PARTS OF SPEECH

NOUNS

• Nouns are namers.

• Nouns name people, places, things, animals and ideas.

• The teacher dashed into the room.

• Scott is a writer.

• The idea is excellent.

COMMON and PROPER NOUNS

• Common nouns name any person, place or thing and are NOT capitalized:

• girl• boy• city• food

• Proper nouns name a specific person, place or thing and ARE capitalized:

• Jennifer• Scott• Livingston• Rice-a-Roni

COMPOUND NOUNS and COLLECTIVE NOUNS

• Compound nouns are two or more nouns that function as a single unit:

• time capsule• great-uncle• homework• basketball

• Collective nouns name groups of people or things:

• audience• family• herd• chorus• crowd

SINGULAR AND PLURAL NOUNS

Singular nouns name ONE.

• One dog• One child• One deer• One person• One peach• One pony• One monkey• One leaf• One ox

• Plural nouns name MORE than one.

• Three dogs• Six children• Three deer• Four people• Eight peaches• Two ponies• Two monkeys• Three leaves• Two oxen

Articles or Noun Markers

• Articles are also called Noun Markers or Noun Determiners

• A, The and AN are Articles or Noun Markers• They mark that a noun will follow (Sometimes there’s

an adjective before the noun)

• The dog• An apple (use “an” before words that begin with a vowel

sound)

• A student

PRONOUNS

• Pronouns take the place of a noun. Pronouns are substitutes.

• Bob ate the worms. He enjoyed them.

• Sue tried to jump the fence. She fell on it.• The crowd cheered the band. They loved it.• Scott and I saw our friends. We like them.• You fix the bike yourself. • He has only himself to blame.

List Of Pronouns

• I, me, my, mine, myself, she, her, hers, herself, he, him, his, himself, it, its, you, your, yours, our, ours, them, they, their, theirs, themselves, we, us

Pronoun Clarity Rules

• If somebody writes, “Sue and Cassy went to the store. She bought a new skirt” we DON’T know who bought the skirt. The use of the pronoun “she” is unclear.

• If there are two or more boys in a sentence, you cannot use he or him in the next sentence.

• If there are two or more girls in a sentence, you cannot use she or her in the next sentence.

• If there are two or more things in a sentence, you cannot use it in the next sentence.

ADJECTIVES

• Adjectives describe (modify) nouns. Adjectives add information about nouns and can spice-up your writing.

• He wore a green shirt and plaid pants.• The big truck was ugly.• She wore a feather boa.• It was a dark, stormy and creepy night.• My second cousin wanted those apples.• I saw five geese.

Adjectives answer the questions:

• Which one? This game, that car, those mountains

• What kind? Pretty cat, fresh milk, American flag

• How many? Some people, seven miles, several days

• How much? Enough food, less rain, more time

VERBS

• Verbs show action or a state of being. Verbs are the engines that power sentences. Without a verb, a sentence can go nowhere. Every sentence MUST have a verb!!!

• Action verbs: walk, run, jump, soar, whisper, stomp, tattle, spend, sing…

• Action verbs tell something you can do, like “sleep” (even if it isn’t very active).

State-of-Being Verbs

• State-of-being verbs are the form of the verb “be.”

• Am, is, are, was, were, has been, will be and have been

• I am a good student. She is happy. He was excited. They were delicious. He has been sick. She will be glad. They have been good students.

HELPING VERBS

• Helping verbs “help” action verbs to be in the correct tense. Forms of “be” are often helping verbs if they are paired with an action verb.

• Helping verbs: has, have, had, can, could, would, should, will, shall, may, might, must, did, do, does.

• We can graduate. He has been learning.• We have learned a lot. They can dance.• We will have learned a lot.

Helping Verbs/Sate-of-Being Verbs

• When a state-of-being verb is with an action verb, it becomes a helping verb.

• He is cute (“is” is a state-of-being verb).

• He is dancing (now “is” is a helping verb).

• She was excited (“was” is a state-of-being verb)

• She was dancing (now “was” is a helping verb).

Finding Verbs

• In order to find the verb in a sentence, using the “time change” method always works.

• By saying yesterday, every day, and tomorrow at the beginning of a sentence, the verb will change automatically. Remember it as the YET (Yesterday, Every day, Tomorrow) method.

Examples of Time Change

• Listen for the word or words that change when the time is changed. That word is the verb:

• Yesterday: Steve ate a taco.• Every day: Steve eats a taco.• Tomorrow: Steve will eat a taco.• Yesterday: Jill was happy.• Every day: Jill is happy.• Tomorrow: Jill will be happy.

VERBS

• Verbs show a state-of-being. They are the forms of the verb “be.”

• State of being verbs: am, is, are, was, were, has been, will be…

• Mrs. McMillion is a teacher.

• The students will be smart learners.

• She was clever.

• They were late

MORE ABOUT VERBS

• Verbs tell present, past and future tense. They tell when something is happening.

• Present (today): I dance.

• Past (yesterday): I danced.

• Future (tomorrow): I will dance.

ACTIVE vs PASSIVE VERBS

• Verbs can be active or passive. Sometimes this is called active or passive voice.

• Active verbs (or voice) put the person (or thing) doing the action in charge: Connie passed the test.

• With passive verbs (or voice), the subject receives the action: The test was passed by Connie.

• Hint: Use the active voice in your writing.

ADVERBS

• Adverbs describe (modify) verbs. They tell when, where and how.

• The band played beautifully. (How)

• The student will arrive soon. (When)

• The boy sat near. (Where)

• She studied carefully. (How)

• He quickly jumped. (How)

Adverbs

• WHEN WHERE HOW

• Tomorrow there sweetly

• Tonight here kindly

• Soon everywhere well

• Now nowhere simply

• Later outside thoughtfully

PREOPSITIONS

• Prepositions show position relative to another noun. A preposition MUST be connected to a noun or a pronoun. A prepositional phrase is a preposition and its object:

• in the door next to me

• on the car behind it

• around the house near the garage

LIST of PREPOSITIONS• About• Above• Across• Against• Around• Before• Behind• Below• Beneath• Beside• Between• Beyond• By• Down• Into

• Inside• Near• Next to• Off• On• Onto• Out• Outside• Over• Past• Through• Toward• Under• Upon • Within

Conjunctions

• Conjunctions join words, phrases and clauses together. They are the words: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.

• We ate salad and bread.

• She was happy yet sad.

• They were neither absent nor tardy.

• We can dance or sing.

Interjections

• Interjections express emotion. If it’s a strong emotion, the word(s) can stand alone with an exclamation mark following, as in: Wow! Hurray! Yippee!

• If an interjection isn’t a strong emotion, it can go before a regular sentence followed by a comma:

• Good grief, Charlie Brown missed the ball.• Hey, that’s a great idea.