An overview of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and
adverbs
Nouns: What are they?
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 Nouns are generally the names of:
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Things – tables, chair, car, violin
Persons – mother, teacher, farmer, friend
Places - Church, school, Pomona, the hospital, Mexico
Abstract notions – marriage, information, kindness,
research, luck
 The Noun Test
(The)
seem(s) important/prevalent/good.
Ex1: The brownies seem good.
Ex2: I am very excited.
I seem important/good.
Nouns: Types
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There are three types of nouns:
 Common – a person, place, thing or abstract
notion
 count nouns – these nouns can be plural
 noncount nouns – these cannot be plural
 Proper – names for unique individuals or
places
 Collective – includes words that can be seen
as a group or collection of individuals.
Nouns: Common
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Common Nouns are:
 All nouns that are not proper nouns.
 Examples: Dog, coffee, hat, month, happiness, food,
sleep
 Usually take articles (a, an, the)
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The dog ate my homework.
We bought a car.
Henry went to an amusement park.
We have some rabbits on campus.
Nouns: Count (common)
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 Count nouns are nouns that “you can count.”
 They have a singular and plural form.
 Singular – one dog, one car
 Plural – Two dogs, three dogs; two cars, three cars
Nouns: noncount (common)
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Noncount nouns – nouns that you cannot count
They do not typically have a plural form.
 *We bought some furnitures for our apartment.
 *My uncle gave me good advices before I left.
 *I don’t like sands in my shoes.
 *I have many homeworks to do.
*For more information, visit here: Noncount Noun Review
Nouns: Proper
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 Proper nouns are actual names of people or places.
 These are capitalized in English.
 Examples: Los Angeles, Oregon, Magic Mountain,
Starbucks, California State Polytechnic University,
Pomona
 Usually do not have articles (a, an, the)
 *An Adriana was Nancy’s roommate in college.
 *Next week, we are going to the Magic Mountain.
 *The Michael Jackson was a famous singer.
Nouns: Collective
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 Collective nouns are words that refer to groups.
 The team lost its game.
 The family is coming over for dinner.
 Are the following nouns noncount or collective?
Flock
Dozen
Sunshine
Homework
Audience
Air
Education
Army
Water
Pack
Pronouns
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Subject
Pronoun
Object
Pronoun
Possessive
Pronouns
Singular
I
you
she, he, it
me
you
her, him, it
mine
yours
hers, his, its
Plural
we
you
they
us
you
them
ours
yours
theirs
A pronoun is used in place of a noun.
A singular pronoun is used to refer to a singular noun.
A plural pronoun is used to refer to a plural noun.
Subject pronouns are used as the subjects of sentences.
Object pronouns are used as the objects of verbs or prepositions.
Verbs
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Express the action or state of being in a sentence
and take inflectional endings.
Endings
 3rd person singular
 Past tense
 Present participle
 Past participle
–s
–ed
–ing
–en
(He walks home.)
(He walked home.)
(walking, working)
(worked, walked,
eaten, seen, swum)
Verbs
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 Verbs follow nouns and may be followed by adverbs.
 The flying saucers approached slowly.
Noun
Verb
Adv.
 The authorities proceeded cautiously.
Noun
Verb
Adv.
 Functionally, adding a verb to a noun completes a sentence.
 Pauline snores.
 He smokes.
Forms of the verb BE
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1st person singular = (I)
am
was
2nd person singular = (You)
are
were
3rd person singular = (He/she/it) is
was
1st person plural
= (We)
are
were
3rd person plural
= (They)
are
were
Adjectives, I
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 These describe or give the qualities of a noun.
 There is no limit to how many you may have in a
sentence.
 Some common forms include:
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-able (likeable, sizeable)
-ish (childish, selfish, brutish)
-ful (thoughtful, frightful, beautiful)
-y (lazy, crazy, funny)
The Adjective Test
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The ______ man/dog/suggestion seems very ____________.
 The mean dog seems very mean.
 The handsome man seems very handsome.
 The dumb suggestion seems very dumb.
Adjectives, II
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 There are two endings that may be added to
adjectives.
 Comparative – used to compare qualities of nouns.
 Ending: -er
 John is smart, but Mary is smarter.
 My car is faster than your car.
 Superlative – used to indicate that something is
considered the best of its kind.
 Ending: -est
 John is smart, but Mary is smarter. Jose, however, is the
smartest of them all.
Adverbs
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 Adverbs modify verbs and contribute various meaning to
a sentence.
 Most (not all) common adverbs end with –ly
 Common adverbs include:
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Direction:
Location:
Manner:
Time:
Jim pointed there/up/right.
Isabel shops locally/frequently/carelessly.
The choir sang joyfully/horribly/loudly.
Rachel will retire soon/eventually/later.