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Building Blocks of Grammar
Parts of Speech and
Grammatical Categories
Produced by Central Michigan University’s Quality Initiative and Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
Last updated 11/11/15
Building Blocks of Grammar
Years before you went to school for the first
time, you effortlessly learned your native
language simply by hearing others speak.
Cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker calls
language an “instinct” because people know
how to talk “in more or less the sense that
spiders know how to spin webs” (Pinker, 1994, p.
18).
But knowing how to talk and reflecting on the
logic of language are different skills: People routinely use the appropriate words in sentences
without knowing why those words are correct.
Because it is not natural to think about the rules
that govern language choices, most students
need to learn the building blocks of language
before they can become skilled writers or
master a foreign language.
Surprisingly, students who remember basic
terms from their high school English classes
might still have trouble using this knowledge
to learn new skills. Knowledge exists on a
continuum, from information you call to mind
slowly and with mental effort (weak knowledge)
to information you retrieve rapidly and with
little effort (strong knowledge; see Figure 1).
Knowledge that takes more effort to retrieve is
not always available when you need to use it.
Therefore, one goal of this module is to improve
the strength of your knowledge about the
building blocks of grammar so you will retrieve
this knowledge quickly and accurately. You
can take a short quiz at the end of each section
Table of Contents
►► Nine Parts of Speech��������������������������3
►► Quiz #1����������������������������������������������������4
►► Quiz #2����������������������������������������������������5
►► Gerunds, Participles, and
Infinitives������������������������������������������������5
►► Grammatical Categories
(Features)�����������������������������������������������6
►► Quiz #3����������������������������������������������������7
►► References ��������������������������������������������7
to test your knowledge, and a companion
PowerPoint presentation provides speeded
practice that better assesses the strength of
your knowledge.
Nine Parts of Speech
Parts of speech are the basic categories of
words that we combine to express a complete
thought. Grammarians have traditionally listed
eight parts of speech, but some language scholars list nine or even ten. This module describes
nine.
Weak Strong Figure 1. Strong knowledge comes to mind rapidly when you need
to use it.
Verbs
The shortest complete thought you can express
usually consists of a noun and a verb. Verbs
describe what is happening in a sentence; you
cannot have a sentence without a verb. There
are different types of verbs, but as a group
they “describe an action, a state, or a relation
between two things” (Dictionary.com, 2014).
Here are some examples:
►► The dog ran. (Ran describes an action.)
►► The cat is yellow. (Is refers to a state and
links cat and yellow)
►► She feels tired. (Feels is an action and a link
between she and tired.)
Nouns
It is more difficult to define what a noun is, but
we usually say that a noun is a person, place, or
thing. Nouns function to answer the question
“Who?” or “What?” Here are the nouns in the
previous examples:
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Building Blocks of Grammar
►► The dog ran.
Adverbs can also modify adjectives and
adverbs, as in the following examples:
►► The cat is yellow.
►► It was very cold.
Pronouns
Now consider She feels tired. In this sentence,
she is a pronoun—a word that takes the place
of a noun. She is a pronoun because we don’t
know whom she refers to without reading a
previous sentence. For example, consider the
sentences “Jane worked all day. She feels tired.”
We know that she refers to, or takes the place of,
Jane. Jane is the noun; she is the pronoun.
A pronoun can be the subject of a sentence,
as in She worked all day, or an object, as in Tyler
worked with her. You use the following subject
and object pronouns frequently when you
speak and write (Owl at Purdue, 2014):
Subject Pronouns
Object Pronouns
I
Me
We
Us
You
You
She
Her
He
Him
It
It
They
Them
Adjectives
Adjectives tell us something about a noun.
Another way of saying this is that adjectives
modify or qualify a noun. Consider these
sentences:
ꜜadjective
►► She walked really slowly down the aisle
ꜜadverb
Quiz #1
Read each sentence and jot down the part of
speech of the bolded word. (Answers are at the
end of this module.)
1a. She likes video games.
1b. She likes video games.
1c. She likes video games.
1d. She likes video games.
2a. Miranda gave him a present.
2b. Miranda gave him a present.
2c. Miranda gave him a present.
2d. Miranda gave him a present.
3a. He is a really great professor.
