Grammar: Parts of Speech and Sentence Construction

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Grammar Parts of Speech and Sentence
Construction
Part I
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INTERJECTIONS
Adverbs
VERBS
Prepositions
CONJUNCTIONS
Adjectives
PRONOUNS
NOUNS
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You could get by in the world only knowing two
parts of speech NOUNS AND VERBS You would
sound a little Neanderthal when you talked, but
you could get by. What are nouns?
people places things ideascheerlea
ders school books
freedomJessica Kim KFHS Angelas
Ashes
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NOUNS Nouns are names of people, places, things,
and ideas. Most of the time a noun is something
that you can touch or see. (These are called
concrete nouns.) Ninety-nine percent of all
nouns fall into this category.
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Nouns that you cant touch or see are called
abstract nouns. Abstract nouns are things
like freedom surprise remorse hate friendship pat
riotism dislike love anger confusion
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Find the nouns in the excerpt belowFew
inventions have changed the world like computers.
We find ourselves spending more time sitting in
front of a computer screen than in front of a
television. In some ways computers give us
freedom. Tasks that were difficult and laborious
in past years can now be done with the click of a
button. But computers have also created more
work for us. Companies give computers to
workers, not so that the employee can have a cool
machine, but so that the company can access the
worker twenty-four hours per day. Have computers
given us independence? Or have they become the
masters and we are now the slaves?
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Find the nouns in the excerpt belowFew
inventions have changed the world like computers.
We find ourselves spending more time sitting in
front of a computer screen than in front of a
television. In some ways computers give us
freedom. Tasks that were difficult and laborious
in past years can now be done with the click of a
button. But computers have also created more
work for us. Companies give computers to
workers, not so that the employee can have a cool
machine, but so that the company can access the
worker twenty-four hours per day. Have computers
given us independence? Or have they become the
masters and we are now the slaves?
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VERBS
Verbs are the power of a sentence, the fire of a
sentence. We can improve our writing more by
improving our knowledge and use of verbs than by
any other means. Actionthese are the easy
ones. They are words that show actionrun, jump,
sit, think, eat, drive, sleep, know, revolve,
spin, type, watch, walk, swing, dance. .
. Sometimes these verbs need help. We use
helping or auxiliary verbs to help us express the
time a particular action happened. I am typing.
The action verb is typing. But the helping
verb am lets us know that this is a current
actionsomething that is happening now.
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Linking Verbs Linking verbs are words that link
the subject with a word in the predicate. I am a
teacher. The subject of this sentence is I.
The linking verb is am. And the word in the
predicate that the linking verb connects to the
subject is teacher. Without linking verbs we
sound like Tarzan I teacher. You
student. Linking verbs sometimes can act as
auxiliary (helping) verbs. But when they
function that way, they are followed by action
verbs. It is easy to distinguish between the two
of them if you try. I am teaching my class.
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Find the verbs in the selection below. Identify
the verb phrase first. Tell which is the
auxiliary verb and which is the main verb. If
the verb is an action verb, identify it as
action. If it is a linking verb, identify it as
linking. Jennifer chose her college because her
boyfriend was attending the same university.
George picked SMU because his father graduated
from there twenty-five years ago. Melissa was
packing her bags for SFA since so many of her
friends were going there. And Gregory had
decided on Tomball College because he was too
lazy to send applications to a university. Are
any of these young people going to their colleges
for the right reasons? Will they have positive
experiences? Choose your college carefully.
Select one that offers the degree that you want
to earn. Pick a college that you have an
interest in. If your friends have chosen
different schools, keep in touch with them by
email or phone, but do not go to a school that is
not right for you just because a friend goes
there. You might be wasting both your time and
your money.
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Verb phrase is in red.Auxiliary verb is
underlined in green.Linking verb is in blue.
Jennifer chose her college because her boyfriend
was attending the same university. George picked
SMU because his father graduated from there
twenty-five years ago. Melissa was packing her
bags for SFA since so many of her friends were
going there. And Gregory had decided on Tomball
College because he was too lazy to send
applications to a university. Are any of these
young people going to their colleges for the
right reasons? Will they have positive
experiences? Choose your college carefully.
Select one that offers the degree that you want
to earn. Pick a college that you have an
interest in. If your friends have chosen
different schools, keep in touch with them by
email or phone, but do not go to a school that is
not right for you just because a friend goes
there. You might be wasting both your time and
your money.
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AdjectivesThe Words that Describe
Adjectives are words Which one that
tell How many What color
What kind They modify nouns and pronouns.
You have a car. But what kind of car is it?
What color is it? Which one is it? How many
cars do you have? Without adjectives we could
not answer those questions. Jon drove a noisy,
old, red car. What are the adjectives in this
sentence?
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Adjectives modify nouns. The truck The big red
truck
Adjectives modify pronouns.The gardener was
hot and sweaty from working in the sun all
day.When adjectives modify pronouns, the
adjectives usually follow a linking verb and
modify the subject. What is the linking verb in
the above sentence?
Articles The words a, an, and the are
always adjectives. They are called articles.
When adjectives modify nouns, the adjectives
usually come immediately before the nouns they
modify.
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Find the adjectives in the following
sentences. What is your favorite movie? I love
Steel Magnolias. Sally Field is one of my
favorite actresses. She may be short, but she is
cute and enthusiastic. She began acting when she
was a young girl, playing Gidget on television.
She soon moved to the big screen and succeeded
there, too. Ms. Field has performed with some of
the most famous actors in Hollywood. She has
made several great movies with Tom Hanks. Maybe
I like her because she is small. She and I have
that one thing in common.
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Find the adjectives in the following
sentences. What is your favorite movie? I love
Steel Magnolias. Sally Field is one of my
favorite actors. She may be short, but she is
cute and enthusiastic. She began acting when she
was a young girl, playing Gidget on television.
She soon moved to the big screen and succeeded
there, too. Ms. Field has performed with some of
the most famous actors in Hollywood. She has
made several great movies with Tom Hanks. Maybe
I like her because she is small. She and I have
that one thing in common.
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Adverbs Adverbs modify verbs. That does not mean
that adverbs describe verbs. Verbs cant be
described. Adverbs tells us how, when, where and
to what extent about verbs, adjectives, and other
adverbs. Sounds a little confusing, but it is
easy if you think about it. Hearing footsteps
behind her, Linda walked swiftly to her car. What
word in that sentence answers the word how
about the verb walked? What word might you add
that could modify swiftly to intensify it?
The doctor is tired.Doctor is the subject
(noun), and tired is the adjective that
describes that noun.
The doctor is very tired.Doctor is still the
subject (noun), and tired is still the verb.
The word very is an adverb, an intensifier,
that modifies the adjective tired. It tells us
to what extent the doctor is tired.
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Even though sometimes we must use adverbs, we
should put more effort into strengthening our
verbs so that adverbs become less necessary. For
example, if I heard footsteps behind me, I would
not walk swiftly to my car. I would not walk
very swiftly. I would run, race, dash, sprint.
But sometimes adverbs are necessary. We need to
know how to identify them, and we need to know
how they work in a sentence. Jennifer left work
immediately after receiving a phone call.When
did Jennifer leave? That word is an
adverb. Gilbert deliberated intensively before
making his decision.How did Gilbert deliberate?
That word is an adverb. How could we rewrite
this sentence so that an adverb is unnecessary?
After intensive deliberations, Gilbert decided
his course of action.