Download Parts of Speech Review

Parts of Speech Review
We will spend a very brief amount of time reviewing parts of speech. Here are simple definitions of
the eight parts of speech:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Noun – person, place, thing, or idea
Verb – show action or a state of being
Pronoun- take the place of a noun
Adjective – modify nouns or pronouns. They tell which, whose, what kind, how many.
Adverbs – modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. They tell how, when, where and how much.
Prepositions – show a relationship between its object and another word in the sentence.
Conjunctions – join words, phrases and clauses.
Interjections – exclamatory word that shows feeling/emotion
Here are some examples/explanations to help refresh your memory about the eight parts of speech:
1. Nouns – child, Chicago, computer, honesty, happiness
Nouns can be common (not capitalized) or proper (capitalized).
They can sometimes be singular (girl) or plural (girls)
Nouns function in many ways. Most commonly we think of them as the subject of a sentence, but
they can also be the direct object, a complement, an object of the preposition, or an indirect object.
2. Verbs – carried, walks, read, is, played, were, spoke, came
Verbs tell what the subject of the sentence does, says, thinks or feels.
Verbs that indicate a state of being rather than an action are called “to be” verbs. They are words
like: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been, has, have, had.
Verbs show time, which is called tense. Present, past and future are types of verb tense.
3. Pronouns – he, she, they, it, hers, ourselves, theirs
Pronouns can be possessive (mine, yours, ours) or reflexive (myself, himself, yourselves).
Pronouns can be singular(I, you, she, it) or plural (we, you, they, them)
4. Adjectives – ugly, funny, big, round, loose
Some less obvious examples are that dog, her bone, enough food, every room. These are
adjectives because they describe the noun.
Adjectives can tell the color (blue, green), quality (honest, confident), size (enormous, tiny),
emotion(sad, nervous), or number (one, sixty-three).
Adjectives can also be demonstrative (this close, these markers). Sometimes adjectives look like
action verbs (interesting, boring, exciting).
Adjectives can show an observation (expensive), size (big), shape (square), age (antique), color
(teal), origin (Italian), material (silk), or be a qualifier (hunting cabin).
5. Adverbs – usually answer the questions when, where and how.
When – It snowed yesterday. He is coming soon.
Where – We are marching forward. Bob is walking downstairs.
How – Tom jogs slowly. It was raining hard.
Adverbial phrases can show the manner (impatiently), place (in the pool), frequency (every
morning), time (before supper), and purpose (to keep in shape).
6. Prepositions – can show direction, place and time. A prepositional phrase is the preposition plus
the object of the preposition.
Direction – to the store (to = preposition; the store = object)
Place – in the hall (in = preposition; the hall = object)
Time – at lunchtime (at = preposition; lunchtime = object)
7. Conjunctions – There are two kinds of conjunctions: coordinating and subordinating.
Coordinating – connects words, phrases or clauses (and, but neither/nor, not only/but also,
however)
Subordinating – introduces subordinate clause and connects it to the main clause (who, which,
that, although)
8. Interjections (Oh! Alas! Wow! Darn! Holy Cow!)
Interjections have no grammatical function in the construction of a sentence.
When labeling the parts of speech in a sentence, use the following abbreviations:
Noun = N
Verb = V
Pronoun = PRO
Adjective = ADJ
Adverb = ADV
Preposition = PREP
Conjunction = CONJ
Interjection = INT
Please be sure to use all capital letters.