Nouns and verbs

What is this skill?

First graders learn that words come in kinds. A noun is a naming word, for a person, place or thing. A verb is an action word, telling what someone or something does. In "The frog hops," frog is the noun and hops is the verb. Once children can find the two, they can see how a sentence works: someone, and what they do.

The practice mixes single words and whole sentences. At first a child picks the noun or the verb from three words (dog, hop, run), and sorts short lists into nouns and verbs (cat, run, ball, jump). Then comes the sentence: find the verb in "The frog hops," find the noun in "Maya sings loudly," or find the word that tells what the bird does in "The bird flies high." The hardest sentences are longer, such as "Jamal ate a big sandwich" and "They quickly climbed the tall tree," where a child has to ignore describing words. There are also yes/no cards that ask whether a single word like bike, wash or shout is a noun or a verb, and a sort with harder words such as whisper, mountain, carry, doctor, build and garden.

Why it matters

Finding the verb is the key to a complete sentence. Later grades ask children to fix sentences that are missing something, and the quickest check is whether there is a word for what someone does. A child who can find the verb in a sentence can also spot when one is missing.

It also builds vocabulary for writing. A first grader who learns that "ate" and "climbed" are verbs starts to see that they can choose stronger ones, like whisper or build, instead of "did" or "made." Grammar words stop being a list to memorize when a child uses them to improve their own sentence.

Common mistakes

• Picking the describing word or the extra detail instead of the verb. In "Jamal ate a big sandwich," big and sandwich sit beside the verb. Ask, "What did Jamal do?" and the answer is the verb.
• Getting stuck on a word that can work both ways. English has many: a wash and to wash, a bike and to bike. This practice treats bike as a thing and wash as an action. If your child objects, talk it through: "a bike" names something, and "I wash" does something.
• Thinking every word before the verb is the noun. In "They quickly climbed the tall tree," quickly comes before the verb but is neither one. Look for the person or thing the sentence is about.
• Treating verbs as only big movements. Sleep, sing and write are verbs too, even though a child sits still to do some of them.

How to help at home

• Play charades with verbs. One person acts out a word, the other guesses it, and you call it an action word.
• Look at a family photo and ask your child to name what they can see (nouns), then what everybody is doing (verbs).
• Write a short sentence on a card, then underline the noun in one color and the verb in another.
• Ask, "Who or what is this about, and what are they doing?" as you read. Those two questions are the same ones the practice asks.

Worked examples

These are real questions from the Tutorsaurus nouns and verbs practice, with the answers worked out.

1. Example 1

   Which word is a verb?

   Choices: 🎩 hat, 🤸 jump, ☕ cup

   Answer: jump. Jump is the verb. You can jump! Hat and cup are things, so they are nouns.

2. Example 2

   Put each word with its group.

   To sort: 💃 dance, 🍎 apple, 🦵 kick, 🧑‍⚕️ nurse, 🧗 climb, 🦁 zoo

   Answer: Nouns: apple, nurse, zoo · Verbs: dance, kick, climb. Apple, nurse, and zoo are nouns. Dance, kick, and climb are verbs.

3. Example 3

   Decide: noun or verb?

   shout

   Answer: Verb. Shout is a verb. To shout is to talk very loudly. It is an action.

Printable worksheet (PDF) — one page of questions from this practice that work on paper, easier ones first, with an answer key on page 2. Free to print, no sign-up.