Quick Reference:
Parts of Speech:
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noun - A noun is a type of word that represents a person, thing, place, or idea
like mother, apple, love, or valley.
verb - A verb is a type of word that describes an action or a state of being,
like wiggle, walk, run, jump, be, do, have, or think, is, or are
pronoun - A pronoun is a substitute for a noun. Some pronouns
are: I, me, she, hers, he, him, it, you, they, them, etc.
adjective - An adjective is a word that describes something (a noun). Some
adjectives are: big, cold, blue, and silly. One special type of adjective is an article,
a word that introduces a noun and also limits or clarifies it; in English, the
indefinite articles are a and an, the definite article is the.
adverb - An adverb is a word that tells "how," "when," "where," or "to what
extent". Some adverbs are: easily, warmly, quickly, mainly, freely, often,
and unfortunately.
preposition - A preposition shows how something is related to another word. It
shows the spatial (space), temporal (time), or logical relationship of an object to
the rest of the sentence. The words above, near, at, by, after, with and from are
prepositions.
conjunction - A conjunction is a word that joins other words, phrases, clauses or
sentences. Some conjunctions are: and, for, nor, yet, but, or, and so.
interjection - An interjection is a word that expresses emotion. An interjection
often starts a sentence but it can be contained within a sentence or can stand alone.
Some interjections are oh, wow, ugh, hurray, eh, and ah.
When do I capitalize the letter I?
 Capitalize the letter "I" when referring to yourself, so it must be capitalized:
 "I", is normally capitalized, along with all its contractions (I'll, I'm, etc.).
How do I punctuate titles of books, songs, poems, etc?
 You underline the title of a book, or you italicize the title
 You use “quotation marks” for titles of poems, short stories, songs, or essays
When do I use apostrophes with nouns?
 Use an apostrophe (‘) to show possession with nouns or proper nouns
o -‘s or -s’
 Use a plural noun to show that you have more than one.
o Add –s, -es, -ies, -ves, etc. to the end of the word to make it plural
Examples:
Singular
lion
bike
tale
Singular Possessive
lion’s
bike’s
tale’s
Plural
lions
bikes
tales
Plural Possessive
lions’
bikes’
tales’
What parts make up a sentence?
 Subjects tell you who or what the sentence is about. Subjects are usually nouns or
pronouns
o The dog ran to the park. (The dog is the subject)
 Predicates tell you what the subject is doing or connects the subject to a word in
the predicate.
o The dog ran to the park (ran to the park is the predicate)
o That book is long. (is long is the predicate)
What is a fragment or run-on sentence?
 A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence. Some fragments are incomplete
because it lacks either a subject or a verb, or both.
o After the rain stops (…What then?)
o That dog over there (what about the dog)
o Since you asked (…Will you get the answer?)
o If you want to go with me (…What should you do?)
 You are making a run-on when you put two complete sentences (a subject and its
predicate and another subject and its predicate) together in one sentence without
separating them properly. Here’s an example of a run-on:
o My favorite Mediterranean spread is hummus it is very garlicky.
When do I write a number, or the word for the number?
 For numbers 1-10: Write the word
 For numbers 11 and up: Write the number