[Grammar] Article 1- Parts of Speech

[Razor]

The Eight Parts of Speech

Now, you may be saying to yourself "I'm not dumb! Why's he trying to tell me about the eight parts of speech?" Well, as dumb as it sounds, they're the most important thing to know and hardly anyone can name all eight from memory. I'll try to keep this concise, but it's important! Anything marked by an * is extra important.

 

*The part of speech of any word is determined by its use.*

 

This leads me to the Universal Rule of the Universe:

******CALL IT WHAT IT ACTS LIKE, NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE******

 

That may be the single most important rule in all of grammar, so don't forget it.

 

Syntax- syntax is word order clues. The order in which words are placed will tell you what they are. ____ took out the trash for me. What part of speech could fit in that blank? Why, only a noun could, to complete the sentence. What is took? Took must be a verb, since it comes right after that noun which IS the subject of the sentence.

 

*Turn a question into a statement before working with it. Questions are inverted, so they must be reversed for all grammar rules to work.

 

 

With these important rules in mind, we shall discuss the eight parts of speech in detail. I'll put them in outline format to keep it concise.

 

I. Nouns- person, place, thing, or idea

-Common nouns, which are everyday nouns, such as shoe, horse, orange, or rake are common nouns.

-Proper nouns, which are the name of a specific person, place, or thing, usually capitalized. Mary, Massachusetts, and Gay Authors, for example, are proper nouns.

 

Other types of nouns:

• Abstract- ideas/intangible
  
• Concrete- perceived with five senses
  
• Collective- group
  
• Compound- two or more nouns which act as one
  

Notes: These classifications of nouns will make it easier to identify all nouns, including the tricky ones that don't look like nouns.

 

II. Pronoun- takes place of noun

 

*Antecedent- word whose place the pronoun takes.

 

1. Personal- shows by its form if it is 1st, 2nd, or 3rd person. I, we, you, he, she, it.

 

2. Compound Personal- all you do is add a suffix, either -self or-selves. Myself, yourself, himself, herself. However, "hisself" and "theirself" are NOT WORDS. If you use them at any point in time, the grammar Gestapo will hunt you down.

 

3. *Relative- Introduce dependant clauses/connect them to independent ones. These are worth memorizing for later: Who, whose, whom, which, and that are relative pronouns, and are the only relative pronouns!

 

4. Compound Relative- just like compound personal, except add -ever or -soever. They do the same thing as relative ones.

 

5. Demonstrative- they demonstrate, baby! The point out or show something. These words, those apples, this book, that paper.

 

6. Interrogative- they ask questions! Who did it, whose paper, to whom does this go, which one, what do you want.

 

7. Indefinite- not clearly identified with an antecedent. These are all, each, every, either, neither, both, several, one, or compounds of body and one.

 

Notes: Why would you need to know those? Well, I don't think you should stress over them, but each one is important in its own way. Later, relative pronouns become especially important when looking at clauses. These are something you should keep in mind, but are not something to stress over.

 

III. Verb- helps the subject make a statement, command, or question.

 

Classified by form:

1. Regular- just add a suffix to change tense, like add, added, and added.
   
2. Irregular- change the word to change tense, like go, went, and gone.
   

Classified by use:

1. Transitive- has a receiver of action. Jon ate the apple. The apple got ate, didn't it?
   
2. Intransitive- no receiver of action. Jon ran. Nobody got ranned, did they?
   

*Thought processes are action verbs

 

Notes: Verbs are important. The verb is the verb is the verb and won't anything ever be a verb except the verb... ever. There's really only one real verb in a sentence, given that the sentence contains only one independent clause. All others are either verbals or exist in dependant clauses, which excludes them from being the real, live verb.

 

IV. Adjectives- modify nouns/pronouns. They will tell you WHICH, WHAT KIND, or HOW MANY.

 

Four positions of adjectives:

1. Direct- directly in front of the noun. Red car.
   
2. Appositive- follows the noun and is generally set off in commas. Appositives can modify and be an adjective, or if they rename they are a NOUN, not an adjective.
   
3. Predicate- follows a linking verb and describes some sentence element, most often the subject.
   
4. Objective compliment- follows a direct object and renames or modifies it. Don't worry about this right now, it's a sentence element and will be covered in depth later.
   

*Articles are adjectives- a, an, the

 

V. Adverbs- modify verb, adj., or adverb. They will answer an adverb question: in what manner, when, where, why, or how much(not how many).

 

VI. Prepositions- show relationship between their object and some other word.

 

The preposition is part of a prepositional phrase and MUST have an object. The object is a noun/pronoun, and ends the phrase.

 

Most prepositional phrases have three words.

 

*A preposition without an object is generally an ADVERB, not a preposition. Jon climbed up. Where did Jon climb? He climbed up. Therefore, up is an adverb. Jon climbed up the mountain. Up is now part of a preposition phrase, and is no longer an adverb.

