Welcome to 15mins.today the home of English Shadowing. I'm your host Gavin and this is InTense Episode 41. So now we've been doing the article “the.” Now, I could do another three episodes on it, I found some more material, but I’m a bit tired of it, so I'm going to take a break from “the” and what I've decided, is that now we're going to start looking at some names of things in grammar.

Now, they are not important for a person to learn grammar, you just do the questions and answers. Don't worry about the grammar itself, but I want to go through these things because some days you need these things. So, we're going to start with the basics. So the first thing we're going to look at are nouns.

What is a noun? Now there are four kinds of nouns, there are common nouns, proper nouns, compound nouns and collective nouns.

In this episode, episode one of nouns, we're going to be looking at common nouns, words that name a person, a thing, a place. Ok, so common nouns name one of a class of person, place, or thing. A class of something like, girl, boy, city, food. Ok, so nothing specific, a class of thing.

So those are common nouns, so as I said we focus on learning grammar by actually just doing the questions and the answers, and not worrying about the actual what things are called, but sometimes we need to know what a noun is, because if somebody tries to explain something to us and they say, “Oh it's a noun.” And you know, I myself sometimes forget which parts are which, so we'll start with the basics. Our first one today would be common nouns. So let's look at some examples!

Is the girl happy? Yes, the girl is happy.

Is the girl happy? No, the girl is not happy.

Is the bicycle red? Yes, the bicycle is red.

Is the bicycle red? No, the bicycle is not red.

Did you eat your food? Yes, I ate my food.

Did you eat your food? No, I did not eat my food.

Is the zoo popular? Yes, the zoo is popular.

Is the zoo popular? No, the zoo is not popular.

Do you live in a city? Yes, I live in a city.

Do you live in a city? No, I do not live in a city.

Are the animals happy? Yes, the animals are happy.

Are the animals happy? No, the animals are not happy.

Do you enjoy fish? Yes, I enjoy fish.

Do you enjoy fish? No, I do not enjoy fish.

Is the car expensive? Yes, the car is expensive.

Is the car expensive? No, the car is not expensive.

Do you like fruit? Yes, I like fruit.

Do you like fruit? No, I do not like fruit.

Is the pencil sharp? Yes, the pencil is sharp.

Is the pencil sharp? No, the pencil is not sharp.

Have you finished your work? Yes, I have finished my work.

Have you finished your work? No, I have not finished my work.

Will he sharpen the pencil? Yes, he will sharpen the pencil.

Will he sharpen the pencil? No, he will not sharpen the pencil.

Do you want some money? Yes, I want some money.

Do you want some money? No, I do not want some money.

Is the company famous? Yes, the company is famous.

Is the company famous? No, the company is not famous.

Is the man thirsty? Yes, the man is thirsty.

Is the man thirsty? No, the man is not thirsty.

Do you love chocolate? Yes, I love chocolate.

Do you love chocolate? No, I do not love chocolate.

Is the boy good? Yes, the boy is good.

Is the boy good? No, the boy is not good.

Are the bananas ripe? Yes, the bananas are ripe.

Are the bananas ripe? No, the bananas are not ripe.

Well, there you go guys! As you can see these nouns are most common. They are everywhere and we use them every day, and every sentence has to have a noun. Well one of the and these are the most common so banana, work, chocolate, zoo, all of those things boy, man, the cat, the dog. All of those are common nouns, so keep practicing the questions and I will, when I do the transcript, I will underline the nouns in each question and answer so look at the transcript just to make sure and if you are confused about which word is the common noun. Ok, take care and I'll catch you in the next one, bye!