by
Hollie Snider
Parts of Speech
Noun: the name of a person, place, thing or idea
Noun/Adjective: a noun that functions as an adjective. Example: "you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear." The word "sow’s" is the noun/adjective because, while the word is typically a noun, in this case it is modifying "ear."
Proper Noun: the name of a specific person, place or thing. These are always capitalized. For example: Grandmother Smith is a proper noun, but " my grandmother" is not. Grandmother, by itself, is also a proper noun if it is being used as a name. Also, titles are proper names when being used as part of a proper name. They are treated as common names if they are not part of a name.
Common Noun: a common noun is any word that can be used as a generic term. "Girl" is a common noun, thus it is not capitalized unless it happens to be at the beginning of a sentence.
Concrete Noun: a noun that points to an immediate, often sensory experience and to physical objects. Garlic, lilac, stone and concrete are examples of concrete nouns.
Abstract Noun: a noun that refers to qualities or ideas. Justice, beautiful and dignity are examples of abstract nouns.
Count Noun: a noun referring to persons, places or things that can be counted. For example, girls, boys, cites and apples are count nouns. These things can be counted.
Non-Count Noun: a noun referring to entities or abstractions that cannot be counted. For example: water, air, patience and knowledge.
Collective Noun: a noun that names a class or group. Herd, flock, gaggle and troop are examples of collective nouns. In American English, collective nouns are almost always treated as singular since they emphasize the group as a unit. However, there are times when a collective nouns is treated as plural. This is usually done to draw attention to the individual members of that group. For example, in the sentence, "The committee put their signatures on the paper" is plural as the collective noun is drawing attention to each individual. In the sentence, "The committee granted its approval" is singular as the collective noun is referring to the committee as one unit.
Pronoun: a word used in place of a noun.
Pronoun/Adjective: a pronoun used as a adjective to modify a noun. For example, "This dog is mean." The word "this" is a pronoun/adjective modifying "dog."
Personal Pronoun: a pronoun that refers to specific persons or things. These pronouns can be singular or plural in form and always function as noun equivalents. Some are: I, we, you, she, us, him, her or them.
Possessive Pronoun: a pronoun that indicates ownership. Can be singular or plural in form. Such as: my, mine, yours, his, hers, ours, their or theirs.
Intensive Pronoun: a pronoun that emphasizes a noun or another pronoun. Can be singular or plural in form. Example: "The President himself met us." The word "himself" is the intensive pronoun because it is emphasizing "president."
Reflexive Pronoun: a pronoun which names a receiver of an action as identical with the doer. Can be singular or plural in form. Example: "Paul cut himself while shaving." The word "himself," while have the same form as the intensive pronoun, is reflexive because it identifies Paul as being the recipient of his action.
Relative Pronoun: a pronoun which introduces subordinate clauses functioning as adjectives. Example: "The man who mugged us was caught." The word "who" is the relative pronoun because it introduces the clause, "who mugged us" and it points back to the pronoun "man" which the clause modifies.
Interrogative Pronoun: a pronoun that introduces a question. Example: Who is expected to win the race? These are:
who |
whom |
whose |
which |
what |
Demonstrative Pronoun: a pronoun that identifies or points to a noun. Often, they function as adjectives, such as "This lasagne is my favorite." Here, "this" is functioning as an adjective, pointing to "lasagne" and modifying it. In addition, demonstrative pronouns can function as noun equivalents also. Such as, "This is my favorite food." Here, "this" is pointing to the food, but is also functioning as a noun equivalent because it is the subject of the sentence as well. Demonstrative pronouns are:
Indefinite Pronoun: a pronoun that refers to a non-specific person, place or thing. They can function as both noun equivalents such as, "Something is on fire," or as adjectives, such as, "All visitors must sign in." Indefinite pronouns are:
all
both
few
nothing
something |
another
each
many
one
anything |
any
either
neither
several
everything |
anybody
everybody
nobody
some
no one |
anyone
everyone
none
somebody
someone |
Reciprocal Pronoun: a pronoun that refers to the individual part of a plural antecedent. Example: "By turns, we helped each other." Here, "each other" is the reciprocal pronoun. Reciprocal pronouns are:
Verb: a word that expresses action or being.
