Parts of Speech

Bencomo Rascón Ana Silvia

210211949

January 18 2011

THE PARTS OF SPEECH

A speech is a way to present own feelings and thoughts by describing them. It could be
written or spoken. There are words in English language that are the group of words that
complete the grammar and vocabulary of whatever we speak or write. The groups of words
are classified into eight groups known as the parts of speech. The eight parts of speech are:
nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
These groups of words make sentences, which is a complete thought. In a sentence you will
always have a subject and a predicate. Without a subject and a predicate it is merely a
sentence fragment. The simple subject can be what the sentence is about or it can be what is
doing the action in the sentence. The simple predicate tells you what the subject is doing
(Malea Young).

Verbs: A verb is a word that makes a statement about the subject. A verb phrase is when the
verb is made up of two or more words. The verb at the end of the verb phrase is always
called the principal verb. The other verbs in the phrase are called auxiliary verbs or
helping verbs. Examples: to run, to speak (full infinitive); get, walk (infinitive); have
(also as an auxiliary verb), set up, break down (phrasal verbs).

Nouns: A noun is a person, place, or thing. There are three types of nouns: common nouns,
proper nouns and collective nouns. Common Nouns: A common noun is any-one of a class
of people, places, or things Examples: school; state. Proper Nouns: A proper noun is a
particular person, place, or thing. Examples: Gotha Middle School; Florida. Collective
Nouns: A collective noun is common noun whose singular form names a group of people
or things. Examples: team; faculty
Pronouns: A pronoun is a substitution for a noun. The prefix "pro " means for , so think of
it as in place of a noun. Examples: I, his, yours, she, him, your, her, he, that, hers, you,
these.

Pronouns prevent repetition in a sentence. Example: Jennifer went into Jennifer's dressing
room to put on Jennifer's costume for the show/ Jennifer went into her dressing room to put
on her costume for the show.

Adjectives: An adjective is a word used to modify (to change the meaning slightly by
describing) nouns or pronouns. EXAMPLES: "best" friend; "worst" enemy; "cute" dress.

The words a, an, and they are also adjectives . In grammar, they are called articles. An
adjective can answer one of the following questions: WHAT, KIND, WHICH, ONE,
HOW, MUCH, HOW, MANY, WHO'S.

There are four types of adjectives. They are: DESCRIPTIVE- tells what kind, what size,
what color, or what shape: "black" car. LIMITING - tells how many, how much, which
one, or whose: "three" cars. PROPER - comes from proper nouns, and are therefore written
with a capital letter, and are usually descriptive adjectives: "American" cars. PREDICATE
- an adjective in the complete predicate that describes the subject: That dress looks
"stunning!".

Adverbs: An adverb is a word that you add to a verb to modify the meaning of the verb.
The prefix "ad " means to, toward, or in addition to, so think to add on to a verb, or an
addition to a verb . An adverb can usually answer one of the following questions: when,
where, how, in, what, manner to, what extent to, what degree.

Prepositions: A preposition is a word which shows relationships among other words in the
sentence. The relationships include direction, place, time, cause, manner and amount. In
the sentence She went to the store, to is a preposition which shows direction. In the
sentence He came by bus, by is a preposition which shows manner. In the sentence They
will be here at three o'clock, at is a preposition which shows time and in the sentence It is
under the table, under is a preposition which shows place.
A preposition always goes with a noun or pronoun which is called the object of the
preposition. The preposition is almost always before the noun or pronoun and that is why
it is called a preposition. The preposition and the object of the preposition together are
called a prepositional phrase. The following chart shows the prepositions, objects of the
preposition, and prepositional phrases of the sentences above.

Conjunctions: A conjunction is a word that connects other words or groups of words. In

the sentence Bob and Dan are friends the conjunction and connects two nouns and in the
sentence He will drive or fly, the conjunction or connects two verbs. In the sentence It is
early but we can go, the conjunction butconnects two groups of words.

Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions which connect two equal parts of a sentence.
The most common ones are and, or, but, and so which are used in the following ways:

and is used to join or add words together in the sentence They ate and drank.
or is used to show choice or possibilities as in the sentence He will be here on
Monday or Tuesday.
but is used to show opposite or conflicting ideas as in the sentence She is small but strong.
so is used to show result as in the sentence I was tired so I went to sleep.

Subordinating conjunctions connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal and will be
discussed more in another class. For now, you should know some of the more
common subordinating conjunctions such as:

after before unless

although if until
as since when
because than while

Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together. In the sentence Both
Jan and Meg are good swimmers, both . . .and arecorrelative conjunctions. The most
common correlative conjunctions are:
 both . . .and
either . . . or
neither . . . nor
not only . . . but also

Articles: An article is a kind of adjective which is always used with and gives some
information about a noun. There are only two articles a and the, but they are used very
often and are important for using English accurately.

The word a (which becomes an when the next word begins with a vowel - a, e, i, o, u) is
called the indefinite article because the noun it goes with is indefinite or general. The
meaning of the article a is similar to the number one, but one is stronger and gives more
emphasis. It is possible to say I have a book or I have one book, but the second sententence
emphasizes that I do not have two or three or some other number of books.

The word the is known as the definite article and indicates a specific thing. The difference
between the sentences I sat on a chair and I sat on thechair is that the second sentence refers
to a particular, specific chair, not just any chair.

Many nouns, especially singular forms of countable nouns which you will learn about later,
must have an article. In English, it is not possible to say I sat on chair without an article,
but a demonstrative or possessive adjective can be used instead of an article as in the
sentences I sat on that chairand I sat on his chair.

Whenever you see an article, you will find a noun with it. The noun may be the next word
as inthe man or there may be adjectives and perhaps adverbs between the article and the
noun as in the very angry, young man.
Parts of Speech Table

This is a summary of the 8 parts of speech*. You can find more detail if you click on each
part of speech.

part of function or "job" example words example sentences

speech

Verb action or state (to) be, have, do, EnglishClub.com is a web site.
like, work, sing, I likeEnglishClub.com.
can, must

Noun thing or person pen, dog, work, This is my dog. He lives in

music, town, myhouse. We live in London.
London, teacher,
John

Adjective describes a noun a/an, the, 69, My dog is big. I like big dogs.
some, good, big,
red, well,
interesting

Adverb describes a verb, quickly, silently, My dog eats quickly. When he

adjective or adverb well, badly, isvery hungry, he
very, really eats really quickly.

Pronoun replaces a noun I, you, he, she, Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.
some

Preposition links a noun to to, at, after, on, We went to school on Monday.
another word but

Conjunction joins clauses or and, but, when I like dogs and I like cats. I like
sentences or words catsand dogs. I like dogs but I don't
like cats.

Interjection short exclamation, oh!, ouch!, hi!, Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are
 sometimes inserted well you?Well, I don't know.
into a sentence

Parts of Speech Examples

Here are some sentences made with different English parts of speech:

verb noun verb noun verb verb

Stop! John works. John is working.

pronoun verb noun noun verb adjective noun

She loves animals. Animals like kind people

.

noun verb noun adverb noun verb adjective noun

Tara speaks English well. Tara speaks good English.

pronoun verb preposition adjective noun adverb

She ran to the station quickly.

pron. verb adj. noun conjunction pron. verb pron.

She likes big snakes but I hate them.

Here is a sentence that contains every part of speech:

interjection pron. conj. adj. noun verb prep. noun adverb

Well, she and young John walk to school slowly.

Sources:

Malea Young, Narita. (n.d.). The parts of speech. Retrieved from

http://library.thinkquest.org/2947/partsofspeech.html#

http://eslus.com/LESSONS/GRAMMAR/POS/pos.htm

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/parts-of-speech_1.htm