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Parts of Speech Nouns: A noun NAMES a person, place, thing, or idea. Ask yourself, “Can I sensibly use the word a, an, or the with this word?” If you can, it is probably a noun. If not, it is not. To be a noun, it must be naming a person, place, thing, or idea in the sentence. Some words may be nouns in one sentence, and not nouns in other sentences. Examples: a. The upstairs of the large house was completely empty. (bold words are nouns; the upstairs and the house) We went upstairs to see where they were going to house the art exhibit. (same bold words are not nouns. Upstairs=adverb; house=verb) b. Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens (the raindrops, the roses, the whiskers, the kittens, the kettles, the mittens. You could NOT say the bright or the woolen) Copy the rest of the adaptation of the song “My Favorite Things” by Oscar Hammerstein from “The Sound of Music” and underline all of the nouns you find. Brown paper packages tied up with strings These are a few of my favorite nouns Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels Doorbells and sleighbells and schnitzel with noodles Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings These are a few of my favorite nouns Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes Silver white winters that melt into springs These are a few of my favorite nouns When the dog bites When the bee stings When I'm feeling sad I simply remember my favorite nouns And then I don't feel so bad. Verbs: Verbs carry the idea of being or action in the sentence. I am a student. The students passed all their courses. Ask youself, “What is done in this sentence?” or “Are any of the words forms of “be?” The forms of be are on your list of words to avoid when writing. They are verbs. (is, am, are, was, were, have, has, had, be, been, being) Examples: Mo Vaughan left the Redsox and alienated many fans in the process. (What did he do?) By the next election, Mr. Peters will have been acting as mayor for sixteen years. (string of helping verbs along with an action verb: will, have, and been are helping verbs—acting is the action verb) Copy the sentences and underline the verb(s). There may be more than one verb. If there are helping verbs, underline them along with the main verb. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. The bears began their long hibernation. The youngsters were looking for a mentor to help them learn calculus. She left the village but never abandoned her principles. His disposition soured by circumstances, Aurelio soon found himself without friends. Wendy wrote repeatedly to the editor about the paper's unwillingness to cover local events. 6. The results of this social experiment were neither acceptable nor expected. Adjectives: Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person, place, idea, or thing in the sentence. The Articles — a, an, and the — are adjectives. Adjectives almost always appear immediately before the noun or pronoun they describe or modify. Adjectives answer the questions “What kind?” “Which one?” “How many?” “Whose is it?” Before getting into other usage considerations, one general note about the use — or overuse — of adjectives: Adjectives are frail; don't ask them to do more work than they should. Let your broad-shouldered verbs and nouns do the hard work of description. Be particularly cautious in your use of adjectives that don't have much to say in the first place: interesting, beautiful, lovely, exciting. It is your job as a writer to create beauty and excitement and interest, and when you simply insist on its presence without showing it to your reader — well, you're convincing no one. Example: Consider the uses of modifiers in this adjectivally rich paragraph from Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel. (Charles Scribner's, 1929, p. 69.) Adjectives are highlighted in this color; participles, verb forms acting as adjectives, are highlighted in this blue. Some people would argue that words that are part of a name — like "East India Tea House — are not really adjectival and that possessive nouns — father's, farmer's — are not technically adjectives, but we've included them in our analysis of Wolfe's text. He remembered yet the East India Tea House at the Fair, the sandalwood, the turbans, and the robes, the cool interior and the smell of India tea; and he had felt now the nostalgic thrill of dew-wet mornings in Spring, the cherry scent, the cool clarion earth, the wet loaminess of the garden, the pungent breakfast smells and the floating snow of blossoms. He knew the inchoate sharp excitement of hot dandelions in young earth; in July, of watermelons bedded in sweet hay, inside a farmer's covered wagon; of cantaloupe and crated peaches; and the scent of orange rind, bitter-sweet, before a fire of coals. He knew the good male smell of his father's sitting-room; of the smooth worn leather sofa, with the gaping horse-hair rent; of the blistered varnished wood upon the hearth; of the heated calf-skin bindings; of the flat moist plug of apple tobacco, stuck with a red flag; of wood-smoke and burnt leaves in October; of the brown tired autumn earth; of honey-suckle at night; of warm nasturtiums, of a clean ruddy farmer who comes weekly with printed butter, eggs, and milk; of fat limp underdone bacon and of