Parts of Speech
Nouns
 Common vs. proper
 Common-a person, place, thing, or idea
 Ex. celebrity
 Proper-a specific person place thing or idea
 Ex. Katy Perry
Common vs. Proper practice
 Cotton from Egypt has long, silky fibers.
 Common: cotton and fibers
 Proper: Egypt
 Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky.
 Common: none
 Proper: Abraham Lincoln, Kentucky
 Paul and his brother stopped to see the animals.
 Common: brother, animals
 Proper: Paul
Concrete vs. Abstract
 Concrete: a noun that is material
 Perceived by the senses
 you can touch and see this type of noun
 Ex. chair, house, car
 Abstract: a noun that is immaterial
 An idea, quality or state
 You cannot touch or see this
 Ex. Kindness, love, hate
Concrete vs. Abstract Practice
 A silver bullet should be used to kill a werewolf.
 Concrete: bullet, werewolf
 Stories of monsters have always created suspense.
 Abstract: suspense
 Concrete: monsters, stories
Compound nouns
 A noun made up of two words combined together to form
one word
 Ex. Flowerpot, southeast
 The teacher writes our assignments on the chalkboard.
 I can see your footprint in the sand.
Collective Nouns
 A noun that appears singular, but denotes a group of persons
or objects
 Ex. Herd, clergy, jury
 The pack of coyotes tried to eat my dog.
 A flock of birds flew toward me so I ran away.
Pronouns
 Personal pronouns
 A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun or another pronoun.
 Antecedent-the word the pronoun replaces
 Types of personal pronouns
First Person
Second
Person
Singular
Plural
I, me (my,
mine)
we, us (our,
ours)
you (your,
yours)
Third Person he, him, she,
her, it
you (your,
yours)
they, them
(their, theirs)
Personal Pronouns
 Replace the noun with appropriate pronouns.
 Tarzan wondered where Jane was.
 He wondered where she was.
 Tarzan and Jane were having a romantic dinner together.
 They were having a romantic dinner together.
Personal Pronouns
 Identify the antecedent in the following sentences and the pronoun
which it replaced.
 When dinosaurs walked the earth, they were impressive indeed.
 P-they
 A-dinosaurs
 Experts on dinosaurs say that they were the largest land animals ever.
 P-they
 A-experts
 Imagine the excitement a scientist would feel when he or she found
dinosaur bones!
 P-he or she (if the gender is unknown, you must use he or she!)
 A-scientist
Indefinite Pronouns-refer to people,
places or things without specifying
which one
 3 types: singular, plural or both
 Singular – use with “is”







another
anybody
anyone
anything
each
either
everybody
everyone
everything
much
neither
nobody
no one
nothing
one
other
somebody
someone
something
 Everybody is going to the mall
 Someone left his or her planner in the classroom.
Indefinite Pronouns-Plural
 Use with “are”
 both
 few
 many
 others
 several
 Example: Both of them are going to the store
 Example: Several of their friends are going on vacation.
Indefinite Pronouns-Singular or Plural
 all
 any
 more
 most
 none
 some
 Use the subject to determine whether the personal pronoun is singular
or plural.
 Some of the jam is grosse.
 Jam is singular, so you use is
 Several of the containers were missing their labels.
 Containers is plural, so you use the pronoun their
Indefinite Pronouns Practice
 All of the students in the class enjoyed (their, his or her) time
away from class.
 Their-students is plural, therefore the matching pronoun is
plural as well
 Everybody brought (his or her, their) backpack with dry
socks and shoes.
 His or her- Everybody is a singular indefinite pronoun
 Few in the group could resist (his or her, their) love for
outdoor cooking.
 Their-few is plural so the personal pronoun that corresponds
must be plural as well
Verbs
 A word used to express action or describe a state of being
 2 different types of verbs
 1. action-express an action that the subject of the sentence is
carrying out
 Examples: Donald laughed.
Jane wrote a novel.
Erma made some soup. (She’s engaged in the making of soup)
 2. linking-the verb links the complement back to the subject
(the complement must give some information about or
description of the subject)
 Examples: Donald is funny.
The novel became a bestseller.
The soup smelled wonderful.
Transitive Verbs vs. Intransitive Verbs
 Transitive-an action verb that appears with a direct object
 Direct object: a person or thing that receives the action of the
verb
 Example: Simon met a pie-man, going to the fair.
 Example: Simon bought a pie.
 Intransitive-an action verb without a direct object
 Example: Sam snores.
 Example: Sally sneezed.
 Example: The children snickered.
 Example: All of the flowers wilted in the sun.
Auxiliary Verbs (helping verbs)
 Combine with verbs to form verb phrases
 Example: would have been climbing
 Common auxiliary verbs: be, had, do, might, would, will,
must, could, would
 Hint: To identify verbs, use the WILL test
 If you can put WILL in front of a word and the result is
grammatical, then that word must be a verb.
The WILL Test for Verbs
 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.
NOW APPLY THE WILL TEST!
 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.
Adverbs
 Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs
 Clue to help you remember:
 ADVERB-modifies verbs
 ADVERB-modifies adjectives
 ADVERB-modifies other adverbs
Adverbs
 Answer the questions where, when, how, and to what extent
 Where-Put the new bookcases there, please.
 When-Tomorrow, the painters begin work on our house.
 How- Speak softly when you come into the nursery, so you
don’t wake up the baby.
 To what extent-The baby’s room is nearly complete.
Adverbs Practice
 I genuinely love teaching.
 Today, I will be dressed up in a costume.
 I hope to attain a doctorate in literature someday.
Adverbs vs. Adjectives
Adverbs
1. Modify verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
2. Answers
a. where?
b. when?
c. how?
d. to what extent?
3. Many adverbs end in –ly
-don’t overlook the ones that
don’t though!
Adjectives
1. Modify nouns and pronouns
2. Answers
a. what kind?
b. which one?
c. how many?
3. Common adj. suffixes
a. –ous (humorous)
b. –ious (hilarious)
c. –ible (horrible)
d. –able (capable)
e. –ent (apparent)
f. –ant (tolerant)
g. -ic (gothic)
h. –al (magical)
i. –y (funny)
k. –st (last)
Adverbs vs. Adjectives Practice
 State if the underlined word is an adverb or adjective.
 1. She rarely brings a pencil to class, and I always give her a
different one every day.
 Rarely is an ________
 Different is an________
 Every is an _________
 2. Julie is honestly the best dancer I have coached.
 Honestly is an _________
 Best is an ____________
Prepositions
 Shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and
another word in the sentence
 Almost always comes BEFORE the noun
 That is why it is called a preposition
 Common prepositions: about, by, during, on, under, to
 Example: He is going to the store.
 Preposition:
 Noun/pronoun:
 Example: The toy is for you.
 Preposition:
 Noun/pronoun:
Prepositions
 Indicate location:
 The puppy is on the floor.
 The puppy is in the trash can.
 The puppy is beside the couch.
 On, in and beside are showing where the puppy is.
Prepositions
 Compound prepositions:
 Prepositions formed from more than one word
 Examples: according to, in place of, because of, and instead of,
as of, next to, out of, prior to
 Can also show location in time: during, since
 At midnight, Jack and Jill went to a showing of Breaking
Dawn: Part II.
 During the marathon, my legs began to cramp.
 Prepositional phrase: preposition + object
Prepositions
Subject + verb
preposition
“noun”
The food is
on
the table.
She lives
in
Japan.
Tara is looking
for
you.
The letter is
under
your blue book.
Pascal is used
to
English people.
She isn’t used
to
work.
I ate
before
the wedding.