0:00- [Voiceover] Hello grammarians.

•Current transcript segment:0:01Welcome to the English parts of speech.

0:04We're gonna begin with the noun,
0:06the lovely wonderful noun, your friend and mine.
0:09They're mostly what you're gonna encounter in sentences.
0:12Most sentences in English contain at least one noun
0:15or a pronoun, but we'll get to pronouns later.
0:18A noun is basically anything.
0:24And I know that's not an especially helpful definition,
0:28but we'll get more specific in a minute.
0:31A noun is basically anything at all.
0:34Now the way this is taught in traditional grammar
0:36is to say that a noun is a person, place or thing,
0:39which is fine, I think we can make that a little bit sharper
0:44and expand that out by saying that they are,
0:47that nouns are people or living things,
0:51places,
0:55things, or ideas.
1:00I think ideas is the one that usually gets left out.
1:03So nouns can be people, places, things and ideas.
1:07Let's put that in action.
1:10So, this is Raul.
1:13He is from Argentina.
1:15He is a penguin.
1:17Raul has big dreams.
1:19Now, okay.
1:20So, I wanna take these three sentences
1:22and find the noun in them using the test.
1:26So the test is, is it a person
1:30or a living thing, a place,
1:33a thing, or an idea?
1:37And if it's any of those things,
1:39then it falls into the category of words in English
1:42which we call nouns.
1:44So, sentence number one.
1:45This is Raul.
1:48What is Raul?
1:50Well, Raul is a person or a living thing
1:52so we're just gonna say person so noun.
1:57Next sentence.
1:59He is from Argentina.
2:01Now Argentina happens to be a place
2:04so therefore, it is also a noun.
2:06It's a kind of noun called a proper noun,
2:08just like Raul is but we'll get to that later.
2:10So, Argentina is a noun.
2:12Argentina incidentally is a country
2:15and the word country is also a noun
2:19because it is a thing.
2:23So, sentence the third.
2:24He is a penguin.
2:27Now, a penguin is a living being or a thing
2:30so we can say oh yes, penguin, that is a noun as well.
2:35So, you've noticed I'm not circling he or this.
2:39These words are pronouns, relative pronouns,
2:42and they can sometimes behave like nouns,
2:45but I wouldn't call them nouns.
2:48That'll just get confusing.
2:49So, these are pronouns and we'll get to them later.
2:53Sentence number four.
2:54Raul has big dreams.
2:56So, here we have Raul again.
2:58We know from the first sentence that it's a person's name.
3:01So, we're just gonna say this is also a noun again.
3:04And dreams.
3:06Now, dreams isn't a person, a place.
3:08It's a thing, sure.
3:12The reason I put in idea as a fourth category is
3:14to get it stuff that you can't pick up.
3:17Like for example, so dream, yes, dream is a noun.
3:23Dream is maybe a little tangible
3:24'cause it's something you can imagine,
3:27but the idea of like a word like bigness.
3:32Or if you prefer, you know, size.
3:40The size of Raul's plumage was astonishing.
3:46Look at that gorgeous plumage.
3:48It's a little penguin mohawk.
3:50(high-pitched murmurs)
3:52The size of Raul's plumage was astounding.
3:55Now in that sentence, size is a noun,
3:58but it's not a physical thing,
4:00it's not a person, it's not a place,
4:02it's not something you can pick up.
4:04It's an idea.
4:05So, that's why I include this fourth category.
4:08So, if you're trying to figure out
4:10whether or not a word is a noun,
4:12just apply this test.
4:14Ask yourself, is it a person, a place,
4:17a thing, or an idea?
4:21And you, my friend, will be golden.
4:24You can learn anything.
4:25David out.