Tools of Writing - Parts of Speech (Lu English Composition 0010)

Flashcards covering key concepts from notes on parts of speech and related rules.

What are the eight parts of speech in English?

Noun; pronoun; verb; adjective; adverb; conjunction; preposition; interjection.

What is a noun?

A noun is a name; it indicates a person or a thing.

What is a common noun?

Names a class or group of persons, places, or things.

What is an abstract noun?

Names a quality or a concept.

What is a proper noun?

Names a specific person, place, or thing; it is capitalized.

What is a collective noun?

Names a group of persons or things.

What is a pronoun?

A pronoun refers to a person, place, or thing without naming it.

What are personal pronouns?

Pronouns that substitute for the name of a person or object and take subjective, objective, and possessive forms.

What are the three cases of personal pronouns?

Subjective, objective, and possessive.

Provide the first person singular pronoun forms (subjective, objective, possessive).

Subjective: I; Objective: me; Possessive: my/mine.

Provide the first person plural pronoun forms (subjective, objective, possessive).

Subjective: we; Objective: us; Possessive: our/ours.

Provide the second person pronoun forms (subjective, objective, possessive).

Subjective: you; Objective: you; Possessive: your/yours.

Provide the third person singular pronoun forms (subjective, objective, possessive).

Subjective: he, she, it, or one; Objective: him, her, it, or one; Possessive: his, her, hers, its, or one’s.

Provide the third person plural pronoun forms (subjective, objective, possessive).

Subjective: they; Objective: them; Possessive: their, theirs.

What are relative pronouns?

Link a subordinate clause with its own antecedents (e.g., who/whom/whose, which, where, that).

What are demonstrative pronouns?

Point out specific persons or things (e.g., it, this, that, those, these).

What are indefinite pronouns?

Point out persons or things, but less specifically (e.g., somebody, someone, anyone, anybody, each, both, none).

What is pronoun agreement?

A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in person, number, and gender.

What is pronoun reference?

A pronoun reference should have a clearly defined antecedent and should be placed as near the antecedent as possible.

What is a verb?

A word or group of words that indicates action, condition (being), or process.

What are the three verb types?

Action verb; linking verb; auxiliary (help) verb.

What is an action verb?

A verb that expresses action (e.g., read, write, talk, listen, walk).

What is a linking verb?

Joins the subject to its complement (e.g., appear, look, seem, smell, feel, be).

What is an auxiliary verb?

Helps the main verb of the sentence (e.g., have, can, may, might, must, ought to, should, shall, will, do).

What is Active Voice?

A verb is in the active voice when its subject performs the action (e.g., I remember the trip to New York).

What is Passive Voice?

A verb is in the passive voice when its subject is acted upon (e.g., The trip to New York is remembered by me).

What are adjectives and adverbs?

Both are modifiers; adjectives modify nouns/pronouns; adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

What does an adjective modify?

A noun or pronoun.

What does an adverb modify?

A verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

What is a preposition?

Connects a noun or pronoun with another word and establishes the relationship; examples include about, above, below, beside, between, among, by, down, of, with, on, without, to.

What are coordinating conjunctions?

Connect equal words, phrases, or clauses; examples: and, but, for, nor, or, yet.

What are subordinating conjunctions?

Introduce a dependent clause and subordinate it to an independent clause; examples: because, as, since, although, if, as if, when, unless.

What is an interjection?

A word of exclamation which expresses emotion and has no grammatical relation to the rest of the sentence (e.g., Oh!, Hey!, Nuts!, Whoa!).