Chapter 6 · Book pages 19–21

🏷️ Nouns and Pronouns

Name tags for everything, and the helpful stand-in words that save us from repeating them.

By the end of this lesson, you can…

tell common, proper, collective, abstract and possessive nouns apart
choose the right noun in a sentence, including tricky plurals like buffaloes and pants
replace a noun with the correct pronoun (Swati → her, the girls → them)
pick between subject and object pronouns (they / them, he / him)
use reflexive (herself), demonstrative (this, these) and question pronouns (who, whom)

Start the story →Jump to quiz

Everything in Bramblewood has a name tag. Let's learn to read them, and to swap them for shortcuts! 🏷️

📖 Story time

The Great Name-Tag Muddle

The Bramblewood Fair was tomorrow. Ollie the Owl gave Hedgie a basket of blank name tags. "Label every stall, please!"

HedgieEasy! I wrote bramblewood on the big sign, Honey on Bizzy Bee's jar… and on the river stall I wrote a lot of fishes swimming.

🐢

Tara TortoiseSlowly, Hedgie. Rules first. Bramblewood is the name of one special place, so it is a proper noun. Proper nouns always wear a capital letter.

🦉

Ollie the OwlAnd honey is just the name of a kind of thing, a common noun. It doesn't need a capital in the middle of a sentence. For the fish, you can use one group word: a school of fish. That's a collective noun.

🦊

Fizz the FoxHa! Now label THIS jar, Hedgie. It's full of… courage! You can't see it, touch it or smell it.

HedgieHmm… courage is something you feel. So it's still a naming word, just an invisible one?

🦉

Ollie the OwlExactly! Words for feelings and ideas, like courage, kindness and patience, are abstract nouns.

HedgiePhew! Now I'll write the welcome note: "Nutty brought Nutty's nuts. Nutty said Nutty would share Nutty's nuts."

🐿️

Nutty SquirrelToo many Nutties! My head is spinning! 🐿️

🦉

Ollie the OwlUse pronouns, the stand-in words! "Nutty brought his nuts. He said he would share them." A pronoun takes the place of a noun so we don't repeat it.

By sunset every stall had the right tag, and Hedgie had learnt the two most useful word families in English.

💡 Big ideas

Let's learn it

Read each card, try the example sentences out loud (tap 🔊), then answer the Quick check.

🏷️Common and proper nouns

A noun is a naming word. It names a person, place, animal or thing.

A common noun is a general name for any one of a kind: father, market, city, river, poet.
A proper noun is the special name of one particular person, place or thing: Gaurav, Asia, Mumbai, the Ganga, Kalidasa. It always begins with a capital letter.

Common noun	Proper noun
continent	Asia
boy	Kabir
festival	Diwali
poet	Kalidasa
day	Monday

There is a big crowd in the market. market = any market → common noun
We went to Crawford Market in Mumbai. one particular market and city → proper nouns
Kalidasa wrote beautiful plays in Sanskrit. the name of one particular poet

Hedgie's trickAsk: "Is it a ___ or THE ONE called ___?" a city = common; Delhi = proper. If it could wear a capital letter in the middle of a sentence, it's proper!

Olympiad trap!Family words like father, mother, uncle are common nouns, even when they mean your own father. Only a name like Mr Sharma is proper.

🧐 Quick check

In “My cousin lives in Asia,” what kind of noun is Asia?

🐟Collective, abstract and possessive nouns

A collective noun names a group as one unit: a fleet of ships, a caravan of travellers, a herd of buffaloes, a ream of paper.
An abstract noun names a feeling, quality or idea, something you cannot see or touch: kindness, courage, patience, encouragement, childhood.
A possessive noun shows who owns something. Add 's: Gaurav's hometown, the farmer's crop.
A material noun names a substance things are made of: gold, wood, cotton, milk.

Collective noun	Group of…
fleet	ships
caravan	travellers / camels
herd	cattle, buffaloes
ream	paper (500 sheets)
bunch	grapes, keys, flowers
flock	sheep, birds

Her kindness was clear in everything she did. kind (adjective) → kindness (abstract noun)
It takes courage to speak on a big stage. brave (adjective) → courage / bravery (noun)
Her words of encouragement helped me. encourage (verb) → encouragement (noun)
Riya's bag is red. Riya's = belonging to Riya → possessive

Hedgie's trickNoun-maker endings turn other words into abstract nouns: -ness (kindness), -ment (encouragement), -tion (publication), -ship (friendship), -hood (childhood).

Olympiad trap!After words like her, his, a lot of, words of, scheduled for, you need a noun, not an adjective or verb. Her kind was evident ✗ → Her kindness was evident ✓.

Fun factA ream of paper has 500 sheets. That's a lot of Olympiad practice! 📄

🧐 Quick check

Pick the abstract noun: It took a lot of ______ to climb the tall tree.

🐃Plurals: one and many

Countable nouns change when there is more than one.

