The Elements of Style William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White Glossary by Robert DiYanni Prepared by David Ambrose, 2010 For use by all MHS Humanities Faculty

 A word that names a… ◦ Person ◦ Place ◦ Thing ◦ Idea  Most nouns have two forms: ◦ Plural ◦ Possessive  Verbs can act as nouns sometimes, if you add an “-ing” – that’s called a “gerund.” ◦ Swimming is my favorite sport. ◦ Hiking is fun.

 A word that takes the place of a noun.  The noun that the pronoun takes the place of is known as the antecedent.  Subjective Case: I, you, he, she, they, we  Objective Case: me, you, him, her, them, us  Possessive Case: my, your, his, her, their, our  Relative/Interrogative Pronoun: who, whom, what, when, where, why, which  Indefinite Pronoun: anyone, anybody, anything, someone, somebody, something

 A word or group of words that expresses the action or indicates the state of being of the subject.  Verbs activate sentences.

 A verb that combines with the main verb to show differences in tense, person, and voice.  Also known as a “helping verb.”  The most common auxiliaries are forms of be, do, and have. ◦ I am going. ◦ We did not go. ◦ They have gone.

 A word that modifies, quantifies, or otherwise describes a noun or pronoun. ◦ Drizzly November ◦ Midnight dreary ◦ Only requirement

 A special type of adjective.  The words a, an, and the, which signal or introduce nouns.  The definite article the refers to a particular item: the report.  The indefinite articles a and an refer to a general item or one not already mentioned: an apple.

 A word that modifies or otherwise qualifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. ◦ Gestures gracefully ◦ Exceptionally quiet engine  Many adverbs end in “-ly,” but not all do.  Also, sometimes adjectives can end in “-ly” (as we’ve seen on a previous slide).

 A word that relates its object (a noun, pronoun, or –ing verb form) to another word in the sentence. ◦ She is the leader of our group. ◦ We opened the door by picking the lock. ◦ She went out the window.  Think about how you can relate to a chair. ◦ You can be on, in, behind, over, under, with, beside, beneath, by a chair.  NOTE: The “-ing verb form” is known as a “gerund,” and acts as a noun.

 A word that joins words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.  Coordinating conjunctions: ◦ and, but, or, nor, yet, so, for  Correlative conjunctions: ◦ both…and ◦ either…or ◦ neither…nor

 Hey, are you wondering what an interjection is?  Oh, you don’t know?  Man, you must be dumb.  Ouch! Sorry, I just stubbed my toe.  Yo, you still don’t know what an interjection is?  Well, to be honest, I’m not sure I can help you then.  Dude, why don’t you go look it up?

 Any questions?  Guided Practice: ◦ Identify the parts of speech of all words in each of the practice sentences.