Download Part of Speech Cheat Sheet

Parts of Speech/Grammar Basics
Parts of Speech
NOUN: Person, place, thing, or idea
COMMON-lower case; general things (ex-boy, girl, dog)
PROPER-capital letter; specific places, people, etc. (ex-Goose Creek)
POSSESSIVE-shows ownership (ex-boy’s)
PRONOUN: Takes the place of a noun
PERSONAL-I, you, he, she, it, we, they-nominative…name (ex-We are going to the store.)
Me, you, him, her, it, us, them-objective…objects of verbs/prepositions (ex-Please give that to me.)
My, your, his, her, its, mine, yours, our, their, ours, theirs…possessive-shows possession/ownership (ex-That
book on the shelf is mine.)
REFLEXIVE-Myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves…reflects back to self
(ex-You need to give yourself a break.)
INTERROGATIVE-Which? Whose? What? Whom? Who?...asks a question (ex-Whose pencil is this?)
RELATIVE-That, which, who, whom, whose…can start dependent clauses (ex-I like the sweater that you are
wearing.)
DEMONSTRATIVE-That, this, these, those…demonstrate which one (ex-I want this car.)
INDEFINITE-Each, either, neither, few, some, all, most, several, few, many, none, one, someone, no one,
everyone, anyone, somebody, nobody, everybody, anybody, more, much, another, both, any, other,
etc….don’t refer to a definite person or thing (ex-Everyone was invited to the party.)
ADVERB: Modifies adjectives (really cute), verbs (ran slowly), and other adverbs (very easily), tells HOW, WHEN,
WHERE, TO WHAT EXTENT. The word not is always an adverb
ADJECTIVE: Modifies nouns and pronouns, tells WHICH ONE, HOW MANY, WHAT KIND. The articles a, an, the
are considered adjectives, a proper adjective is a proper noun used as an adjective (American flag)
PREPOSITION: Shows a relationship between a noun or a pronoun with some other word in the sentence
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. (We went to school. We went up the stairs.)
CONJUNCTION: Joins words, phrases, and clauses
COORDINATING-FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So) Join together 2 or more independent clauses
(We were hungry, so we went out to eat. Jack flew left first, and he picked up Anna.)
SUBORDINATING-Begin dependent clauses-since, while, before, after, because, although, so that, if, when
whenever, as, even though, until, unless, as if, etc. (Since we were hungry, we went out to eat. Although he
left first, Jack picked up Anna.)
CORRELATIVE-a coordinating conjunction that pairs up with other words to connect elements in a sentence
Not only/but also, neither/nor, either/or, both/and (You will need both your book and your calculator.)
VERB:
ACTION-Shows action (She wrote a note. I traveled across country.)
LINKING-is, be, am, are, was, were, been, being, appear, become, feel, grow, look, remain, seem, small,
sound, stay, taste…links two words together…some linking verbs can function as action verbs as well (That
flower smells pretty...linking…The dog smelled the flower…action...English is fun…linking, The game is on
Saturday…action)
HELPING-is, be, am, are, was, were, been, being, will, would, can, could, shall, should, may, might, must,
have, has, had, do, does, did, ought…Helps the action or linking verb. If a verb phrase has four verbs, the
first three are helping; if a verb phrase has three verbs, the first two are helping, etc. (We have been taking
notes all day…”taking” is the action verb…She will be cold without a jacket…”be” is a linking verb)
INTERJECTION: Word used to express an emotion or exclamation and can be used as a pause (Ugh, I can’t believe
I failed that test! The burrito is vegan. YUCK!)
Verbal Phrases
VERBALS: Verbs that act as nouns or adjectives
GERUND-Verb acting like a noun; ends in –ing (Reading is fun. I enjoy shopping.)
PARTICIPLE- Verb acting like an adjective; ends in –ing or –ed (I have running shoes. Frightened, I ran
down the street.)
INFINITIVE-To + a verb; can act like a noun (I like to eat.), adjective (It’s the best place to eat.), or an adverb
(I need a pen to write my letter.)
Clauses/Sentence Structure Types
CLAUSES: A clauses always has a subject and verb, if it is missing one of those, then it is a phrase
INDEPENDENT CLAUSES- Every sentence must have at least one independent clause. An independent
clause can stand on its own as a sentence. It does not rely on the rest of the sentence to make sense or
complete a thought. An independent clause does not start with a relative pronoun or subordinating
conjunction. Independent clauses are combined using coordinating conjunctions. (“I really want to go to the
concert.” is an independent clause…”Wanting to go to the concert”…is a phrase because it has no
subject…”Because she wanted to go to the concert”…is a dependent clause because of the subordinating
conjunction)
DEPENDENT CLAUSES-A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence. It depends on the rest of
the sentence to complete its thought. A dependent clause starts with a relative pronoun or subordinating
conjunction and still has a subject and verb.
SENTENCE STRUCTURE TYPES:
SIMPLE-One independent clause (I really like shopping at Target.)
COMPOUND-Two or more independent clauses joined together with a coordinating conjunction (I like
eating pizza, but I like macaroni and cheese more.)
COMPLEX-One independent clause + one or more dependent clauses (I like football because we have a
really great team even though we did not make the playoffs.)
COMPOUND-COMPLEX-Two or more independent clauses + one or more dependent clauses…a
compound-complex sentence will have at least one coordinating conjunction and subordinating
conjunction (Although I have been teaching for 16 years, I still love it, and I hope to teach many more.)