Parts of Speech

What are they? What do they mean?We need to know what these terms

mean so that we can discuss ways to improve our writing.

Nouns

• Nouns name people, places, things, or ideas.

How many can you name in this painting?

Concrete and Abstract Nouns

• Concrete nouns are things you can hear, smell, taste, smell, or touch: monster

• Abstract nouns name feelings or characteristics: love

Proper and Common Nouns

• Proper nouns name particular people, places, things, or ideas: Ernest Hemingway

• Common nouns are general, not particular, and are not capitalized: writer

Collective and Compound

• Collective Nouns name a group: family

• Compound nouns consist of two or more words: high school

Pronouns take the place of nouns or other pronouns.

• Personal: I, you, me, he, we, him, us, she, it, they, them

• Possessive; my, mine, your, yours, our, ours, her, hers, his, their, theirs, its

• It’s = it isMy mother likes her dog’s

little costume. She is proud of her creativity.

More Pronouns

• Indefinite: everyone, everybody, everything, anybody, anyone, anything, someone, somebody, something, nobody, no one, neither, one, some, all, few, many, several, each, most, none

• Interrogative: who, what, which, whom

• Demonstrative: this, that, these, those

That is a very cute insect.

More Pronouns

• Interrogative pronouns BEGIN a question: Who, whose, which, what

• Reflexive and intensive pronouns end with –self or –selves.

Mary herself told me about the latest styles.

Verbs

• Many verbs express actions, either ones you can see or ones you can’t.

When the monster roared, I worried he would bite me.

Some verbs link ideas in the sentence and some verbs help other verbs.

• Linking verbs: am, are, is, was, were, being, can be,, have been, will be, should be, would have been, appear, feel, seem, sound, become, grow, remain, smell, taste

• Helping verbs: forms of be and have and do, can, could, many, might, must, shall, should, will, would

This aardvark looks sleepy. He should take a nap.

Adjectives

• Adjectives give more information about the nouns and pronouns they modify: what kind, how many, how much, which one

• Articles: a, an, the• Proper: Irish setter

The fuzzy, gray kitten crossed his white paws on the white chair.

Why should you avoid vague adjectives?

• In a wonderful essay, Nora Ephron describes a lady who hopes to become the winner of a national baking competition:

Edna Buckley, who was fresh from representing New York State at the National Chicken Cooking contest, where her recipe for fried chicken in a batter of beer, cheese, and crushed pretzels had gone down to defeat, brought with her a lucky handkerchief, a lucky horseshoe, a lucky dime for her shoe, a potholder with the Pillsbury Poppin’ Fresh Doughboy on it, an Our Blessed Lady pin, and all of her jewelry, including a silver charm also in the shape of the doughboy. (from Crazy Salad)

Vague Adjectives (cont.)

• I love what is not in this sentence: vague character adjectives, words like superstitious or quirky or obsessive. Ephron’s litany of details opens Edna Buckley up for inspection. Cloudy adjectives would close her down.

• Too often, writers turn abstractions into adjectives to define character. One writer tells us the shopkeeper was enthusiastic, or that the lawyer was passionate in his closing argument, or that the schoolgirls were popular. Some adjectives – ashen, blond, and winged – help us see. But adjectives such as enthusiastic are abstract nouns in disguise.

• from Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark

Adverbs

• Adverbs tell more about verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

• Intensifiers are adverbs that answer the question: to what extent, such as very and really

I was really, really angry.

Prepositions

• Prepositions connect a position word to a noun (or pronoun) and modifiers. These include words like against, by, into, of, since, up, with, above, before, during, like, off, outside, under, through, across, below, inside, on, over, to

• I had fun playing cards with the fish at the table under the light.

Conjunctions joins words.

• Coordinating: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so (f.a.n.b.o.y.s.)

• Correlative: either/or, both/and, neither/nor, not only/but also, whether/or

Neither my mother nor I enjoy movies about superheroes.

Interjections express emotion.

• These are always set off from the rest of a sentence with a comma or an exclamation point.

Well, I guess I think clowns are funny. Wow! This one is scary!

Here’s a fun sentence!

. . . a sentence with all parts of speech. Can you identify each?

Well, she and young John walk to school slowly.

Try this quiz!

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/parts-of-speech_quiz.htm