Nouns inside sentences
Finding a noun on its own is easy. Finding them inside a sentence takes more care, because a sentence usually holds more than one.
“The dog chased the ball.”
Two nouns. “dog” names an animal and “ball” names a thing.
“Ava fed the fish.”
Two again. “Ava” names a person and “fish” names an animal.
Nouns are not only at the front
You already know that the naming part comes first in a sentence. Nouns do not stop there. They turn up in the telling part too.
| Sentence | Nouns |
|---|---|
| The farmer opened the barn. | farmer, barn |
| My brother lost his key. | brother, key |
| A beetle crawled up the wall. | beetle, wall |
Read the whole sentence before you decide you have found them all.
The naming part and the noun
Here is a spot where students get tangled.
“The red kite flew high.”
The naming part is “The red kite”. Three words. But the noun is only “kite”.
The words “the” and “red” do work in the sentence, but neither one names anything. “the” points at which kite. “red” tells what the kite is like. Only “kite” names.
So the naming part can be several words while the noun inside it is just one.
A mistake to watch for
Action words sometimes sit next to nouns and get picked up by accident.
In “Leo ran to the park.” the nouns are “Leo” and “park”. The word “ran” tells what he did, so it is not a noun.
Your turn
Find the nouns in each sentence.
- “The baker made a cake.”
- “My sister found a rock.”
- “A fox ran across the road.”
Check your answers
- “baker” and “cake”
- “sister” and “rock”
- “fox” and “road”
Remember
- Most sentences hold more than one noun.
- Nouns show up in the telling part too.
- The naming part can be several words. The noun inside it is one word.