The Eight Parts of Speech

1) Nouns

1. name…
2. a PERSON (girl, teacher, employee)
3. a PLACE (school)
4. a THING (bus, coat, pizza, job) or an IDEA (love, justice, thankfulness)
5. 2. Nouns can be common/not specific (park) or proper/specific (Baker Park).
6. 3. Nouns are who or what sentences are about (Who played ball? Jack played ball.) (What did Jack play? Jack played ball.)
7. 4. Nouns are usually SUBJECTS (Jack in the sentence above) or OBJECTS (ball in the sentence above). A subject is the one doing the action (doing the playing, above), while an object is what or who is receiving the action. SUBJECTS more often come at the beginning of a sentence and OBJECTS toward the end.

2) Pronouns

1. 1. Pronouns substitute or take the place of nouns she (the woman); his (John’s); it (the statue)
2. 2. Otherwise, sentences would sound quite funny… Julie took Julie’s umbrella to work today, and Julie’s umbrella dropped and broke! Instead… Julie took her umbrella to work today, and it dropped and broke!
3. 3. Some of the more common pronouns are I, me, mine, you, yours, he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, we, our, ours, us, they, their, theirs, them.

3) Adjectives

1. 1. Adjectives describe a noun or pronoun. Sometimes we say they MODIFY (describe) a noun or pronoun. The colorful fish swam upstream. Sam could only carry a few books because of her broken right arm. I love the gorgeous weather we’ve been having in our sunny state of Florida!
2. 2. Often, an adjective answers the following questions: what kind, how much, how many, or which one? The children had chocolate ice cream.
3. 3. Adjectives called articles include words like a, an, & the… a timeline, an apple, the answer.
4. 4. Adjectives may follow a verb such as is, seems, feels, or appears. The test seems difficult. My shirt appears dirty and torn.

4) Verbs

Verbs show action or link the subject to another word in the sentence. The police arrested the bank robber.
1. 2. Verbs are the main part of the predicate (part of the sentence telling what the subject is doing, more often in the second half of the sentence).
Eager students(subject) rushed out the school doors.(predicate)
2. 3. Verbs can be broken down into three types: ACTION (blows, screeches, takes, sings) LINKING (is, are, was, were, am, being, been, smell, look, taste, remain, feel, appear, sound, seem, become, grow, stand, turn) HELPING (shall, will, should, would, could, must, can, may, have, had, has, do, did, does)

5) Adverbs

1. 1. Adverbs describe… a VERB (Jackie left the game early.) an ADJECTIVE (That ride was scary!) or ANOTHER ADVERB (I very quietly tiptoed out.)
2. 2. Adverbs generally answer the following questions in a sentence: HOW, WHEN, WHERE, HOW OFTEN, or HOW MUCH.
3. 3. Sometimes we say that an adverb MODIFIES. That means “describes” or gives more information about.
4. 4. Many (though not all) adverbs end in ‘ly.’ (carefully, respectfully, nicely, eagerly, exactly, precisely, hungrily).
5. 5. Some negative words are adverbs, such as not, never, nowhere, rarely, hardly, barely.

6) Prepositions

Prepositions show position or direction, or can show some other relationship between nouns or pronouns in a sentence. The mouse snuck under the rug. I found my purse at the service counter.

1. 2. Prepositions always BEGIN a phrase, called a prepositional phrase, which contains a noun or pronoun, plus other modifying words.
behind the door, among the crowd, next to my house, at her party
2. 3. Common prepositions include the following (though there are many more): about between from to above before in toward across beneath of under after by off until against down on up along during over upon around except for out with at for throughout within

7) Conjunctions

1. Conjunctions CONNECT single words or groups of words/phrases. The test was long and hard! We can rest here or go a little farther. I would have gone, but I got sick.
2. 2. Think of conjunctions as links.
3. 3. Three types of conjunctions exist: coordinating, correlative, subordinate * COORDINATING connect eaual words, phrases, or clauses Robert scrubbed the floor and fell asleep. * CORRELATIVE used in pairs to connect words or groups of words (either/or, neither/nor) Either the dog obeys, or he’s gone! * SUBORDINATE introduces a clause that cannot stand alone in a sentence (known as a dependent clause) After seeing the sky, I knew it would storm.
4. 4. Here are a few sample conjunctions… and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet, either/or, as/so, after, although, as, because, if, since, so, though, unless, until, when, where, while

8) Interjections

1. 1. Interjections are words that show great emotion/feeling or surprise. They may be considered slang and are used more in conversation. Wow! Yuck!
2. 2. Interjections are usually set off by commas or exclamation marks. Hey, you’re up so early today! Yikes! That’s scary.
3. 3. Some common interjections include the following: Ah Grrr Aha Ha Aw Hey Bam Hooray Bang Oh Bummer Oh boy Cool Oh no Drats Oops Eek Ouch Gee Pop Gosh Rats Ugh Uh huh Yeah Yuck Yum Well Whack Whew Wow

my thanks to this blog post:
https://www.sophia.org/tutorials/building-blocks-of-language-the-eight-parts-of-spe