coffee; of a bakery-oven in the wind; of large deep-hued stringbeans smoking-hot and seasoned well with salt and butter; of a room of old pine boards in which books and carpets have been stored, long closed; of Concord grapes in their long white baskets. Use of adjectives in this way creates a picture for us to view as we read. Try to construct your writing in the same manner, to show your reader, rather than tell them. List the adjectives you find in the lyrics to the song: UNPACK YOUR ADJECTIVES Music & Lyrics: George R. Newall Got home from camping last spring. Saw people, places and things. We barely had arrived, Friends asked us to describe The people, places and every last thing. So we unpacked our adjectives. I unpacked "frustrating" first. Reached in and found the word "worst". Then I picked "soggy" and Next I picked "foggy" and Then I was ready to tell them my tale. 'Cause I'd unpacked my adjectives. Adjectives are words you use to really describe things, Handy words to carry around. Days are sunny or they're rainy Boys are dumb or else they're brainy Adjectives can show you which way. Adjectives are often used to help us compare things, To say how thin, how fat, how short, how tall. Girls who are tall can get taller, Boys who are small can get smaller, Till one is the tallest And the other's the smallest of all. We hiked along without care. Then we ran into a bear. He was a hairy bear, He was a scary bear, We beat a hasty retreat from his lair. And described him with adjectives. >> (Whoah! Boy, that was one big, ugly bear!) (You can even make adjectives out of the other parts of speech, like verbs or nouns. All you have to do is tack on an ending, like "ic" or "ish" or "ary". For example, this boy can grow up to be a huge man, but still have a boyish face. "Boy" is a noun, but the ending "ish" makes it an adjective. "Boyish": that describes the huge man's face. Get it?) Next time you go on a trip, Remember this little tip: The minute you get back, They'll ask you this and that, You can describe people, places and things... Simply unpack your adjectives. You can do it with adjectives. Tell them 'bout it with adjectives. You can shout it with adjectives. Adverbs: Adverbs wear many hats. They are words that modify, or change/enhance the ideas of certain types of words. Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They answer the questions “How was it done?” “Where was it done?” “When was it done?” or “To what extent was it done?” Adverbs can be found in almost any position in the sentence. They may begin the sentence, appear just before or just after the word they modify, be found in between a helping verb and main verb, be in the middle of a prepositional phrase, or in the middle or at the end of a sentence. Solemnly the minister addressed her congregation. The minister solemnly addressed her congregation. The minister addressed her congregation solemnly. Examples: He drove slowly. — How did he drive? (modifying a verb) The students showed a wonderfully casual attitude.– To what extent was their attitude wonderful? (modifying an adj.) She moved quite slowly down the aisle. – How slowly did she move? (modifying another adverb) She moved slowly and spoke quietly. – adverbs of manner She still lives there now. – adverbs of place She often goes by herself. – adverbs of frequency She finished her tea first. – adverbs of time She drives her boat slowly (through the bay) to avoid hitting the rocks. – adverbial (phrase) or clause of purpose Copy each sentence and underline the adverb or adverbial clause or phrase. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. She usually shops for clothes at the local thrift store. She leaves the island after dark during the months of December and January. Ramona prays fervently at St. Matthew's Church for her grandmother's recovery. Dry the car carefully with a soft fluffy towel. We rarely see this kind of talent on a small-town high school baseball team. Prepositions: A preposition describes a relationship between other words in a sentence. In itself, a word like "in" or "after" is rather meaningless and hard to define in mere words. For instance, when you do try to define a preposition like "in" or "between" or "on," you invariably use your hands to show how something is situated in relationship to something else. Prepositions are nearly always combined with other words in structures called prepositional phrases. Prepositional phrases can be made up of a million different words, but they tend to be built the same: a preposition followed by a determiner and an adjective or two, followed by a pronoun or noun (called the object of the preposition). This whole phrase, in turn, takes on a modifying role, acting as an adjective or an adverb, locating something in time and space, modifying a noun, or telling when or where or under what conditions something happened. Consider the professor's desk and all the prepositional phrases we can use while talking about it. Prepositions are, of course, in blue. You can sit before the desk (or in front of the desk). The professor can sit on the desk (when he's being informal) or behind the desk, and then his feet are under the desk or beneath the desk. He can stand beside the desk (meaning next to the desk), before the desk, between the desk and you, or even on the desk (if he's really strange). If he's