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Grammify

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Word Classes

Nouns & Pronouns

The words that name things and the words that stand in for them: three coarse categories — NOUN, PROPN, PRON — and the nine fine-grained Penn tags that go with them. A fine tag adds what the coarse label leaves out: singular or plural for a noun, and the kind of pronoun for a pronoun.

What you’ll learn

  • Tell a common noun from a proper noun on both scales
  • Choose between NN and NNS, and between NNP and NNPS
  • Tell apart the five pronoun tags: PRP, PRP$, WP, WP$ and EX
  • Predict the parser's surprising tags, such as everyone (PRON but NN) and whose (DET)
  • Correct six noun and pronoun mistakes that Spanish speakers often make

How this reference is laid out

Each page of this reference takes a few coarse categories and, under each one, gives the fine tags the parser pairs with it. That is the order of the drills: the POS exercise asks for the coarse category first, and the Tags exercise then asks for the fine tag.

Every example on these pages was run through Grammify’s parser, and the chips show exactly what it returned. The ringed word is the one the entry is about. When the parser does something surprising, the entry says so, because the Practice Lab grades your answers with the same parser.

Three categories, nine tags

NOUN Noun

A word that names a person, place, thing, substance or idea — kettle, stove, courage. A noun does not have to name something you can touch: practice is as much a noun as kettle. What makes a word a noun is the job it does. Three tests:

  • It can be the subject of a verb: Courage grows.
  • It can be the object of a verb or a preposition: on the stove.
  • It can take a determiner in front of it: the kettle, some courage.

How the parser decides: mostly from the word’s neighbours. A word after the, a or an adjective, and before a verb or at the end of a prepositional phrase, is a noun. Capitalisation pushes a word towards PROPN instead; a pronoun-like spelling pushes it towards PRON.

The (DET)kettle (NOUN, ringed)whistled (VERB)on (ADP)the (DET)stove (NOUN, ringed).

Courage (NOUN, ringed)grows (VERB)with (ADP)practice (NOUN, ringed).

NN Noun, singular or mass

A common noun that is either singular (lighthouse, ship) or mass — uncountable, with no plural in ordinary use (happiness, sand, flour). The two are one tag because the grammar treats them alike: both take a singular verb and neither takes a plural ending.

How the parser decides: the word does not end in a plural marker and is not capitalised as a name. It is the tag you will meet most often in the drills.

The (DT)lighthouse (NN, ringed)guides (VBZ)every (DT)ship (NN, ringed)home (NN, ringed).

Happiness (NN, ringed)is (VBZ)hard (JJ)to (TO)measure (VB).

NNS Noun, plural

A common noun that is plural. Plurals ending in -s or -es (hills, boxes, wolves) and irregular plurals (mice, children) all take the same tag. The tag records the number, not how the plural was formed.

How the parser decides: the ending, checked against what it knows about the word. That is why a plural that also spells a verb form can go wrong — see the warning under VBZ on Verbs & Auxiliaries.

Wolves (NNS, ringed)howled (VBD)at (IN)the (DT)distant (JJ)hills (NNS, ringed).

Two (CD)mice (NNS, ringed)hid (VBD)behind (IN)the (DT)boxes (NNS, ringed).

PROPN Proper noun

A name for one particular person, place, organisation or time — Marisol, Nairobi, March. A proper noun refers directly rather than describing: city tells you what kind of thing something is, Nairobi tells you which one. In English they are capitalised, and that capital letter is the parser’s strongest clue.

How the parser decides: capitalisation away from the start of a sentence, plus whether it has seen the word used as a name. Months and days are proper nouns here; the plural Tuesdays, though, drops to NOUN/NNS — see the second NNP example.

Marisol (PROPN, ringed)flew (VERB)to (ADP)Nairobi (PROPN, ringed)in (ADP)March (PROPN, ringed).

A day of the week is a name too:

Marta (PROPN)flew (VERB)to (ADP)Lima (PROPN)on (ADP)Tuesday (PROPN, ringed).

