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PARTS OF SPEECH These definitions explain the 8 parts of speech in the English language. 1. NOUN A noun identifies a person, place, thing or idea. COMMON NOUNS are generic: boy, girl, city, ship, desk, courage. PROPER NOUNS are specific: Romeo, Juliet, St. Louis, Titanic . 2. PRONOUN A pronoun renames or refers back to the person, place, thing or idea mentioned earlier in a sentence. PERSONAL PRONOUNS: they, them I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, RELATIVE PRONOUNS: who, whom, whose, which, that, what INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS: who, which, what, whose (used in questions) DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS: this, that, these and those INDEFINITE PRONOUNS: (a partial list) all, anybody, anyone, both, each, everyone everybody, many, none, several, someone 3. VERB A verb expresses action or state of being. “Helping” verbs (such as modals and auxiliary verbs) are used with base verbs to make a verbal phrase. ACTION VERBS: see, run, jump, sing, study, dance, cry, shout, buy, sell, fix, think, wonder, etc. STATE OF BEING VERBS: am, is, was, were, will be, became, appear, seem, look, feel, etc. MODAL VERBS: can, could, will, would, shall, should, ought, must, may, might, etc. These verbs are found in verbal phrases, seldom by themselves: can see, will run, might study, must sell, etc. AUXILIARY VERBS: am, is, are, was, were, have, had, etc. In a VERBAL PHRASE, remember that the modal or auxiliary verb may be separated from the main verb, especially in a question: Did you hear me call? She is not going with us. How long have you been working at McDonald’s? 4. ADJECTIVE An adjective describes or modifies a noun or pronoun: blue eyes, that man, ten players. Adjectives tell what kind: blue eyes which one: that man how many: ten players 5. ADVERB An adverb modifies or describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb. It usually answers “question” statements: how? when? where? why? how often? how much? to what degree? The orchestra played beautifully. (How?) The band has played there. (Where?) The choir sang long. (To what extent?) He is extremely capable. (How capable?) She danced very slowly. (How slowly?) 6. PREPOSITION A preposition shows a relationship between a noun/pronoun and another word. Most prepositions show motion toward a place or location of an object. The English language has more than 40 prepositions, including these: above, across, behind, below, down, in, off, on, under, through, into, of, on account of, in spite of, etc. 7. CONJUNCTION A conjunction joins words or groups of words. There are three major classes of conjunctions in English: SUBORDINATE CONJUNCTIONS: when, while, although, because, since, if, until, even though, etc. COORDINATE CONJUNCTIONS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so CORRELATIVE CONJUNCTIONS (used in pairs): neither/nor; either/or; not only/ but also; both/and 8. INTERJECTION An interjection expresses an emotion such as delight, surprise, or disgust. It usually appears at the beginning of a sentence and often is followed by an exclamation point: (delight) Wow! Gosh! Golly! For heaven’s sake! (surprise) Oh! Ah! Yikes! Gee! (disgust) Yuck! Ugh! Bah! Remember, a word can be used as more than one part of speech. The function of a word determines what part of speech it is. For example Appearances can be deceiving. (Can is a modal verb) The tin can of tomatoes is dented. (Can is a noun) We should can peaches and plums. (Can is an action verb) The French actress danced the can-can. (Can-can is a noun-noun) This document was developed by the College Writing Center at STLCC-Meramec Revised 2016