can see with the example of children, it has a plural form. The singular is child; children is a plural. These are considered countable nouns.
Cath Anne: [00:04:53] Then of course, we have non-countable nouns. These are nouns that usually cannot be counted.
Cath Anne: [00:05:03] So, I will specify that this does mean usually because there are some exceptions where these nouns may be able to be counted, but in general they don’t have a plural form. So, examples of these would be: laughter, sympathy, oxygen. As you can see these forms of words do not have plurals, so they are not necessarily countable, so they’d be considered non-countable nouns.
Cath Anne: [00:05:38] Finally, we have collective nouns. Collective nouns are used to describe groups of things. So, for example, flock, like a flock of birds; committee. It’s a singular word to describe a group of people. So, as you can see, that is why these are considered collective nouns.
Cath Anne: [00:06:03] So, in all we do have seven different types of nouns that can be used as part of the sentence and that make up the components of a sentence in the English language.
Cath Anne: [00:06:16] Now, we also do have something called pronouns and they are related to nouns. Pronouns are used to replace nouns within sentences. This helps to make a sentence less repetitive and mechanic. So, for example, we could say, “Mary didn’t go to school because Mary wasn’t feeling very well.” But, that doesn’t just sound quite right does it? Instead you could say, “Mary didn’t go to school because she was sick.” It makes the sentence flow a little better. In this sentence as you might have guessed the pronoun is the word ‘she’. So, in this sentence ‘Mary’ and ‘she’ are noun and pronoun.
Cath Anne: [00:07:44] As I did with the nouns I will now give you a list of the types of pronouns.
Cath Anne: [00:07:51] Let’s begin with the subjective personal pronouns these may be a little complex, so I would encourage you to pause the video as I go along and take notes.
Cath Anne: [00:08:02] As this name implies subjective pronouns act as the subject within sentences, so we’re looking at words like: I, you, he, she, we, they, it. For example, we might say, “I am going to the bank while he is going to the market.” So, in this sentence we’re using the pronouns ‘I’ and the pronoun ‘he’. They act as the subject and object within the sentence so they are subjective.
Cath Anne: [00:08:40] We also have object personal pronouns these pronouns are as object of verbs within the sentences so they are words like: me, you, him, her, us, them, it.
Cath Anne: [00:08:54] So, for example, “The ball was going to hit me in the face.” In this case ‘me’ is the objective personal pronoun. I really hope that doesn’t happen to me.
Cath Anne: [00:09:11] We also have a possessive personal pronouns, so these pronouns are used to indicate possession as the name implies and they are placed after the object in question, as opposed to possessive adjectives which are placed before the object in question. So, these possessive personal pronouns are words like: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs, and its An example of a possessive adjective would be, “This is my car.” So, my is a possessive adjective, whereas saying, “This car is mine.” Mine is the possessive personal pronoun in this sentence because it is a noun and it does not act as an adjective.
Cath Anne: [00:10:01] We will get a little bit more in-depth with adjectives and how nouns act as adjectives as the weeks go on. We also have reflexive pronouns, This is a special class of pronouns and it is used when the object is the same as the subject of the sentence.
Cath Anne: [00:10:23] So, for example you may have heard words like: myself, yourself, himself, or herself, themselves, ourselves, and itself. These are all considered reflexive pronouns. So, for example, “I managed to cut myself in the kitchen.” ‘Myself’ would be a reflexive pronoun because ‘I’ am the subject of the sentence. Goodness gracious, I’m having a rough time, I’m getting hit by a ball and then getting caught in the kitchen. Geez Louise.
Cath Anne: [00:10:57] Then we also have interrogative pronouns. As you probably guess, these are pronouns that ask questions. So they are: what, who, whom, and whose.
Cath Anne: [00:11:12] So, for example, we might say, “What are the odds?”; and this is considered an interrogative pronoun.
Cath Anne: [00:11:23] Next, we have demonstrative pronouns. These pronouns are used to indicate a noun and distinguish it from other entities.
Cath Anne: [00:11:35] They are: this, that, these, and those. You might hear these words commonly in English grammar: this, that, these, and those. So, the example of a demonstrative pronoun is, “This is the right one.”
Cath Anne: [00:11:55] Finally, we have indefinite pronouns. As the name implies indefinite pronouns do not refer to a specific person, place, or thing as nouns do and as more definite pronouns do. There are many indefinite pronouns and this includes: anyone, anywhere, everyone, none, someone and so on. So, as you can see these words are somewhat a bit more vague than some of the other words that are more direct that we have already discussed. So, for example, if we were to use one of these words in a sentence we might say, “Everyone is going to the party.” We could also say, “No one is going to the market this Sunday.” You could also ask, “Is anyone going to buy lunch today?” So, those are some examples of some indefinite pronouns.
Cath Anne: [00:13:01] So, that is it for the lesson this week, folks. We hope that this information was of benefit to you. Best of luck returning to school and just a little reminder make sure to start jumping on with me on Instagram Live and Facebook Live every Monday at 7:00 PM Eastern Standard Time. I will be there to have a little chat with you guys and talk about life and if you have any academic questions, that’s great too, and I’ll also give you a little reminder to check out our videos. Love to connect with you guys.
Cath Anne: [00:13:40] Also, if you are looking for some more valuable content put on by Homework Help Global, definitely check out Homework Help Global on various social media platforms. We’re on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Google Plus, YouTube, Medium, we have lots of great blogs on there.
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Cath Anne: [00:14:17] Also, just a quick reminder that if you did like this video and you are liking our content, please give it a like and subscribe to our channel because that will help us know that you’re enjoying the content and will keep producing awesome content for you guys. So, that’s it for this week signing off. My name is Cath Anne and I will see you soon.
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