English Writing Conventions

Nouns

• A noun is a person, place, or thing. Some of the things nouns name can be seen or touched; some cannot.

Person Place Thing

Obama Franklin High School

dog

student school anger

Compound Nouns

• A compound noun is made up of more than one word.

Separated Hyphenated Combined

sweet potato son-in-law highway

inner tube drive-thru railroad

Exercise 1

• Underline the two nouns in each sentence. Some nouns may be compound.

1.Charlotte helped us win the championship.2.There are no longer any animals in that zoo.3.Uncle Pete has been studying to become a

pilot.4.All of the silverware fell out of the drawer.5.“This is not a good sign,” said Dennis.

Common and Proper Nouns

• A common noun names any one of a class of people, places, or things.

• A proper noun names a specific person, place, or thing. Proper nouns are capitalized.

Common Nouns Proper Nounsriver Rio Grandewar Civil WarI called my mom after school.

I called Mom after school.

Exercise 2• Write the proper noun in each sentence in the

blank at the right, adding the missing capitalization.1. We think aunt claire is funny. _____________2. We own a ranch in texas. __________________3. His favorite language is spanish. _____________• Fill in each blank with a proper noun.1. Some day I would like to see ______________.2. We were amazed when we saw _______________.

Pronouns

• A pronoun is a word used to take the place of a noun. The noun a pronoun substitutes for is called an antecedent.

Pronouns and Antecedents

ANTECEDENT PRONOUN PRONOUN

Elizabeth Macintosh asked her parents if she could go.

PRONOUN ANTECEDENT

Because of his sore knee, the star quarterback couldn’t play.

Personal Pronouns

• Personal pronouns refer to (1) the person speaking, (2) the person spoken to, or (3) the person, place, or thing spoken about.

First Person Second Person

Third Person

I, me, my, minewe, us, our, ours

you, your, yours

he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them, their, theirs

Exercise 3

• Underline the personal pronoun in each sentence. Then, circle its antecedent.

1.Lisa, are you going to the party?2.When Paul drove up, everyone piled into his

car.3.“I must no forget,” the child said over and

over again.4.During the tornado, the house lost its roof.

Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns

• A reflexive pronoun ends in –self or –selves and adds information to a sentence by referring to a noun or pronoun that appears earlier in the sentence.

• An intensive pronoun has the same ending as a reflexive pronoun but simply adds emphasis to a noun or pronoun in the same sentence.

Exercise 4

• Fill in each blank with a personal pronoun.1.Randy, would _________ please give us a

hand?2.With _________ money ready, Jose stood in

line for the concert.3.All of her friends sent her __________ best

wishes.4.These books are so good that I wish _______

were longer.

Singular Plural

First Person myself ourselves

Second Person yourself yourselves

Third Person himself, herself, itself

themselves

Demonstrative Pronouns

• A demonstrative pronoun directs attention to a specific person, place, or thing.

this that these those

Relative Pronouns

• A relative pronoun begins a subordinate clause and connects it to another idea in the sentence.

that which who whom whose

Interrogative Pronouns

• An interrogative pronoun is used to begin a question.

what which who whom whose

Indefinite Pronouns• Indefinite pronouns refer to people, places, or

things, often without specifying which ones. Some indefinite pronouns may have an antecedent, but many do not have a specific antecedent.

Sing ular Plural Singular or Plural

anotheranybodyanyoneanythingeacheithereverybodyeveryoneeverythinglittle

muchneithernobodyno onenothingoneothersomebodysomeonesomething

bothfewmanyothersseveral

allanymoreMostNoneSome