Most nouns add -s: key → keys, copy → copies (consonant + y → ies).
Some add -es: buffalo → buffaloes, potato → potatoes, box → boxes.
Some don't change at all: one deer, two deer; one sheep, many sheep.
Some are always plural because they come in two parts: pants, trousers, scissors, spectacles.

One	Many	Why
key	keys	vowel + y → just add s
copy	copies	consonant + y → ies
buffalo	buffaloes	-o → -oes
deer	deer	same form
(pair of) pants	pants	always plural

The buffaloes were grazing in the field. were tells you it is plural
He left his keys at home. not keies or key's
She wore blue pants. pants is always plural

Hedgie's trickLook at the verb for a clue! was → one; were → many. Then pick the plural noun.

Olympiad trap!An apostrophe ('s) shows owning, not many. keys = more than one key; key's = belonging to a key. Don't add an apostrophe just to make a plural!

🧐 Quick check

Which plural is spelt correctly?

🔁Personal pronouns: subject and object

A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun, so we don't keep repeating it. Personal pronouns change depending on their job in the sentence.

Subject pronouns do the action (before the verb).
Object pronouns receive the action (after the verb, or after words like to, of, with, at).

Subject (doer)	Object (receiver)
I	me
we	us
you	you
he	him
she	her
it	it
they	them

This bag belongs to Swati. → This bag belongs to her. after to → object pronoun
Why did Jack and Rosy not come? → Why did they not come? they are the doers → subject
I forgot my umbrella. → I forgot it. one thing → it
None of them came to the party. after of → them

Hedgie's trickCover the pronoun and ask: does it do the action or get it? Doer → I, we, he, she, they. Receiver → me, us, him, her, them.

Olympiad trap!Match the pronoun to the noun: one girl → her, many girls → them, one thing → it, many things → them. The girls is plural, so it's them, not her.

🧐 Quick check

Where are the biscuits? Did you eat ______?

🪞Reflexive, possessive, demonstrative and question pronouns

Reflexive pronouns end in -self / -selves. Use them when the doer does something to themselves: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves.
Possessive pronouns stand alone to show owning: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs.
Demonstrative pronouns point: this / that (one), these / those (many).
Question & joining pronouns: who (a person doing), whom (a person receiving), whose (owner), which (things).

Doer	Reflexive
Liana (she)	herself
Rajat (he)	himself
I	myself
they	themselves

Liana looked at herself in the mirror. Liana is a girl → herself
This is the dress she wore at the party. one dress, pointing → this
The girl who fell off the bike is fine now. who for people
Whom do you want to speak to? you speak to someone → receiver → whom

Hedgie's trickwho = he, whom = him (both have an M!). If you can answer with him, use whom: Speak to whom? → Speak to him.

Olympiad trap!Never say hisself or theirselves. The right words are himself and themselves. And use who for people, which for things.

🧐 Quick check

Kabir hurt ______ while climbing the tree.

🗺️ Mind map

The whole chapter on one page

Tap a branch to focus on it. Can you explain each bubble to someone at home?

🃏 Flashcards

Flip & remember

Say the answer in your head before you flip. Be honest — "not yet" cards go to your Review Burrow for later.

📘 Book mission

Now practise in your workbook

Use a pencil. Do each set, then check with the answer key and tick it off here.

Set A · Book p.19 · Q1–5

Type of the underlined noun. Ask: one special name (proper), any one of a kind (common), a group (collective), owning ('s)?

Set B · Book p.19–20 · Q6–15

Choose the correct noun. Check the verb (was/were) for plural clues, and use an abstract noun after her or a lot of.

Set C · Book p.20 · Q16–25

Choose the correct pronoun. Decide: one or many? doer or receiver? does it point back to the doer (-self)?

Set D · Book p.21 · Q26–30

Replace the underlined noun. Say the new sentence out loud to check it sounds right.

Achievers (HOTS) · Book p.21 · Q31–35

Mixed nouns and pronouns. Look for noun endings like -ment and -tion. Each is worth 2 marks!

📗 Open the answer key

🎁 Wrap-up

Remember these

A noun is a naming word. Proper nouns name one special thing and need a capital; common nouns are general names.
Collective nouns name groups (fleet, caravan, ream); abstract nouns name feelings and ideas (kindness, courage); 's makes a possessive noun.
Plurals: keys, copies, buffaloes, but deer stays the same and pants is always plural. An apostrophe never makes a plural.
A pronoun replaces a noun. Doers: I, we, he, she, they. Receivers: me, us, him, her, them.
-self words point back to the doer (herself, himself); this/these point; who = doer, whom = receiver.

🦔 Teach Hedgie!

Hedgie wrote: “Meera lost Meera's pencil, so Meera asked Dev to help Meera find the pencil.” Rewrite it for him using pronouns, then explain why you chose each one.

Explaining something in your own words is the best way to make it stick.

How do you feel about this chapter?

Take the quiz 🧭

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