NNP Proper noun, singular

A singular proper noun. Titles and their abbreviations count too: Dr. is an NNP in its own right, sitting beside the name it introduces rather than fusing with it.

How the parser decides: a capitalised word, unless it is an ordinary word that has a capital only because it starts the sentence. Even a name the parser has never seen, such as an invented surname, usually gets NNP.

Clara (NNP, ringed)moved (VBD)to (IN)Toronto (NNP, ringed)last (JJ)spring (NN).

Dr. (NNP, ringed)Okafor (NNP, ringed)teaches (VBZ)on (IN)Tuesdays (NNS).

NNPS Proper noun, plural

A plural proper noun — a people, a family, a band: the Romans, the Smiths. It is the rarest of the four noun tags, so the Tags exercise almost never offers it.

How the parser decides: a capitalised word ending in -s that it reads as a group. The ending alone does not decide it: some plural-looking names come back NNP, as the note below explains.

The (DT)Romans (NNPS, ringed)built (VBD)long (JJ)straight (JJ)roads (NNS).

The (DT)Smiths (NNPS, ringed)moved (VBD)next (JJ)door (NN)in (IN)June (NNP).

The (DT)Alps (NNP, ringed)divide (VBP)Italy (NNP)from (IN)Switzerland (NNP).

PRON Pronoun

A word that takes the place of a noun phrase — she, it, them, everyone, who. Most pronouns point back to someone or something already mentioned; in a question, who and what ask about someone or something unknown. Because a pronoun replaces a whole noun phrase, it normally takes no determiner: you cannot say the she. On the coarse scale this is one category; on the fine scale it splits five ways, by what kind of pronoun it is.

How the parser decides: pronouns are a closed set (a short list that does not take new words), so the parser mostly looks the word up. The interesting cases are the indefinite pronouns — everyone, something, nobody — which the coarse scale files as PRON while the fine scale gives them a plain NN. Both are right: one scale is describing the job, the other the form.

Every word in PRON: open the full list
  • Personal (PRP): I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, they, them, one, the informal ’em (them), and the ’s of Let’s (us)
  • Reflexive (PRP): myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves
  • Possessive, before a noun (PRP$): my, your, his, her, its, our, their
  • Possessive, standing alone (PRP): mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs
  • Demonstrative, standing alone (DT): this, that, these, those (That worked.)
  • Quantity words, standing alone (DT): all, both, some, any, each, either, neither, another (Both arrived late.)
  • Indefinite (NN): everyone, everybody, everything, someone, somebody, something, anyone, anybody, anything, nobody, nothing, none
  • Wh-pronouns (WP): who, whom, what, whoever, whomever, whatever; and which or that standing for a noun, in a relative clause or a question (WDT)
  • Existential there (EX)
  • Not PRON: whose is DET. Many, few and several standing alone are adjectives (ADJ): Many came.

She (PRON, ringed)handed (VERB)it (PRON, ringed)to (ADP)them (PRON, ringed)without (ADP)a (DET)word (NOUN).

Everyone (PRON, ringed)brought (VERB)something (PRON, ringed)to (PART)share (VERB).

PRP Personal pronoun

A personal pronoun in any form: subject forms (they, we, I), object forms (us, them, me), and the reflexives (herself, themselves). The tag does not say whether the word is a subject or an object; the dependency label does, by making it nsubj or dobj.

How the parser decides: a closed list. Possessives that stand alone, with no noun after them, are PRP too: I prefer yours, The red car is hers. Only a possessive with its noun after it is PRP$.

Every word tagged PRP

  • I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, they, them, one, and the informal ’em (them)
  • Reflexives: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves
  • Possessives standing alone: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs
  • The ’s of Let’s, which stands for us
  • Not PRP: a possessive before a noun (her brother) is PRP$, and everyone, nothing and the other indefinite pronouns are NN.

They (PRP, ringed)invited (VBD)us (PRP, ringed),and (CC)we (PRP, ringed)accepted (VBD).

