Parts of SpeechNouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections
Noun: names a person, place, thing, or idea• Common Nouns: names any one of a group of persons, places, things,
or ideas.• Ex: mountain, novelist, museum, ship, movie
• Proper Nouns: names a particular person, place, thing, or idea. Proper nouns are generally capitalized• Ex: Mr. McGiles, Jacksonville, JCPennys
• Compound Nouns: consists of two or more words that together name a person, a place, a thing, or an idea. It may be written as on word, as separate words, or as a hyphenated word• Ex: baseball, civil rights, sister-in-law
Concrete, Abstract, and Collective Nouns• Concrete Nouns: names a person, place, or thing that can be
perceived by one or more of the senses (sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell.)• Ex: dog, sunset, thunder, silk, Nile River
• Abstract Nouns: names an idea, a feeling, a quality, or a characteristic• Ex: liberty, beauty, kindness, success, Buddhism
• Collective Nouns: names a group of people, animals, or things.• Ex: audience, bouquet, crowd, jury, staff, swarm
Pronoun: takes the place of one or more nouns or pronouns.
• Antecedent: the word or word group that a pronoun stands for• Personal Pronouns: refers to the one(s) speaking (first person), the
one(s) spoken to (second person), or the one(s) spoken about (third person).
Singular PluralFirst Person I, me, my, mine we, us, our, oursSecond Person you, your, yours you, your, yoursThird Person he, him, his, she,
her, hers, it, itsthey, them, their, theirs
Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns
• Reflexive Pronoun: refers to the subject of a sentence and functions as a complement or as an object of a preposition.• Ex. I’m not quite myself today.
• Intensive Pronoun: emphasizes its antecedent and has no grammatical function in the sentence.• Ex: Ray painted the mural himself.
First Person Myself, ourselvesSecond Person Yourself, yourselvesThird Person Himself, herself, itself, themselves
Demonstrative, Interrogative, and Relative Pronouns• Demonstrative Pronoun: points out a person, place, thing, or idea• Ex: This is our favorite campsite.
• Interrogative Pronoun: introduces a question• Ex. What is the address of this house?
• Relative Pronoun: introduces a subordinate clause• Ex. The dog that you trained is very well behaved.
This That These Those
Who Whom Which What Whose
That Which Who Whom Whose
Indefinite Pronouns: refers to a person, place, idea, or thing that may or may not be specifically named
All Each Other Most One AnotherAnother Either Much Other
Any Everybody Neither SeveralAnybody Everyone Nobody SomeAnyone Everything None Somebody
Anything Few No One SomeoneBoth Many Nothing SomethingEach More One Such
• Ex: Everything we will need is packed in the trunk.
Adjective: modifies a noun or a pronoun• To modify means “to describe,” or “to make the meaning of a word
more specific.” An adjective is a modifier that tells what kind, which one, how many, or how much.
• Articles: A, An, and The• Indefinite Articles: A and An• Definite Article: The
What Kind? Which One? How Many? How Much?Spilled inkEnglish teaHowling winds
This parkThese papersThat house
Twenty milesTwo menSeveral apples
No saltEnough waterSome food
Verb: expresses action or a state of being• Verbs are generally classified in three ways
1. Main or Helping Verbs2. Action or Linking Verbs3. Transitive or Intransitive Verbs
• Verb Phrase: consists of on main verb and one or more helping verbs (also called auxiliary verbs).• Ex: am reading• Ex: should have been listening
Main Verbs and Helping VerbsCommonly Used Helping Verbs
Forms of Be amare
bebeen
beingis
waswere
Forms of Have had has have havingForms of Do did do doesModals can
couldmay
mightmustought
shallshouldwill
would
• Modal: a helping verb that is used to express an attitude toward the action or state of being of the main verb.
Action Verbs and Linking Verbs• Action Verb: expresses either physical or mental activity• Physical: bring, say, shout, jump, breathe• Mental: ponder, trust, review, evaluate, guess
• Linking Verb: connects the subject to a word or word group that identifies or describes the subject• Some verbs can be used as either action or linking verbs. In order to
tell the difference, replace the verb with one of the forms of be (am, is, are, was, were) and if the sentence makes sense then the verb is most likely a linking verb.• Linking: Emilia felt calm at the seashore.• Action: Emilia felt the waves washing over her feet.
Commonly Used Linking VerbsForms of Be
bebeingamisarewas
wereshall bewill behas beenhave beenhad been
shall have beenwill have beencan bemay bemight bemust be
should bewould becould beshould have beenwould have beencould have been
Othersappearbecome
feelgrow
lookremain
seemsmell
soundstay
tasteturn
Transitive Verbs and Intransitive Verbs• Transitive Verb: has an object—a word that tells who or what resolves
the action of the verb.• Ex: She trusts her friend.
• Intransitive Verb: does not have an object.• Ex: The audience applauded.
• The same verb may be transitive in one sentence and intransitive in another.• Trans: Elsa swam the channel.• Intrans: Else swam for many hours.
• Note: action verbs can be transitive or intransitive. All linking verbs are intransitive.
Adverb: modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb• An adverb tells how, when, where, or to what extent (how much, how
long, or how often).• Adverbs modifying Verbs• The bird was chirping outside.• The bird chirped loudly.
• Adverbs Modifying Adjectives• It was a fiercely competitive game.• The exceptionally brave police officer was given an award.
• Adverbs modifying other Adverbs• The guide spoke extremely slowly.• We will go to the mall later today.
Preposition: is a word that shows the relationship of a noun or a pronoun, called the object of the preposition, to another word.
• In the following examples the prepositions show different relationships between the verb rode and village, the object of each preposition.• I rode past the village.• I rode through the village.• I rode toward the village.• I rode beyond the village.
• Prepositional Phrase: a preposition, its object, and any modifiers of the object
Commonly Used Prepositionsaboardaboutaboveacrossafteragainstalongamidamongaroundat
beforebehindbelowbeneathbesidebetweenbeyondbut (meaning except)by
concerningdownduringexceptforfromininsideintolikenear
of offon ontooutsideoverpastsincethrough totoward
underunderneathuntilupuponwithwithinwithout
Commonly Used Compound Prepositionsaccording tobecause ofby means of
in addition toin front ofin spite of
instead ofon account ofprior to
Conjunction: joins words or word groups• Coordinating Conjunction: joins words or word groups that are used in
the same way.• Ex: The orchestra played waltzes and polkas.• Hint: just think FANBOYS
• Correlative Conjunctions: pairs of conjunctions that join words or word groups that are used in the same way.• Ex: Both the track team and the volleyball team enjoyed a winning season.
for and nor but or yet so
both…andeither…orneither…nor
not only…but alsowhether…or
Interjection: expresses emotion. An interjection has no grammatical relation to the rest of the sentence.• Ex: Well, I’m just not sure.• Ex: There must be, oh my, a dozen snakes there.
(Just think of words you say when you’re really excited…or when you stub your toe!)
ah ouch ugh wow oops hey oh