clumsy, he can bump into the desk or try to walk through the desk (and stuff would fall off the desk). Passing his hands over the desk or resting his elbows upon the desk, he often looks across the desk and speaks of the desk or concerning the desk as if there were nothing else like the desk. Because he thinks of nothing except the desk, sometimes you wonder about the desk, what's in the desk, what he paid for the desk, and if he could live without the desk. You can walk toward the desk, to the desk, around the desk, by the desk, and even past the desk while he sits at the desk or leans against the desk. All of this happens, of course, in time: during the class, before the class, until the class, throughout the class, after the class, etc. And the professor can sit there in a bad mood [another adverbial construction]. The following is a list of common prepositions, but is by no means a complete list of prepositions: about above across after against around at before behind below beneath beside besides between beyond by down during except for from in inside into like near of off on out outside over since through throughout till to toward under until up upon with without according to because of by way of in addition to in front of in place of in regard to in spite of instead of on account of out of In everyday speech, we fall into some bad habits, using prepositions where they are not necessary. It would be a good idea to eliminate these words altogether, but we must be especially careful not to use them in formal, academic prose. She met up with the new coach in the hallway. The book fell off of the desk. He threw the book out of the window. She wouldn't let the cat inside of the house. Where did they go to? Put the lamp in back of the couch. (use “behind”) Where is your college at? Read this excerpt from Ernest Hemingway’s short story “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.” Make a list of all prepositions that occur in the passage. Francis Macomber had, half an hour before, been carried to his tent from the edge of the camp in triumph on the arms and shoulders of the cook, the personal boys, the skinner and the porters. The gun-bearers had taken no part in the demonstration. When the native boys put him down at the door of his tent, he had shaken all their hands, received their congratulations, and then gone into the tent and sat on the bed until his wife came in. She did not speak to him when she came in and he left the tent at once to wash his face and hands in the portable wash basin outside and go over to the dining tent to sit in a comfortable canvas chair in the breeze and the shade. Conjunctions: A conjunction is a word that connects other words or groups of words. In the sentence Bob and Dan are friends the conjunction and connects two nouns and in the sentence He will drive or fly, the conjunction or connects two verbs. In the sentence It is early but we can go, the conjunction but connects two groups of words.Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions which connect two equal parts of a sentence. The most common ones are and, or, but, and so which are used in the following ways: and is used to join or add words together in the sentence They ate and drank. or is used to show choice or possibilities as in the sentence He will be here on Monday or Tuesday. but is used to show opposite or conflicting ideas as in the sentence She is small but strong. so is used to show result as in the sentence I was tired so I went to sleep. Subordinating conjunctions connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal. Some of the more common subordinating conjunctions such as: after before unless although if until as since when because than while Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together. In the sentence Both Jan and Meg are good swimmers, both . . .and are correlative conjunctions. The most common correlative conjunctions are: both . . .and either . . . or neither . . . nor not only . . . but also Pronouns: A pronoun is often defined as a word which can be used instead of a noun. For example, instead of saying John is a student, the pronoun he can be used in place of the noun John and the sentence becomes He is a student. We use pronouns very often, especially so that we do not have to keep on repeating a noun. This chapter is about the kind of pronoun called a personal pronoun because it often refers to a person. Like nouns, personal pronouns sometimes have singular and plural forms (I-we, he-they). Unlike nouns, personal pronouns sometimes have different forms for masculine/male, feminine/female and neuter (he-she-it). Also unlike nouns, personal pronouns have different forms depending on if they act as subjects or objects (he-him, she-her). A subject is a word which does an action and usually comes before the verb, and an object is a word that receives an action and usually comes after the verb. For example, in the sentence Yesterday Susan called her mother, Susan is the subject and mother is the object. The pronoun she can be used instead of Susan and the pronoun her can be used instead of mother. The form of a personal pronoun also changes according to what person is referred to. Person is used here as a grammar word and means: 1st person or the self (I, me, we), 2nd person or the person spoken to (you), 3rd person or the person