Resource List for Education Majors

THE PARTS OF SPEECH

Brief Version

by Barbara Shumaker

Sentence: a group of words that express a complete thought.

Declarative sentence: states a fact.

Interrogative sentence: asks a question.

Imperative sentence: gives a command.

Exclamatory sentence: expresses sudden or strong emotion, and ends with an exclamation point.

Subject: The noun or pronoun that names a person, a place or a thing about which a statement is made. The subject is the doer of the action, or receives the action, or which is described.

Noun: a word that names a person, place or thing.

Proper noun: a noun that names a particular person, place or thing, and is capitalized.

Common noun: a noun that indicates any one of a class of persons, places or things. (e.g. boy; town; ball)

Possessive nouns: a noun that expresses ownership.

Antecedent: the noun or group of words to which a pronoun refers.

Pronouns: take the position of, and function as nouns but do not "name".

Predicate: the portion of a sentence or clause that tells something about the subject, consisting of a verb and possibly including objects, modifiers, and /or verb complements.

Verb: the action word that tells what the subject is doing. A word that shows action, state of being, or occurrence. (ex. run, is, find.)

Irregular verbs: is one that does not form its past and past participle by adding -d or-ed to its present form. The past participle form always uses a helping (have, had, has) or auxiliary verb.

Regular verbs: forms its past and past participle by adding -d or -ed to the present form. The past participle always uses a helping verb with the main verb ( had, has, have).

Auxiliary verb: the auxiliary verbs will and shall are used with the principal verb to form the future tense.

Linking verbs: couples or links a noun, pronoun or adjective to the subject in the sentence. The verb "be" and its various forms is the most common linking verb. ( e.g.-is, was, are)

Tense: indicates the time of the action or being. There are three simple tenses; present, past and future.

Adjective: a word that modifies a noun, or a pronoun. Ex. The white ball.

Interrogative adjectives: an adjective used in asking a question, what and which.

Adverb: a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. E.g. Go slowly.

Direct Object: the noun, pronoun or noun phrase in a sentence, which receives the action of a transitive verb. (e.g. I threw the ball.)

Indirect Object: the noun, pronoun, or noun phrase named as the one to whom or for whom action involving a direct object is done. (e.g. He gave me the paper.)

Conjunction: a word that connects words, phrases, or clauses. (and, but, or)

Articles: the adjectives a, an, and the.

Clause: A group of words that contains a subject and a predicate, and forms part of a

compound or complex sentence. ( e.g. After I left, she called.)

Gerund: a verb form ending in -ing, usually used as a noun. (Skiing is fun.)

Infinitive: a non-inflected verb form usually preceded by to, used as a noun, adjective, or adverb. ( To run fast is fun.)

Interjection: an exclamatory word or phrase. E.g. Hey! Look out!

Paragraph: a distinct division within a written work that may consist of several sentences or just one, that expresses something relevant to the whole work but is complete within itself.

Personal pronoun: a pronoun that denotes the speaker, person spoken to, or person spoken about. (you, he, she, they, etc.)

Preposition: a word that shows relationship (often between verbs and nouns or nouns and nouns) and takes an object. (e.g. Put it on the table.). a preposition is a word used to show the relationship of a noun or a pronoun to some other word in a sentence. A preposition is placed before a noun or pronoun. This noun or pronoun becomes the object of the preposition. E.g.- around the house, under the house, over the house, in the house, of the house. Notice each phrase modifies the sentence, Put it- where? -on the table, by the table, etc.

Synonyms: words that generally have the same meaning.

Antonyms: words that mean the opposite.

Homonyms: words that sound the same but have different meanings.

Contractions: a shortened form of two or more words. An apostrophe is used in a contraction to show where a letter or letters have been left out. (can't, won't, they're, we've, etc.)

REFERENCES:

Basics First: Grammar, for grade 6 and grade 8 books, by Helene Chiriniam, Frank Schaffer Publication Inc., 1996

Everyday English, Middle School, by Jeri Cipriano, Frank Schaffer Publication, Inc., 1998

Grammar, 100 Reproducible Activities, Grades 5-6, Instructional Fair, Inc, Grand Rapids, Mi., 1990.

Plain English: Usage, A Teacher Resource Book for Middle and Upper Grades, by Kathleen Knoblock, Frank Schaffer Publication, Inc., 1995.

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