What do all of these words have in common?

(DO NOT shout out. Raise your hand when you think you know.)

• surfer, anger, skater, iPod, Santa Monica Pier

That’s right! They are all

* We are going to start our review of the parts of speech with nouns.

Notes About Nouns

• Definition - a noun is a word used to name a person, place, thing, or idea

Examples

• person noun - student, Lauren, principal

• place noun – world, freeway, Hawaii

• thing noun (things you can touch; they are concrete) – guitar, hamburger, computer

• idea noun (things you can’t touch; they are abstract) – love, jealousy, fame

Nouns are often the SUBJECT of a sentence.

You can find the subject of a sentence by asking,

“Who or what did the action?”

Find the subject of this sentence:

Mr. Murphy laughed while he watched Mr. Bream pull spaghetti from his nostril.

(Ask yourself, “Who or what did the action?”)

Answer: Mr. Murphy laughed while watching his friend yank a noodle

from his nose.

Therefore, the subject of the sentence is Mr. Murphy.

Quick Check for Understanding

• Read this sentence from an article called “Protecting Your Online Identity and Reputation,” and write down all of the nouns:

Ashley and her friends use MySpace tocommunicate, but she's very careful aboutthe information, pictures, and comments she sends and posts — even though her profile is set to private.

Correct Your Answers

Each answer is worth one point. Put a minus score beside your answers.

1. Ashley 2. friends3. MySpace4. information5. pictures 6. comments7. profile

*Raise your hand and show me how many answersyou got wrong. If you got 100%, raise your fist.

Next Steps

• In our next grammar lesson we will learn about pronouns.

NEXT STEPS

In our next lesson we will learn about pronouns,words that take the place of nouns.