Parts of Speech

There are different kinds of words in every sentence, meaning each word has its own job to do. This is true in every language. In fact, these fundamental parts of speech have the same job in every language. Knowing the parts of speech in English can make it helpful to learn other languages.

Nouns

A noun is a person, place, or thing.

    For example, a chair, a brother, a case of depression.

When a person, place, or thing has a specific name, it is called a proper noun.

    For example: Lake Ontario, Uncle Joe, Chinese food.

Most nouns can be general sometimes, but made into a proper name with more specifics. For example, I can talk about eating cereal, or I can name Kellogg's cereal. Kellogg's, the brand name, is a proper noun, since it's a title. Usually proper nouns are capitalized.

Nouns can function several ways in a given sentence. They can be the subject, the object, or even work as an adjective to describe another noun. Furthermore, nouns can do all these things at once in one sentence!

• Noun as Subject

                Mom comforted me. 

                Since Mom is the agent of this sentence, meaning she is going the comforting, that makes "Mom" the subject of the sentence.

•         Noun as Object

                I washed the dishes.

                "Dishes" is a noun that are being acted upon by "I" (the subject); therefore "dishes" is the object. Dishes is also a noun,        

                since it's a thing.

•         Noun as Adjective

                Sheena is a people person.

                In this sentence, "Sheena" is the subject, the noun "person" is the object, and the noun "people" is being used to describe or

                modify the object "person." So in this sentence, a noun has three functions!

Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that substitutes for a noun, often a person, like "Mom" or "I." A story about Joe would be hard to read if no pronouns were used. Take a look:

                Joe woke up and drank some of Joe's favorite coffee. Then Joe fed Joe's cat and got into Joe's car to drive to Joe's job.

It sounds better when we insert pronouns, which refer back to "Joe" but which make for an easier read.

                 Joe woke up and drank some of his favorite coffee. Then he fed his cat and got into his car to drive to his job.

As you can see, pronouns can be used in any position in the sentence, as subject or object, and also some other ways.

I'll explain these last items in a moment, but first, it's important for you to know that an antecedent is the noun (often a proper noun, like Joe) for which the pronoun substitutes. It may sound like a fancy word, but you can see the root from Latin: "ante" which means "before" (Spanish: "antes".) So you can remember that the antecedent comes before the pronoun. (It doesn't always, but for beginners, this is a good memory cue.)

In our Joe example, it's clear that "Joe" is the word for which the pronouns "he" and "his" substitute.

Here are some more examples:

                Joe fed his cat and drove to work.  He didn't want to be late.

"He" takes the subject position in the second sentence, so it's called a subject pronoun.

                  Joe fed his dog and walked it.

In this example, the pronoun "it" substitutes for the antecedent "dog." Therefore, "it" is a object pronoun here, since "dog" is in the object position.

Verbs

 A verb is the "action" of a sentence; it is what gets done, and what is done by/for/to the nouns in the sentence. For example, in the short sentence "He runs," "He" is the subject and "runs" is the verb. To find the verb, I start with the subject, and ask myself, what does "he" do? The answer: runs. Runs is the action, therefore it is the verb. Not every sentence is as simple, but this is a good start.

In many languages, there are two main kinds of verbs: action verbs and linking verbs.  

Action verbs are easy to detect; they involve action. For example, run, jump, stand, yell, walk, complete--these are all action words.

But linking verbs are less tangibly active...yet they are still verbs. They link the subject with the rest of the sentence.

"Is" is a linking verb. In the sentence "He is tall," the verb "is" links the subject--"he"--with the predicate, the adjective "tall."

Also, all verbs--both action and linking verbs--fall into the categories of either "main" verb or "helping verb" in a given sentence.

The main verb is what it sounds like. The helping verb--usually a smaller word like am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been--helps the main verb to work. Sometimes you will have both in a sentence, or sometimes you will just have a main verb.

Examples:

He walked me home. Subject="he," verb="walked." Walked, which is an action verb, is also the main (and only) verb of the sentence.

I should be studying. In this sentence, "should be studying" is the entire verb phrase. "Should" and "be" are two helping verbs that help indicate the idea.

Verbs must agree with their subjects so that the sentence makes sense. For example, I wouldn't say "I is tall," I would say "I am tall."

This sounds reasonable, but when sentences become a little more complicated, and the sentence and the verb get separated, sometimes it's harder to tell if they match.

To help you with subject verb agreement, there are some exercises at the bottom of the page. But it also helps to know something about prepositions. 

Prepositions

Prepositions are words that indicate position. Some common prepositions are: over, under, into, underneath, above, about, with, without. etc.

Whenever a preposition is used in a group of words to communicate extra detail in the sentence, it's called a prepositional phrase. Some examples are: in the yard, on the stove, to my house, through the woods.

A prepositional phrase consists of the preposition through its object.

Example: I put the pot on the stove.

In the above sentence, I first locate the preposition, "on." I then determine the object of the preposition by asking, "on what?" On the stove. Now, let's say there are adjectives describing the stove. These are simply included in the prepositional phrase. I don't stop until I get to the object--which is always a noun.

Example: I put the pot on the smoky old stove.

Prepositional phrase: on the smoky old stove

It's helful to know that our subjects and verbs are never going to be inside a prepositional phrase. In fact, some teachers teach grammar students to cross out (either on the page, or mentally) every prepositional phrase when searching for subject and verb.

Now try the prepositional phrase exercise at the bottom of the page!

Adjectives and Adverbs

If we only used subjects and verbs in sentences,reading would be dull. That's why we have words that describe nouns and verbs, to add detail.

An adjective is a word that describes a noun.  For example: tall man, small girl, long table, funny hair. All the words in italics are adjectives.

If I asked you to tell me what your baby looks like, you would use adjectives.

Small, smooth, new, fussy, smelly, sweet-smelling, heavy, etc. (All of these are adjectives.)

Beware!  

Sometimes a noun or a verb temporarily function as adjectives to descibe a noun.

For example: Walking cane. ("Walking" is a kind of verb.) School shooter.

An adverb primarily describes a verb. It can also describe another adjective, and sometimes a noun. But its main job, as you can see inside the word adverb, is to describe verbs.

For example: run quickly, talk slowly, sleep fitfully, eat hurriedly. All the words in italics are adverbs.

You would use adverbs to describe how your baby acts. She eats hungrily, she sleeps soundly, she cries pitifully, she crawls quickly.

Often, but not always, adverbs end in "ly." That's probably the easiest way to learn adverbs, until you are ready to recognize the exceptions.

Try the exercise at the bottom to practice recognizing adjectives and adverbs!

Coming Soon:

Dependent and Independent Clauses, Fragments & Run Ons