Download PARTS OF SPEECH STUDY GUIDE

PARTS OF SPEECH STUDY GUIDE
Noun
Purpose in a sentence: a word used as the name of something: a person, place, thing,
or idea
Proper noun vs. common noun (proper nouns are always capitalized)
Examples of each in a sentence:
o Sam found a rock.
o The Empire State Building is very high.
Pronoun
Purpose in a sentence: a word used in place of a noun
Antecedent (the noun that the pronoun replaces)
Sampling of common pronouns (I, my mine, me, you, your, yours, he, she, it,
his, hers, its, we our, ours, they, their, theirs, them, etc.)
Examples of each in a sentence:
o Come with me please.
o He blamed it on the Empire State Building, but it was not to blame!
Verb
Purpose in a sentence: a word that shows action or state of being
Main verb (doing the action)
Helping verbs (shall, will, should, would, could, must, can, may, have, had, has, do,
did, and the forms of the verb be: is, are, was, were, being, been, am)
Examples of each in a sentence
o Sam cried all night.
o He should have been looking for his rock.
Adjective
Purpose in a sentence: a word used to describe a noun or pronoun
Articles (introduce a noun): A, AN, and THE
answer the questions: what kind, which one, how many
Examples of each in a sentence
o The pretty rock remained on Sam’s mind.
o The beautiful bird landed on the steep ledge.
Adverb
Purpose in a sentence: used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb
Adverbs tell how, when, where, why, how often, and how much
Usually (but not always) end in –ly
Examples of each in a sentence
o Sam looked sadly into the sky.
o He wailed endlessly about his lost rock, but the dark night quietly ignored him.
Conjunction
Purpose in a sentence: connects words or groups of words (“hooking up words, and
phrases and clauses…”)
Coordinating Conjunctions (FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
Correlative Conjunctions (either/or, neither/nor, both/and, etc.)
Examples of each in a sentence
o Either Sam would have to find his rock, or he’d never get over it!
o Sam would neither rest nor sleep until he found it!
Interjection
Purpose in a sentence: used to express strong emotion or surprise
Separated from the rest of the sentence by an exclamation point (or “followed a
comma if the feeling’s not as strong…”)
Examples of each in a sentence
o Wow! He was really into the rock!
o Gee, I hope he finds it.
Preposition
Purpose in a sentence: shows the relationship between two objects in space or time
Prepositional phrases begin with a preposition and end with the first noun or
pronoun to follow it
The object of the preposition is the first noun or pronoun to follow it
Everything in between the preposition and the object of the preposition becomes part
of the prepositional phrase
Prepositions without an object are acting as adverbs!
Examples of each in a sentence
o Sam fell into a depression.
o Sue, please get on the bus!