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Parts of Speech:
Nouns, Pronouns , Adjectives, Verbs,
Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions,
Interjections
Noun:
The name of a person, place, or thing.
Proper nouns: capitalized
Common nouns: not capitalized
Concrete nouns: names of objects
Abstract nouns: names of ideas
Collective nouns: names of groups of things
Singular nouns: names of individual things
Plural nouns: names of plural things
 Pronoun:
A word that takes the place of a
noun.
 Pronouns make language fast.
 Pronouns can be masculine (he, him, his)
 Pronouns can be feminine (she, her, hers)
Subject pronouns
First person:
Second person:
Third person:
Singular
I
you
he, she, it
Plural
we
you
they
 The
pronoun’s antecedent is the noun the
pronoun replaces.
 Pronouns
are not specific!

This causes problems when the pronoun could
refer to several different antecedents.

Example:

The boy and his friend walked home and soon he
stopped to tie his shoe.
Object pronouns
1st person:
2nd person:
3rd person:
Singular
me
you
him, her, it
Plural
us
you
them
Possessive pronouns
A pronoun that is used to show possession
Used as both a pronoun and an adjective
Does not need apostrophes
Possessive pronouns:
my, your, his, her, its, our, theirs
it’s
is a contraction of it is, not a pronoun
 Interrogative
pronouns
Used in a question

who, whose, whom, which, that
 Demonstrative
pronouns
Used to demonstrate

this, that, these, those
 Relative
pronouns
Relates an adjective clause to a main clause

who, whose, whom, which, that
Reflexive pronouns
Ends in –self or –selves and reflects back to a
word used previously in the sentence
himself, herself, myself
 Indefinite pronouns
General pronouns that do not have definite
antecedents
anyone, anybody, each, all, someone

 Intensive
pronouns
Is a –self or –selves pronoun used to intensify
the emphasis on a noun or another pronoun
I, myself, agree with that idea.
 Pronoun/antecedent
agreement
A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in
number. If the noun is singular, the pronoun
must be singular too.
Alexander brought the column to a halt; he
summoned his mapmaker.
The soldiers found Archimedes; they did not
recognize the crazy old man.
If Hemingway or Fitzgerald is here, let him in.
If Hemingway and Fitzgerald are here, let
them in.
 Common

The missing antecedent


No antecedent noun to which the pronoun refers
 He was born in 1895? (he who?)
The ambiguous reference


pronoun reference errors:
Two or more nouns to which the pronoun might refer
 The boy and his friend stopped to tie his shoe.
The ghost demonstration error

Misusing the pronoun this and confusing the reader
 This soon resulted in. . .(this what?)
 The
solution:
Replace the pronoun with a noun.
Some additional pronouns:
It is advisable to think first.
Each person had her own method.
“This dog looked like he belonged to rich
people. Fausto cleaned his juice-sticky
hands on his pants and got to his feet. The
light in his head grew brighter. It just might
work. He called the dog, patted its
muscular back, and bent down to check the
license.”
How many words are in this passage?
How many of these words are pronouns?
48
9
“This dog looked like he belonged to rich
people. Fausto cleaned his juice-sticky
hands on his pants and got to his feet. The
light in his head grew brighter. It just might
work. He called the dog, patted its
muscular back, and bent down to check the
license.”
How many words are in this passage?
How many of these words are pronouns?
48
8
 ADJECTIVE:




A word that modifies a noun or pronoun.
Modify means to change.
Adjectives help us to describe nouns and
pronouns more completely.
A noun can do without an adjective, but an
adjective cannot exist without a noun or
pronoun.
 There



are three degrees of adjectives
Positive
Comparative
Superlative
Good
Positive
Easy
better
comparative
easier
best
superlative
easiest
 Proper
adjectives are made out of proper
nouns.


England makes English
Rome makes Roman
English and Spanish are capitalized because they come
from proper nouns
(as opposed to history and math)

 Articles

a, an, the
The definite article is the
The indefinite articles are a and an
Spanish has masculine and feminine articles,
English does not.
 Verb:

A word that shows actions, being, or links a
subject to a subject compliment

The verb is saying that the noun did something or
that the noun is something.
 Action

Might show simple action


verbs
Verdi composed.
Might show action on a direct object

Verdi composed the opera.
 Linking

Linking verbs:


verbs:
am, is, are, was, were, being, been
Might link the subject to a subject compliment.


He is a poet. (a poet is the subject compliment)
He was going to studying all night. (going to studying
all night is the subject complement)
 Four

Infinitive


going, doing, thinking, dreaming
Past


to go, to do, to think, to dream
Present participle


principle parts of the verb:
went, did, thought, dreamed
Past participle

gone, done, thought, dreamed
 Regular
verbs:
Most verbs make the four principle parts in the
same regular way.
Infinitive present part past
past part
To work
working
worked
worked
To spill
spilling
spilled
spilled

 Irregular
verbs:
Those verbs that are unique and have no pattern.
To shrink, shrinking, shrank, shrunk
To ring, ringing, rang, rung
To break, breaking, broke, broken

 Auxiliary

or helping verbs
In a compound tense, the main verb is
supplemented by an auxiliary or helping verb.

