PARTS OF SPEECH How To Build A Beautiful Sentence

noun

verb

adverb

article

prepositionadjectiv

econjunction

prono

un

by Laura Jensen

Get to know each one: What is it like?

What is it best at?

What can’t it do?

Each part of speech is unique!

Click icon to add picture

noun

preposition

verb

conjunction

adjectiveadverb

pronoun

article

Part I: Nouns & Verbs

Start

here!

End here!

Beautiful

English!

Someone is always doing

something!Superman, a beautiful woman, the bad guys

flying, saving, lifting, shooting, fainting, escaping

Nouns

Verbs

Minimum Requirements for a Sentence?

1 Noun

+ 1 Verb =

1 Clause

And every sentence has at least one

clause.

Time flies. My teacher adores grammar.

These students are very intelligent.

The baby is sleeping.

Meet the Verb!

Action! But also non-action…

Kick!

Jump! Scor

e!

I just love thinking about grammar!

Some Examples:

Go Drive Make Cook Work Study

Be Know Like Seem Cost Need

Action verbsNon-action verbs (also called non-progressive or stative verbs)

Remember: Non-action verbs cannot be used in progressive tenses!

Learn when to use each form!

Verbs have five forms

Click icon to add picture Base Form They like to go out to dinner.

-s Form He likes to go out to dinner.

PastWe cooked dinner at home last

night.

Present Participle My family is eating dinner right

now.

Past ParticipleWe have already eaten lunch.

Tense: past, present, futureAgreement: Remember to use that –s form!Auxiliaries are helping verbs: do, be, have, and modalsVoice: active or passive (Is the subject doing the action?)

Linking verbs: the “equal sign” verbsTransitive or Intransitive: Does the verb take an object?

Other useful things to know about verbs:

revi

e

w

new

Find the verbs in these sentences:

•How much can you tell me about each of

these verbs?

•Tense?

•Five forms?

•Agreement?

•Helping verbs?

•Linking?

•Transitive?

Laura is a teacher. Laura is teaching ESL 042 now. Laura loves teaching! Laura is picky. Laura teaches enthusiastically. Laura has taught at NSCC since 1991. Does Laura teach other ESL classes? ESL 042 is taught by other teachers,

too. My students can visit me in my office.

Meet the Noun!

Person

Place

Thing

Idea

Proper or Common: Is it a name? Count or Non-count: Can I make it plural?Concrete or Abstract: Can I touch it?Collective Nouns: British versus American EnglishNouns Do Jobs: They can be subjects, objects, etc.

Other things to know about nouns

Nouns: Proper or Common?

a university

a community college

a city

my professor

his native country

the zoo

a history class

our family doctor

The University of Washington

North Seattle Community College

Seattle Professor Collins Ethiopia Woodland Park Zoo Modern European

History 101 Doctor Zhivago

Common Nouns Proper Nouns:

Capitalize them!

Nouns: Count or Non-count?

an apple three rings many chairs my glasses all these cars!

[a piece of] fruit some jewelry a lot of furniture my coffee all this traffic!

Count Non-count:

Note: many + plural count noun much + non-count noun (neg.) few + plural count noun less + non-count noun

Don’t add -s

some, enough, a lot of

Never make them plural!

Three Common Non-Count Nouns

Click icon to add picture

InformationHomework

Advice-s

I’ve gotten rather tired of correcting these three

nouns…yawn…

Nouns: Concrete or Abstract?

Book Teacher Office People Elevator

War Intelligence Happiness Disease Democracy

Things you can touch: Ideas:

Collective Nouns: Do they represent a group of many individual things (plural) or one unit (singular)?

The committee make our policy decisions.

The faculty choose the textbooks.

The family enjoy vacations.

The committee makes our policy decisions.

The faculty chooses the textbooks.

The family enjoys vacations.

British English tends to see collective nouns as plural

American English tends to see collective nouns as singular

Notice how this affects subject-verb agreement.

Follow this idiom: When in Rome, do as the Romans do!

Noun Jobs

• Laura teaches this class.Subject

•Laura teaches this class.Direct Object

•Laura teaches English to her students.

Object of a Preposition

• Laura is a teacher. [Laura = teacher]

Subject Complement

Noun Jobs: Laura teaches ESL to her students.

Subject Who teaches? Laura!

Direct Object What does Laura teach? ESL!

Object of the Preposition

To whom? [Her amazing]

students!

Noun Jobs: The dog is chasing a child around the garden.

Subject What is chasing? [The] dog!

Direct ObjectWho is being

chased? [A] child!

Object of the Preposition

Around what? [The] garden!

Complement—something that completes. Subject complements follow linking verbs. A subject complement completes the idea of the subject: the subject and its complement refer to one person or thing.

What about subject complements?

