The Parts of Speech

What are the parts of speech?

The parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.

Nouns

A noun is used to name a person, place, thing, quality or idea. A few examples of each are Bill, Detroit, car, beauty and justice.

What are the two types of nouns?

The two types of nouns are proper nouns and common nouns.

What is a proper noun?

A proper noun is used to name a specific person, place or thing. Such as Bill Gates, New York and the Hudson River. A proper noun is always capitalized.

What is a common noun?

A common noun is used to name one or all members of a class or group. Such as a boat, woman, light and minutes. A common noun does not have to be capitalized. Common nouns can be concrete or abstract. Concrete nouns are used to name things people can use their senses to “see.” Abstract nouns are used to name intangible things such as qualities (sweetness) and ideas (freedom).

The common nouns are highlighted in the following sentences:

The bear caught a salmon in the stream.

Love is All.

What is a pronoun?

A pronoun is used in the place of a noun or phrase. There are many types of pronouns: personal, relative, interrogative, reflexive, intensive, demonstrative and indefinite.

Personal pronouns are used to refer to specific nouns. Such as: I, me, you, yours, they, he, it, and us.

Relative pronouns introduce dependent clauses. Such as: who, whom, that, which, what and whose.

Interrogative pronouns introduce a question. Such as: who, whose, whom, what and which.

Reflexive and intensive pronouns deal with the self. Such as: myself, herself, yourselves and themselves. The difference between them is that reflexive nouns name the receiver of an action and intensive pronouns emphasize a noun.

Demonstrative pronouns show which nouns perform or receive the action. Such as: this, these, that and those.

Indefinite pronouns are used to show an unspecific number of nouns. Such as: all, few, many, none, other, something, anyone and neither.

Verbs

A verb is used to show an action or a state of being. Such as: jump, run, cook and drive. There are three types of verbs.

What are the three types of verbs?

The three types of verbs are regular, irregular and linking. Regular verbs end in –ed or –d. Irregular verbs change forms, such as write changes to wrote. Linking verbs express a state of being, such as shows or appears.

Adjectives

An adjective is used to describe or specify a noun or pronoun. Such as: green, big, that, this and her only.

Examples:

The joke fell like a lead balloon. ('lead' is a noun used as an adjective).

The stolen book was found clutched by Aaron's sticky fingers.

Adverbs

An adverb is used to modify a verb, adjective and other adverbs. They show when, where, why and how. Such as: never, often, above, there, then, not, almost and perhaps.

Examples:

The river flowed quietly through the meadow.

A brightly painted car slipped under the sunset.

Prepositions

A preposition is a word that is used with a noun or pronoun to form a phrase that shows where, when, how and why. They are commonly used to elaborate on the subject of a sentence. Such as: about, above, because, but, by, except, in, into, on, off, to, with, without and up.

We all went to the cinema straight from the restaurant.

Prepositions can have a direct relationship with the physical world, or relate abstract concepts to each other:

The Conservatives have slid to the left of the Liberals.

The following list of common prepositions appears in the Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language:

above, about, across, after, against, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, between, but, by, down, during, except, for, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, since, to, toward, through, under, until, up, with, and within.

Usage can be more of an art than a science. Often it comes down to what sounds right rather than the application of a rule.

Conjunctions

A conjunction is used to connect words and phrases to show order and ideas. Such as: and, but, or, nor, for, so and yet.

Examples:

He shut the door and turned out the light.

Words such as 'and', 'but', 'or', and 'nor' are coordinating conjunctions. Words such as 'while', 'where', 'since', and 'because' are subordinating conjunctions.

The politician announced his policies while sitting on a poll.

Interjections

An interjection is used to show surprise or emotion. They are usually short phrases such as “oh no!” or “Good Lord!” or Yikes! I'm late!

Summary of Parts of Speech

 source: http://wi.essortment.com/partsofspeech_rigq.htm