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Feraco
English 9 – Period
12 October 2009
Chapter 1: Parts of Speech
1. Noun: A word or word group that is used to name a person, a place, a thing, or an idea.
a. Proper Noun: A noun that names a particular person, place, thing, or idea and is
capitalized.
i. Examples: Martin Luther King, Jr.; Arcadia; Eiffel Tower; Buddhism
b. Common Noun: A noun that names any one of a group of persons, places, things,
or ideas and is generally not capitalized.
i. Examples: scientist; city; building; religion
1. Comparing and Contrasting: The proper nouns Vietnam, Detroit,
and Christopher Columbus all name specific individuals or places –
and all are capitalized! On the other hand, the common nouns man,
month, and city still refer to people, places, things, or ideas – but
they do so without being specific (“man” vs. “Martin Luther King, Jr.”)
and (generally) without capitalization.
c. Concrete Noun: A noun that names a person, place, or thing that can be
perceived by one or more of the five human senses (smell, sight, taste, touch, and
hearing).
i. Examples: cloud, poison ivy, thunder, silk, yogurt, Sarah
d. Abstract Noun: A noun that names an idea, feeling, quality, or characteristic.
i. Examples: freedom, well-being, beauty, kindness, Buddhism
e. Compound Noun: A noun that actually consists of two or more words used
together as a single noun. (The parts of a compound noun may be written as one
word, as separate words, or even as a hyphenated word!)
i. Examples: One word: firefighter, Iceland, newspaper. Separate words:
prime minister, Red River Dam, fire drill. Hyphenated word: sister-in-law,
pull-up, Port-au-Prince.
f. Collective Noun: A word that names a group.
i. Examples: People: audience, chorus, committee, crew. Animals: brood,
flock, gaggle, pack, herd. Things: assortment, batch, bundle, cluster.
2. Pronoun: A word that is used is place of one or more nouns or pronouns (“antecedents”).
a. Personal Pronoun: Refers to the one speaking (first-person), the one spoken to
(second-person), or the one spoken about (third-person).
i. Examples: First Person: I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours. Second
Person: you, your, yours. Third Person: he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its,
they, them, their, theirs.
ii. Examples in Context: I hope that they can find your apartment by
following our directions…She said that we could call them at home…Their
dog obeyed them immediately and went to its bed.
b. Reflexive Pronoun: A pronoun that refers to the subject of a sentence and
functions as a complement or as an object of a preposition.
c. Intensive Pronoun: A pronoun that merely serves to amplify or emphasize its
antecedent; it has no independent grammatical function.
i. Examples of Both: First Person: myself, ourselves. Second Person:
yourself, yourselves. Third Person: himself, herself, itself, themselves.
ii. Examples in Context: “Meliza treated herself to a snack” uses “herself”
reflexively; “Meliza herself organized the get-together” uses “herself”
intensively.
d. Demonstrative Pronoun: A pronoun that is used to point out a specific person,
place, thing, or idea.
i. Examples: this, that, these, those. That is Nick’s favorite restaurant in
Arcadia…The meals I cooked tasted better than those.
e. Interrogative Pronoun: A pronoun that introduces a question.
i. Examples: who, whom, which, what, whose. Which of these movies is
best? What is the homework about?
f. Relative Pronoun: A pronoun that introduces a subordinate clause.
i. Examples: that, which, who, whom, whose. Johnny is my friend who is
training for the Los Angeles marathon.
g. Indefinite Pronoun: A pronoun that refers to one or more persons, places, ideas,
or things that may or may not be specifically named.
i. Examples: All, any, both, each, either, most, nobody, nothing, several,
some.
ii. Examples in Context: Mollie has memorized enough material to pass both
of her midterms…Is anyone awake today?...Several students requested a
copy of this study guide.
