PARTS OF SPEECH

“PARTS?”

A “part” in a play is the role the actor plays in the story.

A “part of speech” is the role the word plays in a word group.

PART OF SPEECH = THE FUNCTION(WHAT KIND OF TOOL IS IT?)

If you use a hammer to pound a nail, it functions as a hammer.

If you use a hammer to pound a cockroach, itfunctions as a weapon.

If you use a hammer to keep papers from blowing away, it functions as a paperweight.

NOUNS

A word that answers the questions “Who?” or “What?” is functioning as a noun.

Person (cousins, Sam) Place (college, Yuba College) Thing (weekend, snakes, running,

patience, pencils, availability, competition, football)

PRONOUNS

A word that replaces or refers to a noun is functioning as a pronoun.

Personal pronouns (I, we, us, you, he, him, she, her, it, they, them…)

Relative pronouns (who, that, which)

Tricky pronouns (everybody, somebody, everything…)

ADJECTIVES

A word that describes a noun or pronoun is functioning as an adjective. Adjectives modify (describe) nouns and pronouns. They answer these questions:

Which one(s)? (my, your, their, the, those) What kind? (new, recycled, purple, interesting,

disappointed) How many? (few, twenty, some, many)

VERBS

A word that shows action or being is functioning as a verb.

Helping verbs (is, has, does…) may “help” the main verb (is applying for the job)

There are other verb helpers (will, can, might, could…) (can wait until Friday)

…balanced the budget, supervised the after-school program, collaborated with the IT Department, trained new employees, coordinated the car-pool, and redecorated the employee lounge……seemed happy enough…was the first to arrive…felt ill…became very disciplined…am late for work…is graduating in June…has applied to several UCs…will attend Chico State in the fall…

BEWARE VERB LOOK-ALIKES Infinitives (they can function as

nouns, adjectives, or adverbs) to go to learn

Gerunds (they function as nouns) or present participles (they function as adjectives) swimming planning

Past participles (they function as adjectives) frozen broken closed

(Just because it wears a frog hat doesn’t mean it’s a frog…)

ADVERBS

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

How? (quickly) When? (soon) Where? (above) Why? (because…) To what degree? (hella)

“MODIFY?”The “modified” Chevy has had some work done. It’s

different now. Modifiers describe things so they are unique and vivid.

PREPOSITIONS

Prepositions help express time (after, before) place (at, on, under) direction (into, toward).

Preposition + noun = prepositional phraseafter workinto the pool

CONJUNCTIONS

They can coordinate (and, or, but, so, yet…) Words (coffee or tea) Phrases (over the river and

through the woods) Complete thoughts (I like

you, and you like me.)

They can subordinate(because, when, if…) People don’t like me much

because I’m mean.

Words that join words, phrases, or clauses are functioning as conjunctions.

INTERJECTIONS

Words that interrupt and show emotion are functioning as interjections.

Mild interruptions show mild emotion. (Oh, I see.) Strong interruptions show strong emotion. (Yikes!)

Created for the Yuba College Writing & Language Development Centerby Rosemary McKeever, 2014

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . If you borrow, use, or adapt our work, give us credit! Your attribution should cite the Yuba College Writing & Language Development Center.