She (PRP)taught (VBD)herself (PRP, ringed)to (TO)juggle (VB).

The ’s of Let’s looks like a possessive, but it is the pronoun us, the subject of go:

Let (VB)'s (PRP, ringed)go (VB).

PRP$ Possessive pronoun

A possessive pronoun used before a noun — her brother, his keys, our neighbours, their fence. Many grammars call these possessive determiners, and in a Reed-Kellogg diagram they sit on a slant under the noun exactly like the does. The parser keeps them in the pronoun family on both scales: PRON coarse, PRP$ fine.

How the parser decides: a closed list — my, your, his, her, its, our, their. Note that his and her can also be plain PRP (I saw her), and only the position before a noun tells the two apart.

Every word tagged PRP$

  • my, your, his, her, its, our, their, always with a noun after them
  • Not PRP$: a possessive standing alone (mine, yours, hers) is PRP; whose is WP$; and it’s (it is) is two words, PRP and a verb.

Her (PRP$, ringed)brother (NN)lost (VBD)his (PRP$, ringed)keys (NNS)again (RB).

Our (PRP$, ringed)neighbours (NNS)painted (VBD)their (PRP$, ringed)fence (NN)green (JJ).

WP Wh-pronoun

A wh-pronoun: who, whom, what, and the -ever forms. It either asks a question (Who left these boots?) or introduces a relative clause (the pig, who was little wiser, in the practice sentence below). Same tag both ways: the fine scale does not separate questions from relative clauses.

How the parser decides: the word is one of the wh-pronouns and is doing a noun’s job. When what introduces a noun instead (what time) it becomes WDT, on Determiners & Function Words. So is which, in every use, even standing alone: Which do you want?

Every word tagged WP

  • who, whom, what, whoever, whomever, whatever
  • Not WP: which, the relative that, and what or whatever before a noun are WDT; whose is WP$.

Who (WP, ringed)left (VBD)these (DT)muddy (JJ)boots (NNS)here (RB)?

Tell (VB)me (PRP)whom (WP, ringed)you (PRP)met (VBD)at (IN)the (DT)fair (NN).

Whoever (WP, ringed)wins (VBZ)gets (VBZ)a (DT)prize (NN).

WP$ Possessive wh-pronoun

The possessive wh-pronoun, and there is only one: whose. It does for a question or a relative clause what PRP$ does for a statement — whose dog is built like her dog.

How the parser decides: the spelling. Before the POS exercise, note that whose is DET on the coarse scale, not PRON: the parser treats its possessive job as a determiner’s job. It does not do this for her and their, which stay PRON.

Every word tagged WP$

  • whose, and nothing else. Its dependency label is poss, like her in her dog.

The (DT)neighbour (NN)whose (WP$, ringed)dog (NN)escaped (VBD)apologised (VBD).

Whose (WP$, ringed)scarf (NN)is (VBZ)this (DT)?

EX Existential there

Existential there — the placeholder subject of there is and there were. It fills the subject slot without referring to anything: the sentence is not about a place, it is announcing that something exists. Contrast the adverb there in put it there, which is RB and points at a location.

How the parser decides: there directly before a form of be. Two things follow that the drills will test you on. On the coarse scale this there is PRON. And the be after it is the main verb of the sentence — VERB, not AUX — because nothing else is there for it to help. In the dependency tree it carries the label expl.

Every word tagged EX

  • there, and nothing else.
  • Not EX: the there that names a place (put it there) is an adverb, RB.

There (EX, ringed)were (VBD)three (CD)eggs (NNS)left (VBN)in (IN)the (DT)carton (NN).

There (EX, ringed)is (VBZ)a (DT)spider (NN)in (IN)the (DT)bath (NN).

Common mistakes with nouns and pronouns

Spanish and English treat nouns and pronouns differently in a few places, and these six mistakes come from those differences. The parser will not catch them: it tags whatever you write, and it gives the wrong plural advices the tag NNS. A tag is not a grammar check.

