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In Grammar City Mall, you will find sections on parts of speech,
vocabulary, sentence problems, and spelling. This section also links to interactive
quizzes to let you test your knowledge. Have fun!
Parts of Speech - "The Players"
You already know quite a bit about the eight parts of speech that will be discussed
here. You learned how to use them instinctively from the time you were a baby. Whatever
your native language, you learned the parts of speech at basically the same age as every
child and in the same way--by hearing words spoken and imitating them. The ability to
learn language is part of the "wiring" humans are born with. You could make
sentences and tell stories long before you could read. And generally, you used the parts
of speech correctly, even if you couldn't name them yet. If you don't believe me, try this
test. Ask any four year old to finish this sentence: "I want to eat
for
breakfast tomorrow." The child will use a noun to fill in the blank. Next, ask
the child to complete this sentence: "The dog might
me."
Chances are the child will use a verb to fill in the blank. Most four-year-olds
probably can't name the parts of speech, but they will be able to use them correctly. Just
like that, children instinctively learn grammar and speech patterns.
You learned to use the parts of speech without ever opening a textbook. Now you can
learn the proper terminology and usage for the words you speak every day. Learning the
proper terminology is the most important lesson you can learn to help you use correct
grammar. Remember this rule:
Parts of a sentence must work together like
members of a team.
Consider baseball, for instance. Every team has a pitcher. The pitcher's main job is to
pitch the ball to the batter on the opposing team. The pitcher's goal is to prevent the
opposing batter from hitting the ball and getting on base or scoring. But that isn't the
pitcher's only job, is it? Sometimes, the pitcher's team is at bat. Then the pitcher's job
changes. Now he is supposed to hit the ball. When a pitcher is hitting the ball, the
pitcher is acting as a batter. A pitcher is still a pitcher, even when his function
changes. The team expects its members to be able to perform whatever function they are
called upon to do. If a pitcher doesn't do the other parts of the job well and interact
CORRECTLY with teammates, the team may fail. That's true for every player on any team,
whatever his or her position.
Words are like that. Each word functions as a particular part of speech and must
interact CORRECTLY with other parts of the sentence for the sentence "to
succeed." In writing terms, complementary elements must
agree. We will look at those elements one at a time, but for now, it is
important to remember that words [like team members] often change the position they play
and serve as other parts of speech. Sentences and paragraphs [like teams] have rules. If
those rules are not followed, the sentence or paragraph [team] will not be successful. For
now, just remember that words may play more than one position in a sentence. For example,
"book" is not always a noun. Sometimes it is a verb:
Book, used as a noun "Have you read the new book by Stephen King?"
Book, used as a verb "Book
me on the next flight to Paris."
Some of the most common rules for word usage and combinations are listed here. Each is
linked to a page with further explanation and examples. You may follow those links at any
time, or continue down this page for a discussion of each part of speech.
"The Rules"
1. Nouns and
Verbs
2. Nouns and Pronouns
3. Nouns and Adjectives
4. Pronouns and other Pronouns
5. Verbs and other Verbs
6. Verbs and Adverbs
Nouns
Nouns are words that name things. A noun may name a
person, animal, plant, place, substance, quality, or an idea. Almost everything has a
name, even things you can't see, like air. Words like a, an, and the
[articles] signal that a noun is ahead, although there may be words
between the article and the noun. The underlined words in the examples
below are the articles. The italicized, red
words are nouns.
A very big dog
the wind an ordinary afternoon
Not all nouns have articles to point them out, however. Some are
proper names; for example, Maria and Kevin are nouns. They name people.
You wouldn't say "The Maria" or "The Kevin."
Nouns may be singular or plural. In English, the most common way to
make a noun plural is by adding -s
or -es to the end of the word.
a book becomes books; a friend
becomes friends; a crash becomes
crashes.
Some nouns change to the plural form in other ways. If you grew up
speaking English, you don't have to be told that mice (not mouses) is the plural of mouse.
If you are a beginner at English, this might be a little confusing because it is an
exception. Exceptions are instances where word changes don't follow the most common rules.
You will simply have to learn them by practice.
