Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech In the English language, words are

used in EIGHT different ways: Noun Pronoun Verb Adjective Adverb Preposition Conjunction Interjection

NounsA noun is a word that names

something: a person, a place, a thing, or an idea.governorOregonhospital Buddhism love

Proper Nouns• Proper- names a particular person,

place, thing, or idea. Proper nouns are ALWAYS capitalized.

Jackie RobinsonWorld SeriesChristianityChristmas

Common Nouns• Common- names a general person

place or thing; not capitalized. person woman president park baseball government

Practice:Underline the nouns in the following sentences.

1. The wedding was beautiful.2. The bride and groom gazed into one

another’s eyes.3. The flowers perfectly complimented

the bride’s hair.4. Too bad the groom threw up on the

bride’s dress.

PRONOUNS

Pronouns• A pronoun takes the place of a noun, like “they “ for

children, and “she” for Shelly. 

School House Rocks

Antecedents• All pronouns have antecedents. An antecedent is

the noun that the pronoun refers to or replaces.

Tim threw his glove over the fence. Then he jumped over and kicked it to his car.

• Tim is the antecedent for “his” and “he,” while glove is the antecedent for “it.”

PracticeCircle the antecedent in the following sentences.

1. The student forgot his homework in his car.

2. The homework was important. It was worth the final project

for the class.

3. The student was glad he had not squandered his

bathroom/hall passes.

PersonThe person of a pronoun indicates whether the person, place, thing, or idea represented by the pronoun is speaking, is spoken to, or is spoken about. 

First person is used in place of the name of the speaker or speakers.

I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours 

Second Person pronouns name the person or persons spoken to.

You, your, yours 

Third person pronouns name the person or thing spoken about.

He, she, it, one, they, him, his, her, them, their, theirs, hers

Is the pronoun in the following sentence in first, second, or third person?

1. I love to read books.2. They plunged down the steep embankment. 3. You are a funny person. 4. He doesn’t seem guilty. 5. We removed our shoes on the beach.

practice

VerbIt’s what you do . . .

Verbs are the part of speech that express

action or being.

According to A Writer’s Reference: Sixth Edition

•There are two types of verbs.

• Action Verbs (swimming) • Linking Verbs (was)

ACTION!

•Action verbs express action.

•Linking verbs express being.

Linking v. ActionLinking VerbsHave, has, hadDo, does, didBe, am, is, are, was, were, being, been

Action VerbsRun, swim, hit, throwDance, see, hear, fall, marryMake, draw, sculpt, compose

Sam is getting married. Sam married my sister.

What is being expressed: action/being?

1. The cat catches mice. ____________________

2. Repetition does not always produce perfection. ________________

3. Rome was not built in a day. ____________________

4. The best fish swim near the bottom. ____________________

5. Miss America is beautiful. ____________________

Adjectives & Adverbs

What kind

Which one

How many

When

Where How

Why

Under what condition

To what extent

questions

Adjectives Adverbs What kind Which one How many

How When Where Why Under what conditions To what degree

Adjectives Modify or Describe nouns

Answers which one, what kind, how many The lame elephant (which elephant?) Valuable old stamps (what kind of stamps?) Sixteen candles (how many candles?)

Adverbs Adverbs modify:

◦ verbs (swim quickly) ◦ adjectives (always sad)◦ other adverbs (too quickly)

Adverbs often end in –ly.

The negators “not” and

“never” are classified as

adverbs.

What question does the adverb answer?

Pull gently at a weak rope. _____________________

Read the best books first. _____________________

The students are talking too loudly._____________________

Tell whether the following are adjectives or adverbs:

The boat drifted peacefully down the river. ________________

Afterward, we watched a movie. ________________

The children enjoyed singing the silly songs. ________________

Jennifer smiled shyly at the students in her new class. ________________

The old man snored quietly in the waiting room. ________________

________________ ________________

Two hundred voters came to the polls. ________________

Adjectives and adverbs both describe!

Adjectives describe nouns.Adverbs describe verbs,

adjectives, and other adverbs.

Prepositions

They’re everywhere…

SCHOOL HOUSE

ROCKS

Prepositions

•Prepositions are used in sentences to show relationships between other words.

•They give extra information or details.

I love going to the movies.