  • Mass nouns have no plural. Words like information, advice, furniture and homework are NN and take a singular verb: The information was useful, not The informations were useful. News is NN too, despite its -s.
  • People is plural. Spanish la gente takes a singular verb, but people is NNS: People are friendly here, not People is friendly.
  • Days and months take a capital letter. Spanish writes lunes and marzo; English writes Monday and March, and both are NNP.
  • Keep the subject pronoun. Spanish can drop the subject (Es tarde); an English statement needs one: It is late, with It as a PRP subject.
  • His or her: look at the owner. Spanish su can mean his, her, its, their or your. English chooses the word by the owner, not by the thing owned: Laura called her brother, Diego called his sister. With parts of the body, English uses the possessive, not the: I washed my hands.
  • Hay is there is or there are. English needs the placeholder there (EX) before the verb. The real subject comes after be, and be agrees with it: There are many parks in my city (subject: many parks), not There is many parks or In my city have many parks.

Quick check

  1. Give the fine tag of each noun in Ana bought three loaves of bread on Friday.
    Answer
    Ana and Friday are NNP: both are singular names, and a day of the week counts as a name. Loaves is NNS: it is plural, even though the singular loaf changes its f to v. The tag records the number, not the spelling. Bread is NN: a mass noun has no plural, so it takes the singular tag.
  2. What is the fine tag of her in each sentence, and why are they different? We thanked her. We thanked her parents.
    Answer
    PRP in the first, PRP$ in the second. Alone after the verb, her is a personal pronoun: the object of thanked. Before a noun, it tells whose parents they are, so it is a possessive pronoun. Only the position before a noun tells the two apart.
  3. Give the coarse category and the fine tag of the first word in each sentence. Somebody took my seat. Whose turn is it?
    Answer
    Somebody is PRON on the coarse scale but NN on the fine one. It is an indefinite pronoun, and the Penn tags give words like somebody the noun tag NN. Whose is WP$ on the fine scale but DET on the coarse one: the parser treats its possessive job as a determiner’s job. Each time, the two scales say different things, and both are right.
  4. A classmate writes: In my school have two libraries, and the people is very helpful. Correct the two mistakes.
    Answer
    There are two libraries in my school, and the people are very helpful. Where Spanish uses hay, English needs the placeholder there (EX) before the verb, and are agrees with the real subject, libraries. People is plural (NNS), so it takes are, not is. For more on hay and there, see existential there in a diagram (also called the expletive there).

Key terms

Common noun
A noun that names a kind of thing rather than one particular thing — river, courage. NN when singular or mass, NNS when plural. The river flooded. Courage matters.
Proper noun
A name. Capitalised in English, and the capital is the parser’s main clue. NNP singular, NNPS plural. Marta flies for Avianca. The Alps were snowy.
Mass noun
An uncountable noun — sand, happiness. Tagged NN like a singular, because it behaves like one. Sand filled her shoes. She wished us happiness.
Personal pronoun
I, you, he, she, it, we, they and their object and reflexive forms. All PRP; the dependency label, not the tag, shows whether one is a subject or an object. She called him. We found it ourselves.
Indefinite pronoun
A pronoun that does not point to a particular person or thing — everyone, something, nobody. Words like these are PRON on the coarse scale but NN on the fine one. Nobody noticed the mistake. She heard something outside.
Wh-pronoun
A pronoun that begins with wh-: who, whom and what when no noun follows it (all WP), which (WDT), and whose (WP$, but DET on the coarse scale). It asks a question or opens a relative clause. Who borrowed my umbrella? The singer whose voice we heard is from Cali.

See: Adjective Clauses

Existential there
The there of there is. A placeholder subject, tagged EX, with PRON as its coarse category. There is a map on the wall. There were four questions on the test.

See: Function Word Relations

Practice on a real sentence

This sentence carries four of the tags above at once — NN, NNS, PRP$ and a relative WP. Try the coarse drill first: every his is a PRON, and who is one too. (Little wiser means “not much wiser”, so little is an adverb here: ADV.)

Loading the practice sentence…