"Confused novice here AGAIN" wrote:
in Colum A row 4 I have the word John or Fred or what ever and i want in
colum b to have a function that tells me A4 is John or fred or whatever i
have there.

If you simply want to copy A4, then in a cell in column B:

=A4

But if you want to test the contents of A4, then in a cell in column B:

a. If you simply want to test for one name, for example Fred:

=if(A4="Fred",true,false)

or simply:

=A4="Fred"

b. If you want to test for any one of a set of names, then:

=if(or(A4={"Fred","John","whatever"}),true,false)

or:

=or(A4={"Fred","John","whatever"})