Introducing Nouns

The noun is one of the most fundamental and important parts of speech. When combined with a verb they form the foundation of a complete sentence. In addition, nouns function as the central word in many clauses and phrases. The terms below are described in simple English and examples are given. 

NOUNS 

Definition: Names a thing, person, place, event, or idea.

Nouns are often the first part of speech that is taught. Chose nouns that your students know. Adapt these ideas for the age and ability of your students. The examples will vary widely depending on whether you are teaching elementary school, middle school, high school, or adult English learners.

• Thing: desk, door, apple, grass
• Person/People: student/s, teacher/s, friend/s, helper, mother, employee
• Place: classroom, school, home, bedroom, store, park
• Event: lunch, concert, parade, recess
• Idea: love, peace, freedom

INTRODUCE

When introducing the concept of a noun, begin with the most concrete - things. It is easy to show a book, pencil, and chair in most settings. Ask students to name other things they can see. Look outside and name things such as tree, building, car, and flower. Then, introduce the idea of a person or people. Name a few students or famous people, then name more generic persons like student, teacher, son, sister, etc. Enlist students to name other persons and people. Introduce places in the same manner. Give a few examples and then encourage students to name places.

The last two categories are more abstract. List events that are happening in your location or that your students are familiar with such as a soccer game, wedding, recess, pep rally, prom, Thanksgiving, etc. Ask students to name more events. Lastly, ideas are the most abstract of the nouns. Love, hope, freedom and faith are generally known by older students. Fairness, justice, peace, and war are also good examples. Give a few examples and ask students for other examples. Be sensitive when mentioning anything related to war because of the trauma many refugee students have experienced.

REINFORCE AND PRACTICE

1. Reinforce. To reinforce the idea of nouns, students can make a collage and label the nouns. Or they can make a poster listing nouns in the four categories that are important to them. Any type of hands-on activity helps to reinforce new concepts.

2. Verbal Sentences. Begin by using nouns as a subject in a sentence. Give a few verbal examples and then have students contribute their own sentences. Students can also work in pairs or small groups creating their own sentences. Share these with the class. Encourage the use of things, people, and places.

• Example: The paper is on the desk.
• Student: The student is sitting.
• Student: Our library has books.

3. Written Sentences. Have students write 5-10 sentences working in pairs or small groups. Share some of the sentences with the class. Ask other students to identify nouns in the sentences.

4. Identify Nouns in a Sentence. Continue to have students practice identifying nouns in the context of a written sentence. Show a few longer written sentences and identify the nouns. Have students work in pairs or small groups to identify nouns in 5-15 sentences on worksheets or the board. Recap by reviewing the answers. Point out things, persons, places, events and ideas.

• Example: Barrie (person) rode the bus (thing) to school (place)
• Example: Sally ate a sandwich for lunch.
• Example: He put the plate in the cupboard.

5. Identify Nouns out of Context. You may also want to have students identify nouns out of context. Depending upon the age of students, list 2-5 word choices. Include other parts of speech such a verbs, adjective, adverbs and prepositions. The words provided should not be two parts of speech like 'love' or 'dance' (verb and noun). 

• Example: book, she, red, sit, quick
• Example: they, heavy, father, walk, and
• Example: slow, concert, one, into
• Example: hot, because, write, we, faith

6. Functions of Nouns. After other parts of speech have been learned, introduce the different functions of a noun. Begin with the subject  then teach direct object and object of a preposition.

BASIC NOUN FUNCTIONS

Nouns have many grammatical functions in a sentence. They can be the subject, direct object, indirect object, or object of a preposition. They can  be subject and object complements. The function determine the position of a noun in a sentence.

1. Subject: does the action or shows the state of being (active voice). The subject receives the action of the verb in the passive voice.

• Action: Brad cleaned his bedroom.
• State: The bedroom is clean.
• Passive Voice: The bedroom was cleaned.

2. Direct Object: comes after and action/transitive verb. It answers What? or Who?

• What? He threw a ball.
• Who? I called Rachel before school.

3. Object of a Preposition: comes after a preposition and answers Whom? What? When? or Where?

• Whom? I ate with my family.  I sit by Harry. We talked to them.
• What? We learned about the moon. It is made from recycled paper.
• When? The game is on Friday. We will meet at nine o'clock.
• Where? They went into the house. Put it on the table.

4. Indirect Object: comes after an action / transitive verb and answers To Whom? or To What?

• Gave the pen to whom? I gave Jane a pen.
• Made cookies for what? She made her class cookies.