Grammar Module 1 – 8 Parts of Speech
The eight parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions,
conjunctions and interjections.
The first part of speech is a noun, which is defined as a person, place or thing.
A noun can be a person, for example Julie or Professor. It can be a place, such as Toronto
or a coffee shop, and it can be a thing, such as dog or fire hydrant.
A noun can also be invisible, such as a concept or quality. Some examples of this are freedom
or love. Essentially, anything that can be named is a noun.
The second part of speech is a pronoun; these typically take the place of nouns in a sentence.
Consider the following example: Larry loves to lounge in Larry's apartment in Larry's
pyjamas. The flow is much clearer when pronouns are used: Larry loves to lounge in his apartment
in his pyjamas. A skillful use of pronouns results in variety and efficiency in sentences.
Next up we have verbs – these can express action or a state of being. Action verbs are
the easiest to spot. Consider the sentence “Mara found $20 on the sidewalk.” Most
people recognize the action verb of ‘found’. Linking verbs are less easy to spot.
These express a state of being – some examples are ‘Angie is...’, ‘Luis seems...’,
and 'It looks...’. The most common linking verb is the verb ‘to be’ in all of its
forms– ex. Is, was, am, are etc. Note these examples: Gary ‘is’ shy. The hippos ‘are’
hungry. There is no action involved, just a state of being.
Some people find it difficult to tell the difference between adjectives and adverbs
– both parts of speech are used to describe, but what they describe is different.
Adjectives are only used to describe nouns and pronouns – they are used to answer the
following questions: what kind – the steel pot; which one – this dress; how many – 16 years.
By the way, the three articles, 'the’, ‘a’, and ‘an,’ are a form of adjective since
they are used to specify which item you’re referring to; there are only three, making
them an easy part of speech to remember.
While adjectives describe nouns and pronouns, adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and other
adverbs. A helpful trick for remembering this is to notice that the words verbs, adjectives
and adverbs all contain at least part of the word ‘adverb’. Words that end in –ly
are almost always adverbs, such as 'carefully' and 'quietly.' Most commonly, adverbs answer
the question ‘how’: as in the question ‘how did the ninja creep across the floor?
The ninja crept silently. They also answer the questions when, where, how much and how
often. ‘When will the ninjas arrive?’ ‘They will arrive soon.’ ‘How often does the ninja
baby cry?’ ‘The ninja baby never cries.’ The preceding examples show adverbs modifying verbs, as indicated.
They can also modify adjectives: “They were really unhappy.”
Adverbs can also be used to modify adverbs: “She sings very beautifully.”
Prepositions are often used to modify space and time. Consider how space and time are
altered in the following sentences: Someone left their drink AT the bar.
The train travelled THROUGH the mountains. The gift is IN the box.
There are some prepositions that are very common and not as easy to identify. The two
most common ones are ‘to’, and ‘of’. They went TO the coffee shop. She ate all OF the cookies.
Conjunctions are used to join words and groups of words. They are powerful… particularly
the coordinating conjunctions because they allow you to avoid major sentence errors,
such as sentence fragments and run-on sentences. For this reason, it’s important to remember
the following seven coordinating conjunctions – for, and, nor, but, or, yet and so.
An acronym that is helpful to remember is FANBOYS. Subordinating conjunctions include words such
as although, before, unless, if, and because.
The final part of speech is the interjection. These words - such as wow, oh no, and gee
– are used to express strong emotion and don’t typically have a place in academic
writing. They can certainly be used to great effect in personal and informal writing.
In summary, there are eight parts of speech: nouns,
pronouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs, prepositions,
conjunctions and interjections.
It is important to learn these as they are the building blocks for understanding grammar as a whole.