Nouns

Objective: Use nouns as naming words in sentences. Always make sure that you can define the topic you are studying. So what is a noun? In order to define a noun we will look at what nouns do. Nouns name people, places and things. Therefore nouns are naming words. a) Nouns as names of people Every body in your class has a name. If they did not, it would not be possible to state clearly who you are talking to. Names that talk about a specific person are called proper nouns; therefore, all the names of your friends are proper nouns. All proper nouns start with a capital letter. Now make a list of all your friends. Make sure that each name starts with a capital letter. Names are not very easy to spell, when in doubt ask your friends how to spell their names. I hope you have at least ten names. Now let us take a journey back to one of our lessons on main verbs. Do you remember the verbs that we gave you rules on how to spell them? Well, here is the list: wash, polish, slash, watch, fetch, piss, fix, cry, dry and fly. You will now make sentences in the pattern: Noun + verb ending in –s. Use the names of your friends in the noun position and each one of the verbs above in the verb position. Complete this exercise before you read on. Do your sentences look like these? i. Eugene washes. ii. Joan watches. iii. Jane fetches. iv. Jim pisses. v. Don fixes. vi. Peter cries. vii. Joel dries. viii. Jean flies. b) Nouns as names of places How well do you know Africa? Well the names of towns and countries are proper nouns too. They name specific places. Words that name specific places are proper nouns. An atlas is a reference book most of us avoid. Well, in today’s lesson you will need one. I will name ten capital cities in Africa and you will name the countries they are in. Let’s see how our partnership works, shall we? Nairobi, Cairo, Kampala, Kigali, Lagos, Algiers, Johannesburg, Harare, Kismayu and Khartum. Well, I hope you had fun with your atlas. Find as many capital cities and countries in the world. Just remember that these nouns start in capital letters. c) Nouns as names of things Look around you. Everything you can touch is a noun. Make a list of as many things as possible. These nouns start in small letters. Now look for nouns that you can use to extend these sentences. i. Eugene washes. ii. Joan watches. iii. Jane fetches. iv. Don fixes. v. Joel dries. vi. Jean flies. Your sentences should look like these. i. Eugene washes clothes. ii. Joan watches movies. iii. Jane fetches firewood. iv. Don fixes cars. v. Joel dries dishes. vi. Jean flies kites. Well, we have come to the end of this lesson on nouns. Remember that a noun is a word that names people, places and things. Remember too that nouns that name specific people and places are called proper nouns. For proper nouns the first letter must be a capital letter. In the next post we shall look at common nouns.