Six Functions (jobs) of a Noun
Name:______________
A noun is a word that represents a person, a place, or a thing. A thing in this definition
can be a physical entity or it can be an abstract idea. A noun may be used in six different
ways. (Nouns can have six different jobs in a sentence.)
Job #1: SUBJECT
Tutankhamun was a pharaoh in the 18th dynasty of Egypt.
Tutankhamun is the subject of the sentence.
Job #2: DIRECT OBJECT
Archaeologists unearthed King Tut’s tomb.
Identify a direct object by asking what or whom.
Archaeologists unearthed what? The answer is the direct object = the tomb.
Job #3: INDIRECT OBJECT
The museum loaned the school King Tut’s burial mask.
Identify an indirect object by asking to what, for what, or to whom, for whom.
The museum loaned the mask TO THE SCHOOL. Therefore, we ask, who was the mask
loaned to? Indirect object is school.
Museum is the subject, mask is the direct object.
Job #4: OBJECT OF A PREPOSITION
The class went to the museum.
The mask, which the students were not permitted to touch, was under the glass.
The prepositional phrase is under the glass .
GLASS is the object of the preposition under.
Job #5 APPOSITIVE
The word appositive is derived from Latin: ad ("near") and positio ("placement"). In
English grammar an appositive is a noun or pronoun placed near another noun or
pronoun. The appositive enhances our understanding of the original noun or pronoun.
The Egyptian pharoah, Rameses I, was the founder of the 19th dynasty.
Rameses I is the appositive.
Job #6 PREDICATE NOUN/also called PREDICATE NOMINATIVE
Sentences do not always contain action verbs. When a non-action verb, also called
intransitive verb, is used, the noun that follows an intransitive verb and completes the
meaning of a sentence is called a complement. (The word complement means to
complete.) A sentence has a subject and a predicate. Predicate is a generic term that
includes those parts of the sentence that explain the subject of the sentence. The noun that
follows an intransitive verb and completes the predicate may also be called a predicate
noun or predicate nominative.
Note that a predicate noun is an alternate word for the object of the sentence.
Cleopatra was the last pharaoh of Egypt.
Cleopatra is the subject.
Egypt is the object of the preposition.
Pharoah is the predicate noun/nominative.
(Nouns can also modify other nouns – Bring the water bucket over here. In this case, the
noun is functioning as a adjective.)
DID YOU KNOW? In generations past the first six or eight years of public education
were conducted in schools that were frequently called "grammar schools." Students were
often rigorously instructed in English grammar. A student might have been asked to parse
a sentence. Parse means to take apart and describe as a noun could be described using the
information given above. The term parse is currently enjoying popularity among
computer programmers.