In English, very few nouns remain in the same form whether they are
singular or plural. Deer, for instance, is both singular and plural. You can determine
whether the noun deer is singular or plural by the context of
the sentence or paragraph in which it appears. Remember, you probably already know this
instinctively. Don't get stressed out about memorizing all the exceptions in English. Give
yourself credit for what you already know. Look at these examples:
The baby deer
wandered away from the rest of the herd. I was afraid it might get separated from
its mother. [Deer is singular here. You can tell because the second sentence uses
the singular prounoun "it." Pronouns and nouns must agree in number.]
In summers when there is little rain, the deer gather around the stock pond early in the
morning. It is one of the only places they can get water. [Deer is plural here. See
how the second sentence uses the plural pronoun "they." Also, the verb
"gather" is plural. Plural nouns must have plural verbs.]
Click here to take a noun quiz that
will give you practice in making nouns plural.
Pronouns
A pronoun takes the place of or "substitutes for" a noun.
Sometimes a pronoun is used alone as the subject or object of a sentence;
sometimes it refers back to a person, place, or thing mentioned earlier in the sentence.
The noun that comes before a pronoun is called an antecedent, "something that comes
before."
He is the man of Linda's dreams.
[Pronoun as subject]
I will give you this if you want
it. [Pronoun as object]
My sister lives next door so she
babysits for me while I work. [Pronoun with antecedent
"sister."]
Like nouns, pronouns may be possessive--hers, his,
ours, yours, theirs.
Some pronouns are subject pronouns and can only take
the place of a subject noun--I, she, they.
Some pronouns are object pronouns and can only take the
place of an object noun--him, her, them.
Subject pronouns and object pronouns are not
interchangeable, but you probably already use them correctly most of the time even if you
can't recite the rules. For instance, you probably wouldn't say "Her is
going to the store" or "I will tell they all about it."
Two pronouns that often cause confusion are who and whom.
Here's a hint to help you with who/whom: Say the sentence using "he"
and "him" in place of "who" or "whom." That should give you
a clue about which one is correct. If your sentence makes sense using "he," then
"who" is the correct choice. If "him" would work, then choose
"whom."
Pronouns must agree in number and gender with the nouns they
represent. You wouldn't use a feminine pronoun to take the place of a
masculine noun. Likewise, you wouldn't use a singular pronoun to take the
place of a plural noun. If you want to practice using pronoun
quiz, you may follow this link.
Verbs
Verbs tell what is happening in a sentence. They show action or
express being. Action verbs are easy to identify: swim, cooking,
drove. Being verbs are a little trickier to identify sometimes. They
are called being verbs because they represent some form of the verb
"be." Being verbs may be in any tense--present, past or future.
The most common being verbs are is, was, were, are, and am.
These words are ALWAYS verbs. Often being verbs are used
with another verb. When that happens, the other verb is called a
helping verb. A helping verb is used with another verb
to show when the action took place; in other words, it shows tense. In these examples,
notice how the helping verb changes the tense:
She was gone
when the mailman came, so she could not sign for the package.
[Past tense]
He will take a
vacation this summer for the first time in years. [Future tense]
Being verbs may also be used alone to represent a condition or state
of being:
I am unhappy
because my family is moving away.
Margie was at
the party without a date.
The verb quiz will let you practice
recognizing helping verbs and using the correct verb tenses.
Adjectives
Adjectives provide more information about a noun or a pronoun. Adjectives
that come directly before nouns--red flowers--are said to "modify" the
noun. Modify means to change in some way or to give more information about. Sometimes adjectives
come after certain verbs like be, seem, and become. Adjectives
that come after those words describe the subject. Here are some examples:
David seemed sad. [Describes
David's mood]
Maria would become rich and famous. [Describes Maria's future condition]
To identify adjectives, look for words that answer the following
questions: What kind? Which one? or How many? Sometimes, a pronoun will be used as an adjective.
When this happens, the pronoun is modifying the noun by giving more information about the
noun. Look at these examples:
Which one? this
one, my idea, those boys
Here are some other examples of adjectives. Notice what question each answers.
What kind? red hair, noisy children, dirty house
How many? three
shots, every cowboy, several trucks
The articles a, an, and the point out which person, place, or thing.
Because they are answering the question "which one(s)" they are also adjectives.
Now you might be ready to try the adjective quiz.
