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Building Blocks of Grammar:
Parts of Speech and Grammatical Categories
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).
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 to
test your knowledge, and a companion
PowerPoint presentation provides speeded
practice that better assesses the strength of
your knowledge.
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.
Contents
Nine Parts of Speech
Quiz #1
Quiz #2
Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives
Grammatical Categories (Features)
Quiz #3
References
Strong
Weak
Figure 1. Strong knowledge comes to mind
rapidly when you need to use it.
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.
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.)
modify or qualify a noun. Consider these
sentences:
I like Spanish food. Here Spanish tells you
something about a thing...the noun
food.
I like salty popcorn. Here salty describes
the popcorn.
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:
The dog ran.
The cat is yellow.
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
We
You
She
He
It
They
Me
Us
You
Her
Him
It
Them
Adverbs
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.
Adverbs can also modify adjectives and adverbs,
as in the following examples:
It was very cold.
adjective
She walked really slowly down the aisle.
adverb
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.
1b.
1c.
1d.
She likes video games.
She likes video games.
She likes video games.
She likes video games.
2a.
2b.
2c.
2d.
Miranda gave him a present.
Miranda gave him a present.
Miranda gave him a present.
Miranda gave him a present.
3a.
3b.
3c.
3d.
He is a really great professor.
He is a really great professor.
He is a really great professor.
He is a really great professor.
Adjectives
Adjectives tell us something about a noun.
Another way of saying this is that adjectives
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Interjections
4a.
4b.
4c.
4d.
4c.
The dog slowly dug an enormous hole.
The dog slowly dug an enormous hole.
The dog slowly dug an enormous hole.
The dog slowly dug an enormous hole.
The dog slowly dug an enormous hole.
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.
Prepositions
Determiners
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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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
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
Complicate
the rising sun
a complicated
explanation
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
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.”)
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.
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
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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:
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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
She took the candy. The candy was taken by her.
I am listening. You are listening.
The dog is digging. The dogs are digging.
He is smart. She is smart.
I am looking. I looked.
I have a cat. The cat is mine.
The students study. The students are studying.
You are fast. Go fast!
Enjoy good food. Enjoy better food.
References
Dictionary.com. (2014). Verbs. Retrieved from
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/verb
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Owl at Purdue. (2014). Parts of speech
overview. Retrieved from
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/7
30/01/
Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. New
York, NY: W. Morrow and Company.
Quiz #3
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
voice
person
number
gender
tense
case
aspect
mood
degree
Quiz Answers
Quiz #1
1a.
1b.
1c.
1d.
pronoun
adjective
noun
verb
2a.
2b.
2c.
2d.
noun
verb
pronoun
noun
3a.
3b.
3c.
3d.
adjective
verb
noun
adverb
4a.
4b.
4c.
4d.
4c.
noun
adverb
verb
adjective
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
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