a person, place, or thing Examples: waiter, hostess, college, teacher, water, football A proper noun is a specific name Examples: Charles Darwin, Science Magazine, Michigan Stadium, World War II A noun phrase consists of a noun and its articles, possessives, descriptors, modifiers, etc. Examples: a computer network, heavy metal music, my mom, cup of sugar A pronoun takes the place of a noun and should only be used when the antecedent – the noun that the pronoun represents -- is clear. [After you introduce Charles Darwin in an essay, for example, you may, if the meaning is clear, refer to Darwin as “him” later in the sentence or in the following sentence.] Examples: I, you, he, she, it, one (as in “one” may believe…), we, you, they, me, him, her, us, them, my, your, his, its, our, their, somebody, anybody, everybody, nobody, something, anything, everything, nothing, someone, anyone, everyone, no one, who, whom This, that, these, those, and there (sometimes) are demonstratives, and, like other pronouns, refer to previous information. For more on pronouns, see Editing Bugaboos workshop.