Grammar 8 parts of speech

1. Noun Person, place, thing or idea Proper or common Abstract or concrete Collective

Proper & common nouns Ann, Montana, Sears Tower Proper nouns name particular people, places, or things. These are capitalized Ann, Montana, Sears Tower

Common nouns are not capitalized woman, street, building

Pronoun Used in place of a noun or more than one noun Be careful to avoid unreferenced or ambiguous pronouns

It was a beautiful day. Jenny was arguing with Paula, and she looked unhappy.

Adjective Used to modify a noun or pronoun What kind Which one How many

Adjectives need not precede the modified word The rat, large and ugly, sat gazing at the corn field.

Adjectives that modify the subject of the sentence may follow the verb (called a predicate adjective). These only occur with being/linking verbs. Bethany is homely. This is called a predicate adjective

The most commonly used adjectives are a, an, and the The most commonly used adjectives are a, an, and the. They are often called articles.

Verb A word that expresses action or state of being Action verbs that take an object are called transitive verbs The rain lashed the windows. An intransitive verb takes no object The rain fell.

Linking or being verbs suggest a state or condition Being verbs – is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been (others) Linking verbs – appear, become, feel, grow, look, remain, seem (others) Mildred looks very angry.

The verb phrase is made up of a main verb and one or more helping verbs. has played, should have paid, will be coming, must have been hurt

Adverb Used to modify verbs and adjectives, or other adverbs Tells how, when, where, or to what extent (how often/how much)

Modifying a verb Theresa reads quickly. Thomas can really skate. My parents left yesterday.

Modifying an adjective Bart is an incredibly intense competitor. I couldn’t tell if the unbelievably ugly dog was coming or going.

Modifying another adverb She swam very fast. Sean fell terribly hard on the ice.

Preposition Used to show the relation of a noun or pronoun to some other word in the sentence. ALWAYS occurs in a phrase

The phrase, as a whole, operates as an adjective or adverb The noun or pronoun (in the definition) is called the object of the preposition

A short list of prepositions: About, above, across, after, at, in, by, into, of, on, over, since, through, throughout, to, toward, under, until, up, upon, with, before, beside, among, around, from, for, like, since, between

The first person in the pool wins the race. I edited the article for the magazine.

Conjunction Joins words or groups of words Coordinating conjunctions Correlative conjunctions Subordinating conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions join two equal “things” and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet Joan and Tarren are the best musicians in our school. The cougar turned and ran through the yard. Cattle or swine remain the only critters raised in this county.

Correlative conjunctions always occur in pairs – either/or, neither/nor, both/and, not only/but (also), whether/or His act was neither interesting nor exciting. Either come help me in the kitchen or go clean the garage.

Subordinating conjunctions Used to begin subordinate clauses, usually adverb clauses. This computer is even better than we had anticipated. I will do it myself since you can’t help me.

Interjection Expresses emotion and has no grammatical relation to other words in the sentence Oh! Hurry! Wow! Ouch!

Don’t panic yet ! We will deal with this in small chunks, and only to a certain depth.