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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.
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.)
Examples:
The child played outside the room.
I finished my homework after dinner.
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.
By changing vowels.
Exceptional Plural
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
PERSONAL PRONOUNS
SINGULAR PLURAL
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.
In most cases, we use who, whose, and whom to make statements about people.
We use who to join two sentences.
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.
INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS
These are the pronouns that are used to ask a question.
These are: who, whom, whose, which, what.
DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS
These pronouns point out the person or thing referred to.
This, That, These, and Those are demonstrative pronouns.
Indefinite Pronouns: each, either, neither, one, anyone, everyone, no one, nobody,
anyone, anybody, someone, somebody, both, few, several, many, some, any, none, all,
most.
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.
We do not talk or write this way. Automatically, we replace the noun Lincoln’s
with a pronoun. More naturally, we say
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”)
General rule: A singular pronoun must replace a singular noun; a plural pronoun
must replace a plural noun.
antecedent referent
| |
President Lincoln delivered his Gettysburg Address in 1863.
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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:
Example:
Each of the clerks does a good deal of work around his or her offce.
| \ /
singular singular
Marbles are countable; therefore, the sentence has a plural referent pronoun.
Jewels are countable; therefore, the sentence has a plural referent pronoun.
Example:
4. With compound subjects joined by or/nor, the referent pronoun agrees with
the antecedent closer to the 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:
In this example, the jury is acting as one unit; therefore, the referent pronoun is singular.
The jury members gave their individual opinions.
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plural plural
In this example, the jury members are acting as twelve individuals; therefore the
referent pronoun is plural.
Examples:
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.
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singular singular
Examples:
Every cow, pig, and horse had lost its life in the fire.
| |
singular singular
A number of is plural.
A number of volunteers are offering their help.
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plural plural
VERBS
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).
The verbs in the chart are other examples of verbs that show visible and
mental action.
The intransitive verb does not need an object but the meaning is clear or
complete.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
IRREGULAR VERBS
An irregular verb is one whose past and present participle are not formed by
adding –ed or –d to the present form.
VERB TENSE
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 second chart gives examples of the six tenses in their progressive forms.
Note that these forms end in –ing.
PRESENT
2. Used for a general truth or a fact, that is, for something that is true.
Example: Night follows day.
5. Used instead of the past tense, to make something look more real.
Example: The tiger comes; it catches the boy.
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.