GRAMMAR: PARTS OF SPEECH INTRODUCTION

VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING PRESENTED IN THIS LESSON English SOL: 7.9(b) The student will demonstrate understanding of sentence formation by identifying the eight parts of speech and their functions in sentences.

CONTENT OBJECTIVES OF THIS LESSON You will be able to: Visualize how words can be grouped based on their function in a sentence Distinguish between different kinds of words

LANGUAGE OBJECTIVES OF THIS LESSON You will be able to: Talk about how knowing an unfamiliar word’s part of speech can help you understand its function in a sentence Group a list of words by category Read sentences with words you don’t know, and guess at their meanings based on their categories

What is a “part of speech”?

LEARNING ABOUT PARTS OF SPEECH… …is the first step in studying grammar, just as learning the letters of the alphabet is the first step to being able to read and write. 

BY LEARNING ABOUT PARTS OF SPEECH… … we can understand the functions of different words, and how they are combined so people can communicate easily and clearly. 

TO UNDERSTAND WHAT A PART OF SPEECH IS… …It’s helpful to think about putting similar things together into groups or categories 

LET’S LOOK AT SOME EXAMPLES OF CATEGORIES COLORS FRUITS DRINKS LANGUAGES blue banana milk Spanish red apple water Arabic yellow orange soda Japanese green grape beer English black lemon coffee Korean

Colors, fruits, drinks, and languages are categories. If I tell you that “puce” is a color, you would understand what “puce” is, even if you did not know what it looked like.

If we did not have the category colors, it would be hard to explain what is meant by the word “puce”.  Is this a “puce”?

It is very helpful to use categories to talk about similar things.

LET’S LOOK AT SOME MORE EXAMPLES OF CATEGORIES In the list below, which word does not belong with the others? a) bus     b) car     c) taxi     d) piano     e) bicycle

If you chose piano, you are right. Bus, car, taxi and bicycle are used to ride from one place to another, but a piano is not used for transportation.   Piano doesn't fit with the other words because it is a musical instrument and all of the others are modes of transportation.

LET’S TRY ANOTHER EXAMPLE Which of these doesn’t belong with the others?     a) hammer     b) saw     c) violin     d) screwdriver     e) wrench

This time, the word violin does not belong, because it is not a tool used for construction or repair 

IT IS VERY USEFUL TO HAVE CATEGORIES… … like musical instruments and tools to organize our ideas.

THE PARTS OF SPEECH… … are categories used to organize or classify words according to how they are used.

WE USE PARTS OF SPEECH… … to make it easier to talk about and understand language

How many parts of speech are there?

USUALLY WE SAY THERE ARE 8 PARTS OF SPEECH We say “usually”, because… Sometimes it is hard to tell which category a word belongs in The same word may belong in different categories depending on how it is used

FOR EXAMPLE… I can say Or I can say I like to drink water Coca-Cola is my favorite drink In the first sentence, the word “drink” is an action. In the second sentence, it is a thing I like.

The 8 parts of speech that are used to describe English words are: Nouns Adjectives Pronouns  Verbs Adverbs Prepositions Conjunctions Articles

We will study about each of the parts of speech and we will learn how they are different from each other.  This will help you recognize which part of speech each word in a sentence is… … and that will help you become a better reader and writer.

Let’s Review

You learned that… Parts of speech are categories of words

You learned that… We can put words into groups based on their functions in a sentence

You learned that… We usually say there are 8 different parts of speech

You learned that… Some words are confusing, because they may belong in two different groups

You learned that… Knowing a word’s part of speech can help you figure out what it means, even if you have never seen it or heard it before

GREAT JOB! This is the end of our lesson introducing parts of speech. Thank you for doing such a great job!