Uses of Nouns

Principal Uses of Nouns

SUBJECT OF A VERB—what is being talked about in the sentence
Ex. The house was wrecked.
Here comes the teacher.
PREDICATE NOUN—usually placed after the verb and answers the question what or who; it is the same person or thing as the subject
Ex. The prince became a beggar.
The supervisor is Janice.
DIRECT OBJECT OF A VERB—the receiver of the action indicated by the verb and answers the question what or whom; represents a person/thing different from the subject (unlike the predicate noun)
Ex. The girl lost the bag.
The robber killed the policeman.
INDIRECT OBJECT OF A VERB—tells to whom or to what, or for whom or for what something was done
Ex. The girl wrote her father a letter.
Kate bought Dianne a new purse.
Note: With an indirect object though, “to” or “for” is never mentioned in the sentence; if it were expressed, the noun would be the object of the preposition and not an indirect object.
OBJECT OF A PREPOSITION—answers the question what or whom after the preposition.
Ex. The murderer found shelter in the forest.
The bus came from Pampanga.
APPOSITION—another name for the same person/thing represented by the subject
Ex. My friend, the accountant, has just arrived.
We next went to Baguio, the summer capital of the Philippines.
OBJECTIVE COMPLEMENT—added to the direct object to complete the meaning expressed by the verb; without it the sentence would then become vague and incomplete
Ex. We made Lea the manager.
We elected Rosa the muse.
NOMINATIVE ABSOLUTE-this kind of construction is made up of a noun followed by a participle; when a noun used absolutely with a participle is placed at the beginning of a sentence, it must be carefully distinguished from a noun used as subject of the verb. For example, in the sentence, “The guests being hungry, dinner was served,” guests is in the nominative absolute construction with the participle ‘being’ and dinner is the subject of the verb ‘was served’. On the other hand, in “The guests, being hungry, took their places at the table,” guests is not in the nominative absolute construction; it is the subject of the verb ‘took’.
DIRECT ADDRESS
Ex. Kiandra, it is time to eat.
The room, Jelaine, has to be cleaned.
Kiandra and Jelaine are the names or words by which the persons are addressed.
These are not the subjects of the verbs.
Any word having one of these nine uses in a sentence is a noun or noun-equivalent in that sentence, although it may be another part of speech in another sentence.
Ex. Is is a verb.
He mispronounced charismatic.
Nouns used as other parts of speech—some words which are ordinarily nouns may be used:
As adverbs
As adjectives

Nouns

What is a noun? A noun is the name of anything. The thing a noun names may be:
-A living or an inanimate thing having physical existence: as girl, cat, chair
-A mental or spiritual concept: as life, peace, love
-Some quality, property or condition belonging to an object: as weakness, strength, depth,
-An action: as dancing, singing, cooking

Note: In the sentence, “Running is a good exercise,” running is a noun because it is the name of an act and is the subject of the verb “is”: but notice that in “He is running a short distance,” running is not a noun; it is a part of the verb ‘is running’, which tells what he is doing.

Classification of Nouns

Nouns have generally 2 classes:
-Common Noun- name belonging to all the members of a class of objects—that is, the name is common to all members of that class such as school, plane, man, religion, lake
-Proper Noun-is the distinctive name of an individual member of a class as Philippines, Juan, Catholic

Special Classes of Nouns

-Abstract Noun—name of a mental or spiritual concept(meaning something you cannot touch nor see, not material), or some quality or condition of an object as love, strength, depth
-Collective Noun—name of a collection or group of similar objects; as staff, band, jury, nation
-Compound Noun—made up of 2 or more nouns or a noun and some other word or words, which form a unit idea; as grandson, commander-in-chief, sister-in-law, Manila Hotel

Properties of Nouns

Number—indicates whether one object or more than one object is designated
-plural
-singular
Gender-sex is distinguished
-masculine
-feminine
-neuter (object without sex: as water, stone, city)
-common (either masculine or feminine: child, parent, cousin, animal)
Case-helps to show the relation of the noun to the other words in the sentence
-nominative case—used primarily in the subject of a verb and in the predicate noun
ex. The man spoke rudely.
Dave is an artist.

-objective case—used primarily in the object of a verb or of a preposition
Ex. The policeman caught the thief.
They came from the city.

-possessive case—normally denotes possession
Ex. This is the boy’s watch.
I have my CD.

Note: As a general rule, the possessive case is not used with inanimate objects, a phrase with “of” is employed in its place. There are however, a few exceptions to this rule.

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