Parts of Speech Notes
Parts of Speech Notes
The Noun- who? what?
A Noun’s function is to act as a person, place, thing or idea. It answers the questions WHO or WHAT…
There are four categories of nouns: Proper and Common; Concrete and Abstract
Proper – McDonald’s
Common – restaurant
Concrete – sunlight
Abstract – happiness
Nouns will be the SUBJECT in a sentence or an OBJECT.
Nouns may end in these suffixes: -ness, -ity, -ion, -sion, -tion, -xion, -hood
The Verb
A verb’s function is to show action. A verb can be an action or a state of being (is, are, am, was, were, being, been, be)
There are verbs that act alone (run, cry, think, buy) and verb phrases which act together to show action.
A verb phrase contains one or more helping verbs and a main verb.
Helping verbs:
To be - is, are, am, was, were, being, been, be
To do – do, did, does
To have – have, had, has
Modals – can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must
Examples of verb phrases: can laugh, should have tried, will have been beginning.
Verbs may end in these suffixes: -ize, -s, -fy, -ing, -ate
The Adjective - What kind? Which? How many?
An adjective’s function is to tell which, what kind, or how many.
which – those kittens
what kind – blind kittens
how many – several kittens
“a”, “an”, and “the” are always adjectives (they are also known as articles).
Adjectives may end in these suffixes: -ive, -y, -ious
The Adverb – Aw, poor loner!
An adverb’s function is to tell how, when, where, and to what extent. They modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.
How- She laughed happily.
When- I found out later.
Where- I screamed inside.
What extent- He is very mad.
Adverbs usually end in –ly
very, too, not and quite are always adverbs
Prepositions – Co dependent with nouns
A preposition tells how, when, where, and to what extent also!
The difference is that it usually is the first word in a prepositional phrase.
How: with great gusto
Where: in the frightening, scary, awful graveyard
When: on time
To what extent: in a huge hurry
Some common prepositions are:
to
in
inside
above
through
next to
beside
under
around OF
by
on
over
with
for
Conjunctions
A conjunction joins words, phrases, and clauses to one another. You can remember them as :
F or
A nd
N or
B ut
O r
Y et
S o
This or that - - - - - - - - Joins words
To live and to die - - - - - - - - Joins phrases
Life is short, so I live for each day. - - Joins clauses
Darn! Interjections
Interjections express emotion or answer questions. They are always followed by a comma, period, exclamation mark, or question mark.
Examples:
Wow! I love your hair.
No, I didn’t see you there.
Hey? I didn’t do it.
Pronouns
Pronouns replace nouns.
Example:
Emily – she
School – it
The class – us
There are first person, second person and third person pronouns
1 2 3
I you she
me your her it
mine yours hers its
my he his
us they their
we theirs them
our
ours
There are possessive pronouns: mine, my, our, ours, his, her, hers, its, their, theirs
There are reflexive pronouns: myself, itself, themselves, yourself, ourselves
Indefinite Pronouns
Each , some, none, one, any, everyone, someone, anyone,
no one, everybody, all, most,
some gum - adj
some of the gum – pronoun
The Noun- who? what?
A Noun’s function is to act as a person, place, thing or idea. It answers the questions WHO or WHAT…
There are four categories of nouns: Proper and Common; Concrete and Abstract
Proper – McDonald’s
Common – restaurant
Concrete – sunlight
Abstract – happiness
Nouns will be the SUBJECT in a sentence or an OBJECT.
Nouns may end in these suffixes: -ness, -ity, -ion, -sion, -tion, -xion, -hood
The Verb
A verb’s function is to show action. A verb can be an action or a state of being (is, are, am, was, were, being, been, be)
There are verbs that act alone (run, cry, think, buy) and verb phrases which act together to show action.
A verb phrase contains one or more helping verbs and a main verb.
Helping verbs:
To be - is, are, am, was, were, being, been, be
To do – do, did, does
To have – have, had, has
Modals – can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must
Examples of verb phrases: can laugh, should have tried, will have been beginning.
Verbs may end in these suffixes: -ize, -s, -fy, -ing, -ate
The Adjective - What kind? Which? How many?
An adjective’s function is to tell which, what kind, or how many.
which – those kittens
what kind – blind kittens
how many – several kittens
“a”, “an”, and “the” are always adjectives (they are also known as articles).
Adjectives may end in these suffixes: -ive, -y, -ious
The Adverb – Aw, poor loner!
An adverb’s function is to tell how, when, where, and to what extent. They modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.
How- She laughed happily.
When- I found out later.
Where- I screamed inside.
What extent- He is very mad.
Adverbs usually end in –ly
very, too, not and quite are always adverbs
Prepositions – Co dependent with nouns
A preposition tells how, when, where, and to what extent also!
The difference is that it usually is the first word in a prepositional phrase.
How: with great gusto
Where: in the frightening, scary, awful graveyard
When: on time
To what extent: in a huge hurry
Some common prepositions are:
to
in
inside
above
through
next to
beside
under
around OF
by
on
over
with
for
Conjunctions
A conjunction joins words, phrases, and clauses to one another. You can remember them as :
F or
A nd
N or
B ut
O r
Y et
S o
This or that - - - - - - - - Joins words
To live and to die - - - - - - - - Joins phrases
Life is short, so I live for each day. - - Joins clauses
Darn! Interjections
Interjections express emotion or answer questions. They are always followed by a comma, period, exclamation mark, or question mark.
Examples:
Wow! I love your hair.
No, I didn’t see you there.
Hey? I didn’t do it.
Pronouns
Pronouns replace nouns.
Example:
Emily – she
School – it
The class – us
There are first person, second person and third person pronouns
1 2 3
I you she
me your her it
mine yours hers its
my he his
us they their
we theirs them
our
ours
There are possessive pronouns: mine, my, our, ours, his, her, hers, its, their, theirs
There are reflexive pronouns: myself, itself, themselves, yourself, ourselves
Indefinite Pronouns
Each , some, none, one, any, everyone, someone, anyone,
no one, everybody, all, most,
some gum - adj
some of the gum – pronoun