 

Notes: I assume that most of you can recognize a preposition. They were all the words you probably had to memorize sooner or later. For those who might have forgotten (surely not?) here is a handy list. A good rule: a preposition is anything you can do to "a log". Around a log, beside a log, over a log, under a log, through a log, without a log, with a log, on a log, etc.

 

About, behind, from, on, toward, above, below, in, on top of, under, across, beneath, in front of, onto, underneath, after, beside, inside, out of, until, against, between, instead of, outside, up, along, by, into, over, upon, among, down, like, past, with, around, during, near, since, within, at, except, of, through, without, before, for, off, to.

 

VII. Conjunctions- connect words, phrases, and clauses. There are four kinds.

 

1. Coordinate- connects items of equal rank, like two sentences, nouns, or verbs.

 

2. Correlative- they connect pairs. These are like either/or, neither/nor, whether/or, both/and, not only/but also

 

3. Subordinate- introduces dependant clauses/connects them to independent clauses

 

4. Conjunctive adverb- these are adverbs used as conjunctions. Remember the universal rule of the universe? These are like nevertheless, however, or consequently.

 

Notes: These come into play later, to introduce and point out the more complicated grammatical entities.

 

VIII. Interjection- shows strong feeling or emotion. Oh, I remember now! "Oh" is an interjection.

 

Notes: The best example... My sixth grade teacher screamed "STOP!" and slammed her yardstick, breaking it in the process, onto a student's desk. Then she smiled and said "That's an interjection!"

 

 

I know this seems daunting, but these are the basics, baby! These are what you have to know to know anything, so absorb that knowledge and get with it. Try the exercise, and if you can identify them, you have it in the bag, 'cause that's all you'll really have to do!

[Razor]

Give the part of speech of the italicized word.

 

1. Your glass of water sat on the table all day, Harley.

 

2. How can you even think sad thoughts on a day like today?

 

3. That is an absolutely wonderful painting you have on your wall.

 

4. Jack belongs to the French Club; however, he is not able to speak the language yet.

 

5. The old gray elephant shuffled slowly along, as if it were deep in sad thoughts.

 

6. The April sky shines with a blue so wonderful that you cannot forget it.

 

7. The computer printer hummed along, laying out page after page of document.

 

8. A large moth, brilliantly colored, perched on a windowsill on the sunny side of the house.

 

9. Oh, look, Lake Michigan stretches to the horizon, and it is so blue!

 

10. I've never been to a rock concert as energetic as that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. preposition

2. adverb

3. pronoun; adverb

4. verb; conjunction; adverb

5. adjective; conjunction; noun

6. adjective; preposition; adjective

7. adjective; adverb

8. adverb; noun

9. noun; adverb

10. adverb; pronoun

[Bondwriter]

Nice thread. It seems you're on a crusade to rid the world of the they're vs. their, whose vs. who's. Knowing parts of speech is useful, IMNSHO, mainly to avoid these extremely common mistakes. English having a simple (at least superficially) conjugation system and no agreement to adjectives, that's what one should understand and memorize.

 

Grammar is a meta-language about language, so knowing it allows to discuss language, though some of our story-tellers rely on storytelling skills (duh!) without much attention to grammar. And right they are. But being more knowledgeable doesn't hurt.

 

I like the concise and accurate way you present things. It's a good introduction/ reminder. Good examples. Sad thoughts for the old gray elephant. This should do the trick. BTW, I wonder whether #9 is a zeugma. But this goes into figures of speech, and I'm dangerously drifting off-topic.

[adblue]

Bravo!

 

Additions:

 

1. As already mentioned, an article is an adjective.

 

2. Definite Article: the; sometimes omitted when plural. the kangaroo; (the) kangaroos; It's called the definite article because you can say it refers to a particular noun, the kangaroo, this one.

 

2.1. Substandard: "them" as a plural definite article, such as: "them boys was runnin'." -- This is a holdover from history's (normal) Middle English. (It didn't appear out of nowhere.) It isn't standard, proper English and is usually considered "uneducated." -- But you will still hear it in some dialects and regions. Use it in dialogue, only when needed.

 

3. Indefinite Article: a/an, some; a computer, some computers; an owl, some owls; an honor, some honors; It's called the indefinite article because it's any old noun, you don't mind which one.

 

4. When to use a or an:

 

4.1. "a" goes before a noun beginning with a consonant, including w, wh; y, when used as a consonant "yuh" sound; or h, when sounded. a pickle, a whale, a yell, a horse, a history.

 

4.2. "an" goes before a noun beginning with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u); or y, when used like i as a vowel; or h, when silent. an orangutan, an honor, an hour.

 

4.2.1. British/International English uses "an" before a few words where the H is sounded, for historical reasons. Typically, "an history" or "an humour" ("when an humour is strong"). -- Your dictionary will help you out here, if you're not sure.