Download unpack your adjectives

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.
____________________