Grammar study guide Your test will be on Oct. 7 th It will be multiple Choice It will be in the same format as the pre-test You will need to identify which part of speech is underlined in a given sentence. Remember what I always say, It isn t the word you need to look at. It is what that word is doing in the sentence! For example: Q: What part of speech is the word run? A: It depends! I run everyday. Vs./ I am going to go for a run today. Verb Noun
Verbs Adverbs Nouns Prepositions Interjections Pronouns Adjectives Conjunctions
1. NOUNS A noun is a naming word. It names a living creature, place, thing, idea, or quality. Examples: cowboy, theatre, box, thought, tree, kindness,
Common Nouns Are nouns that name things in a general sense: car, dog, person, building, music, book, etc. Common nouns blend in I bought a car and a hamburger ten minutes after I won the lottery. Proper Nouns Name things specifically: Mercedes, Fido, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, etc. Proper nouns stand out I bought a Mercedes and a Big Mac ten minutes after I won the lottery.
! More examples of Nouns: Nouns are in bold. 1. The city of Metropolis needs a real superhero to fight crime. 2. The superheroes in Metropolis have some pretty silly superpowers. 3. John has the most amazing superpower. 4. With just a little caffeine, John can study all night! 5. Cowboy Boy lives in a quiet little town in New Mexico. 6. Captain Football can throw a football over Mount Everest with one hand 7. Birdman can talk to birds but the birds have been getting bored with his conversation recently. 8. The Grasshopper can jump over cars, trees, and buildings.
9. The Flea is always itchy and never hesitates to bite his enemies. 10. All good superheroes fight for truth, justice, and the right to wear spandex. 11. Homework Girl can complete any task that her teacher assigns in a single class period. 12. Mister Invisible is awfully hard to find, unless there is snow on the ground. 13. Turbo Boy has super speed, lots of attitude, and minty fresh breath. 14. The Mule can carry ten times his own weight. 15. Mr. Morton has only one weakness: mortonium, a secret metal that drains intelligence from geniuses.
A verb is a word which describes an action (doing something) or a state (being something). Examples: walk, talk, think, believe, live, like, want
Verbs are to sentences what engines are to cars they drive them, energize them and pull them along, sometimes at breakneck speed. But speed is not the greatest measure of a verb; it is the power a verb generates that really matters. For example, a sentence like, She went into the office after school has nowhere near the impact of She snuck into the office after school. The word went is a one horsepower verb, while the verb snuck generates a good five hundred horsepower. It pulls us into the sentence by our eyeballs. We can see the girl nervously managing the door, looking over her shoulder. Sliding carefully yet quickly over the threshold into the office all with one verb: snuck.
Action verbs are not the only kind of verbs in the world. There are also helping verbs. Helping verbs are easy to overlook, just because they are so common. You see them everywhere. is, be, am, are, was, were, been, has, have, had, do, does, did, can, could, shall, should, will, would, may, might, must, being
An adverb is a word which usually describes a verb. It tells you how something is done. It may also tell you when or where something happened. Examples: slowly, intelligently, well, yesterday, tomorrow, here, everywhere
Adverbs give us more information about two other kinds of words, besides verbs: adjectives and other adverbs. If you write, The salami sandwich was amazingly delicious, you are telling us how delicious it was. Amazingly is an adverb that gives us added information about the adjective delicious. Hints: They often end in ly. The words very and too are probably the most common adverbs.
An interjection is an unusual kind of word, because it often stands alone. Interjections are words which express emotion or surprise, and they are usually followed by exclamation marks. Examples: Ouch!, Hello!, Hurray!, Oh no!, Ha!
Interjections are set off from the rest of the sentence with special punctuation, most often an exclamation point. Sometimes, however, interjections are set off from the rest of the sentence with a comma (,) or even a dash ( ). Examples: Hey! Get your hands off my desk! Say aren t you the lady who drives the ice cream truck? Gee, I think I left my wallet in the cave.
A preposition usually comes before a noun, pronoun or noun phrase. Prepositions show how one thing related to something else. Examples: to, of, if, on, in, by, with, under, through, at
For example, suppose you have a pencil, and you want to show its relationship to the desk. You might say that it is on the desk or in the desk or by the desk or under the desk. On, in, by, and under are prepositions showing how the pencil relates to the desk. Sometimes prepositions relate one idea to another. Example: you might write your mother, I m staying in Calgary for the weekend, which means you will be spending some time in Calgary and not with your mother. But if you added, in the city jail, you have a completely different message and a very aggravated mother. If you add for armed robbery, your mother will probably become hysterical at the ideas these prepositions are relating. Mothers prefer messages like, I m staying in Calgary for an interview about a scholarship to Harvard.
Prepositions rarely work alone. They are almost always found with nouns (or pronouns), forming a group of words called a PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE. Prepositional phrases give additional information about nouns and verbs. They tell how, when, where, what kind, under what conditions, how long, how much, which one and how many. Besides adding information, prepositional phrases can also add some rhythm to your sentences. (We will learn more about this when we talk about sentence variety). In time In = preposition; time = noun. At home At = preposition; home = noun.
Pronouns are like stunt doubles do you know why?
Actors and Actresses who are about to take a hard fall usually stop and yell, Stand in! A pronoun does the same for a noun. When a noun is about to wear itself out in a sentence, a pronoun can hop in. The sentence reads better, the noun takes a break, and the reader is happier. Examples: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, her, him, me, myself, yourself, himself, herself, who, whom, whose, which, what anybody, someone, everyone, them, yours theirs, mine Meg stepped on the end of the diving board and looked down. Meg then turned back an looked longingly at her sister, who was perched safely on the ladder, smiling. Meg knew this was it. One! Two! Three! Meg ran to the end of the board, leaped, tucked and made one and one half turns, then straightened out like an arrow and hit the water cleanly. Meg knew Meg had made the best dive of her life. Meg stepped on the end of the diving board and looked down. She then turned back an looked longingly at her sister, who was perched safely on the ladder, smiling. Meg knew this was it. One! Two! Three! She ran to the end of the board, leaped, tucked and made one and one half turns, then straightened out like an arrow and hit the water cleanly. She knew she had made the best dive of her life.
You DO NOT need to memorize this list! Personal (he, they, I, you, she, we, ) Demonstrative (this, these, that, those) Interrogative (which, who, what, where, how) Indefinite (none, several, all, some, several, anyone, each, both, few) Possessive (his, your, my, your, her, its, our, mine) Reciprocal (each other, one another) Relative (which, where) Reflexive (itself, himself, myself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves) Intensive (itself, himself)
7. ADJECTIVES An adjective is a word that describes a noun or pronoun. It tells you something more. Examples: big, yellow, thin, amazing, beautiful, quick, important
A conjunction joins two words, phrases or sentences together. Examples: but, so, and, because, or, either, neither
For And Nor But Or Yet So Connect things that are roughly equal, like two sentences or two nouns or two verbs There are only seven: and, but, or, for, nor, yet, so Notice the punctuation Examples: Alicia lies out in the sun all day and pays for it afterwards. I m not moving to Swift Current or Regina. They said I would be eaten alive, but I swam on anyway. I don t hate you, nor do I fear you. I feel sorry for you, for you ve never eaten a submarine sandwich You are all alone, yet you don t seem sad.
Practice Additional explanation and exercises http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/courses/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/parts.htm Here are some games. (Yes, I know they are mostly for younger students. They are still fun and a good review. ) http://interactivesites.weebly.com/parts-of-speech.html Practice Quizzes: http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/grammar/parts_of_speech/quiz395.html http://www.grammar-monster.com/free_grammar_tests.html (8 Parts of Speech section)