Helping Verb: a verb that assists, and comes before, the main verb in a sentence. Example: "Rome was not built in a day." The word "was" is the helping verb to the main verb, "built." Notice, however, that other words can intervene between the main verb and the helping verb, such as in this case, "not." They combine with the main verbs to help create tenses. There are twenty-three helping verbs. They are:
can
may
do
are
is |
will
might
does
was
had |
shall
must
did
were
would |
should
have
be
being
could |
has
am
been |
Modal: a modal is a helping verb that can never function as a main verb. Of the twenty-three helping verbs, nine are modals. They are:
can
may |
will
might |
shall
must |
should
could |
would |
Transitive Verb: a verb that takes a direct object. For example, "A little lizard studies the ways of the dragon." Here, the verb "studies" is a transitive verb. We know this because if we read the sentence with just subject-verb, "A little lizard studies" it seems incomplete. A little lizard studies what? The complete direct object, "the ways of the dragon" is needed for the sentence to feel complete.
Intransitive Verb: a verb that does not take an object or a complement. The pattern is always subject-verb. Example: "Money talks." Here, "talks" is the intransitive verb. Nothing else is needed to complete the sentence.
Linking Verb: a verb that links the subject to the subject complement.
Verbal: a verb form that does not function as the verb of a clause. Verbals include infinitives, present participles, and past participles. They can take objects, complements and modifiers to form verbal phrases. Example: "Continuous dripping wears away stone." Here, the word "dripping" is a verbal because "wears" is the verb.
Gerund: a verb form that ends in "-ing" and is used as a noun. Examples: sleeping, dreaming, choosing et cetera.
Infinitive: the word "to" plus the base form of a verb, such as: to dream, to choose, to sleep, et cetera.
Split Infinitive: when a word appears between "to" and the base form of a verb. Example: to carefully balance. Sometimes split infinitives work, sometimes they don’t. For example: "The patient should try to, if possible, avoid stairs." This sentence should be rewritten to get rid of the split infinitive because it is awkward. Rewrite it to read, "If possible, the patient should try to avoid stair."
Dangling Infinitive: See Dangling Modifier.
Participle: A form of a verb that can function independently as an adjective. Example, the past participle "baked" in the sentence, "We had some baked beans," or is used with an auxiliary verb to indicate tense, aspect, or voice, such as the past participle "baked" in the passive sentence, "The beans were baked too long."
Dangling Participle: See Dangling Modifier.
Dangling Modifier: A participle, usually in a subordinate clause, that lacks a clear grammatical relation with the subject of the sentence, such as, "Deciding to join the Navy, the recruiter enthusiastically pumped my hand." This leads the reader to believe the recruiter joined the Navy instead of me. "Deciding to join the Navy" is a participial phrase. Often dangling modifier problems can be fixed by simply moving the modifying phrase and/or rewording it slightly. The repaired sentence would read, "When I decided to join the Navy, the recruiter enthusiastically pumped my hand."
Modifier: A word, phrase, or clause that limits or qualifies the sense of another word or word group, such as an adjective or adverb.
Adjective: any word that modifies a noun and generally answers the questions, "What kind of?" or "Which one?"
Adverb: any word that modifies a verb, an adjective or even another adverb, and generally answers the questions of, "Why?" "When?" "How?" "How much?"
Article: "the" "a" and "an" are articles. "The" is a definite article while "a" and "an" are indefinite. They are used as noun markers, meaning they signal a noun is coming up. The noun usually follows the article immediately, but it does not have to. Modifiers can show up between the article and the noun. Additionally, articles are adjectives.
Preposition: a word placed before a noun or pronoun to form a phrase which modifies another word in the sentence. They are:
about
along with
before
beyond
down
in addition to
next to
out
respecting
til
until |
above
among
behind
but
during
inside
of
outside
round
to
unto |
across
around
below
by
except
into
off
over
since
toward
up |
after
as
beside
concerning
from
like
on
past
than
under
upon |
against
as well as
besides
considering
in
near
onto
plus
through
underneath
with |
along
at
between
dispite
for
next
opposite
regarding
throughout
unlike
without |
Conjunction: these join words, phrases, or clauses and indicate the relation between the joined elements.
