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6 of the 8 Parts of Speech
Modified from Diedre Grafel. Kent Campus Learning Center, Communications Lab
I. NOUN
Definition: A noun refers to a person, place or thing.
Persons
Places
Things
George, man, people
Jacksonville, city, park
paper, spoon, eraser
Animals
cat, fish, dog
Ideas happiness, horror, thought
Exercise directions: Underline the nouns in each of the following sentences:
1.
Twenty students sat and watched the videos about English grammar.
2.
My classmates are from many different continents, such as Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
3.
I think I left my car keys on the table in my kitchen.
4.
Before class, Ann likes to stop at Starbucks to get a huge cup of very strong coffee.
II. PRONOUN
Definition: A pronoun is a word that is used in place of a noun.
Examples: I, it, you, he, she, we, him, them, whom, someone, everyone, none, anybody, that
Exercise directions: Underline the pronouns in each of the following sentences:
1.
She cried loudly, and each of us heard her.
2.
They felt happy by our attention to them.
3.
He followed the directions she had given him.
4.
She sent them to him as a birthday gift.
III. ADJECTIVE
Definition: An adjective modifies the meaning of a noun or pronoun. An adjective, which may describe
or limit a noun or pronoun, answers the following questions:
1. Which one?
2. What kind?
3. How many?
his daughter
dark suit
ten children
that man
beautiful lady
both people
my dog
sunny day
several students
Exercise directions: Underline the adjectives in each of the following sentences.
1.
Sir Walter Raleigh was a famous English man and a bold explorer.
2.
His many projects to settle America were unsuccessful.
3.
He even made a long voyage to the tropical lands below the Equator in search of gold.
4.
His adventurous career came to a sudden end when he was executed for piracy in 1618.
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IV. VERBS
Definition: Often the verb is the action word in the sentence. The verb be and its forms (was, were,
are, is, am) do not really show action but a state of being or relationship between the subject and
what follows the verb be (Computers are useful). The verb may consist of one word, or the main verb
may contain one or more helping words. Some helping words are has, am, were, might, should, must,
are, be . . .
Examples:
The man screamed loudly. (What did the man do? He screamed.)
All the men have been screaming. (What were the men doing? They have been screaming.)
All the men were old. (The adjective old is linked to the subject of men.)
Exercise directions: Underline the verb (or verb phrase) in the following sentences.
1.
The George Washington Bridge is located between New York and New Jersey.
2.
People built it to span the Hudson River.
3.
Automobiles have been crossing it since 1931.
4.
It is ranked as the second largest bridge in the world.
V. ADVERBS
Definition: An adverb is a word that is used to modify or limit the meaning of a verb, an
adjective, or another adverb. Examples:
1. Go slowly. Look carefully. Walk there. (The underlined words modify the verbs.)
2. The answer is not exactly correct. (The underlined word modifies the adjective.)
3. Watch very closely. (The underlined word modifies the adverb.)
Exercise directions: Underline the adverbs in the following sentences.
1.
A police officer patiently sat on his motorcycle near Litchfield Road.
2.
He carefully watched the tired students leaving the EMCC parking lot.
3.
One student drove too fast and didn’t completely stop before turning right at the red light.
4.
The student was very unhappy about getting an extremely expensive traffic violation ticket.
VI. PREPOSITION
Definition: A preposition is a word that shows the relation between two or more things.
Some prepositions are to, at, by, on, in, into .... Prepositions are often positional words. Think
about different meanings of these phrases:
The pen is on the table. The pen is under the table. The knife is beside the table.
A preposition also has an object noun or a pronoun.
Exercise directions: Underline the prepositions in the following sentences.
1.
There are sixty-four mountain peaks in the United States over 14, 000 feet high.
2.
The state of Colorado claims forty-eight of these tall mountains.
3.
The highest of them all, Mount Whitney, is in California.
4.
Mount Whitney rises to the height of 14,495 feet, and people who stand at the top have a
spectacular view of the land for many miles.