3b. He is a really great professor.
3c. He is a really great professor.
3d. He is a really great professor.
4a. The dog slowly dug an enormous hole.
4b. The dog slowly dug an enormous hole.
4c. The dog slowly dug an enormous hole.
4d. The dog slowly dug an enormous hole.
4c. The dog slowly dug an enormous hole.
►► I like Spanish food. Here Spanish tells you
something about a thing...the noun food.
►► I like salty popcorn. Here salty describes
the popcorn.
Prepositions
Adverbs
Prepositions are among the most frequently
used words in English. When you think of prepositions, you probably think of words that occur
with a noun to express a relation, such as a
spatial or temporal relation. For example, when
you say “in the bucket,” in is the preposition;
when you say, “throughout the day,” throughout
is the preposition. The preposition of expresses
Adverbs often tell us something about a verb. I
really like Spanish food tells you how much you
like it, so really is an adverb. If you say, “I ate it
fast,” fast tells you something about how you
ate it, so fast is an adverb.
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Building Blocks of Grammar
a relation between a part and a whole, as in
the tip of the iceberg. Prepositions include the
words on, to, by, for, with, at, from, and as.
A prepositional phrase is a phrase with a preposition and the object of the preposition (e.g., to
the coffee shop). A preposition by itself has no
meaning.
Conjunctions
Conjunctions join two words or two parts of
a sentence. (“Conjoined” means “brought
together.”) The words and, but, or, nor, yet,
and so connect two parts of a sentence; so do
although and unless. Here are some examples
of conjunctions in action:
►► I would like to go, but I have an
appointment.
►► Johnny and James joined the band.
►► You are welcome to come, unless you are
sick.
Some words can play the role of a conjunction
or a preposition, depending upon the sentence. For example, if I said, “I will study until
my roommate comes home,” the word until is
a conjunction. But if I said, “I will study until
midnight,” the word until is a preposition.
Interjections
Interjections are short words like Ah!, Oh!, and
Errr that express emotion or hesitation. These
words have no grammatical relationship to the
rest of the sentence.
Determiners
Traditionally, the previous eight parts of speech
were considered the basic parts of speech.
Today, some grammarians consider determiners a separate part of speech. Determiners
introduce a noun and tell us whether the noun
phrase is specific or general. Unlike adjectives,
which describe a property of the noun, determiners do not tell us about a quality of the
noun itself.
The words a, an, and the are a type of determiner called articles. These words tell people
whether you are talking about any item, such as
when you say a dog or an apple, or a particular
item, such as when you say the dog or the apple.
Some grammarians consider articles a type of
adjective, but others consider them a separate
class of word—a determiner. Other determiners are possessive nouns (Lynn’s bag), numbers
(four pastries), indefinite pronouns (each seat)
and demonstrative pronouns (those books).
Quiz #2
Test how quickly you can label the bolded word
in each sentence. Answers are at the end of this
module.
1a. The shirt was really ugly.
1b. The shirt was really ugly.
1c. The shirt was really ugly.
2a. She went to the store and then came back.
2b. She went to the store and then came back.
2c. She went to the store and then came back.
3a. Gee, that was a hard test.
3b. Gee, that was a hard test.
3c. Gee, that was a hard test.
Gerunds, Participles,
and Infinitives
Sometimes, a word representing one part of
speech is altered to function as another part of
speech. This can trick you into misidentifying
the role the word plays in a sentence. Here are
three other terms that refer to specific types of
words.
Gerunds
In English, you can add ing onto a verb to create
a noun. For example, in the sentence Fishing is
boring, fishing is a noun.
When you use a word that is usually a verb after
a preposition, you use the gerund, as in I will
text you after arriving.
Some grammarians do not like to use the word
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Building Blocks of Grammar
gerund because it is similar to the next class of
words: present participles.
Participles
A participle is a word formed from a verb that is
used as an adjective.
Verb
Present Participle as an Adjective
Rise
the rising sun
Complicate
a complicated explanation
Infinitives
The word to plus a verb is an infinitive, as in to
run, to type, and to sing. Infinitives can function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs, as in the
following examples.
►► Noun: To wait much longer is silly.
►► Adjective: He brought a book to read.
►► Adverb: We must read the book to
understand.