3. Adjective: A word that is used to modify a noun or a pronoun.
a. Modifications: Adjectives adjust nouns by telling how many, what kind, or which
one.
i. What kind? Gray skies, Southern cooking, tallest building, confusing story
ii. Which one? Either way, those kids, first page
iii. How many? Five fingers, one hand, some pigeons
b. Demonstrative Adjectives vs. Demonstrative Pronouns
i. This, that, these, and those can be used both as adjectives and as
pronouns
ii. When they modify nouns or pronouns, they are called demonstrative
adjectives.
1. Examples: Did Jeffrey use this paper or that one?...Let’s take these
books and those CDs with us.
iii. When they take the place of nouns or pronouns, they are called
demonstrative pronouns.
1. Examples: This is mine and that is yours…These are worse than
those are!
c. Proper Adjectives: Adjectives that are formed from proper nouns.
i. Examples: Arcadia streets, California coast, Picasso painting.
d. Articles: The most commonly used adjectives (a, an, and the)
i. Indefinite Articles: “A” and “an,” because they refer to any member of a
general group.
ii. Definite Article: “The,” because it refers to someone or something in
particular.
e. Placement “Rules”: In most cases, the adjective appears just before the noun or
pronoun it modifies.
4. Verb: A word that is used to express action or a state of being.
a. Verb Phrase: Consists of at least one main verb and one or more helping verbs.
i. Examples: “is leaving” (is = helping verb, leaving = main verb); “had
seemed” (had = helping verb, seemed = main verb)
b. Main Verb: The “verb of focus” in a verb phrase.
c. Helping Verb: Helps the main verb express action or a state of being
i. Examples: All forms of the verb to be, as well as can, could, did, do, does,
had, has, have, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would.
d. Action Verb: A verb that expresses either physical or mental action.
i. Examples: Physical actions include write, describe, sit, receive, arise, go,
etc., while mental actions include remember, consider, think, understand,
believe, and know.
e. Linking Verb: A verb that connects the subject to a word or word group that
identifies or describes the subject. (The most common linking verbs are forms of
“to be.”) It must be followed by a subject complement.
f. Subject Complement: A noun or pronoun that names the subject or an adjective
that describes the subject.
g. Transitive Verb: A verb that expresses an action directed toward a person, place,
or thing. The action expressed by a transitive verb passes from the “doer” – the
subject – to the receiver of the action – the object.
i. Objects: Words that receive the action of a transitive verb.
h. Intransitive Verb: A verb that expresses action (or tells something about the
subject) without the action passing to a receiver (aka “object”).
i. Transitive vs. Intransitive: Josh studied his notes (transitive) vs. Josh
studied very late (intransitive), or Mr. Feraco wrote a poem (transitive) vs.
Mr. Feraco wrote slowly (intransitive).
5. Adverb: A word that can modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
a. Adverbs tell where, when, how, or to what extent (how long, how much).
6. Preposition: A word that shows the relationship of a noun or pronoun to another word.
a. Examples: Above, across, after, against, around, behind, below, between, beyond,
by, down, during, except, for, from, in, into, near, of, off, on, out, past, through, to,
under, with, etc.
b. Object of the Preposition: The noun or pronoun that a preposition relates
another word to.
i. “The Saint Bernard slept near/under/on/beside my bed” – each bolded
preposition transforms the meaning of the sentence.
ii. In this case, “bed” is the object of the preposition because the prepositions
are establishing the Saint Bernard’s position relative to the bed.
iii. The object of the preposition follows the preposition itself.
c. Compound Preposition: Prepositions that consist of two or more words.
d. Prepositional Phrase: The preposition, its object, and any modifiers of the object
combine to form a prepositional phrase.
7. Conjunction: A word that joins words or word groups.
a. Coordinating Conjunction: A conjunction that joins words or word groups that
are used in the same way.
i. Examples: FANBOYS! (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So)
b. Correlative Conjunction: A pair of conjunctions that join words or word groups
that are used in the same way.
i. Examples: Both…and, either…or, not only…but also, neither…nor, and
whether…or.
8. Interjection: A word that expresses emotion, and has no grammatical relation to the rest
of a sentence.