CHAPTER 1

Parts of Speech

You should read this chapter if you need to review or learn about

In this chapter, you’ll review parts of speech so that you have a standard way to describe how words are put together to create meaning. The parts of speech are arranged in alphabetical order for easy reference. In later chapters, you will learn how to correct errors caused by misusing these parts of speech.

Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe nouns and pronouns. Adjectives answer the questions:

What kind? How much? Which one? How many? For example:

There are five kinds of adjectives: common adjectives, proper adjectives, compound adjectives, articles, and indefinite adjectives.

1. Common adjectives describe nouns or pronouns.
   strong man
   green plant
   beautiful view
2. Proper adjectives are formed from proper nouns.
   California vegetables (from the noun “California”)
   Mexican food (from the noun “Mexico”)
3. Compound adjectives are made up of more than one word.
   far-off country
   teenage person
4. Articles are a special type of adjective. There are three articles: a, an, the.
   The is called a “definite article” because it refers to a specific thing.
   A and an are called “indefinite articles” because they refer to general things. Use a with consonant sounds; use an before vowel sounds
5. Indefinite adjectives don’t specify the specific amount of something.

   all	another	any	both
   each	either	few	many
   more	most	neither	other
   several	some

Follow these guidelines when you use adjectives:

1. Use an adjective to describe a noun or a pronoun.
   Jesse was unwilling to leave the circus.
   noun adj. adj. noun


2. Use vivid adjectives to make your writing more specific and descriptive.
   Take a larger slice of the luscious cake.
   adj. noun adj. noun


3. Use an adjective after a linking verb. A linking verb connects a subject with a descriptive word.
   The most common linking verbs are be (is, am, are, was, were, and so on), seem, appear, look, feel, smell, sound, taste, become, grow, remain, stay, and turn.
   

   Chicken made this way tastes more delicious (not deliciously).

Adverbs

Adverbs are words that describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Adverbs answer the questions: When? Where? How? or To what extent?

Most adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective. For example:

Here are some of the most common non-ly adverbs:

1. Use an adverb to describe a verb.

   Experiments using dynamite must be done carefully.

2. Use an adverb to describe an adjective.

   Sam had an unbelievably huge appetite for chips.

3. Use an adverb to describe another adverb.

   They sang so clearly.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions connect words or groups of words and show how the words are related. There are three kinds of conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions, and subordinating conjunctions.

1. Coordinating conjunctions link similar words or word groups. There are seven coordinating conjunctions:
   

   for	and	nor	but	or	yet	so

2. Correlative conjunctions also link similar words or word groups, but they are always used in pairs. Here are the correlative conjunctions:

   both...and	either...or
   neither...nor	not only...but	also whether...or

3. Subordinating conjunctions link an independent clause (complete sentence) to a dependent clause (fragment). Here are the most often used subordinating conjunctions:

   after	although	as	as if
   as long as	as soon as	as though	because
   before	even though	if	in order that
   since	so that	though	till
   unless	until	when	whenever
   where	wherever

Interjections

Interjections show strong emotion. Since interjections are not linked grammatically to other words in the sentence, they are set off from the rest of the sentence with a comma or an exclamation mark. For example:

• Oh! What a shock you gave me with that gorilla suit.
• Wow! That’s not a gorilla suit!

Nouns

A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing. Nouns come in these varieties: common nouns, proper nouns, compound nouns, and collective nouns.

1. Common nouns name any one of a class of person, place, or thing.

   girl	city	food

2. Proper nouns name a specific person, place, or thing. Proper nouns are always capitalized.

   Barbara	New York City	Rice-a-Roni

3. Compound nouns are two or more nouns that function as a single unit. A compound noun can be two individual words, words joined by a hyphen, or two words combined.

   Individual words:	time capsule
   Hyphenated words:	great-uncle
   Combined words:	basketball

4. Collective nouns name groups of people or things.

   audience	family	herd	crowd

In grammar, possession shows ownership. Follow these rules to create possessive nouns.