spoken about (he, she, him, her, they, them). There is also a possessive form of the pronoun. Just as we can make a noun possessive as in the sentence That is my father's book to mean That is the book of my father, we can make the pronoun possessive and say That book is his. There are possessive adjective forms (such as my, your, his, her etc.) that are discussed with other adjectives in chapter 4. Possessive pronouns can stand by themselves without nouns, but possessive adjectives, like other adjectives, are used together with nouns. There is also an intensive form of the pronoun which intensifies or emphasizes the noun that it comes after as in the sentence I myself saw him. The reflexive form of the pronoun looks exactly like the intensive form but is used when the subject and object of a verb refers to the same person as in the sentence I saw myself in the mirror. All of this may sound confusing, but if you study the chart below, it will be clearer: Person Subject Object Singular Possessive Intensive Reflexive 1st I me mine myself 2nd you you yours yourself 3rd he/she/it him/her/it his/hers Plural himself/herself/itself Subject Object Possessive Intensive Reflexive 1st we us ours ourselves 2nd you you yours yourselves Person 3rd they them theirs themselves Notice that the form you is the same for subject and object, singular and plural and that there is no neuter singular possessive form. There are also interrogative pronouns (who, which, what) used for asking questions and relative pronouns (who, which, what, that) used in complex sentences which will be discussed in another place. Some grammar books also talk about demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those) and indefinite pronouns (some, all, both, each, etc.) which are very similar to adjectives and do not need to be discussed here. Identifying Parts of Speech in Sentences: First of all, a word can be more than one part of speech and you have to look at how the word works in a particular sentence to know what part of speech it is. The chart below shows examples of words that have more than one part of speech. Word Sentence Part of Speech can I think I can do it. verb can Don't open that can of beans. noun only This is my only pen. adjective only He was only joking. adverb his That book is his. pronoun his That is his book. adjective English Can you speak English? noun English I am reading an English novel. adjective The verb is the heart of a sentence, so it is a good idea to identify the verb first when looking at a sentence. Verbs can be recognized through: past tense ending (looked) 3rd person singular ending (says) auxiliary verb (will see) modal verb (can hear) Identifying parts of speech Name:_______________ English 1. hourly Date:_______________ _________________ 2. are _________________ 3.into _________________ 4.repress _________________ 5.it _________________ 6.wilderness _________________ 7.simple _________________ 8.across _________________ 9.shorter _________________ 10.raisin _________________ 11.simulate _________________ 12.either/or _________________ 13.craftily _________________ 14.as _________________ 15.dimmest _________________ 16.secretly _________________ 17.inside _________________ 18.smoothly _________________ 19.wristband _________________ 20.as if _________________ 21.watermelon _________________ 22.nor _________________ 23.emit _________________ 24.itself _________________ 25.by _________________ 26.chanceful _________________ 27.them _________________ 28.with _________________ 29.ours _________________ 30.although _________________ Copy the following paragraph, identifying the part of speech for each word. Use the following code to label the words: Verb = v Noun = n Pronoun = pro Adjective = adj Adverb = adv Preposition = prep Conjunction = con Lewis and Clark led the first overland expedition to the Pacific Northwest __________________________________________________________ and back. In journals and maps, they collected important information on the __________________________________________________________ geography, animals, plants, and people of these unknown lands. President __________________________________________________________ Thomas Jefferson wanted a “Corps of Discovery” to explore the western parts of ___________________________________________________________ the continent after the country acquired them from France in the 1803 Louisiana ___________________________________________________________ Purchase. Jefferson named Lewis head of the expedition. Lewis invited Clark, an ___________________________________________________________ old army friend, to lead with him. In the spring of 1804, the expedition of thirty ___________________________________________________________ members set out from St. Louis. For three years they traveled thousands of miles. ____________________________________________________________ They faced many dangers, such as hostile Indians, grizzly bears, rattlesnakes, ____________________________________________________________ sickness, and near starvation. The Lewis and Clark expedition stirred America’s ____________________________________________________________ imagination and now people began to push westward. Soon, the nation would ____________________________________________________________ stretch from sea to sea. ____________________