Name: Ms. Fittz English 2 12 November 2014

 

Parts of Speech

Goal: Clear Communication.

Why write?

- We write to ______________________ - We write to ______________________

- We write to ______________________ - We write to ______________________

What is a part of speech?

In writing a sentence, you put words together in certain combinations. These combinations depend, in part, on the different kinds of words, or parts of speech, you use:

Nouns. Pronouns. Adjectives. Verbs. Adverbs. Prepositions. Conjunctions. Interjections.

*Nouns. Definition: A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, quality, idea, or action. Examples: honesty, Picasso, democracy, Argentina, juice. Types of nouns are separated into common nouns, proper nouns, concrete nouns, and abstract nouns. Common Nouns

man city mouse philosophy ball

Proper Nouns

Barack Obama

Nashville Monday The World Cup

Duke University

Concrete Nouns

pencil fork hamburger bookshelf book

Abstract Nouns

beauty truth sadness love joy

There are also count and noncount nouns. Count Nouns name things that can be counted, and thus can have a plural form.

Examples: lake(s) violin(s) baseball(s) goose(geese) Noncount Nouns name things that are typically not counted in English and thus cannot be made plural. Examples: hatred health news snow Collective Nouns name groups; they are usually singular in both sense and form.

Examples: committee team class crowd

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*Pronouns.   Definition: a pronoun is a word that substitutes for a noun and usually refers to a noun, which is called the antecedent of a pronoun. Examples: she, they, it

* The noun antecedent usually precedes the pronoun in a sentence: Ex: Lucinda said she was not feeling well.

* Sometimes the antecedent follows the pronoun: Ex: Saying she was not feeling well, Lucinda left the room.

Pronouns can be singular or plural, and their case can vary depending on how they are used in a sentence. The change from he to him or his reflects pronoun use according to case – subjective, objective, or possessive. More Examples:

1. Michael gave me his book and I gave him mine. 2. That was an interesting idea! 3. Nothing could be done. 4. She is the teacher who runs marathons. 5. Whose bike is this?

*Adjectives. Definition: An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or pronoun by qualifying it or describing it. Examples:

1. Those are very fluffy slippers, Arely.

2. The crisp, cool leaves of fall tickle my frozen face as I amble down lazy, fall-filled streets.

3. Her beautiful smile sent shaky shivers up my tense spine as I waited for the answer to emerge from her her ruby-red lips.

Some pronouns can also function as possessive adjectives (our school), demonstrative adjectives (this page), interrogative adjectives (which button do I push?), and indefinite adjectives (some money). These, along with articles (the, a, an), comprise the category of determiners. Determiners serve to introduce nouns and noun phrases.

The kitchen My DVD player Some interesting news

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*Verbs.

Definition: A verb is a key word that expresses an action (swim, read) or a state of being (is, seemed). Examples:

1. I like to run outside in the winter because the snow crunches beneath my feet.

2. Dill came to the Finch’s during the summer from Meridian Mississippi.

3. He couldn’t have cared less, as long as he got chocolate ice cream. Main verbs are often accompanied by auxiliary verbs (also called helping verbs), which include forms of the verbs be, have, and do Transitive verbs transfer action from the agent (usually the subject of the sentence) to an object or recipient (usually the direct object of the sentence). Some common transitive verbs are carry, reject, show, build, and destroy.

Example: Michael fumbled the ball. Intransitive verbs may express action, but they do not transfer it to an object or recipient. Some common intransitive verbs are sleep, fall, die, erupt, and disappear.

Example: The bridge collapsed. Linking Verbs such as be, seem, and appear connect the subject of a sentence to a subject complement (typically an adjective). Example: Mary is Irish. || Your friend seems bored. Some linking verbs express the result of an action.

Example: The apples turned sour. || Her prediction came true. The five major forms a verb takes are usually referred to as its principal parts. They are the base form (infinite form), present tense (third-person singular), past tense, past participle, and present participle. Base Form Present Tense Past Tense Past Participle Present

Participle (to) erase erases erased (have) erased (am) erasing (to) run runs ran (have) run (am) running Verbs also have an active form, called active voice (He committed the crime), as well as a passive form, called passive voice, consisting of a form of the verb be, and a past participle (the crime was committed by him.)

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 *Adverbs.