1. With singular nouns, add an apostrophe and an s.
   dog → dog’s bone
   singer → singer’s voice
2. With plural nouns ending in s, add an apostrophe after the s.
   dogs → dogs’ bones
   singers → singers’ voices
3. With plural nouns not ending in s, add an apostrophe and an s. men → men’s books
   mice → mice’s tails
   

Here are the guidelines for creating plural nouns.

1. Add s to form the plural of most nouns.
   cat → cats
   computer → computers
2. Add es if the noun ends in s, sh, ch, or x.
   wish → wishes
   inch → inches
   box → boxes
3. If a noun ends in consonant -y, change the y to i and add es.
   city → cities
   lady → ladies
4. If a noun ends in vowel -y, add s. Words ending in -quy don’t follow this rule (as in soliloquies). essay → essays
   monkey → monkeys

Prepositions

Prepositions link a noun or a pronoun following it to another word in the sentence. Use this chart to help you recognize some of the most common prepositions:

A noun or pronoun always follows a preposition. A prepositional phrase is a preposition and its object. A prepositional phrase can be two or three words long.

However, prepositional phrases also can be much longer, depending on the length of the preposition and the number of words that describe the object of the preposition.

Pronouns

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun or another pronoun. Pronouns help you avoid unnecessary repetition in your writing and speech. A pronoun gets its meaning from the noun it stands for. The noun is called the antecedent.

Although Seattle is damp, it is my favorite city.

There are different kinds of pronouns. Most of them have antecedents, but a few do not

1. Personal pronouns refer to a specific person, place, object, or thing

2. Possessive pronouns show ownership. The possessive pronouns are: your, yours, his, hers, its, ours, their, theirs, whose.
   Is this beautiful plant yours?
   Yes, it’s ours

3. Reflexive pronouns add information to a sentence by pointing back to a noun or pronoun near the beginning of the sentence. Reflexive pronouns end in -self or -selves.
   Tricia bought herself a new car.
   All her friends enjoyed themselves riding in the beautiful car.
4. Intensive pronouns also end in -self or -selves but just add emphasis to the noun or pronoun.
   Tricia herself picked out the car.
5. Demonstrative pronouns direct attention to a specific person, place, or thing. There are only four demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those.
   This is my favorite movie.
   That was a fierce rain storm.
6. Relative pronouns begin a subordinate clause. There are five relative pronouns: that, which, who, whom, those.
   Jasper claimed that he could run the washing machine.
   Louise was the repair person who fixed the machine after Jasper washed his sneakers.

7. Interrogative pronouns ask a question. They are: what, which, who, whom, whose.
   Who would like to cook dinner?
   Which side does the fork go on?
8. Indefinite pronouns refer to people, places, objects, or things without pointing to a specific one. The most common indefinite pronouns are listed in the chart on the previous page

Verbs

Verbs name an action or describe a state of being. Every sentence must have a verb. There are three basic types of verbs: action verbs, linking verbs, and helping verbs

Action verbs tell what the subject does. The action can be visible (jump, kiss, laugh) or mental (think, learn, study).

An action verb can be transitive or intransitive. Transitive verbs need a direct object.

Intransitive verbs do not need a direct object.

Linking verbs join the subject and the predicate. They do not show action. Instead, they help the words at the end of the sentence name or describe the subject. As you read earlier in this chapter, the most common linking verbs include: be, feel, grow, seem, smell, remain, appear, sound, stay, look, taste, turn, become. Look for forms of to be, such as am, are, is, was, were, am being, can be, have been, and so on.

Helping verbs are added to another verb to make the meaning clearer. Helping verbs include any form of to be, do, does, did, have, has, had, shall, should, will, would, can, could, may, might, must. Verb phrases are made up of one main verb and one or more helping verbs.

The way a word is used in a sentence determines what part of speech it is.