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Parts of Speech
For many of us September is a time to regroup after
the casual days of summer. Kids are back in school,
some of us are returning to school ourselves,
perhaps a few are looking for or starting new jobs.
Any of those activities may spur you to think about your
writing skills. You may be updating your resume,
taking on new job responsibilities that require more
writing, or planning to help your kids with their writing
assignments.
At one time, we had to memorize the parts of speech
to understand how they relate to each other and their
role in writing sentences. While using them may come
naturally, here's an opportunity to review their names
and purposes. How many do you remember? Your
English teacher would be proud of you!
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Name |
A Word
That |
Examples |
| Noun |
Names a
- person
- place
- thing
- concept
|
- brother
- airport
- computer
- honesty
|
| Pronoun |
Replaces a
noun |
we, she, us, you,
her, himself, it |
| Verb |
Conveys
- action
- a state of being
- a condition
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- Jessie played golf.
- Lopa seems excited.
- Anne was ill.
|
| Adjective |
Modifies a
|
- The calico cat
- She is very creative.
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| Article
|
Introduces or
specifies a noun
- "A" and "an" are indefinite articles that
refer to any member of a group; they are used only
with singular nouns.
- "The" is a definite article that refers to
a specific member of a group; it can be used with
singular or plural nouns.
|
- A kind of gesture
- An elegant hotel
- The best Mexican food
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| Adverb |
Modifies a verb,
adjective, or other adverb. Answers the questions
|
- See you tomorrow.
- Mindy spoke passionately.
- They drove south.
- Igor ate too little.
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| Preposition |
Links a noun or a
pronoun to
another word in the sentence and is always followed
by a noun or an article (a, an, the) and a
noun. |
To, for, from, with,
under,
between, among, of, at, in, on, before, above
- Max hid behind the
curtain.
- The gift is for Patty.
- Ivana will travel by train.
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| Conjunction |
Connects clauses
or phrases
- Coordinating conjunctions connect two
independent thoughts.
- Subordinating conjunctions come at the
beginning of dependent clauses.
- Correlative conjunctions appear in pairs.
|
- for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
- after, although, when, because,
unless, until
- not only/but also, neither/nor,
either/or
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| Interjection |
Shows
emotion |
Wow! Hey! Yes! Oh!
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I appreciate all your wonderful feedback and am
delighted my newsletters are useful to you. Please
keep submitting your suggestions for new topics. If
you have interest in or questions about a particular
subject, no doubt others do too.
Until next time,
Ilana
If you missed or want to
review any of our
previous newsletters, now you can find them archived
at
www.ima-associates.com.
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Ilana G. Traverse, Principal
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