A Review for ENGL 0310

Parts of Speech In English, there are only eight parts of speech. That means that every sentence you read—and write—is composed of only eight categories of words.

Parts of Speech Verbs Nouns Pronouns Adjectives Adverbs Prepositions Conjunctions Interjections

Verbs & Nouns Verbs report action or state of being. Noun name people, places, things and ideas. These are the basic building blocks of sentences. No sentence can stand alone without at least one of each.

Pronouns Pronouns take the place of nouns. Note: Pronouns are very useful, but they must have a noun to which they obviously refer, either in a previous sentence or earlier in the same sentence.

Adjectives & Adverbs Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns by answering questions like Which one? What kind? How many? What size? What condition? Adverbs modify verbs, other adverbs, adjectives and whole clauses. They usually answer such questions as When? Where? How? How often? How much? To what degree? and Why?

Prepositions Prepositions usually appear as part of a prepositional phrase. Their main function is to allow the noun or pronoun in the phrase to modify another word in the sentence.

Conjunctions Conjunctions join words, phrases or clauses and indicate their relation to each other

Interjections Interjections are forceful expressions, usually written with an exclamation point. (examples: Yo! Damn! Gadzooks! Eureka! Oh no!) Note: In formal writing (like the writing you do in college), use interjections (and exclamation points, for that matter) very sparingly. In fact, if you manage to make it through the semester without using either of them, I will not be heartbroken.

Verbs

Verbs report action (run, write) condition (bloom, sit) state of being (be, seem)

Verbs Verbs change form to indicate Person Number Tense Voice Mood

Verbs To do all this a main verb is sometimes accompanied by one or more helping verbs, thereby becoming a verb phrase. Helping verbs come before the main verb of a phrase.

Verbs Examples: The play begins at eight. I may change seats after the play has begun.