Name ______________________________________________ LA _____
“Jabberwocky” &
The Parts of Speech
Take a look at the underlined nonsense words in the poem. Which are nouns,
verbs, or adjectives? Use your knowledge of the parts of speech to complete this chart.
Jabber-Word
brillig
slithy
toves
gyre
What’s this word doing?
It can be renaming the subject,
"it", or describing the pronoun
"it"
Describes toves and answers
questions, which one, what
kind or how many
Part of
speech
Similar words in English
Noun: Spring, Winter etc.
Noun
Adjective: cold, wet, etc.
adjective
slimy, gross, disgusting
adjective
It is naming.
noun
Shows action
toads, animal, etc.
anything that shows action
Action verb
Shows action
gimble
borogove
frumious
vorpal
whiffling
Bandersnatch
collooh
Action verb
Naming something
Noun
describes noun; bandersnatch
adjective
Describes toves and answers
questions, which one, what
kind or how many
describes how he came; verb.
Answers questions, how, where,
when, how often, to what extent
adjective
anything that shows action
animal of some kind that
burrows
furious, fuming, angry, irritated
shining, strong, awesome
running, sniffing, etc.
adverb
some kind of angry animal
It is naming
noun
Shows strong emotion
Interjection
Hooray!!