Coordinating Conjunction: used to join grammatically equal elements. Example: "Poverty is the parent of both revolution and crime." Here, "and" is the coordinating conjunction. Coordinating conjunctions are:
and
so |
but
yet |
or |
nor |
for |
Correlative Conjunction: these come in pairs and connect grammatically equal elements. Example: "Neither Jack Sprat nor his wife lived in a pumpkin." Here, the correlative conjunction is the combination of "neither/nor." Correlative conjunctions are:
either / or |
neither / nor |
not only / but also |
whether / or |
both / and |
Subordinating Conjunction: a conjunction introduces a subordinate clause and indicates its relation to the rest of the sentence. Example: "If rectangles had a god, it would have four sides." The word "if" is the subordinating conjunction here. The most common subordination conjunctions are:
after
before
since
unless
while |
although
even though
so that
until |
as
if
than
when |
as if
in order that
that
where |
because
rather than
though
whether |
Conjunctive Adverb: a word used with a semi-colon to connect independent clauses and usually serves as a transition between them. Example: "When we kill a shark, we call it sport; however, when a shark kills one of us, we call it ferocity." Here, the word "however" is the conjunctive adverb because it is linnking two independent clauses. Conjunctive adverbs are:
consequently
nevertheless |
finally
similarly |
furthermore
then |
however
therefore |
moreover
thus |
Interjection: a word used to convey surprise or emotion.
Subject Complement: a word or word group that completes the meaning of a subject by renaming or describing it. If the subject complement renames the subject, it is a noun or noun equivalent, also called a predicate noun. Example: "The handwriting on the paper may be a forgery." Here, "the handwriting on the paper" is the complete subject, "may be" is the verb and "forgery" is the subject complement. Because "forgery" is renaming the handwriting, not describing it, this is a predicate noun.
If the subject complement describes the subject, it is an adjective or adjective equivalent, also called a predicate adjective. Example: "Love is blind." Here, "love" is the subject, "is" is the verb and "blind" is the subject complement. Since "blind" is describing "love," it is a predicate adjective.
Direct Object: the word or phrase in a sentence referring to the person or thing receiving the action of a transitive verb. For example, in "mail the letter," letter is the direct object.
Indirect Object: An object indirectly affected by the action of a verb. Such as the turtle in the sentence, "He feeds the turtle lettuce."
Object Complement: a word or word group that completes the direct object’s meaning by renaming or describing it. Example: "People now call a pitchfork a farm implement." Here "people" is the subject, "call" is the verb, "a pitchfork" is the direct object and "farm implement" is the object complement because it is renaming the pitchfork.
Clauses
Subordinate Clause: these clauses have a pattern similar to sentences in that they can have a subject, verb and sometimes objects or complements, but they cannot stand on their own. It has a full sentence pattern that functions within a sentence as an adjective, adverb or a noun. A subordinating clause usually begins with a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun.
Adjective Clause: a subordinate clause modifying a noun or pronoun nearly always appears immediately after the noun or pronoun it is modifying. Example: "Relatives are people who live too near and die too seldom." Here, "who live too near and die too seldom" is the adjective clause because it begins with a relative pronoun and modifies the subject, "Relatives."
Most adjective clauses begin with a relative pronoun, but can also be introduced by a relative adjective such as:
Adverb Clause: a subordinate clause which modifies a verb and can appear nearly anywhere in the sentence begins with a subordinating conjunction. These clauses tell when, where, why, under what conditions or to what degree an action occurred or a situation existed. Example: "When the mine is empty, we know the worth of gold." Here, "When the mine is empty" is the adverb clause because it answers the question of "When do we know the worth of gold?"
Adverb clauses are also usually moveable within the sentence. Example, we could rewrite the previous sentence to read, "We know the worth of gold when the mine is empty" without changing the meaning.
