PARTS OF SPEECH
Traditional grammar classifies words based on
eight parts of speech: the verb, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection.
Each part of speech explains not what the
word is, but how the word is used. In fact, the same word can be a noun in
one sentence and a verb or adjective in the next. The
next few examples show how a word's part of speech can change from one sentence
to the next, and following them is a series of sections on the individual parts
of speech, followed by an exercise.
Books are made of ink, paper, and glue.
Deborah waits
patiently while Bridget books the tickets.
Here
"books" is a verb, and its subject is "Bridget."
We walk down
the street.
In
this sentence, "walk" is a verb, and its subject is the pronoun
"we."
The mail carrier stood
on the walk.
In
this example, "walk" is a noun, which is part of a prepositional phrase describing where the
mail carrier stood.
The town decided to
build a new jail.
The sheriff told
us that if we did not leave town immediately he would jail us.
They heard high
pitched cries in the middle of the night.
The baby cries all
night long and all day long.
But here "cries" is a verb that describes the
actions of the subject of the sentence, the baby.
PARTS OF SPEECH -
TABLE
|
PART OF SPEECH
|
BASIC FUNCTION
|
EXAMPLES
|
|
Noun
|
names a
person, place, or a thing
|
Indian, Ooty,
ship
|
|
Pronoun
|
takes the
place of a noun
|
I, you, he,
she, it, ours, them, who
|
|
Verb
|
identifies
action or state of being
|
sing, dance,
believe, be
|
|
Adjective
|
modifies a
noun
|
hot, lazy,
funny, lucky
|
|
Adverb
|
modifies a
verb, adjective, or other adverb
|
softly,
lazily, often, very
|
|
Preposition
|
shows a
relationship between a noun (or pronoun) and other words in a sentence
|
up, over,
against, by, for
|
|
Conjunction
|
joins words,
phrases, and clauses
|
and, but, or,
yet, else
|
|
Interjection
|
expresses
emotion
|
Hurrah, ah,
whoops, ouch
|
ADDITIONAL REFERENCE