Definition: An adverb (adv) modifies a verb, an adjective, another verb, or an entire clause or sentence. Adverbs usually answer one of the following questions:

- When? - Where? - How? - How often? - To what extent?

Examples:

1. The mayor lives alone in a downtown apartment [alone modifies the verb lives]

2. She has a very busy schedule. [very modifies the adjective busy]

3. The almost never takes a vacation. [almost modifies the adverb never]

4. Apparently, she doesn’t need one. [apparently modifies the entire sentence]

Conjunction adverbs, such as however, thus, and consequently, modify an entire sentence or clause while linking it to the preceding sentence or clause.

Example: Today’s weather will be beautiful. We, however, expect it to rain tomorrow.

*Prepositions. Definition: A preposition is a word such as in, on, of, for, or by that usually comes before a noun or pronoun and its modifiers to form a prepositional phrase. Some examples of prepositional phrases are in the water, off the deep end, and toward them. The noun or pronoun in such phrases (water, end, them) is called the object of the preposition. Examples: These are some of the most common prepositions:

About Above Across After Along Around Around At Before Behind Below

Beneath Beside Between By Despite Down During Except For From In

Into Like Near Of Off On Onto Out Outside Over Past

Through To Toward Under Underneath Unlike Until Up Upon With Without

If  you  can  fit  it  into  this  phrase  to  make  sense,  then  it  is  probably  a  preposition:  Try  it  out!      The squirrel ran ________the tree.

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*Conjunctions. Definition: A conjunction (conj.) joins words and phrases. Conjunctions make writing more concise. Instead of: “I don’t like apples. I don’t like oranges,” you can use the conjunction “or” to connect the two sentences: “I don’t like apples or oranges.” Ex. and, or, but, nor Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, yet, so, for) connect sentences, clauses, phrases, or words that are parallel in meaning and grammatical structure. Correlative conjunctions (both/and, neither/nor, either/or, not/but, whether/or, not only/but also) are pairs of conjunctions that give extra emphasis to the two parts of coordinated construction. Subordinating conjunctions introduce dependent clauses and connect them to the main clause. Some common subordinating conjunctions are although, because, if, since, unless, and while. Examples:

- Justin Bieber can sing and dance. - Kobe Bryant either injured his foot or his ankle. - The tooth fairy decided that she shouldn’t eat the ice cream because she already ate too

many doughnuts. - Santa, I haven’t seen you at the mall, so do you shop online for all of our presents? - Taylor Swift may be cute and all, but her new CD is kind of annoying. Honestly how many

ex-boyfriends can a girl have?

*Interjections. Definition: An interjection is a word used to express short, sudden feelings. Emotions such as fear, surprise, anger, love and joy can all be expressed with an interjection. Interjections usually have an exclamation point (!) around it. Ex: wow! Hurray! Stop! Ouch! Examples:

“Ouch! Charlie bit my finger! Charlie, that really hurt!” Wow! What a show! Oh! I thought it was such so-so. Hurray! We have mastered the eight parts of speech!

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Additional Information. In addition to the traditional parts of speech, there are also verbals. A verbal is a verb form that functions in a sentence as a noun, an adverb, or an adjective. There are three types of verbals: Participles, gerunds, and infinitives. Participles are words such as sweeping and swept, the past and present participles of a verb (sweep), that function as adjectives and can modify nouns or pronouns. Examples:

Beware of sweeping generalizations. Swept floors make a house seem more livable.

Gerunds are verb forms that end in –ing and that function as nouns.

Examples: Sweeping the floors is something I do to help out my family.

An Infinitive is the base form of a verb preceded by to ( to read, to fly, to ponder). Infinitives can function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.

Examples: Noun: To quit would be a mistake. Adjective: Her desire to quit is understandable. Adverb: He is eager to learn.

Subject and Predicate.

The subject of a sentence is a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase (a noun plus its modifiers) that identifies what the sentence is about. Usually, it directly precedes the main verb. Examples: - You probably have a pointing device (or PD) connected to your computer. - Some PDs have a ball that rolls against its wheels. - The rubber ball found inside some PDs oxidizes over time and begins to slip. - The preference settings for double-click speed and for the ratio of hand or finger travel to pointer travel are set in the options menu. The predicate is the part of the sentence that contains the verb and makes a statement about the subject. Examples: - The World Wide Web offers information, graphics, music, movies, and much more. - With a Web browser, you can locate information efficiently.