PARTS OF SPEECH

Nouns: Prime-Time Players

A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing. Nouns, like house guests, come in different
varieties. House guests include those you want, those you hate, and those you're stuck with regardless.
Nouns come in these varieties: common nouns, proper nouns, compound nouns, and collective nouns.
1. Common nouns name any one of a class of person, place, or thing.
o boy
o city
o food
2. Proper nouns name a specific person, place, or thing.
o Bob
o New York City
o Rice-a-Roni
3. Compound nouns are two or more nouns that function as a single unit. A compound noun can be
two individual words, words joined by a hyphen, or two words combined.
o individual words: time capsule
o hyphenated words: great-uncle
o combined words: basketball
4. Collective nouns name groups of people or things.
o audience
o family
o herd
o crowd


Take a few seconds to catch your breath. Then underline the nouns in each of the following sentences.
1. A hungry lion was roaming through the jungle looking for something to eat.
2. He came across two men.
3. One man was sitting under a tree and reading a book; the other man was typing away on his
typewriter.
4. The lion quickly pounced on the man reading the book and devoured him.
5. Even the king of the jungle knows that readers digest and writers cramp.
Answers
1. lion, jungle, something
2. men
3. man, tree, book, man, typewriter
4. lion, man, book
5. king, jungle, readers, writers


Possessive Nouns:
9
/
10
of the Law
In life, possession shows success; in grammar, possession shows ownership. Follow these rules to
create possessive nouns.
1. With singular nouns, add an apostrophe and s.
o girl: girl's manuscript
o student: student's ideas
2. With plural nouns ending in s, add an apostrophe after the s.
o girls: girls' manuscript
o students: students' ideas
3. With plural nouns not ending in s, add an apostrophe and s.
o women: women's books
o mice: mice's tails
Possess It!
Reduce each of the following sentences to fewer words by using the possessive form. Doing so will
improve your writing style. Here's an example:
Original: The comedy routines of the Three Stooges aren't funny to me.
Revised: The Three Stooges' comedy routines aren't funny to me.