Understanding Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech

• Nouns name places, people, or things.
• Proper nouns are names of specific places or people.
• Common nouns are names of general things.
• Abstract nouns refer to feelings.
• Concrete nouns can be identified using the five senses.
• Countable nouns can be counted (e.g., tables, chairs).
• Uncountable nouns cannot be counted (e.g., milk, sugar).
• Collective nouns refer to a group of things.
• Compound nouns are two nouns joined together (e.g., flowerbed).
• Adjectives describe nouns and are used in degrees of comparison.
• Degrees of comparison include adjective, comparative (-er), and superlative (-est), with exceptions for words over two syllables using "more" and "most".
• Verbs are doing words that can be identified by asking "can I do it?"
• Finite verbs show tense, number, and have a subject.
• Auxiliary verbs are helping verbs that regulate tense (e.g., was, is).
• State of being verbs identify what the noun is, was, or will be (e.g., is, am, are).
• Action verbs express an action happening (e.g., drive, swim).
• Adverbs modify or describe verbs.
• Adverbs of place indicate where an action occurs (e.g., It rains in Natal).
• Adverbs of time indicate when an action occurs (e.g., We swim at night).
• Adverbs of manner indicate how an action occurs and often end in "-ly" (e.g., He walks fast).
• Adverbs of degree indicate the extent of an action (e.g., He runs very fast).
• Adverbs of frequency indicate how often an action occurs (e.g., He always runs very fast).
• Conjunctions combine two sentences or clauses into one.
• Coordinating conjunctions are FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).
• Subordinating conjunctions include because, however, although, and unless.
• Prepositions show the position of something and its relationship in terms of place, position, or time; examples include "on" and "in".
• Sentences should not end on a preposition.
• Examples of prepositions include "Between two people" and "Among several people".
• Articles are either definite (specific) or indefinite (non-specific).
• "The" is a definite article.
• "A" and "An" are indefinite articles.
• "An" is used before words that sound like they start with a vowel.
• Pronouns include personal, possessive, interrogative, demonstrative, reflexive, indefinite, and relative pronouns.
  • Personal pronouns are: I, he, she, it, we, they, you.
  • Possessive pronouns are: mine, his, hers, yours, ours, theirs.
  • Interrogative pronouns include all the "w" words (who, when, etc.).
  • Demonstrative pronouns include all the "t" words (this, that, etc.).
  • Reflexive pronouns are: himself, herself, itself, myself, yourself, themselves, ourselves.
  • Indefinite pronouns include: one, everyone, they, someone (non-specific).
  • Relative pronouns act like conjunctions, referring to people (whom, who, whose) or inanimate objects/animals (that, which, what).
• "My family and I" is the correct form, not "me and my family."
• "He gave it to John and me" is correct, not "John and I".

Punctuation

• Refer to page 40 in the language booklet for punctuation marks.

Synonyms and Antonyms

• Synonyms are different words with similar meanings.
  • Examples include: Big - large - huge - gigantic - humongous and Happy - joyful
• Antonyms are words with opposite meanings.
  • Examples include: Cold - hot and Sweet - sour - salty - savory

Subject and Predicate

• The subject of a sentence is who or what the sentence is about.
• The predicate is the rest of the sentence after the subject is identified.

Simple Tenses

• Simple present tense describes an action happening now, without "-ing" and without "are" or "is" before the verb (e.g., She walks to school).
• Simple past tense describes an action that happened before the present, without "-ing" and without "was" or "were" before the verb (e.g., She walked to school).
• Simple future tense describes an action that hasn't happened yet, without "-ing" (e.g., She will walk to school).

Degrees of Comparison

• Adjectives are compared to each other to classify comparative and superlative degrees
• Pretty, prettier, prettiest. (if the adjective ends with a -y, make sure when comparing, to change to “ie”.
• Beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful