The Yearly Grammar Review
The 8 Parts of Speech
P of S
Function/Job
Noun
Adjective
Pronoun
Verb
Adverb
Preposition
Conjunction
Example Words
Example
Sentences
A person, place, Pen, dog, work,
This is my dog. He
thing or idea
music, town,
lives in my house.
teacher, house,
We live in
John, happiness
London.
Describes a
a/an, the, 2, some, I have two dogs.
noun
good, big, red,
My dogs are big. I
well, interesting
like big dogs.
Replaces a noun I, you, he, she,
Tara is an
some
American. She is
very young.
Action or state
(to) be, have, do,
Farmington is a
of being
like, sing, work,
town. We live in
can, must
Farmington.
Describes a verb, quickly, silently,
My dog eats
adjective, or
well, badly, very, quickly. When he
adverb
really
is very hungry, he
eats very
quickly.
Links a noun to at, to, after, on,
We went to
another word
before, around, of school for the
first day on
Thursday.
Joins clauses or and, but, for, nor, I like dogs, and I
sentences or
or, yet, so
like fish. I like
words
(FANBOYS)
dogs and fish. I
like dogs, but I
don’t like fish.
Interjection
Short
Oh!, Ouch!, Hi!,
exclamation and well
sometimes can
be inserted into
a sentence
Ouch! That hurts!
Hi! How are you?
Well, I don’t
know.
Suffixes that help determine word types:
Noun – er, ian, ist, ness, ity, ion, ism, tude, ary, ery, ance, ence,
ment,
Adjective – able, ible, ant, ent, ous, al, ic, ful, ed, less, y
Verb – ate, ed, en, fy, ize, ing
Adverb – ly, wise, ward
Added emphasis:
Phrase/Clause
Infinitive
Appositive
Description
Verbal consisting of
the word plus a
verb and
functioning as a
noun, adjective, or
adverb.
A noun or pronoun,
often with
modifiers, set
beside another
noun or pronoun to
explain or identify.
Example
Everyone wanted
to go.
OR He lacked the
strength to resist.
My brother’s car, a
sporty red
convertible with
bucket seats, is the
envy of my friends.
OR
A bold innovator,
Wassily Kandinsky
is known for his
Gerund
Verbal that ends in
–ing and functions
as a noun.
Prepositional
Function as
modifiers and
complements of
noun phrases,
adjective phrases,
and verb phrases
Participles
Verbal that is used
as an adjective and
most often end in
–ing or -ed
colorful abstract
paintings.
Traveling might
satisfy your wish
for new
experiences.
OR
Finding a needle in
a haystack would
be easier than what
we’re trying to do.
She went to the
store to buy some
milk.
OR
The squirrel
jumped onto the
branch.
Children interested
in music early
develop strong
intellectual skills.
OR
Having been a
gymnast, Lynn
knew the
importance of
exercise.
Independent vs Dependent
An independent clause can stand alone:
I left early enough to get tea this morning.
A dependent (subordinate) clause has a subject and verb but does not
have the capacity to stand alone as a complete thought:
Because I left early enough this morning, I was able to get some
tea.
KNOW the difference to avoid fragmented thoughts in your writing!
Simple sentence – one independent clause
Compound sentence – two independent clause joined with a comma
conjunction or semicolon.
Complex sentence – one dependent clause in addition to on independent
clause
Compound complex – a minimum of two independent clauses and at
least one dependent clause