8/17/2016 Parts of Speech

PartsofSpeech
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TheFarlexGrammarBook>EnglishGrammar>PartsofSpeech

PartsofSpeech
Definition
Thepartsofspeecharetheprimarycategoriesofwordsaccordingtotheirfunctioninasentence.

Englishhassevenmainpartsofspeech.Welllookatabriefoverviewofeachbelowcontinueontotheirindividual
chapterstolearnmoreaboutthem.

Nouns
Nounsarewordsthatidentifyornamepeople,places,orthings.Nounscanfunctionasthesubjectofaclauseor
sentence,anobjectofaverb,oranobjectofapreposition.Wordslikecat,book,table,girl,andplaneareallnouns.

Pronouns
Pronounsarewordsthatrepresentnouns(people,places,orthings).Grammatically,pronounsareusedinthe
samewaysasnounstheycanfunctionassubjectsorobjects.CommonpronounsincludeI,you,she,him,it,
everyone,andsomebody.

Verbs
Verbsarewordsthatdescribetheactionsorstatesofbeingofpeople,animals,places,orthings.Verbsfunction
astherootofwhatscalledthepredicate,whichisrequired(alongwithasubject)toformacompletesentence
therefore,everysentencemustincludeatleastoneverb.

Verbsincludeactionwordslikerun,walk,write,orsing,aswellaswordsdescribingstatesofbeing,suchasbe,
seem,feel,orsound.

Adjectives
Adjectivesarewordsthatmodify(adddescriptionto)nounsand(occasionally)pronouns.Theycanbeapartof
eitherthesubjectorthepredicate.Commonadjectivesarered,blue,fast,slow,big,tall,andwide.

Adverbs
Adverbsarewordsthatmodifyverbs,adjectives,otheradverbs,orevenentireclauses.Dependingonwhatthey
modify(andhow),adverbscanappearanywhereinthesentence.Adverbsarecommonlyformedfromadjectivesby
addinglytotheend,asinslowly,quickly,widely,beautifully,orcommonly.

Prepositions
Prepositionsarewordsthatexpressarelationshipbetweenanounorpronoun(knownastheobjectofthe
preposition)andanotherpartofthesentence.Together,theseformprepositionalphrases,whichcanfunctionas
adjectivesorasadverbsinasentence.Someexamplesofprepositionalphrasesare:onthetable,intheshed,and
acrossthefield.(Theprepositionsareinbold.)

Conjunctions
Conjunctionsarewordsthatconnectotherwords,phrases,orclauses,expressingaspecifickindofrelationship
betweenthetwo(ormore)elements.Themostcommonconjunctionsarethecoordinatingconjunctions:and,but,
or,nor,for,so,andyet.

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OtherPartsofSpeech
Inadditiontothesevenpartsofspeechabove,thereareseveralothergroupingsofwordsthatdonotneatlyfitinto
anyonespecificcategoryparticles,articles,determiners,gerunds,andinterjections.

Manyofthesesharecharacteristicswithoneormoreofthesevenprimarycategories.Forexample,determiners
aresimilarinmanywaystoadjectives,buttheyarenotcompletelythesame,andmostparticlesareidenticalin
appearancetoprepositionsbuthavedifferentgrammaticalfunctions.

Becausetheyarehardertoclassifyincomparisontothesevenprimarycategoriesabove,theyvebeengrouped
togetherinthisguideunderthegeneralcategoryOtherPartsofSpeech.

ChapterSubsections
Nouns
Pronouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Otherpartsofspeech

TheFarlexGrammarBook2016FarlexInternational.Allrightsreserved.

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