However, there are times when an adverbial clause is not moveable. This occurs when it is modifying an adjective or adverb. It must stay next to the word. Example: "Mike can drive faster than I can bicycle." Here, the adverbial clause is "than I can bicycle." The adverbial clause cannot be moved around in the sentence without changing the meaning as it is modifying the adverb, "faster."
Additionally, adverbial clauses are sometimes elliptical with certain words being "understood." Example: "When [it is] painted, the room will look larger." Here, "When painted" is the adverbial clause with the words in brackets being the ones "understood" to be there even though they don’t appear in the actual sentence.
Noun Clause: noun clauses function just as a single word noun, but because they do not modify anything, they are not subordinate clauses in the same way adjective and adverb clauses are. Noun clauses are called subordinate simply because they cannot stand alone. They appear as a subject, subject complement, direct object or object of a preposition. They usually begin with a relative pronoun or with one of the following subordinating conjunctions: how, when, where, whether, why. Example: "Whoever gossips to you will gossip about you." In this case, "whoever gossips about you," is the subject as well as the noun clause.
Dependent Clause: See Subordinate Clause.
Independent Clause: a clause that has both a subject and a verb. It can or could easily stand alone. It is a full sentence pattern that does not function within another sentence pattern. Example: "Without music, life would be a mistake." This is an independent clause and a simple sentence because it contains a subject "life," a verb "would be," a complement "a mistake" and an adverbial modifier "without music."
Independent clauses can also be fragments joined to the main sentence via a semicolon. Example: "Grandfather lost his sight; however, his hearing has sharpened."
Phrases
Verbal Phrase: similar to single word verbals in that they function as adjectives, nouns or adverbs. Ordinarily classified as participles, infinitives and gerunds. Classification is based partly on form (whether the verbal is present participle, past participle or an infinitive) and partly on function (whether the whole phrase functions as an adjective, noun or adverb). These phrases usually lack subjects. Example: "Living well is the best revenge." Here, "living well" is the verbal phrase functioning as a noun used as a subject of this sentence.
Participial Phrase: a phrase that always functions as an adjective and whose verbals are either present participles, always in "-ing," or past participles frequently ending with "-d, -ed, -n, -en, or -t."
They frequently appear immediately preceding or following the noun or pronoun they modify. Example: "Truth kept in the dark will never save the world." Here, the participial phrase is, "kept in the dark" and modifies "truth."
Occasionally they can appear some distance away form the word they modify. Example: "History is something that never happened, written by someone who wasn’t there." In this case, the participial phrase is " written by someone who wasn’t there." It modifies the word, "something."
Gerund Phrase: these are verbal phrases built around the present participles and always function as nouns; usually subjects, subject complements, direct objects or objects of a preposition. Example: "Justifying a fault doubles it." Here, "justifying a fault" is the gerund phrase operating as the subject.
Infinitive Phrase: verbal phrase always constructed around the word "to" plus the base form of the verb (to call, to drink, to play), and can function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.
When functioning as a noun, an infinitive phrase can appear in almost any noun slot, usually as a subject, subject complement or direct object. Example: "Never try to play leapfrog with a unicorn." Here, "to play leapfrog with a unicorn" is the infinitive phrase as a direct object.
When functioning as an adjective, an infinitive phrase usually appears immediately next to the noun or pronoun it is modifying. Example: "We do not have the right to abandon the poor." Here, "to abandon the poor" is the infinitive phrase as an adjective modifying the noun "right."
Adverbial infinitive phrases usually qualify the meaning of the verb, telling when, how, why, where, under what conditions or to what degree the action occurred. Example: "He cut off his nose to spite his face." Here, "to spite his face" is the adverbial infinitive phrase answering the question of "Why did he cut off his nose?"
Sentence Types
Simple Sentence: a sentence that is one independent clause with no subordinate clauses.
Compound Sentence: a sentence composed of two or more independent clauses but still having no subordinate clause(s).
Complex Sentence: a sentence having one independent clause and one or more subordinate clauses.
Compound-Complex Sentence: a sentence containing at least two independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause.
