Parts of Speech ~ EASY ENGLISH 444

Parts of speech

Sometimes grammar books throw around a lot of fancy terms, but in reality, sentences are pretty simple things. Think of a sentence as a cake. It only takes a few simple ingredients to make a cake—flour, sugar, eggs, water. But you can also add all sorts of things to the cake to make it more interesting and delicious.

A sentence only needs two basic ingredients: a noun and a verb.

Dogs run.

Dogs is a noun. Run is a verb.

Everything else tacked onto the sentence just adds information and detail.

Dogs run around whenever they are let off of their leashes.

In this section, we’ll briefly review the ingredients of a sentence; these are referred to as the “parts of speech.” Some parts of speech are essential to building sentences; these are the nouns (or pronouns) and verbs. Others are like frosting and decorations on a cake— they aren’t absolutely essential to create a sentence, but they add information, flavor, and character.

Verbs

The most basic ingredient in the sentence is a verb. Action verbs indicate what is hap-pening or being done. There are hundreds of different action verbs.

Action verb: George eats candy.

Another kind of verb, called a linking verb, functions like an equals sign. Linking verb: George seems nice. (George = nice)

“Be” verbs also act as linking verbs by leveling out the sentence like an equal sign. There are only eight be verbs: be, being, been, was, were, is, am, are.

Be verb: George is quiet. (George = quiet)

Nouns

Nouns indicate people, places, things, ideas, and emotions.

carpenter, officer, lake, tree, boat, democracy, anger, happiness Nouns that refer to specific things are called proper nouns.

Jennifer, Yellowstone, Lake Tahoe, Titanic, Microsoft

Pronouns

Pronouns can replace nouns to avoid the awkward repetition of the same noun. Here is a sentence without pronouns.

I like my car when my car has just been washed because my car’s bright red paint shines in the sun.

Now read the sentence with pronouns.

I like my car when it has just been washed because its bright red paint shines in the sun.

The pronoun “it” stands in for “car” to make the sentence less tiresome.

Common Pronouns

You don’t need to worry about the terminology, but read through the lists below to get a sense of the different types of pronouns and how they could replace some other noun.

Personal pronouns: I, me, my, mine, you, your, yours, he, she, it, him, her, his, its, we, us, our, ours, you, your, yours, they, them, their, theirs.

Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those

Relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that

Indefinite pronouns: another, anybody, anything, everyone, nobody, someone, both, many, any, most, some

Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe or “modify” nouns and pronouns. If someone says a car has been modified, you know it has been enhanced or dressed up. In relation to nouns, adjectives usually describe “which one,” “how many,” or “what kind.”

warm coat red car silly person obnoxious child seven cookies

Adverbs

Adverbs are kind of like adjectives in that they modify or describe another word, but they modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Adverbs answer the following questions:

How? He ate slowly.

When? We will eat soon.

Where? I want to eat here.

How often? Let’s eat frequently.

To what extent? We will eat enough.

Prepositions

Prepositions describe the “position” or relationship between words and ideas in a sen-tence. Review the following list of common prepositions and notice how most indicate position in time or space.

about	despite	out
above	down	over
across	during	past
after	except	since
along	for	through
among	from	to
around	in	toward
at	inside	under
before	into	until
below	of	up
beside	off	with
between	on	within
by	onto	without

Prepositions are always followed by nouns. This combination is called a prepositional phrase.

among the trees into the car during my lunch break from my grandmother

Conjunctions

Conjunctions join (or “conjoin”) words or parts of a sentence. Two important types of conjunctions are coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.

The coordinating conjunctions are for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. (Use the word fanboys to remember these conjunctions.)

I hate snowboarding, but I love skiing.

I have not seen the movie, so you are ruining it for me.

Note: The word “for” can act as both a preposition and a coordinating conjunction. It is a conjunction when it means “because” or “since” and a preposition all other times. The use of “for” as a conjunction is somewhat archaic.