Adverbs
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Adverbs
answer one of the following questions: How? Where? Why? When? or How much? Here's a hint
to help you identify adverbs. Most--but not all--words that end in
-ly are adverbs. That
makes them fairly easy to recognize. [How easy? Fairly easy. Did you spot
the adverb in the last sentence?] However, there are exceptions. Aren't
there always? In order to be sure whether an -ly
word is an adjective or an adverb, you must pay attention to what the -ly word is modifying. If it is describing or
modifying a noun, then it is an adjective, not an adverb. Here is an
example of an -ly word that is an
adjective:
Kim was wearing a lovely dress. [What is lovely? The dress. See, "lovely"
is describing the dress, which is a noun, so "lovely" in this case is an
adjective.]
But we're talking about adverbs here, so I'll give you some examples
of words acting as adverbs which answer the questions we mentioned above:
How? Steve cut the lumber skillfully.
[How did he cut the lumber? Skillfully. The adverb
is modifying the verb "cut."]
Where? Mandy hurried upstairs
to get her car keys. [Where did Mandy go? Upstairs.
The adverb modifies the verb "hurried."]
Notice that the adverb upstairs does not end in -ly.
Remember I said MOST words that end in -ly are adverbs--NOT that
all adverbs end in -ly. They don't. If you want to be sure
whether a word is acting as an adjective or an adverb, you have to find
the word it modifies and see what question it answers. Now, back to our examples:
Why? She filled out the application because she really wanted the
scholarship. [Why did she fill it out? Because. In this case, because is behaving as an adverb because it introduces an
adverbial clause. Because is actually a subordinating conjunction. This is another case of
one part of speech playing another position on the team.]
When? The group left yesterday
for spring break. [When did they leave? Yesterday.
The adverb modifies the verb "left."]
How Much? Jamie was very
happy that she was picked for the soccer team. [How happy is she? Very happy. The adverb modifies
the adjective "happy."]
The adverb quiz will allow you to
practice identifying adverbs and using them correctly.
Prepositions
Prepositions show the relationships between two things. A prepositional
phrase begins with a preposition and ends with an object--usually a noun or a
pronoun. The preposition connects its object to some other word(s) in the
sentence. A preposition combined with its object is a prepositional
phrase. Preposition + Object = Prepositional phrase. Here are
some examples:
Maria placed the pie on the table. [Preposition--on;
object--table]
Jackie took the boys to the store.
[Preposition--to; object--store]
Behind the fence, George found
his hammer. [Preposition--behind; object--fence]
A prepositional phrase may come at the beginning, in the middle, or at
the end of a sentence. Moving it will not usually change the meaning of the sentence.
Sometimes it just sounds better in one place or the other.
In her pink dress, Lucy went to the prom.
Lucy, in her pink dress, went to the
prom.
Lucy went to the prom in her pink dress.
If the prepositional phrase comes at the beginning or in the middle of
a sentence, it is separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. [For a discussion of
comma usage, click here.]
A prepositional phrase, because it contains a noun or a pronoun and
often occurs near the beginning of a sentence, is sometimes mistaken for the subject. This
can be a problem because incorrectly identifying the subject can lead to other sentence
errors--for instance, using the wrong tense of a verb. For example:
The questions for the test were not
discussed.
The subject of this sentence is "questions" which is plural and requires a
plural verb [were]--not test, which is the object of the prepositional phrase
"for the test." If you incorrectly identified "test" as the subject,
you would probably use the incorrect verb [was] instead of were. One way to avoid
mistaking a preposition for the subject of a sentence is to cross out all
the prepositional phrases in a sentence before you try to identify the
subject.
The questions for the test were not discussed.
Now, with the prepositional phrase isolated, it is easy to see that
the subject of the sentence is "questions" and it requires the plural verb
"were." For more practice with prepositional phrases, take the preposition quiz. Here is a list
containing some of the most common prepositions:
about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, at, before,
below, behind, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, despite, down, during, except, for,
from, in, into, like, near, of, off, on, out, over, past, since, inside, to, toward,
under, underneath, until, up, upon, with, within, without, throughout, through.
Some prepositions are composed of more than one word and are made from
other parts of speech [other players assuming a different role, like the pitcher who also
bats]. Even though the preposition is more than one word, the prepositional
phrase will still have an object. Look for the object if you aren't sure whether
the word is a preposition. Some examples of prepositions
made up of more than one word are:
according to, as well as, ahead of, along with, as far as, aside from, back
of, because of, in spite of, instead of, in front of, together with.
