Parts of Speech Overview

Parts of Speech

• A noun is a word that names something, such as a person, place, thing, or idea.
• Verbs are actions or states, such as get, come, cut, open, and like.
• Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, such as silently, badly, and really.
• Adjectives describe nouns, such as small, big, good, well, and blue.
• Pronouns replace nouns, such as I, you, he, she, and it.
• Prepositions link a noun to another word, such as at, in, of, on, and after.
• Conjunctions join clauses or sentences, such as but, and, while, and when.
• Interjections are short exclamations, such as oh, hi, ouch, and wow.

Nouns

• Nouns can play the role of subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object complement, appositive, or adjective.
• Types of nouns include:
  • Person: Albert Einstein, Mother
  • Place: Mount Apo, President, Disneyland
  • Thing: Shoe, faucet, freedom, Elder, Wand, basketball
• Proper nouns are specific names of people, places, or things and are always capitalized.
• Common nouns are generic names of items in a class or group and are not capitalized unless appearing at the beginning of a sentence or in a title.

Types of Common Nouns

• Concrete nouns: perceived by the senses, such as doorbell and keyboard
• Abstract nouns: cannot be perceived by the senses, such as courage
• Collective nouns: denote a group or collection of people or things, such as pack of lies and pride of lions

Nouns in Sentences

• Nouns can be subjects, doing or being the verb in a sentence.
• Nouns can be objects, either direct or indirect, receiving or benefiting from the action performed by the subject.

Plural Nouns

• Plural nouns require plural verbs.
• Many English plural nouns can be formed by adding -s to the singular form.