Conjunction: She left her coat, for it was very hot outside.

Preposition: I waited in the lobby for two hours.

There are many subordinating conjunctions; the following list provides a few of the most

common.

after	even though	unless
although	if	until
as	once	when
as long as	since	whenever
because	than	wherever
before	that	while

Notice how these words can join two parts of a sentence.

I cannot go swimming because I just ate a huge meal.

People had to look up information in the library before the internet was developed.

When a sentence begins with a subordinating conjunction, a comma is used where the first clause ends (see “Building a Sentence”).

Because I just ate a huge meal, I cannot go swimming.

Before the internet was developed, people had to look up information in a library.

Interjections

Interjections express surprise, concern, or other strong emotions. They stand alone or usually come at the beginning of sentences. Interjections should not be used much, if at all, in formal writing. Common interjections are hey, wow, ouch, well, great, oh, yeah, whoa.

Hey, get over here.

Great! The plans are coming together.

Well, I guess that’s the way it goes.

Underline the verbs in the following sentences.

1. George loves baseball and plays it every day.

2. His team lost the game last week, but George maintains a good attitude.

3. He believes that whenever he loses, he learns a different lesson.

4. Because he has such a good attitude, he is never a sore loser, unlike some of his teammates who only play to win.

Meet the Sentence–Exercise B

Underline the nouns in the following sentences.

1. The cafeteria lunch is never very good at the local school.

2. Mary is trying to make a petition so the school board will change the food.

3. She wants there to be a menu with many options, such as salads, pasta, grilled meat, and fruits.

4. Students usually agree with Mary, but some want more desserts, such as cheesecake, ice cream, and pie.

Meet the Sentence–Exercise C

Underline the pronouns in the following sentences.

1. Finding good study habits is hard for me because I am so easily distracted.

2. It is even harder to study because I have a roommate who plays his drums all day long.

3. Any time I start doing my work, he will suddenly start pounding away at them.

4. This is not going to work for me, but I am too shy to tell him to stop.

Meet the Sentence–Exercise D

Underline the adjectives in the following sentences.

1. The first day we went to Yellowstone was beautiful and sunny.

2. We saw a huge buffalo resting on the dusty ground and a brown bear grazing on a distant mountain.

3. On our way home, inky black clouds gathered in the sky, and rumbling thun-der shook our car.

4. I didn’t know that such a peaceful day could turn so ugly and frightening.

Meet the Sentence │ 7

Meet the Sentence–Exercise E

Underline the adverbs in the following sentences.

1. There is a creek that lazily winds its way behind my parent’s house.

2. It is home to many snails that stubbornly latch on to the slimy rocks.

3. Whenever I walk down the creek, I usually try to avoid the snails by carefully stepping around them.

4. But there are so many of them that, regrettably, I sometimes crush a few.

Meet the Sentence–Exercise F

Underline the prepositions in the following sentences.

1. Last week, my friends and I decided to get tickets for a movie premiere before they were all sold out.

2. Despite the long line, we got our tickets, and last night we went to the mid-night premiere.

3. We got to the theater two hours before the movie started since we wanted to get good seats.

4. During the movie, I fell asleep, but it wasn’t that great anyway.

Meet the Sentence–Exercise G

Underline the conjunctions in the following sentences.

1. The library in my neighborhood has great librarians, but it is very small.

2. Even though they have limited funds, they always hold fun events for the community.

3. Because the events always introduce me to great books, I always try to go and bring my family.

4. If the library receives more funds, they’ll be able to expand their collection, so I try to donate whenever I have a little extra cash.

Meet the Sentence–Exercise H

Underline the interjections in the following sentences.

1. Hey, Stacie.

2. Wow! You look nice.

3. Well, are you ready for our date?

4. Oh, I didn’t realize you were thinking of this as a date.

Answer Key: Meet the Sentence–Exercise A

1. George loves baseball and plays it every day