Do you
know all 8 parts of speech in English?
From blog.wordgenius.com
Grade school grammar lessons
drill the parts of speech into students’ brains, but once you’re out of the
classroom it can be hard to remember all the details. You may be a skilled
public speaker, but not know the difference between a subordinating conjunction
and a reflexive pronoun. Never fear — we’re going to break down the eight parts
of speech and how you use them.
Noun
Nouns are one of the first parts
of speech children learn to identify. They’re pretty straightforward: they name
people, places and things. They’re also the workhorses of a sentence and play
many roles. They can be subject, direct object, indirect object, subject
complement, object complement, appositive, or adjective.
Proper nouns designate a specific
name or title: President Obama, Mount Everest, Buckingham Palace. Proper nouns
are always capitalized.
Common nouns are regular,
everyday people, places and things. When talking about things, it can also be
an idea, or intangible concept. Common nouns could be mother, playground, apple
and magic.
You can further identify nouns as
concrete or abstract, plural or singular.
Pronoun
A pronoun is used in place of a
noun, which is called its antecedent. The most commonly-used pronouns are
personal pronouns: she, her, he, him, I, me, you, it, we, us, they and them.
Possessive pronouns indicate
ownership: my, your, its, his, her, our, their and whose.
If you want to emphasize another
noun or pronoun you would use a reflexive pronoun: myself, yourself, himself, herself,
itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.
Relative pronouns introduce a
subordinate clause: that, what, which, who and whom.
And demonstrative pronouns are
identifying or referring to nouns: that, this, these and those. They take the
place of a noun that has already been mentioned.
Verb
Quite simply, a verb expresses an
action or state of being. To form a complete sentence you must have a subject
and a verb. The verb must agree with its subject, so make sure both are either
singular or plural. You can also conjugate a verb to form different tenses. The
verb “to be” breaks down into I am, you are, he/she/it is, they are, we are,
they are. If you want to express “to run,” it can be “I run,” or you can
include a helping verb and say “I am running” or “I can run.”
Adjective
An adjective is what adds color
and description to your sentence. An adjective describes a noun or pronoun. If
you’re answering the questions of which one, what kind, or how many, that’s an
adjective. The RED apple...the OLD man...the GLASS building. The short words,
or articles, “a, an and the” are usually classified as adjectives.
Adverb
Adverbs are similar to
adjectives, but they modify or describe verbs, adjectives or another adverb.
They usually answer questions of when, where, how, why and to what degree. The
boy ran QUICKLY...the teacher shouted LOUDLY...the dog SNEAKILY stole the
treats. You can usually tell its an adverb if it ends in -ly.
Preposition
A preposition is a word placed
before a noun or pronoun to form a prepositional phrase that modifies another
word in the sentence.
The mouse ran UNDER the bookcase.
In this case, “under” is the preposition within the prepositional phrase “under
the bookcase,” modifying how the mouse ran.
The most common prepositions are
up, over, down, under, to and from, but that is by no means complete. The
English language contains hundreds of prepositions.
Conjunction
If you remember your Schoolhouse
Rock (Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?) you know that a conjunction
joins words, phrases and clauses. Coordinating conjunctions link equal
elements: and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet. Subordinating conjunctions are for
comparing things or linking unequal clauses: because, although, while, since.
Interjection
Interjections add spice and
excitement to your language. They are used to express emotion and are often
used with exclamation points. Oh my! Wow! Yay!
