•  1. Nouns: a person, place, thing, or object. •  2. Pronouns: takes place of a noun and helps

avoid repetition •  3. Adjectives: modifies or describes a noun •  4. Prepositional Phrases: a group of words

that indicate relationship •  5. Verbs: are action words or forms of being •  6. Adverbs: modifies or describes a verb

!  Before you can find the subject of a sentence, you need to be able to identify nouns and pronouns

Find the Nouns and Pronouns: 1. Sarah reads her favorite book whenever she goes

to the park. 2. My brother likes to play NBA 2k on his PS4 before

he goes to bed. 3.  I received a text from my girlfriend saying, “We

have to talk.”

!  Subjects are a noun, but not all nouns are subjects. The subject is the part of the sentence doing the action.

!  There can be compound subjects ◦  Jane and Bob went (to the store) to buy Oreos.

!  A subject can be an idea in the form of a group of words: ◦  Reading a book (by a warm fire) is a nice way to end

the day.

!  Subject Pronouns: I, You, He, She, We, They !  Object Pronouns: Me, You, Him, Her, Us,

Them !  Possessive Pronouns: Mine, Yours, His, Hers,

Its, Ours, Theirs !  Relative Pronouns: that, which, who, whom,

whose, where !  Demonstrative Pronouns: this, these, that,

those

!  Singular: Anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, neither, nobody, nothing, none, somebody, someone.

!  Plural: Both, few, fewer, many, several,

!  Singular or Plural: all, any, more, most, some, such. (eg. Some of the books are missing, or some of my homework is missing)

!  Some nouns are difficult to identify because they are ideas; however, they are still nouns.

!  A noun will always follow the words “A, AN, OR, THE.”

!  Words that end in -ment, -ism, -ness, -ence, -ance, and –tion are usually nouns. ◦  Example: Her criticism of my performance made me

upset.

!  Action Verbs: An action verb expresses action of a sentence:

!  Linking Verbs: A linking verb is a word that links ideas or redefines a term. ◦  AM, ARE, IS, WAS, WERE are always linking verbs!

!  Helping: A helping verb helps conjugate another verb

!  A sentence can have more than one verb ◦  Jane and Bob went to the market and bought Oreos

!  A preposition indicates direction or relationship. A prepositional phrase always begins with a prepositional word and ends with an object (or noun).

Examples: (Before class), I studied (for my quiz). In the middle of the day, I like to take a nap.

About Because of during near to

Above Before except of toward

Across Behind for on under

after Below from onto until

among Beneath in over up

around Beside In spite of past upon

as Between into through with

at by like till Without

Prepositional word + an object (noun or pronoun) = Prepositional Phrase

Examples: !  After a short lunch !  With his good friend and his brother !  Through the long and dismal night !  Between you and me

!  They Modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They usually end in – ly

!  Here are some exceptions:

already now still

also often then

always quite too

never seldom very

not soon well

!  An adjective is a word that modifies or describes a noun.

Example: !  The delicious crackers were shaped like

small, happy fish.

!  They join two parts of a sentence: ◦  The FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so ◦  Also called coordinating conjunctions

Example: I want to go to the party, but I have a lot of

homework that is due tomorrow morning.

Steps: 1. Identify prepositions and place parenthesis

around them. A prep will never contain the subject or verb

2. Look for action words or forms of be (am, are, is, was, were).

3. Ask who or what is doing the action or what is “being.”