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Nouns and pronouns

Nouns name people, places, animals and things. Pronouns take their place. Learn to tell them apart and use them well.

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Let us begin

The big idea

Look around you. Every person, place, animal and thing has a name. Words that give these names are called nouns. Pronouns are small words that help us avoid repeating the same noun.

A noun is a naming word. It is the name of a person, a place, an animal or a thing. Meena, teacher, Jaipur, school, cow and book are all nouns.

A common noun is a general name, like girl, city or river. A proper noun is the special name of one person, place or thing, like Meena, Jaipur or Ganga. A proper noun always begins with a capital letter.

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun, so that we do not repeat the same name again and again. Common pronouns are I, you, he, she, it, we and they.

Use he for a boy or a man, she for a girl or a woman, it for a thing or an animal, and they for more than one person or thing.

Four kinds of naming wordsFour coloured boxes are headed Person, Place, Animal and Thing. Each box lists three nouns, such as Meena, Jaipur, cow and book. Two notes below say that proper nouns start with a capital and that a pronoun takes a noun place.Nouns are naming words Person Meena teacher doctor Place Jaipur school park Animal cow parrot tiger Thing book kite table Proper nouns start with a capital: Meena, Jaipur A pronoun takes a noun's place: Meena - she
Every noun names a person, a place, an animal or a thing.

Worked examples

See how it works

  1. Finding nouns

    In 'Meena took her book to school.' the nouns are Meena, book and school. Meena is a proper noun. Book and school are common nouns.

  2. Using a pronoun

    Without a pronoun: Aman is tall. Aman plays basketball. With a pronoun: Aman is tall. He plays basketball. The word He takes the place of Aman.

  3. A pronoun for many

    Rohan and Sita are cousins. They live in Bhopal. The word They takes the place of Rohan and Sita.

Try it at home

Noun treasure hunt

You will need

  • Paper
  • Pencil

What to do

  1. Draw four columns on your paper: Person, Place, Animal, Thing.
  2. Walk around your home or look out of the window.
  3. Write down five nouns in each column.
  4. Put a circle around the ones that are proper nouns, such as your own name or the name of your town.
  5. Write three sentences using these nouns, then change one noun in each sentence into a pronoun.

Ask a grown-up: A grown-up can help you spell the names of places and people.

Practice sheet

Check what you learned

Write your answers in a notebook, or print this sheet and write on it. When you finish, mark your work with the answer key.

Practice sheet: Nouns and pronouns (Classes 3-5, English)

  1. Pick the noun in this sentence: The girl sang.
  2. Which one is a proper noun: city, Jaipur or river?
  3. Fill in with a pronoun: Aman is tall. ___ plays cricket.
  4. Fill in with a pronoun: The boys went home. ___ were tired.
  5. Fill in with a pronoun: I have a cat. ___ is white.
  6. Write all the nouns in this sentence: Dad bought a book from the shop.
  7. Rewrite the second sentence using a pronoun: Sita and Gita are sisters. Sita and Gita live in Pune.
  8. Give one proper noun for the common noun city.
  9. Rewrite with the correct capital letters: my friend rohan lives in kolkata.
  10. Write your own sentence using the pronoun we.

Answer key

Answers: Nouns and pronouns

Do the practice sheet first, then check here. If an answer is different from yours, read the lesson again and try once more.

  1. girl.
  2. Jaipur.
  3. He.
  4. They.
  5. It.
  6. Dad, book, shop.
  7. Sita and Gita are sisters. They live in Pune.
  8. Any name of a city, for example Mumbai, Delhi or Kolkata.
  9. My friend Rohan lives in Kolkata.
  10. Any sentence with we, for example: We play in the park.

What next

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English for classes 3 to 5

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