Conjunctions
Conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses and show
relationships between words. The two kinds of conjunctions are subordinating
conjunctions, and coordinating conjunctions.
Subordinating conjunctions connect dependent clauses with main
clauses. A dependent clause is part of sentence that contains both a subject and verb but
depends on the rest of the sentence to make sense. Without the rest of the sentence, it is
only a fragment. You can usually recognize a dependent clause because it will begin with a
subordinating conjunction.
Example: Although she didn't
want to, she left her pet at the kennel during her vacation.
Here is a list of subordinating conjunctions:
after, although, as, as if, as long as, as
soon as, because, before, besides, if, in order that, notwithstanding, provided, since, so that, till, until, when, whenever, where,
whereas, wherever.
You may notice that some of these words (the ones in blue)
also appear on the list of prepositions provided earlier. Certain words can function
either as prepositions or conjunctions. To tell what part of speech it
is, you must look to see if the word introduces a clause with a subject AND a verb, or if
it introduces a prepositional phrase with an object. Some of the words that can function
either as a preposition or a conjunction are: after, for, since,
till, and until. I'll give you an example:
Conjunction: After the storm was over, the game continued on schedule.
[After the storm was over is a dependent clause with a subject and a verb.]
Preposition: After the storm, the game continued on schedule. [After the storm is a
prepositional phrase; after is the preposition, storm is the object.]
Coordinating conjunctions connect words, phrases, and clauses of equal
status: verbs with verbs, phrases with phrases, main clauses with main clauses, and
adjectives with adjectives. The seven most common coordinating conjunctions
are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
You may find it easier to remember these seven by using the first letter of each to make
an acronym, FANBOYS. Here are some examples of coordinating conjunction
uses:
The boys were similar in height and
weight. [Connects two nouns]
The wind was roaring and ripping
up the scenery. [Connects two verbs]
I wanted to go swimming, but I didn't
want to take the kids. [Connects two independent clauses]
In some cases, conjunctions occur in pairs and must be used that way.
Those special cases are either/or and neither/nor.
These are called paired conjunctions. Examples:
Neither David nor Bill had money to put gas in the car.
You must choose either the black
or the green upholstery.
Now might be a good time to try the conjunction quiz.
If you need more help with conjunctions after taking the quiz, stop by
the Sul Ross Writing Lab and one of the tutors will give you some extra practice and
instruction. Print out your quiz results and take them with you.
Interjections
Interjections are words used to convey strong emotions or surprise.
You probably will not use the interjection very much in your college
writing. It is too informal for most of the writing you will do in college. If you listen
for interjections, you will probably hear them spoken, but you will
seldom see them written except in the dialogue of a story. When used, interjections
usually occur at the beginning of a sentence and are followed either by a comma or an
exclamation point. The most important thing to remember about interjections
is not to overuse them, especially in the type of writing you will be doing in your
college classes. Some examples of sentences that contain interjections
are as follows:
Yikes! The part of the movie
where the stalker jumped out was really scary.
Oh, I don't know whether I want
to go out for dinner or not.
Ouch! It hurt when you stepped
on my foot.
Summary
We have briefly covered the eight basic parts of speech in this section. Now you know
who the players are. Their joint function is to build good sentences, paragraphs, and
essays. Some of the team members occasionally fill in for others. Don't let that confuse
you. The more you get to know them, the easier it will be to tell them apart. And,like
baseball or any other team sport, whether you are a spectator or a participant, you will
enjoy the game more when you know the rules. If you haven't been taking the quizzes as you
went along, now would be a good time to do that. When you have finished, you may print out
your results. Don't forget about the writing lab if you need more practice. For Sul Ross
students, the lab is located in MAB 102. The tutors will be glad to help you.
If you haven't been doing the quizzes as you went along, click on the link below to
practice your skills in any of the concepts discussed above. You will be able to print out
your results and take them to the SRSU writing lab if you need further instruction in a
particular area. Go on! I dare you. No pain, no gain.
Test your skills
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Copyright ©2006 Title V Co-Op and NMSU-Carlsbad
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