How to Identify Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs & Adverbs It is almost impossible to write a sentence without a verb or a noun, since

these parts of speech constitute many of the words in the English language. Adverbs and adjectives modify verbs and nouns respectively. They give the reader a better description of a noun, and they let us know more exactly how a verb was completed. English speakers need to be able to identify the different parts of speech. tep ! "etermine whether the word represents an idea, person, place or thing. If so, then it is a noun. #ords such as $materialism,$ $%eorge #ashington,$ $ pain$ or $basket$ are nouns, and they respectively describe an idea, a person, a place and a thing. tep & 'heck whether the word describes something. Any word that describes how old something is, what color it is, what condition it is or what it looks like is an adjective. tep ( ee whether the word represents an action. If so, then it is a verb. Any word that is an action, such as see, hear, read or dance, is a verb.

How to Recognize Adverbs and Adjectives in a Sentence As their names suggest, the role of adjectives and adverbs is to add information to a sentence. They add detail and color to objects and actions that would otherwise appear boring and vague, but they can sometimes be difficult to identify and easy to confuse. In order to identify adjectives or adverbs in a sentence, you must first have a general understanding of how they work and the parts of speech that each modifies. How Adjectives Work According to )urdue *niversity+s ,nline #riting -ab, an adjective+s purpose is to describe a noun by answering the .uestions /which one01 /what kind01 or /how many01 In the sentence, /The biggest office is mine,1 the word /office1 is a noun, and the word /biggest1 distinguishes which &2345(675.odt !

office is being described. In the sentence, /The old car sputtered by,1 the adjective /old1 describes what kind of car is passing. The sentence / everal children were injured1 uses the adjective /several1 to clarify how many children were involved. How to ocate Adjectives 8ecause an adjective+s job is to modify a noun, it helps to find the nouns in a sentence. -ook for words that name people, places, things or ideas, such as /mayor,1 /city,1 /pencil1 or /love.1 9ark these words in the sentence, then look at each one individually to see if any of the words nearby add information to the noun by answering /what kind01 /which one01 or /how many01 %enerally, an adjective will come before the noun it modifies, as /old1 comes before /man1 in /The old man walked home.1 #hen a noun is followed by a linking verb : forms of /be,1 /feel,1 /taste,1 /smell,1 /sound,1 /look,1 /appear1 or /seem1 used to indicate a state of being : an adjective will follow the linking verb to describe the noun. ;or example, in the sentence /The food smells delicious,1 the verb /smells1 connects the noun /food1 to its description, /delicious.1 How Adverbs Work The main role of an adverb is to modify a verb, an adjective or another adverb by answering the .uestion /how01 In the sentence, /The cat jumped .uickly from the porch,1 the adverb /.uickly1 describes the verb /jumped1 by telling how it happened. An adjective is modified in the sentence, /The house is incredibly large.1 The house is described by the adjective /large,1 while the adverb /incredibly1 tells us how large. In the example of /The spy whispered .uite softly,1 the adverb /softly1 explains how the spy whispered, while the adverb /.uite1 tells how softly the whisper was executed, showing how an adverb may modify another adverb. How to ocate Adverbs Adverbs generally end in /<ly,1 as in /.uickly,1 making them easy to spot. =owever, not every adverb follows this pattern. To identify adverbs in a sentence, first locate the verbs, or words that indicate an action or state of being, such as /run,1 /sleep,1 or /is.1 After marking these words, search for words that tell how an action was done. Also, look for adjectives and mark any words that express the extent of the description, such as $very$ or $barely.$ An adverb may come before the word it modifies, as in /The car .uickly sped away,1 or after the word it modifies, as in /The car sped .uickly away.1 In both examples, /.uickly1 tells how the car sped away. If an adverb begins a sentence or clause, it may be separated from the verb it modifies by the sentence+s subject, as in &2345(675.odt &

/>ormally we eat at noon,1 where /normally1 modifies the verb /eat.1

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