parts of speech

Parts of Speech

NOUN

• Person, place, thing, idea• Common (n): names a general noun; begins

with a lower case letter (i.e. city)• Proper noun (N): names a specific noun;

begins with a capital letter (i.e. Alabaster)• Possessive (pos. n., pos. N): shows ownership

(i.e. girl’s, Luci’s)

Pronoun (pro)

• Used in place of one or more nouns or pronouns

• The word the pronoun stands for is called its ANTECEDENT– Mrs. Flowers opened the book and began reading

it.

Personal pronouns

• Refers to the one speaking (first person), the one spoken to (second person) or the one spoken about (third person)

SINGULAR PLURAL

First person I, me, my, mine We, us, our, oursSecond person You, your, yours You, your, yoursThird person He, him, his,

She, her, hersIt, its

They, them, their, theirs

PRONOUNS (pro)-reflexive (ref)

• Reflects back to “self”

Singular Plural

1st person myself ourselves

2nd person yourself yourselves

3rd person himselfherselfitself

themselves

Demonstrative pronoun (dem)

• THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE

• Points out a person, a place, a thing, or an idea– Ex: This is Ernie’s bike.

Interrogative pronoun (int)

• WHAT, WHICH, WHO, WHOM, WHOSE

• Introduces a question– Ex: Who is the author of “Flowers for Algernon”?

Relative pronoun (rp)

• THAT , WHAT, WHICH, WHO, WHOM, WHOSE• Introduces a subordinate (dependent) clause– Ex: Mr. White received the two hundred pounds

that he had wished for.

Indefinite pronouns (ind)

• Refer to a person, a place, or a thing that is not specifically named

• Ex: All of them wanted to hear the story of Urashma Taro.

• Ex: The travelers saw someone.• Most common indefinite pronouns: all, any,

anyone, both, each, either, everybody, few, many, none, no one, one, several, some, something

ADJECTIVE (adj)

• Modifies nouns and pronouns (i.e. I have a green pen. They are happy.)

• Answers the questions “Which one?” “How many?” or “What kind?”

• ARTICLES (art): a, an, the• PROPER ADJECTIVE (Adj): proper noun used as

an adjective (American flag)

VERB• Shows action or helps to make a

statement• ACTION VERB (av):• LINKING VERB (lv):• HELPING VERB (hv):

ACTION VERB (av)

–Shows action –Examples:• She wrote a note. • The dog smells the flower.

LINKING VERB (lv)– Links two words together– The most common linking verb is “to be”

– “sense” verbs are also often linking verbs, such as appear, become, feel, grow, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste, etc.• Ex: The flower smells pretty. (flower=pretty)

Am Was BeAre Were BeingIs Been

HELPING VERB (hv)– “helps” an action verb or linking verb– If a verb phrase has four verbs, the first three are

helping. If it has three verbs, the first two are helping, etc.

• Ex: We have been taking notes all day. (Taking is an action verb.)

• Ex: She will be cold without a jacket. (Be is a linking verb.)

BE WILL CAN SHALL MAY HAVE DO

am, are, is, was, were, be, being, been

will, would

can, could

shall, should

may, might, must

have, has, had

do, does, did

ADVERB (adv)

• Modifies adjectives (i.e. really cute), verbs (extremely fast), and other adverbs (very easily)

• Answers the question “How?”, “When?”, “Where?”, or “To what extent?”

• NOT, NEVER, OFTEN, and ALWAYS are always adverbs

PREPOSITION (prep)

• Shows relationship between a noun or pronoun and some other word in the sentence

• i.e. We went to school. We went up the stairs.• Common prepositions include: across, after,

against, around, at, before, below, between, by, during, except, for, from, in, of, off, on, over, since, through, to, under, until, with, according to, because of, instead of, etc.

CONJUNCTION

• Joins words, phrases, and clauses

• COORDINATING CONJUNCTION (cc):• CORRELATIVE CONJUNCTION (cor conj):• SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTION (sc):

COORDINATING CONJUNCTION (cc)

• acronym FANBOYS –(For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So)

–Ex: I ran AND jumped.

CORRELATIVE CONJUNCTION (cor conj)

–not only/but also–neither/nor–either/or–both/and

–Ex: Both Emily and Hannah have pencils.

SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTION (sc)

–Starts adverb (adv) dependent clauses (and therefore must be followed by subject and verb)–Most common are: after, since, before,

while, because, although, so that, if, when, whenever, as, even though, until, unless, as if, etc.–Ex: I have known Susan since I was 11.

INTERJECTION (int)

• Expresses emotion but has no real connection with the rest of the sentence

• Set apart from the sentence by a comma or an exclamation point

• i.e. No, I’m not finished with my homework. Wow! What a great new car!

VERBAL• A word formed from a verb but

acting as a noun, adjective, or adverb• GERUND (ger)• PARTICIPLE (part)• INFINITIVE (inf)

GERUND (ger)

–Verb acting like a noun; ends in ING–i.e. Reading is fun.

PARTICIPLE (part)

–Verb acting like an adjective; ends in ING, ED, or other past tense endings–i.e. I have running shoes.

Frightened, I ran down the street. It’s an unspoken rule.

INFINITIVE (inf)

–To + verb–Can act like a noun (I like to

eat), adjective (It’s the best place to eat), or adverb (I need a pen to write a letter)