Web Guide Teacher Guide to the Parts Of Speech

There are eight basic parts of speech and every word will fall into one of these categories. Some words can actually be classified as being in more than one part of speech depending on how it is used at the time.

The different parts of speech include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles, and pronouns.

A noun is a word that describes a person, place, or thing. A noun can also be a word that describes an act or a quality. An example of a noun that is a person would be a mother. A place would be a school, a thing might be a laptop. Nouns can be clasified as common or proper. Proper nouns name specific people, places, or things. Proper nouns will always begin with CAPITAL letters. Women is a common noun. Mrs. Applegate is a proper noun.

Examples of Common Nouns and Proper nouns:

Persons: Americans, women, Nancy, Mrs. Smith, officer

Places: ballpark, Paris, Uruguay, classroom, backyard

Things: buses, books, ipods, suitcase, laptops

Qualities: sadness, joy, integrity, loyalty

A verb is a word that expresses action or a state of being. Run,write, and dive are action verbs that can be observed.

Examples of Action Verbs that can be observed: do, go, swim, washed

Examples of Action Verbs that cannot be observed: forget, think, remember

A linking verb can also express existence. They do not express and action. They serve a a link between two words. I am. I is a noun, am - is an existence verb.

Examples of Linking Verbs: am, are, is, being, seem

Helping verbs support a main verb to help express an idea or occurrence. Sally has finally completed her book. (has is the helping verb, completed is the main verb) Helping verbs differ from linking verbs because linking verbs join the subject with the rest of the sentence. Helping verbs require other verbs to be present.

Another part of speech is an adjective. Adjectives are used to describe nouns. In the phrase 'sharp knife,' knife is the noun and sharp is the adjective that is describing the knife. Colors can be adjectives. Blue sweater, pink slippers, and green grass are all examples of colors as adjectives.

Examples of Adjectives: Colors (blue, green, purple, orange), Physical characteristics that can be observed (large, thick, thin, pretty).

On the other hand, an adverb is a word that modifies a verb. They are also used to modify an adjective or another adverb. She walked slowly. The verb is walked, and slowly is the modifier of the verb or adverb. Adverbs typically add additional information in regards to manner, place, or time.

Examples of Adverbs: Manner (abruptly, slowly, swiftly) Place (here, there) Time (Today, often, Yesterday)

An article is used to alert you to the fact that there is a noun. Articles are signals. There are three article words in the English language. A is an article, an - is also one. the - is the third article word.

A word that is used to tie together or connect other words is called a conjunction. These are words such as: and, or, but, for, or, nor, so, and yet . Conjunctions can also be used to connect sentences or phrases.

When you want to use an exclamation word and let it be a sentence of its own, that is called an interjection. An interjection also can be a short phrase or it can even just be a sound. Sh! is an interjection. So is - Oh!, Hey!, Hi!, and Ah!.

A preposition is a relationship word. These small words will show how one noun relates to another noun. By, in, from, with, to, and at are prepositions.

Now the last part of speech is called a pronoun. These are words that can be substituted for a noun. They still will be referring to a person, place or thing. Or the pronoun might be in place of an idea or an act that had been brought up before in conversation or in writing. You have to be careful with pronouns. You need to be able to figure out who or what you are talking about. He, she, it, that - are all pronouns.

In summary, There are eight parts of speech. Some words can be classified under several parts, depending on how the word is used.

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