Understanding Nouns and Pronouns
Nouns.
The word comes from the Latin word nomen, which means "name."
It entered English through Old French as nom before evolving into the Middle English term noun. In its Latin root, nomen refers to any name or designation, which fits perfectly with what a noun does — name a person, place, thing, or idea.
Nouns are the cornerstone in the structure of a sentence; every sentence must have a noun. Every sentence needs a noun (or something that acts like one) because nouns provide the "who" or "what" the sentence is about. Without a noun, there's no subject or object to anchor the action or description — essentially, there’s nothing for the verb to "happen" to.
Types of Nouns
Common Nouns are your everyday, general nouns that refer to people, places, things, or ideas. They aren’t specific or capitalized. Examples: dog, city, book.
Proper Nouns are always capitalized and refer to specific names of people, places, or things. Examples: Fido, New York City, The Great Gatsby.
Concrete Nouns are things you can see, touch, smell, hear, or taste — anything physical. Examples: apple, ocean, music.
Abstract Nouns refer to intangible things — concepts, emotions, or ideas you can’t physically interact with. Examples: love, freedom, anger.
Collective Nouns are nouns representing a group of individuals or things. Even though they refer to multiple things, they’re treated as singular. Examples: team, herd, flock.
Countable Nouns are nouns you can count. They can be singular or plural. Examples: cat/cats, pen/pens.
Uncountable Nouns: These nouns refer to things that can’t be easily counted. You often treat them as singular. Examples: water, sand, information.
The Weight of a Noun
The more specific the noun, the more weight it carries. With more weight, the more convincing it is, adding credibility to the writer’s voice. What word is more attractive and interesting?
Mountain | Cliff
Fish | Trout
Wind | Breeze
Plant | Japanese Maple
Woods | Evergreens
Frequent use of generic terms rarely inspire. They may suffice by simply conveying a broad idea but aren’t good at conveying strong, mental pictures.
Here’s a generic sentence:
The man drove the car to the place.
Now, let’s rewrite it with stronger, more specific nouns:
The firefighter raced the SUV to the fire station.
And finally, even more specific.
The firefighter raced down Broadway in a Ford Explorer to the fire station.
The more specific the noun adds clarity and weight and paints a more vivid image. The reader can now picture exactly what’s happening. The more precise the nouns, the more your writing feels grounded, authentic, and engaging. That’s its weight.
Excessive Use of Nouns
Naturally, we could go overboard.
The firefighter in the bright red Ford Explorer with the oversized tires sped past the brick fire station near the crowded intersection on Broadway to the three-story warehouse engulfed in flames.
Yeah, too much — too much! Here, I’ve created a sentence overloaded with nouns. An excessive amount makes the reader slog through a verbal bog. Instead of specifics adding clarity, the excessive use of nouns creates an overflow of information akin to stuffing my mouth with three donuts at a time.
Let’s dig deeper. Here’s that list of generic nouns drilling down into very specific nouns.
Mountain | Cliff | Buttes
Fish | Trout | Brook Trout
Wind | Breeze | Gale
Plant | Japanese Maple | Sango-Kaku (a Coral Black Japanese Maple)
Woods | Evergreens | Norway Spruce
As a reader, I like specifics. Specifics lend more weight to the author’s voice.
Rex Thorne spurred his Mustang, urging her to race faster to the edge of the butte.
With specific words, I can paint a more vivid picture. But look at this:
Timmy cast his net into the Battle Ground Lake to catch some Brook Trout for dinner.
Hmm. A couple of issues here:
Do Brook Trouts live in lakes?
If Battle Ground Lake’s real (It is!), do Brook Trouts live there?
Are nets commonly used to catch Brook Trout?
If my story is either 1PL or 3PL from Timmy’s perspective, is he smart / wise enough to distinguish a Brook Trout from, say, a Rainbow Trout?
There’s a balance, isn’t there? To be credible, the author must select nouns appropriate for the setting and the character’s lens through which we experience the story.
Finding the Right Noun
Well, that’s our job as authors. We should look for the most specific nouns we can use in our sentences to add credibility and increase reader satisfaction. Unlike political figures, we can’t create facts willy-nilly. We must research! But we must also be faithful to the character and try to perceive the world through their lived experience.
Using Pronouns
Pronouns are words we use in place of a noun. Common pronouns include he, she, it, they, we, and you.
They’re shortcuts. Pronouns are more accessible, less formal references to the noun we’re talking about. They also serve as tools to reduce repitition. For example, instead of saying:
Sarah went to the store because Sarah needed milk.
You can say:
Sarah went to the store because she needed milk.
The pronoun she replaces Sarah in the second part of the sentence, making it flow better. It’s less … chunky … in the mouth, isn’t it?
There are different types of pronouns, like:
Personal Pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they (referring to people or things)
Possessive Pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs (showing ownership)
Reflexive Pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves (used when the subject and object of the verb are the same)
Demonstrative Pronouns: this, that, these, those (pointing to specific things)
Pronouns are great because they shorten sentences and make prose easier to read.
Abusing Pronouns
It happens all the time. The writer gets so caught up in their story that they constantly refer to their character as a pronoun rather than a name. It happens. The trick is to spot excessive degrees of pronouns and substitute an actual name to help balance out the read.
However, mechanical problems with pronouns occur frequently. Here’s an example:
Sarah told Emily that she needed to leave.
In this sentence, it's unclear who she refers to — does she mean Sarah or Emily? The reader has to guess, which can lead to confusion. This is an example of an unclear antecedent. An unclear antecedent happens when it's unclear which noun a pronoun refers to. The antecedent is the noun that a pronoun replaces, and when the connection between the two is ambiguous, it can confuse the reader.
Here’s a corrected, pretty version:
Sarah told Emily that Emily needed to leave.
And here’s a corrected, ugly version:
Sarah told Emily that she, Sarah, needed to leave.
Yuk! It’s technically correct, but it leaves a pasty sense on the tongue, right? The problem of unclear antecedent happens so frequently — so frequently — it is the number one mechanical issue I gripe about when editing or proofing someone’s draft.
Conclusion
So there you have it. Nouns. Simple things, yet kind of complicated.
Over time, writers will develop an artistic flair, using specific nouns to create a story's mood, tone, or atmosphere. Further, over time, writers will lean on specific nouns as a crutch, often (unconsciously) repeating the same detail in different works. And, over even more time, authors start to catch themselves in their repetitive noun choices, perform more research, and make adjustments. Watch for these subtle behaviors in your own writing.
R