I will have composed a symphony. (the main verb is
composed and the auxiliary verbs are will have)
 Transitive

verb
Is an action verb that acts on a direct object.

The harpoon hit Moby Dick.
 Intransitive

verb
Is an action verb that does not act on a direct
object.

Harpoons flew.
 Active

Voice
Is an action verb that shows the subject acting.

Johnson discussed the problem.
 Passive

Voice
Is an action verb that shows the subject passively
being acted upon.


The problem was discussed.
Passive voice is used often in scientific writing.
 Not: First I administered the placebos.
 But: The placebos were administered.
 Active

Voice:
The meteor struck the ship.
 Passive

The ship was struck by the meteor.
 Active

Voice:
The Literary Society presented Dickens the
award.
 Passive

Voice:
Voice:
Dickens was presented with an award.
 Verbs
also indicate time.
 There are six verb tenses.






Present
Past
Future
Present perfect
Past perfect
Future perfect
 They
are called perfect tense because it is
the tense of things that are finished:
 in the past
 in the present
 in the future
 Present

progressive:
Indicates an action still in progress.






Present progressive: I am protesting.
Past progressives: I was protesting.
Future progressive: I shall be protesting.
Present perfect progressive: I have been protesting.
Past perfect progressive: I had been protesting.
Future perfect progressive: I shall have been
protesting.
 Verbs
have moods.
 Indicative

Ordinary mood

I am going.
 Imperative

Command mood

Go!
 Subjunctive

(used with the verb were)
IF mood
If I was going. . .
(Spanish and the soft subjunctive.)

 Parallel
verb tense—sticking to the tense you
are using.
 Not parallel

When Charles Dickens went to America, he gives
many speeches and feels that his trip was
successful.
 Parallel

When Charles Dickens went to America, he gave
many speeches and felt that his trip was
successful.
 Only
action verbs are transitive or
intransitive, active or passive voice.
 Linking
verbs (To be) are not.
 Adverb:
a word that modifies a verb, an
adjective, or another adverb.
 Adverbs
modify three kinds of words that
adjectives do not modify.
 Don’t


“During the first half of the twentieth century
the world greatly changed.”
“During the first half of the twentieth century,
the world changed.”
 Try


overuse adverbs.
to avoid the use of “very”
He was very, very hungry.
He was hungry.
 Adverbs
often show when, where, under
what condition and how.
 When?

Always, earlier, frequently, late, never, now,
often, seldom, tomorrow, usually, yesterday
 Where?

Down, everywhere, here, in, North, nowhere,
out, somewhere, South, there, up, upstairs
 Under

Also, certainly, maybe, not, perhaps, possibly,
out
 How?

what condition?
(most of these end in –ly)
Carefully, commonly, easily, fast, noisily, quickly,
slowly, well
A
word that shows the relationship between
its object and another word in the sentence.
 Prepositions
show where two things are
located, in relationship to each other.
 Prepositions



show relationships of
Time—before, during, after
Space—in, on, beside, around
Direction—to, from, toward
 Most
of the time, you shouldn’t end a
sentence with a preposition. It happens
more often now.


“Who is this present for?”
“For whom is this present?”
 Concatenated
(chained) prepositional
phrases—one of the most common patterns in
grammar.
 This
is a chain of prepositional phrases in
which each phrase modifies the object of
preposition of the previous phrase.

Her eyes were of the blue of the sky in the fall in
San Juan.
A
word that joins two words or two groups of
words.
 Coordinating
 Memorize

conjunctions joins equals.
these conjunctions:
and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet
 Subordinating
conjunctions subordinate.
 They
join something of lesser importance to
something of greater importance.
 Here

are some subordinating conjunctions:
if, as, since, when, because
 Correlative
conjunctions are multiple-word
conjunctions
 Either/or
and neither/nor
 Conjunctive
adverbs are conjunctions that
act as both adverbs and conjunctions
 However,
furthermore, moreover,
nevertheless, accordingly, and therefore
A
word that shows emotion but has no
grammatical function.
 The
interjection stands alone unlike all the
other parts of speech.
 Interjections
are the words that fill action
comic books.

Oh, ugh, oof, wow, yes, no, oops, etc.
 The
core of every idea is a noun/pronoun
and a verb.
 All
other parts of speech provide
elaborations and variations.
 Parts







of speech, simplified:
Nouns name things
Pronouns make language fast
Verbs make events and equations
Adjective and adverbs adjust nouns and verbs
Prepositions show relationships of physics and 3Dness
Conjunctions combine
Interjections emote