Parts of speech are the different jobs words can do in a sentence.
The jobs are divided into 8 parts.
The jobs are divided into 8 parts.
1. Nouns
Nouns are NAMES.
Types of people (teacher, girl), places (school, field), and things (pencil, paper) have names, but things you can't see can also have names, like emotions (sadness, happiness) or concepts (freedom, beauty).
Sometimes you are naming ONE specific person (Mrs. Brock) or place (Deer Path Middle School). These are proper nouns, and you treat them "properly" by capitalizing their first letter.
Types of people (teacher, girl), places (school, field), and things (pencil, paper) have names, but things you can't see can also have names, like emotions (sadness, happiness) or concepts (freedom, beauty).
Sometimes you are naming ONE specific person (Mrs. Brock) or place (Deer Path Middle School). These are proper nouns, and you treat them "properly" by capitalizing their first letter.
2. Pronouns
We have pronouns to stand in for nouns
That way, we don't repeat ourselves all the time, and so we can get our ideas out faster.
Instead of saying,
"John, Betty, Sarah, Joe, Victoria, Max, Brian, Julia, and I are going to the park,"
you can say,
"We are going to the park."
That way, we don't repeat ourselves all the time, and so we can get our ideas out faster.
Instead of saying,
"John, Betty, Sarah, Joe, Victoria, Max, Brian, Julia, and I are going to the park,"
you can say,
"We are going to the park."
3. Adjectives
Adjectives describe pronouns and nouns.
They answer these questions:
Which one?
ex: I love the chair. Which one? I love the blue chair.
How many?
ex: Please bring pencils. How many? Please bring 12 pencils.
What kind?
ex: Bring a coat. What kind? Bring a warm coat.
They answer these questions:
Which one?
ex: I love the chair. Which one? I love the blue chair.
How many?
ex: Please bring pencils. How many? Please bring 12 pencils.
What kind?
ex: Bring a coat. What kind? Bring a warm coat.
4. Verbs
There are two kinds of verbs. Think of them like distantly related cousins, because they are very different.
To understand this, start by considering that there are TWO types of sentences:
To understand this, start by considering that there are TWO types of sentences:
Someone/something has done, is doing, or will DO something (action).
ACTION VERBS are used in ACTION sentences. They are words that describe actions. ex: He ran five miles. He drank three glasses of water. |
Someone/something was, is, or will BE a certain way (description)
LINKING VERBS are used in DESCRIPTION sentences. They link someone or something to its description. ex: She is smart. The fire was warm. |
Sometimes the same word can be used in two different ways depending on a sentence.
1A. "Bob tasted the popcorn."
This is about Bob doing something. It is an ACTION sentence. Tasted is used as an ACTION verb 2A. "The cat looked at the bird." This is about the cat doing something. It is an ACTION sentence. Looked is used as an ACTION verb |
1B. "The popcorn tasted salty."
This is about a description of the popcorn. It is a DESCRIPTION sentence. Tasted is used as a LINKING verb 2B. "The cat looked hungry." This is about a description of the cat. It is a DESCRIPTION sentence. Looked is used as a LINKING verb. |
5. Adverbs
Adverbs answer the questions how, how often, when, where, how much, or to what extent.
As you can tell, adverbs have many jobs. In some ways, it is easiest to think of them as any describing word that is not an adjective.
The most well-known job of an adverb is to tell us about HOW something is done.
Many of these adverbs end in -ly, but not all of them!
Ex. She ran. How did she run? She ran quickly.