EVERY THING

When they declared that a noun is either a person, place, or thing, they were being unfair to animals. After all, animals are animate, just like humans, whereas places and things are inanimate. On that note, we arrive at the concept of animate nouns.

An animate noun is a sentient noun, which could only really be a person, animal, or fictional creature.

Do you follow so far? Okay, which of the following 10 nouns are animate nouns?

sports

kitten

Peru

elephantiasis

elephants

Bob

Canadians

grandma

teddy bear

the Senate

Answer: kitten, elephants, Bob, Canadians, and grandma are all animate nouns.

Practice exercise - finding animate nouns

How many animate nouns can you count in each consecutive sentence of the following paragraph?

Ana, who writes political essays for her college, travelled to Maryland last month to attend a political conference of one of the two major parties. She spoke with political figures, pundits, and other students to get their input on who would be the best way..