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In the English language . . .
There are nine parts of speech . . .
Nouns
Verbs
Every word fits into one of
Pronouns
these categories!
Adjectives
Adverbs
Conjunctions
Articles
Prepositions
Interjections
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Noun:person, place,thing or
quality/idea
Person: Popeye likes to eat spinach with his
family.
Place: San Francisco is a great city with
many interesting shops.
Thing: I need a new bicycle and a facelift.
Quality: Superman defends truth and
justice.
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More Abstract Nouns
Love, joy, pain, grief
Kindness, sadness, happiness
Government, empowerment, employment
Civility, humility, adversity, equality
Complication, inspiration, humiliation
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Practice with Nouns
Point to something in the room
that is a noun
Now think of something that is
a noun that cannot be pointed
to.
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Verb: shows action or state of
being
Action Verbs: Robin Hood ran through
the forest.
Notice that some actions are mental
actions:
I love Lucy.
I remembered my anniversary this year.
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Verb: shows action or state of
being
Being or Linking Verbs connect the
subject of a sentence with more
information about that subject.
That bowtie looks dorky on you.
 He was sad that particular morning.
Common being/linking verbs: is, am, are,
were, seems, smells, tastes, feels, sounds.
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Helping Verbs
Some verbs work as helpers to other
verbs to change the tense. Helping verbs
come BEFORE the main verb.
Example: I am sleeping. He was
sleeping. We will sleep. She does sleep.
Common helping verbs: is, am, are, was,
were, does, can, will, should, have.
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Practice with Verbs
Identify the verbs in each sentence and tell
what type they are.
Sibbie has been singing all morning.
Ivan should be paying attention.
Ariel is very helpful to her mother.
Oliver is thinking about death.
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Pronoun: takes the place of a
noun
Guillermo and I studied for the
exam, even though we had no
hope of passing it.
There are actually many types of
pronouns, but we will get to them
later!
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Adjective: describes a noun
The beautiful woman only
wanted a couple of pairs of
shoes.
The rainy day made us even
sadder.
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Article: There are only three articles--the, a , an
(Actually, articles are adjectives and not a
different part of speech)
The bicycle was not only red but shiny.
A yellow moon always appears in
October.
An excellent student, Armando passed all
his exams.
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Practice with Adjectives
This woman looks _______.
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More Adjective Practice
This forest is ________________.
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Adverb: describes a verb,
adjective, or other adverb
The little girl walked happily through the
park.
The extremely hungry boy very slowly ate
the hot stew.
Note: Adverbs answer these questions: how, when, where,
and to what extent.
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Practice with adverbs
modifying verbs
Describe how you do each activity
Run
Study
Swim
Sing
Sleep
Bonus: For each adverb you used, tell to what extent.
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Practice with adverbs
modifying adjectives
Decide to what extent these dogs are cute.
Conjunctions: words that join
words, phrases or sentences
Manuel and Marisol loved to cook.
You will go to class, or you will fail.
I am happy because I just received my check.
It has been cloudy since the morning.
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Preposition: A word or phrase that shows the
relationship between the noun that it takes as an object
and some other word in the sentence.
The cat was on the table.
The dog was under the table.
These are some common prepositions:
For
on
to
up
at
under
above
toward
With
between in
behind
From upon
into
off
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Prepositional Phrases
A preposition is always followed by a noun
or pronoun called the object of the
preposition (OOP).
Over the river
p
oop
Through the woods
p
oop
To Grandmother’s house.
p
oop
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What do POOPs do?
Prepositional phrases act like adjectives or
adverbs.
Adjectives
These POOPs describe
nouns:
Adverbs
These POOPs describe
verbs:
The cat by the door is ugly.
The cat sat by the door.
I got a letter from my sister.
I ran from my sister.
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Interjections: expressive words
Wow, you knocked that ball out of the
park.
Oh, you really need to take care of
yourself.
Huh, what did you say?
Ah, now I understand the problem.
Created by José J. Gonzalez, Jr.
Spring 2002
STCC
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Identify each word in the
following sentence
The beautiful queen was walking slowly
on the cool lawn, and she was reading a
long book about knights and kings.
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The beautiful queen was walking slowly
article
adjective
noun
verb
verb
adverb
on the cool lawn, and she was reading a
preposition
article
adjective
noun
conjunction
pronoun
verb
verb
article
long book about knights and kings.

adjective
noun
preposition
noun
conjunction
noun
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