These examples illustrate how difficult it can
be to identify parts of speech. For example,
phrases that begin with to can be infinitives, as
in We must read to understand, or prepositional
phrases, as in We must go to the library.
Grammatical Categories
(Features)
Words and words in phrases sometimes change
form for grammatical reasons. English has over
20 grammatical categories, which are reasons
for varied word forms. Here are nine of the
most important grammatical categories.
Number
Number is a property of nouns or pronouns
that indicates whether we are talking about
one thing (singular) or more than one thing
(plural). In English, adding an s onto a word is
an example of changing an item from singular
(girl) to plural (girls).
In a sentence, number agreement occurs when
the form of the verb matches the form of the
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noun. For example, we say He goes to work
every day, but They go to work every day. A
sentence lacks number agreement when the
number of the subject of the sentence and the
verb do not match. For example, The grammatical categories in this presentation is easy to learn
has a problem with number agreement. (You
should say, "The grammatical categories in this
presentation are easy to learn.")
Case
Case conveys the relationship between a noun
or pronoun and the rest of the sentence. In
English, we have the subjective case (I bought
the flowers), the objective case (She bought the
flowers for me), and the possessive case (The
flowers are mine). In the first example, you are
performing the action, so you choose I. When
you are the recipient of the action, as in the
second example, you choose me. When you
own something, you choose mine.
Gender
English recognizes natural gender through a
property of pronouns that indicates whether
the person referred to is male or female (e.g., he
vs. she and her vs. his). Although English does
not assign a gender to objects, many languages
do.
Person
Person is a category that differentiates people
in a conversation: First person is the speaker
(e.g., I), second person is the listener (e.g., you),
and third person is all other people or objects
(e.g., he or she).
Tense
Tense is the property of verbs that restricts the
time frame of an action or state of being, relative to the present. Tense includes the present
tense (I am typing) and the past tense (I typed
my paper).
Aspect
Aspect is a property of verbs that tells us about
the speaker’s perception of the duration,
frequency, or completion of an action:
Building Blocks of Grammar
►► simple: no information about time (They
eat).
►► continuous: the action is ongoing (They are
eating).
►► perfect: the action is completed (They have
eaten).
Mood
Mood is a feature of verbs that expresses something about the speaker’s view of the event. For
example, indicative is a simple statement (He is
a careful person); imperative is a command (Be
careful!); and subjunctive talks about something
that is desired, imagined, a possibility, or not
necessarily the current reality (You should be
careful).
Voice
Some verbs require an object in the sentence,
as in Jane gave away the table. Such sentences
are active when the subject of the sentence
performs the action, and passive when the
subject receives the action (e.g., The table was
given away by Jane).
Degree
Degree is a property of some adjectives and
adverbs that lets you convey whether you have
some, more, or the most of something: positive
(happy), comparative (happier), and superlative
(the happiest).
Quiz #3
For the last quiz in this module, compare each
set of sentences and jot down the grammatical
category that shifts.
1. She took the candy. The candy was taken by
her.
2. I am listening. You are listening.
3. The dog is digging. The dogs are digging.
4. He is smart. She is smart.
5. I am looking. I looked.
6. I have a cat. The cat is mine.
7. The students study. The students are studying.
8. You are fast. Go fast!
9. Enjoy good food. Enjoy better food.
References
Dictionary.com. (2014). Verbs. Retrieved from
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/verb
Owl at Purdue. (2014). Parts of speech overview.
Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/
owl/resource/730/01/
Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. New York,
NY: W. Morrow and Company.
Photographs courtesy University Communications
Quiz Answers
Quiz #1
1a. pronoun
1b. adjective
1c. noun
1d. verb
2a. noun
2b. verb
2c. pronoun
2d. noun
3a. adjective
3b. verb
3c. noun
3d. adverb
4a. noun
4b. adverb
4c. verb
4d. adjective
4c. noun
Quiz #2
1a. adverb
1b. noun
1c. adjective
2a. conjunction
2b. pronoun
2c. verb (came back
is called a phrasal
verb)
3a. interjection
3b. determiner
3c. adjective
Quiz #3
1. voice
2. person
3. number
4. gender
5. tense
6. case
7. aspect
8. mood
9. degree
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