Nouns & Their Many Roles and Forms

Tara Cassidy, M.A. CCC-SLP, BCS-CLGestalt Language & Literacy Therapy, LLC

NOUN - A word used to identify any class of people, places, or things.

Label these examples below

1) Circle the nouns in the list of words below.

2) Underline the capital letter in each proper noun. A proper noun provides a specific name for a person place or thing.

hot Hawaii pan

run fast library

John dog kite

Noun as Subject

In a sentence the noun can act as the subject, or who/what the sentence is about.

In the sentence, the dog ran down the street, ‘dog’ is the subject of the sentence. The sentence is about the dog.

Underline the subject in the following sentences.

1) The girl sat under the tree.

2) The box was full of toys.

3) John cooked dinner for his family.

4) That test was very hard.

5) The car was fast.

Noun as Direct Object

In a sentence, the noun can also act as the direct object, or who/what is acted upon by the subject.

In the sentence, the girl ate the apple, apple is the direct object. The apple was acted upon by the girl when she ate it.

Underline the direct object in the following sentences.

1) The dog hid his bone.

2) Mom put on her coat.

3) Dad raked the leaves.

4) The man chopped down the tree .

5) The bird caught a worm.

Write the subject of the sentence.

Write the object of the sentence.

Write a simple sentence about this picture.

Noun as Indirect Object

In a sentence, the noun can also act as the indirect object, or someone or something that is affected by the action or verb.

In the sentence, the girl gave me the apple, ‘me’ is the indirect object. ‘Apple’ is the direct object.

Underline the indirect object in the following sentences.

1) Mom brought her a glass of milk.

2) Jan made Bob a birthday card.

3) Sam built Fido a dog house.

4) She fed the cat some fish.

Write the subject.

What is the subject doing? (one word)

What is the direct object?

What is the indirect object?

Write the sentence.

Plural vs. Possessive Noun

Plural means more than 1. It is the opposite of singular which means one.

To form a regular plural noun, I add the suffix s.

Singular example:

1 dog

Plural example:

2 dogs ‘Dog’ is my base word and s is the suffix that I add to mark the word as a plural noun.

When the base word ends in ch, sh, s, x, or z - the suffix is -es.

Examples: Sandwiches kissesWishes boxes

Complete the following sentences.

1) Sam had 1 apple in his basket. He picked 2 more. Now, Sam has

2) Pat had 1 dish. I brought another. Together, we had

Write a sentence to tell about this picture. Use the plural noun form:

A possessive noun shows ownership of something. For example, if Ben has a ball, it is Ben’s ball.

A possessive singular noun is formed by adding an ‘s after the base word. Ben’s ball.

A possessive noun functions as an adjective because it modifies another noun.

In our example, Ben’s ball, ‘ball’ is the noun. Ben’s notifies us that the ball belongs to Ben.

Let’s go back to what we know about the different roles of nouns in sentences.

In the sentence,

John has bright orange shoes.

John is the subjectHas is the verbShoes is the direct object

I can rewrite that sentence using a possessive noun form. It looks like this,

John’s shoes are bright orange.

Now, Shoes is the subject, John’s modifies the word shoesAre is the verb There is no direct objectBoth sentences provide the same information. Rewrite the following sentences using the possessive noun form.

1) My dad has a car that is fast.

2) Sarah has flowers that are growing.

3) Kim has a blue bedroom.

4) Sam has a dog that is big and fluffy.

A plural possessive noun is formed by adding the apostrophe after the suffix s.

Example: The boys’ bus was late.

In this sentence, the bus belongs to a group of boys. We show that by putting the apostrophe after the plural s suffix.

If the bus belonged to just one boy, the sentences word read,

The boy’s bus was late.

Rewrite the following sentence using the plural possessive noun form.

1) The girls are on a team that won the championship.

When using irregular plural nouns that do not end with the suffix s, place, use ‘s to note possession.

Example:

The children’s toy room was a mess.

The word children is plural but does not end in s. Therefore, I am able to use ‘s to for the possessive noun.

Rewrite the following sentence using the plural possessive noun form.

The women have a garden full of flowers.

The pronominal possessive nouns for it, you, and who do not have an apostrophe.

Examples:

The dog ate its bone. Yours is the best drawing. Whose bike was left in the driveway?