Download The Eight Basic Parts of Speech

The Eight Basic Parts of Speech
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In English, words are classified into eight basic parts of speech based on their use in a sentence.
NOUN: A noun names a person, place or thing. Words like William, New York, sofa, and patriotism are
nouns. There are three different types of nouns:
Proper Nouns: name particular people, places and things and are capitalized: Professor Smith, Lake Michigan,
Pepsi, Buddhism.
Common Nouns: Name people and things in general and are not capitalized: doctor, river, soda, religion.
Group (Collective) Nouns: refer to groups of people or things as if they were one unit: team, audience, flock.
VERB: verbs say what the sentence does: “The boy ran.” Often, verbs are action words, like walking or
talking.
Linking Verbs: connect the subject to a word that identifies or describes the subject:
“The boy was tired.”
Transitive Verbs: have an object that receives the action of the verb: “The car hit the hydrant.”
Intransitive Verbs: do not take an object: “Birds fly.”
Verb Phrase: a verb phrase is made up of more than one word: has run, could have run, will be running.
Active Voice: a verb in active voice shows the subject acting: “The singer also played a guitar.”
Passive Voice: a verb in passive voice shows the subject being acted upon: “A guitar was played by the singer.”
ADJECTIVE: A word that describes a noun or a pronoun: “Talented actress” or “she is talented.” An
adjective tells which one, what kind or how many.
ADVERB: A word that describes a verb (ran slowly). An adverb tells how, when, or to what extent.
Adverbs can also describe an adjective (very beautiful), or another adverb( moved rather quickly)
INTERJECTION: A word showing strong feelings or emotions, such as Wow, Oh, No, Ah,
“Oh, I could hardly believe my eyes!”
PREPOSITION: A word like to, for, of, in, with, between, that connects a noun or a pronoun (its object) to
the rest of the sentence and forms a prepositional phrase: “They went swimming in the
river.” Prepositions, often describe time, place and location.
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PRONOUN: is a word that takes the place of a noun. AThe students entered slowly. They dreaded
Professor Higgins exams. For Example: “We gave them our tickets.”
Personal Pronouns: Refer to people or things:
Subject Forms:
I, we, she, he, it, they
Object Forms:
me, us, her, him, them
Possessive Forms: my, mine, your, yours, his, hers, their, theirs, its
Indefinite Pronouns: Do not refer to any specific person or thing. (each, neither, anyone, everybody,
etc). For example: “Nobody knows the answer.”
Interrogative Pronouns: Begin questions. (who, whom, whose, what, which).
For example: “Whose book is it?”
Relative Pronouns: The interrogative pronouns, plus whoever, whomever, whichever, whatever,
begin dependent clauses. For example: “The books were free to whoever needed them.”
Intensive Pronouns: Words ending in -self or -selves, give emphasis to a noun or other pronoun.
For Example: “The doctor himself set the appointment.” / “We ourselves will pay the bill.”
Reflexive Pronouns: Words ending in -self or -selves, show the subject acting upon itself.
For example: “The carpenter hit himself on the thumb.”
Demonstrative Pronouns: This, that, these, those, point to a particular person or thing:
For example: “These are my favorite flowers.”
CONJUNCTION: A word that joins other words. Conjunctions also join clauses. There are three types of
conjunctions:
Coordinating Conjunctions: “Connectors” In the English language there are seven coordinating
conjunctions, (and, but, or, for, nor, yet, so). They join grammatically equal units, such as two
independent clauses: “Sylvia attended the concert, but Glenn was out of town.” When using a
coordinating conjunction to join two independent clauses, a comma is placed before the conjunction.
Subordinating Conjunctions: “Dependent Words” Subordinating conjunctions join dependent
clauses to independent clauses. They include words like (although, because, since, unless). “
For Example: “We went by train because Ernie doesn’t like to fly.” If the dependent clause comes
at the beginning of the sentence, use a comma to connect it to the rest of the sentence. For example:
“Because I was tired, I fell asleep in class.”
Conjunctive adverbs or Transitions: “Transitions” (however, moreover, nevertheless, finally)
Conjunctive adverbs are also called transitions they are also used to join independent clauses.
For Example: “Bernice got a pay raise; however, she remained unhappy.” Notice, when using a
conjunctive adverb to join independent clauses, you use a semicolon before the conjunction and a
comma after the conjunction.
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