[Grammar] Noun in questions

[The apprentice]

​Dear teachers and members:


I have been told by a teacher that a noun is needed for a verb, otherwise it is a question.

A noun is a part of speech denoting a person, place, thing, animal or idea. A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun, and I definitely know that a noun is needed for a verb, but my questions are as follows:

Do some of these questions and sentences have no noun?, for example:

1°) Give me that.

2°) He gave me this.

3°) What does that mean?

4°) Who gave you this?

a) In the above examples, that and this are pronouns (demostrative). It is taking the place of a noun, so I think it is like a noun by itself; it is referring to a thing by itself: (I = '' Give me that ''; II = '' what? ''; III = '' the hammer '').

b) These demostrative pronouns may be followed by nouns, thus becoming or changing into determiners, for example:

1°) Give me that (hammer).

2°) He gave me this (diamond ring).

3°) What does that (word) mean?

4°) Who gave you this (order)?

c) Can a question really need no noun or pronoun?

Please, I need your assistance and explanation in this confusion I have, I would also like examples about it.

Yours Truly,


The Apprentice

 

[5jj]

I have been told by a teacher that a noun is needed for a verb, otherwise it is a question.

I don't know what your teacher means by 'a noun is needed for a verb'. Imperative verbs do not normally have an explicit subject, and intransitive verbs don't have an object.

 

[Tdol]

I guess your teacher means a subject, but that can also be a pronoun, and as 5jj said imperatives don't normally state the subject.

 

[The apprentice]

Dear 5jj: Thank you for aswering.

a) It seems to me that You is the implicit subject of a verb in the imperative.

b) Subject names what a sentence is about, it is the naming part of a sentence or a clause. In my opinion it is also a noun.

c) I have noticed that a subject is usually a noun, though a noun other than a subject may be a direct objects, an indirect objects or takes another function in a same sentence, for intance:

1 - The Boy is intelligent. (noun)

2 - New York is my kind of town. (noun)

3 - The woman dressed in red at the end of the row is my sister. (Noun phrase)

4 - Whoever ate my food is in trouble. (noun clause)

5 - You have been robbed (pronoun; a substitution for a noun)

6 - Go and get it. (It has You as an implicit pronoun)

7 - Jhon plays baseball (noun as subject and object)

8 - Jhon played baseball with me. (noun as subject, object and indirect object)

5jj your reply is always very intrustive and appreciated by me, please help me in this confusion.

Respecfully,


The Apprentice.

 

[The apprentice]

Thank you Tdol for your reply.


So what do you think about the sentences and questions I made and what I just wrote to 5jj?

Regards,


The Apprentice.

 

[tzfujimino]

c) I have noticed that subjects are usually nouns, for instance [...]

5jj your reply is always very intrustive and appreciated by me, please help in this confusion. (I think you meant 'instructive'.)

I've found tiny typos.
:-D

 

[The apprentice]

Thank you Tzfujimino for your corrections.

It were spelling mistakes.

Regards,

The Apprentice.

 

[emsr2d2]

Thank you, Tzfujimino, for your corrections.

[strike]It[/strike] They were spelling mistakes.

[strike]Regards,[/strike]

[strike]The Apprentice.[/strike]

Please see my corrections above in red. Note that there is no need to use such a large font and you only need to do one line break between lines. You can save yourself some time at the end too. You don't need to use "Regards" or your username. We know who posted it - it's at the top of the post.

 

[The apprentice]

Thanks a lot Emsr2d2, for that correction.

It was a big grammar error.

 

[MikeNewYork]

8 - Jhon played baseball with me. (noun as subject, object and indirect object)

In number 8, nouns are subject and object. "Me" is a pronoun and is the object of a preposition.

 

[The apprentice]

Thank you MikeNewYork:

You are right, me is the object of the preposition with.

Finally, according what a teacher told me '' you need a noun for verb, otherwise it is a question ''. In this site I have been told that it is not a noun you need for verb, it is a subject - I totally agree -, but in my concept I think a subject is usually a noun. that's my confusion!

Your reply will be appreciated.

 

[Barb_D]

Finally, according what a teacher told me '' you need a noun for verb, otherwise it is a question ''. In this site I have been told that it is not a noun you need for verb, it is a subject - I totally agree -, but in my concept I think a subject is usually a noun. that's my confusion!

None of us (I think) understand what you mean by "you need a noun for verb, otherwise it is a question."

A question requries a subject and a verb as well, if it's a full sentence. (Of course, we can also say things like "Where?" or "Now?" to ask questions and neither of those have either subjects or verbs - they are implied by the context.)

A sentence requires a grammatical subject. That can be a simple noun, a pronoun, a noun phrase, an entire clause, or even other types of phrases.

I don't believe that a simple noun is the most common grammatical subject.

 

[The apprentice]

Dear teachers and members:

I apologize and I am sorry, but my first sentences at the beginning of this thread are out of context. I confused noun with subject or noun subject.