ABSTRACT
Nouns are the stuff that things are made of. In fact, the world we live in is made of nouns. All the places where we could be are nouns. Sentences need stuff—or nouns—to be about something. The essential stuff of a basic sentence is referred to as its subject—the who or what of the sentence. We ask, “Who or what does or is something?” to identify the subject easily. The subject—or noun—will be the answer. Of course nouns do more than act as subjects of sentences. Writers use nouns all over their sentences to show a clear picture of people, places, and things. The word thing doesn’t give the mind a specific picture. The common noun bug does. Choosing a specific bug such as roach gives us an even clearer picture.
