Parts of Speech Flashcards

Flashcards for reviewing lecture notes on parts of speech.

Nouns

Words that name people, places, things, or ideas.

Common nouns

Name concrete things - usually categories of people, places or objects. (e.g. a woman, a lion, a car, a city, a university)

Proper nouns

Name a specific person, animal, object or place and they always start with a capital letter. (e.g. Eve, Simba, Volkswagen, Soweto, Yale)

Collective nouns

Name a group (or collection) of things, people or animals. (e.g. a flight of stairs, a crowd of people, a crush of rhinoceroses)

Abstract nouns

Name intangible things = things cannot experience with your senses. Common endings include: -ism, -tion, -acy, -ness, -ship, -ment. (e.g.: socialism, revolution, democracy, kindness, friendship, embarrassment, dismay, fear, truth, beauty)

Pronouns

Words that replace nouns

Personal pronouns

Stands in for a PERSON (and sometimes an animal / object)

Subject

The person/thing doing the action (i.e. doing the verb)

Object

The person/thing experiencing the action (i.e. having the verb done to it)

Reflexive Pronouns

Reflect back to the subject and end in -self. (e.g. I washed myself.)

Emphatic Pronouns

Also all end in -self, but they show emphasis. Can be deleted from sentence. (e.g. She did her homework herself.)

Adjectives

Describing words

Adjectives

Qualify (i.e. describe or tell us more about) nouns or pronouns. (e.g. The ravenous teacher devoured her tiny lunch.)

Descriptive adjectives

Describes or expresses a quality. (e.g. The naughty child watched the foolish clown.)

Degrees of Comparison

Changing the intensity of a descriptive adjective (e.g. big, bigger, biggest)

Possessive Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives

Indicate possession - something belongs to someone. Pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs. Adjectives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.

Demonstrative Pronouns and Demonstrative Adjectives

Point out (or demonstrate) specific people or things. Pronouns: this, that, these, those. Adjectives: this, that, these, those.

Interrogative Pronouns and Interrogative Adjectives

Help to form questions. “To interrogate” = to question. Pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, what. Adjectives: whose, which, what

Definite Pronouns and Definite Adjectives

Indicate a specific (definite) number or amount.

Indefinite Pronouns and Indefinite Adjectives

Provide a general/vague (not definite) idea of an amount. (e.g. much, more, most, little, less, least, some, several, any, enough, each)

Verbs

doing/being words

Verb

A word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence

Verbs

The two main categories of verbs are finite and non-finite verbs

Finite Verbs

A sentence must contain a finite verb. A finite verb is like a heart: without a finite verb, a sentence cannot exist. A finite verbs must: have a SUBJECT (ask who? or what?) and TENSE (ask when? = present, past or future)

Auxiliary Verbs

Sometimes finite verbs require “helpers” to show tense. These little “helpers” are known as auxiliary verbs.

Non-Finite Verbs

Unlike finite verbs, a non finite verb requires neither a subject nor a tense in order to qualify for its job as a non finite verb! It can never be the heart of the sentence on its own. In other words, a sentence does NOT require a non finite verb to exist.

Types of Non-Finite Verbs

Participles (past and present), Infinitives, Gerunds

Participle - Present

Appearance: The present participle ends in “-ing”. (e.g. running)

Participle - Past

The past participle often (but not always) ends in “-ed’ and “-en” (e.g. poured, broken).

Infinitive

The infinitive always has “TO” in front of the verb. (e.g. To run, To jump, To sing)

Gerund Appearance

Like the present participle, the gerund also ends in “-ing’ (e.g. Dancing)

Gerund Function

The participle behaves like an adjective but the gerund behaves like a NOUN. It NAMES the action and answers the question WHAT?

Adverbs

Modifiers

Adverbs

Adverbs do not ONLY modify (ie: provide more information about) verbs, they can ALSO modify other words - but NOT nouns or pronouns.

Types of adverbs

How? = Manner (quickly, imaginatively, well), Where? = Place (here, there, up, down), When? = Time (today, tomorrow, now, soon), How often? = Frequency (often, seldom, never), To what extent? = Degree (very, extremely, too)

Prepositions

Indicating relationships between nouns

Prepositions

Prepositions are always sandwiched between two or more nouns and/or pronouns. They indicate the relationship between them.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are often called 'joining words' because they join words, phrases or clauses.

Types of conjunctions

Co-ordinating conjunctions - they join sentences of EQUAL IMPORTANCE; Sub-ordinating conjunctions - they join sentences of UNEQUAL IMPORTANCE

Co-ordinating Conjunctions

And, But, Or/Nor, Yet, For, So

Sub-ordinating Conjunctions

Although, Since, As, Unless, Because, If, While, When, Nevertheless, etc.