Do you know all 8 parts of speech in English?

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!

When should you use semicolons?

When should you use semicolons?

From blog.wordgenius.com

Semicolons are one of the most misunderstood and under-utilized weapons in our grammar arsenal.

Here, we’re going to do our best to simplify them. You’ll be casually (and correctly) throwing around semicolons before you know it.

An important thing to understand about the semicolon is that it’s a non-essential punctuation mark. Unlike the period and the comma, which serve crucial purposes, the semicolon is a rather luxurious option; it is used to embellish sentences and allow the writer to express themselves more meaningfully.

The secret behind the semicolon actually lies before our eyes. What does a semicolon look like? It appears to be an amalgamation of a period and a comma. This gives a giant clue on how to use it — not as a period or a comma, but as something in between.

There are three main ways a semicolon is used, as well as a couple of “dos” and “don’ts.”

Joining sentences

The first and main use of a semicolon is connecting two sentences that are part of the same thought. Crucially, in this use, the two sentences have to be just that: sentences. They must be independent clauses that are capable of standing on their own.

Example:

The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever existed. It is an aquatic mammal.

Now, let’s jazz this up with a semicolon:

The blue whale is the largest animal to have existed; it is an aquatic mammal.

As we can see, the two thoughts exist independently of each other (blue whales being big and blue whales being ocean-dwelling mammals), however, they are intrinsically linked. The semicolon brings them together quite eloquently.

This brings us to the first “don’t.” Don’t use a comma to do a semicolon’s job. When two independent clauses are joined with a comma, this is known in the grammatical world as “a comma splice,” and it is frowned upon by the grammar elite.

The second “don’t” pertains to something you might have already spotted. Notice how the capital ‘I’ from the “It is an aquatic mammal” sentence became lower case when we added the semicolon? That is because the two sentences were joined into one. Don’t use a capital letter after a semicolon. The only time to do this is when the semicolon is followed by a proper noun (a name of a person or place).

The third “don’t” is don’t use a conjunction after a semicolon. A conjunction (and, or, but, etc.) can join two sentences together.

Example:

The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever existed, and it is an aquatic mammal.

The comma and the conjunction are performing the job of the semicolon, so there is no reason to use both.

Having said this, the only “do” is somewhat related. Despite conjunctions being inappropriate, conjunctive adverbs are quite welcome. Adverbs are “how” words, elaborating on how something is done. A conjunctive adverb can add more richness to a sentence with a semicolon.

Example:

The blue whale is the largest animal to have ever existed; interestingly, it is an aquatic mammal.

Detailed lists, or lists that already include commas

Arguably simpler than the first use, but far less common, semicolons can be used in certain types of lists.

An easy example would be:

My favorite U.S. cities are New Orleans, Louisiana; Los Angeles, California; Denver, Colorado and Paris, Texas.

Here, the semicolons are doing the traditional job of commas, because the commas are already in use in the city names.

Here is a more complex example:

On my date last night we saw that new rom-com, accompanied by extra buttery popcorn, Skittles and a Slushie; after that we somehow had room for a full meal, including salmon linguine and fudge cake; to finish we stared at the moon all night, which was extra large for this time of year.

Here, commas are employed to add detail to the list items, meaning semicolons were needed to divide the list.

The wink ;)

The final, and most fun, use of a semicolon is the winky face. Grammar traditionalists would have a hard time accepting this as a genuine use. However, whether they like it or not, language rules and norms are at the mercy of common usage and habits. The modern reality is that emoticons and emojis are here to stay.