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Articles are the defining words that come before a noun or pronoun in a sentence. Read on for more
information and examples of articles, nouns and pronouns.
Nouns
The noun is the subject of the sentence. It is the person, item, place, feeling or thing in a sentence: The dog
/ A person / An egg / The atmosphere / A house / An opening.
A proper noun is the name of something, your own name for example, or the name of a city, a film or a day
of the week.
Nouns can also be material items, such as a pencil, a cloud or a tractor. Nouns can be places, such as
London or the train station. Nouns can be people or animals, such as John or a cat.
Abstract nouns
Nouns can also be feelings or emotions, such as happiness or satisfaction. Nouns can be personal qualities
too, such as humour. These nouns that describe emotions, qualities or states of being are sometimes called
‘abstract nouns’.
Articles
An article is the word preceding the noun, telling us if we know the specific noun or if the noun is a general
noun. For example, ‘Lucy is the woman who works at the shop, but there is a man that works there too’. The
implication here is that the speaker does not know the man.
A = indefinite article (not referring to a specific dog) (‘A’ becomes ‘An’ when the noun begins with a vowel
(a, e, i, o, u)
Object pronouns are: me, you, him, her, it, our, them
For example: The present is for me, That is her scarf, Our house is large, This is my computer, That sofa is
for them.
Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns are: my/mine, your/yours, his, her/hers, its (no apostrophe), our/ours, their/theirs
Personal pronouns can be either possessive pronouns (mine, yours, his, etc.) which come at the end of the
sentence. (e.g. ‘the book is mine’) or possessive adjectives which are always used just before the noun or
the description of the noun ( ‘that is my big, red book’)
Reflexive Pronouns
Reflexive pronouns are: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves. reflexive pronouns
are rarely used in English.
One occasion where reflexive pronouns are used is for emphasis. For example, ‘I made the dinner myself’,‘I
need you to read the book yourself’.
Other times are when the pronoun is the object of a preposition referring to a subject. For example: ‘He
enjoyed going on holiday by himself’, ‘She bought a new dress for herself’
The last occasion to use reflexive pronouns is when they are used with reflexive verbs. For example: ‘I hope
that you enjoy yourself’, ‘They have hurt themselves’, ‘We convinced ourselves to go’.
Now we have explored nouns and pronouns, read all about noun inflections to find out how the endings of
nouns can change depending on the context. This extra knowledge will improve your English language skills
further.