Nouns name people, places, and things. Pronouns sometimes take the place of nouns in sentences.
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.
—from "The Cask of Amontillado" written by Edgar Allan Poe
Nouns in the sentence are printed in blue; pronouns are printed in red.
A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing. Nouns name things that can be seen and touched (bumblebee, tree) as well as those that cannot be seen and touched (justice, beauty).
A compound noun is a noun that is made up of more than one word. Some are written as two separate words (station wagon), some are hyphenated (daughter-in-law), and some are combined (shipwreck).
A common noun names any one of a class of people, places, or things. A proper noun names a specific person, place, or thing. Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter.
Common noun – writer
Proper noun – Mark Twain
Pronouns are words that stand for nouns or for words that take the place of nouns. Antecedents are the words for which pronouns stand.
Evelyn said she lost her watch at the fair.
(She and her are the pronouns that stand for Evelyn, the antecedent.)
A reflexive pronoun ends in -self or -selves and indicates that someone or something performs an action to, for, or upon itself. An intensive pronoun ends in -self or -selves and simply adds emphasis to a noun or pronoun in the same sentence.
Reflexive – The children amused themselves at the park.
Intensive – The children made up the rules themselves.
A demonstrative pronoun points to a specific person, place, or thing. A relative pronoun begins a subordinate adjective clause and connects it to another idea in a sentence. An interrogative pronoun is used to begin a question.
Demonstrative – This is the most important question on the test.
Relative – Jenny is the person who can solve your computer problem.
Interrogative – Who plans to attend the pep rally?
Indefinite pronouns refer to people, places, or things, often without specifying which ones. Here are two examples:
Both of my brothers are football players.
Everyone is going to the game.