Laura is a teacher. Laura = teacherThose women are my classmates. women = classmatesThe man in the grey suit is his doctor. man = doctor

subject

subject

complement

Links

•Noun is the name of one part of speech•Subject, Object, & Subject Complement are the names of jobs that nouns can do in a sentence.

Nouns do Noun Jobs

Noun Jobs are different from

Parts of Speech!

Part II: Now shake hands with six more!

articles adjectives adverbs

prepositions pronouns conjunctions

These parts of speech modify: they give more information about other words.

These parts of speech relate or connect things to other things:

Prepositions

Prepositions show a

relationship between a noun and

another part of the

sentence.

Sometimes, the

relationship is spatial.

To Learn More about Prepositions:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/prepositions.htm

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/594/01/

Giant List of Prepositions:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_prepositions

Pronouns replace other nouns

A pronoun is a word that is used to represent a noun.

Pronoun means for-a-noun.

Pronouns must agree in number and gender with the nouns they stand for.

The noun that a pronoun replaces is called its antecedent.

Like nouns, pronouns do noun jobs in a sentence: they act as subjects, objects, etc.

Pronouns come in lots of yummy flavors:

Personal

Pronouns

Indefinite

Pronouns

Possessive PronounsDemonstrative Pronouns

Reflexive

PronounsRelative

Pronouns

Interrogative Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

I You He, she, it We You They

Me You Him, her, it Us You Them

Subject Pronouns Object Pronouns

Like all nouns, pronouns do jobs in a sentence.

Pronoun or Adjective?

If it replaces a noun and does a noun job, I call it

a pronoun.

If it modifies a noun, then I call it

an adjective.

The comic to the left is full of possessive

pronouns and possessive adjectives.

Which is which?

give us information about nouns & pronouns:

The weather is beautiful today.

This is an interesting class.

I have a sweet little cat.

Adjectives…

Annie

meow

Fun Facts about Adjectives:

Adjectives have three degrees of comparison: the positive—big the comparative—bigger the superlative—the biggest

Participles can be used as adjectives: This is an interesting class, so the students are

never bored!

Nouns can also function as adjectives: The fire alarm rang loudly. He wrote a newspaper article about his adventure.

Use enough to make your writing interesting—exciting, never bland. Don’t use so many spicy adjectives that you can’t taste the nouns

and verbs.

Adjectives add spice to your writing.

Use adjectives to describe Laura’s garden:

Colorful

Crowded

Wild

Exotic

Abundant

Fragrant

Overgrown

Exuberant

Learn More about Adjectives

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/adjectives.htm

Note: This site considers articles to be a kind of adjective,

but I group articles in a separate part of speech.

Articles

This is the easiest part of

speech to learn!

A An The

Like adjectives, articles accompany nouns.

Articles are a piece of

cake!

Use An Before a Vowel Sound

You should bring an

umbrella.

He will study at a

university.

She wants to find a

husband.

She hopes to marry an

honest man.

He is an NSCC student.

Which article should I use?

Adverbs

Oh no! Not

adverbs!I’m afraid it’s true:

Adverbs are more complicated

than adjectives or articles…

…but that’s only because adverbs are so incredibly versatile!

Adverbs can

modify:

verbs

adjectives

adverbs

and even whole

sentences!

Adverbs tell us:

• why?• when?• where?• how?• how often?

something happens.

Because I was so hungry, I ate too quickly.

Adverbs can do lots of cool stuff.

The adverb so modifies the adjective hungry. The adverb too modifies the adverb quickly. The adverb quickly modifies the verb ate.

So let’s show adverbs a little respect, please!

They really work hard to

help us communicate.

Conjunctions

Con- = with, together junct = act of joining}conjunctions let us combine words,

phrases, and clauses

1. Laura enjoys teaching, gardening, and cooking. (3 words)

2. She has a husband named Peter and two sons named Alex and Carl. (2 phrases) 3. Peter’s father lives near us, but Laura’s father lives in California. (2 clauses)Bonus Question: What is a parallel structure?

Coordinating Conjunctions

ForAndNorButOrYetSoFan

Boys

Use conjunctions to combine two clauses into one sentence.

Coordinating—Two equal clauses

Subordinating—Two unequal clauses

Two Independent Clauses One Clause is Dependent

after althoughasbecausebeforeifsince thoughunlessuntilwhenwhile

After you learn the parts of speech, you will understand English better.

You will understand English better after you learn the parts of speech.

If you yawn in my class, I will have a heart attack.

You should understand nouns and verbs before you try to learn the other parts of speech.

You won’t move up to ESL 051 unless your grade in ESL 042 is at least 75%.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Analyze this sentence:

Maria has studied very hard lately because she wants an excellent grade in her English class.

Independent Clause & Dependent Clause

S S

Maria has studied very hard lately because she

noun verb verb adverb adv adv conjunction pron

DO Obj/prep

wants an excellent grade in her English class.

verb article adj noun prep adj adj noun

Once You Know How to Use These Building Blocks, You Can Build

Anything!