1. The Building Blocks of Writing
Parts of Speech 8
NOUNS
The Building Blocks of Writing
VERBS
PRONOUNS
ADJECTIVES
ADVERBS
PREPOSITIONS
CONJUNCTIONS
INTERJECTIONS

2. 1 NOUN Nouns name: a PERSON -(girl, teacher, employee
a PLACE -(school )
a THING -(bus, coat, pizza, job
or an IDEA -(love, justice, thankfulness)
NOUN
1. Nouns can be
Common (not specific) (park, lake
Proper (specific)(Baker Park, Lake Lanier
2. Nouns are who or what sentences are
about
Who played ball? Jack played ball.
What did Jack play? Jack played ball.
3. Nouns are usually SUBJECTS (Jack in the
sentence above) or OBJECTS (ball in the
sentence above).
A subject is the one doing the action (doing the playing, above), while an object is what or who is receiving the action.
SUBJECTS more often come at the beginning of a sentence and OBJECTS towards the end.
IDEA
THING
PLACE
PERSON

3. The police arrested the bank robber.2
Verbs show action or link the subject to another word in the sentence.
The police arrested the bank robber.
1. Verbs are the main part of the predicate
part of the sentence telling what the subject is doing, usually in the second half of the sentence
Eager students rushed out the school doors.
VERB
SUBJECT
PREDICATE
ACTION
2. Verbs can be broken down into three types:
ACTION (blows, screeches, takes, sings)
LINKING is, are, was, were, am, being, been, smell, look, taste, remain, feel, appear, sound, seem, become, grow, stand, turn
HELPING (shall, will, should, would, could, must, can, may, have, had, has, do, did, does
LINKING
HELPING

4. 3 PRONOUN Pronouns substitute or take the place of nouns
she (the woman); his (John’s); it (the statue)
Otherwise, sentences would sound quite funny…
Julie took Julie’s umbrella to work today, and Julie’s umbrella dropped and broke!
PRONOUN
CLUMSY
PRONOUN
Julie took her umbrella to work today, and it dropped and broke!
Some of the more common pronouns are
I, me, mine, you, yours, he, him, his, she,
her, hers, it, we, our, ours, us, they, their,
theirs, them.
BETTER
NOUN
PRONOUN
NOUN

5. 4
ADJECTIVES describe a noun or pronoun. (Sometimes we say they modify a noun or pronoun)
The colorful fish swam upstream.
Sam could only carry a few books because of her broken right arm.
I love the gorgeous weather we’ve been having in our beautiful state of Georgia!
ADJECTIVE
PRONOUN
2. Often, an adjective answers the following questions: what kind, how much, how many, or which one?
The children had chocolate ice cream.
3. Adjectives called articles include words like a, an, the: a timeline, an apple, the answer
4. Adjectives may follow a verb such as is, seems, feels, or appears.
The test seems difficult.
My shirt appears dirty and torn.
NOUN
PRONOUN
NOUN
ADJ
ADJECTIVE
ADJECTIVE
ADJECTIVE

6. ADVERBS describe…
a VERB - Jackie left the game early.
an ADJECTIVE - That ride was scary!
or ANOTHER ADVERB - I very quietly tiptoed out.
Adverbs generally answer the following questions in a sentence:
HOW, WHEN, WHERE, HOW OFTEN, HOW MUCH. 5
ADVERB
ADJ
3. Sometimes we say that an adverb modifies. That means “describes” or gives more information about.
4. Many (though not all) adverbs end in ‘ly.’ carefully, respectfully, nicely, eagerly, exactly, precisely, hungrily
5. Some negative words are adverbs, such as not, never, nowhere, rarely, hardly, barely
ADVERB
VERB
ADVERB
ADVERB
ADVERB
ADJECTIVE
VERB

7. PREPOSITIONS show position or direction, or some other relationship between nouns or pronouns in a sentence.
The mouse snuck under the rug.
I found my purse at the service counter.
1. Prepositions ALWAYS BEGIN a phrase, called a prepositional phrase, which contains a noun or pronoun, plus other modifying words. 6
PREPOSITIONS { {
PREPOSITION
behind the door
among the crowd
next to my house
at her party
2. Some common prepositions are (though there
are many more):
about, above, by, across, after, against, along, around, at, between, before, beneath, by.
down, during, except for, for, from, in, of, off, on, over, out, throughout, to, toward, under, until, up, upon, with, within
PREPOSITION

8. 7
CONJUNCTIONS connect single words or groups of words and/or phrases.
The test was long and hard!
We can rest here or go a little farther.
I would have gone, but I got sick.
1. Think of conjunctions as links.
2. Three types of conjunctions exist:
coordinating, correlative, subordinate
CONJUNCTIONS
* COORDINATING - connects equal words, phrases, or clauses
Example: Robert scrubbed the floor and fell asleep.
* CORRELATIVE - used in pairs to connect words or groups of words: either/or neither/nor
Example: Either the dog obeys, or he’s gone!
* SUBORDINATE - introduces a clause that cannot stand alone in a sentence (known as a dependent clause)
Example: After seeing the sky, I knew it would storm.
3. Here are a few sample conjunctions…
and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet, either/or, as/so, after,
although, as, because, if, since, so, though, unless,
until, when, where, while
WORDS
CONJUNCTION
GROUPS OF
WORDS/
PHRASES

9. Hey, you’re up early today!
INTERJECTIONS are words that show great emotion, feeling or surprise. They may be considered slang and are used more in conversation than in writing.
Wow! Yuck! Yikes! Oh No!
1. Interjections are usually set off by commas or exclamation marks.
Hey, you’re up early today!
Yikes! That’s scary.
2. Using interjections in your writing provides excitement to your words, but overuse can cause your reader to become exhausted. 8
INTERJECTIONS
INTERJECTIONS ARE
EXCITITNG WORDS!
2. Some common interjections include the following:
ah, aha, aw, bam, bang, bummer, cool, drats, eek, gee, gosh, grrr, ha, hey, hooray, oh, oh boy, oh no, oops, ouch, pop, rats, ugh, uh huh, yeah, yuck, yum, well, whack, whew, wow

10. Parts of Speech 8
Using them all together makes for interesting sentences, well written paragraphs, and memorable essays.