Grammar 101
Parts of Speech
Classification of words—fundamental building block of language
Not inherent in word itself but in way word is used
Noun: Should we get another round?
Verb: The horses round the last post and head for home.
Adjective: He put a small, round pebble in his pocket.
Don’t ask “What part of speech is X” instead ask “What part of speech is X in this
sentence?”
Seven functional parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
conjunctions, and prepositions
Interjections—like asides or commentaries—not part of the actual grammar of a sentence
Well, I don’t what to tell you.
Dang, I burned my fingers on that pan!
The the Test for Common Nouns
If the can be put immediately in front of a word and the result makes sense,
then that word is a noun.
Example: The children tried to jump over the ditch.
The new dishes are blue.
The failure of the the test shows us that the word jump is not being used as a noun in this
sentence. When we put the in front of the word blue, the result is again ungrammatical.
The the test requires that the word the be immediately in front of the word being tested.
(not the new—new not a noun—but the dishes)
Not perfect test—some abstract common nouns—for example honesty
Honesty is the best policy.
VERBS
Action Verbs
Donald laughed.
Jane wrote a novel.
Emma made some soup.
Lnking Verbs
Donald is funny.
The novel became a bestseller.
The soup smelled delicious.
Defining characteristic of all verbs—verbs (and only verbs) have tenses: present, past,
and future
The Will Test for Verbs
If you can put will in front of a word and the result is grammatical, then that word
must be a verb.
Noun: Should we get another (will) round?
Verb: The horses (will) round the last post and head for home.
Adjective: He put a small, (will) round pebble in his pocket.
Adjectives
Two distinct roles—noun modifiers and predicate adjectives
As noun modifiers—always precede the nouns they modify
As predicate adjectives—adjectives follow linking verbs and describe the subject
Adjectives as noun modifiers
an awful noise
that dreadful old man
five golden rings
Adjectives as predicate adjectives
The play was terrific.
Harry sounded excited.
The crust turned brown.
Please remain calm.
The Pair Test for Modifying Adjectives
If you can pair up a modifying word with a noun, that that word is an adjective.
The special, deep-dish, Chicago-style pizza
the pizza
special pizza
deep-dish pizza
Chicago-style pizza
Pair test—helpful in distinguishing adverbs from adjectives
That absolutely, dreadful old man
That man
X
Absolutely man
Dreadful man
Old man
Adjectives can be subdivided into two main classes: determiners and descriptive
adjectives
Determiners
Articles: the (definite); a and an (indefinite)
Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
Number Words: Cardinal numbers: one, two, three…
Ordinal numbers: first, second, third (plus other words
indicating order: first, last…)
Possessives used as adjectives: John’s, Mary’s… my, your, his, her, its, our,
their
Quantifiers: some, many, several…
Descriptive Adjectives
Most, but not all, descriptive adjectives have comparative and superlative forms
Comparative: Fred took a smaller piece than I did.
Fred has a more sensitive personality than I do.
Superlative
Fred took the smallest piece.
Fred has the most sensitive personality of anybody I know.
Pattern: one-syllable adjectives and some two-syllable adjectives (especially ones of
native English origin) follow the –er / -est pattern
All three-syllable (or longer) adjectives and some two-syllable adjectives (especially
ones of French origin) follow the more/most pattern
ADVERBS
Modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs—most common use of adverbs to modify
verbs
The Adverb Question Test
If a word answers an adverb question (when, where, how, why, how often, to what
extent), then the word is an adverb that modifies the verb.
Adverb question: When did they park the truck?
Answer:
Yesterday they parked the truck.
? Where did they load the truck? They loaded the truck there. (answer)
The Adverb Movement Test
If a word can be moved to a different position in the sentence, then the word is an
adverb that modifies the verb.
They parked the truck yesterday.
Yesterday, they parked the truck.
They loaded the truck there.
There they loaded the truck.
Adverbs That Modify Adjectives
A completely false statement
Some rather unusual ideas
A terribly hot afternoon
Adverbs that modify adjectives are immobile: they cannot be moved away from the
adjective they modify. There is no direct test for adverbs that modify adjectives, but
there is a reliable negative test: the pair test for modifying adjectives. Because adverbs
can never modify nouns, a modifying word that fails the pair test must be an adverb
modifying an adjective. Here is the pair test used to identify adverbs that modify
adjectives
a completely false statement
a statement
X completely statement (Completely fails, therefore an adverb modifying false)
false statement
Adverbs That Modify Other Adverbs
I always answer my calls very promptly.
The students answered the questions quite easily.
Adverbs that modify other adverbs are easy to recognize. They are locked into place
immediately in front of the adverbs they modify. Adverbs that modify other adverbs
belong to a limited class of words that are sometimes called intensifiers: they emphasize
the meaning of the adverb they modify.
Pronouns
Four subclasses: personal, reflexive, indefinite, and demonstrative
Personal Pronouns
Use—to replace or present a noun or nouns
Tarzan wondered where Jane was.
He wondered where she was.
Pronouns that literally replace specific nouns are called third-person pronouns
Several depending on number, gender, and grammatical function of the nouns that
are being replaced
THIRD-PESON PRONOUNS
Grammatical Function
Subject
Object
Possessive
Possessive Pronoun:
Possessive Adjective
Singular
he, she, it
him, her, it
his, hers, its
Plural
they
them
theirs
That book is Jane’s book.
That book is hers.
That is Jane’s book.
That is her book.
CONJUNCTIONS
For
And
Nor
But
Or
Yet
So
(acronym for seven coordinating conjunctions)
Correlative Conjunctions—two-part conjuctions both…and; either…or; neither…nor;
not only…but also
PREPOSITIONS
“little words”—preposition plus its object (noun or pronoun); part of a package deal
always bound together with object to form prepositional phrases