Prepositions

Above Before During Over UntilAcross Behind For Through UponAfter Below From To WithAgainst Beyond In Toward WithinAmong Beneath Into Under WithoutAround By Of Till

The most common prepositions are:

Prepositions •Prepositions do not stand alone in a sentence. They “join” with other words to make a PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE.

•A prepositional phrase is made up of a preposition, an object (noun/pronoun), plus any words that modify the object.

• IN THE MALL• ON THE WALL

Prepositions FUNCTION:•Prepositional phrases act like adjectives or adverbs—they DESCRIBE.

• Along the beach• Under the table

•After the preposition, ask, “What?” to find the object.

• In the morning• To the doctor• I will get a drink of water.

Examples Underline the preposition in each

phrase, circle the object, highlight the modifiers:

Along the beach Under the table Beneath the beautiful yet aged face In her own time After the close game

NOTE: A preposition is always followed by an object; if there is no object, the word is an adverb, not a preposition.

Example:Turn at the light before Walmart.

Natasha never played soccer before.

Place [brackets] around each prepositional phrase. Underline the preposition and circle the object.

1. Captain America loves punching Nazis in the face.

2. Beneath the water, the terrible creature feasted on his favorite meal—children’s cough syrup.

3. He was late because of numerous things, but mostly the ninja attack.

INTERJECTION

Interjection A word that shows strong emotion or

surprise. Oh no! Yipes! Good grief! Well, . . .

Interjections are usually followed by an exclamation point, but not always.

Practice Fill in the blanks with an appropriate

interjection.1. ______________! I forgot my homework!

2. Will you marry me? __________!

3. _______________! I can’t believe I won the lottery!

Conjunctions“Conjunction, junction, what’s your function?”

Conjunctions Conjunctions are CONNECTING words.

They join together different clauses, phrases, and ideas in a sentence.

There are four main types of conjunctions: Coordinating Conjunctions Subordinating Conjunctions Correlative Conjunctions Conjunctive Adverb

Coordinating Conjunctions Coordinating Conjunctions are

connectives that join elements of equal rank (and, but, or, for, nor, so, yet, while).

Coordinating conjunctions can join anything of equal rank. Clauses Phrases Ideas

Clause: I love watching football, but I would prefer to play.

Ideas: I love football and basketball.

ForAndNorButOrYetSo

Coordinating Conjunctions Equal rank= they can join independent

clauses, ONLY when preceded with a comma.

Practice:

I wanted to play outside but it was raining.

Apples and oranges are my favorite fruits.

Subordinate ConjunctionsAKA “subordinators”

Subordinating Conjunctions connect clauses that are not equal in rank – that is, in sentences which one idea is made subordinate to another.

These subordinate clauses are also called dependent clauses because they cannot stand alone. Common subordinators are as follows:

After Before In order Until

Although Even if Once When

As Ever since Since Whenever

Because If Unless Wherever

While That

Subordinators (cont.) Use a comma when a subordinator is

used for an introductory clause. You do not need to use a comma if the

clause comes at the end of the sentence.

Examples:

When we get home, I will take out the trash.

Mom said I had to because it was causing the house to smell.

Correlative Conjunctions Correlative Conjunctions are also used

to connect equal parts of sentences. These paired conjunctions (both/and, either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also) actually work as one.

Example:

Not only are we going to St. Louis to watch the game, but we are also going to visit the zoo.

Conjunctive Adverbs Conjunctive Adverbs are other connective or

transitional words. The most common are:

Conjunctive adverbs must be preceded by a semi-colon (;) and followed by a comma.

Accordingly Certainly Furthermore Otherwise

Also Consequently However Similarly

Besides Finally Nevertheless Undoubtedly

Jack loved Jill; nevertheless, he didn’t need help carrying the water up the hill.

PRACTICE

1. The girl and the boy were on time. 2. Because he did not study, he did poorly on the test. 3. You can leave now or you can leave later. 4. Either my ACT or SAT scores should earn me a scholarship. 5. Jack however doesn’t feel well enough to go tonight. 6. John not only wanted to take pre-med courses but he also wanted to

play on the varsity football team. 7. I understand your anger however I hope you can forgive me. 8. He may not get better however if he does he may go anyway. 9. John hated physics class but he needed the credit to graduate. 10.Until she saw the letter she did not believe she had been admitted to

college.

In the following sentences, insert the correct punctuation and tell what kind of conjunction the underlined word is.