* UNDERSTANDING NOUNS
- A noun is defined as a person, place, or thing.
(This definition sometimes contains the words "or idea" at the end--to include abstract nouns--but these are difficult for elementary students to fully understand, so we only touch on them briefly at this level.)
- common nouns - nouns which describe a general person, place, or thing. Ex: boy, dog, store
- proper nouns - nouns which describe a particular person, place, or thing. Ex: Tom, Fido, Walgreens
(Proper nouns must be capitalized.)
- compound nouns - nouns which are made up of two or more nouns put together and used as one noun. Ex: notebook, field trip, macaroni and cheese
(Compound nouns may be one word, a hyphenated word, or several words separated by spaces.)
- singular nouns - indicate one person, place, or thing
- plural nouns - indicate more than one person, place, or thing
(Plural nouns are usually formed by adding -s or -es. Some words have irregular plurals, however, and have completely different word forms for the plural.) Ex. children, feet, moose
- possessive nouns - nouns which show ownership, usually formed by adding 's to the base noun. Ex: the dog's leash, Doug's ball.
(We discussed the "rules" for forming possessive nouns like this: "Make the noun singular or plural first. Then add 's to the noun 'unless it makes it sound funny,' in which case you just add the apostrophe." I have found that this simplified practice enables most children to get it right, without necessarily understanding the complexities of all the rules of possession with singular, plural, and irregular nouns. Ex. the boy's book [one boy], the children's bedroom [more than one child, but adding 's is correct with this irregular plural], the girls' bedroom [more than one child, which we made plural first, then added 's but got the pronunciation "girlses," which sounds wrong, so we took the extra -s off and just left the apostrophe].)
*UNDERSTANDING PRONOUNS
- A pronoun is defined as a word that takes the place of a noun.
- Subjective (nominative) pronouns (which are used when the pronoun functions as a subject, but for the purposes of this class, they are used "when they are at the beginning of a sentence, telling who did something"):
I we
you you
he/she/it they
- Objective pronouns (which are used when the pronoun functions as an object, but for the purposes of this class, they are "the form you use with to or with"):
me us
you you
him/her/it them
- Possessive pronouns (which are used when the pronoun shows possession or ownership):
my our
your your
his/her/its their
*UNDERSTANDING ADJECTIVES
- An adjective is defined as a word that gives a clearer picture of a noun, or--more officially--as a word that describes a noun.
- Adjectives tell: what kind?
which one?
how many?
whose?
- Articles (most commonly: a, an, or the) function as adjectives (telling which one).
Ex. the silly boy: silly is an adjective telling what kind; the is an adjective (article) telling which one.
- The possessive pronouns we learned (my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their) function as adjectives (telling whose).
* UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF NOUNS IN SENTENCES
- the complete subject of a sentence - who or what the sentence is about
- the simple subject of a sentence - the noun in the complete subject