AP Lang. Parts of Speech

Noun

Noun

A word that names something: a person, a place, a thing, or an idea.

Proper Noun

Names a particular person, place, thing, or idea. They are always capitilized

Common Noun

Does not name a particular person, place, thing, or idea.

Concrete Noun

Names a tangible thing that can be seen, touched, heard, smelled, or tasted.

Abstract Noun

Names an idea, a condition, or a feeling. Something that cannot be touched, seen, heard, smelled, or tasted.

Collective Noun

Names a group or a unit.

Number of a Noun

Indicates whether a noun is singular (refers to one person, place, thing, or idea) or plural (refers to more than one person, place, thing, or idea.

Gender of a Noun

Indicates whether now is masculine (king, brother, men), feminine (sister, queen, mother), neuter (book, disc, car), or indefinite(professor, dean, chancellor).

Case of a Noun

Tells how nouns are related to other words used with them. (See nominative, possessive, and objective).

Nominative case

Describes a noun used as the subject of a clause. It is also in the nominative case when it is used as a predicate noun. A predicate noun follows a form of the <b>be</b> verb (is, are, was, were, been) and repeats or renames the subject.
1: The <b>chancellor</b> is in charge of running a college...
2: Either the president or the chancellor is the <b>person</b> to talk to about the...

Possessive case

Describes a noun that shows possession or ownership.

Objective case

Describes a noun used as a direct object, an indirect object, or an object of the preposition.
1: Recent budget cuts have given university <b>students</b> and <b>staff</b> plenty to talk about. (plenty is the D.O. and students and staff are I.O.)
2:To survive, institution of higher <b>learning</b> must serve the <b>communities</b> that support them. (Learning is the object of the preposisition: of; communities is the D.O. of must serve)

Pronoun

A word used in place of a noun. Have <b> antecedents</b>, a noun that the pronoun refers to or replaces.

Three Types of Pronouns:

<b>Simple</b>: I, you, he, she, it, we, they,who,what
<b>Compound</b>: Myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves
<b>Phrasal</b>: One another, each other

Forms of Pronouns:

<b>Singular</b>: I, you, he, she, it
<b>Plural</b>: We, you, they

Person of Pronoun:

<b>First person</b>: Used in place of the speaker. (I, my)
<b>Second person</b>: Used to name the person or thing spoken to (you, your)
<b>Third person</b>: Used to name the person or thing spoken to (they, their, she, he)

Case of a pronoun:

<b>See case of nouns</b>

Reflexive pronouns:

Is formed by adding -self or -selves to a personal pronoun. Can act as a direct object or an indirect object of a verb, an object of a preposition, or a predicate nominative. Called an <b>intensive pronoun</b> when it intensifies the noun or pronoun it refers too.

Verb

A word that expresses action or state of being.

Number of verb:

Indicates whether a verb is singular or plural. Both subject and verb must be the same number.

Person of verb:

Indicates whether the subject of the verb is 1st, 2nd, 3rd and whether the subject is singular or plural.
<b>First Person</b>: I think, we think.
<b>Second Person</b>: You think, you think
<b>Third Person</b>: He/she/it thinks, they think

Voice of verb:

Indicates whether the subject is acting or being acted upon.
<b>Active Voice</b>: indicates that the subject of the verb is doing something.
<b>Passive Voice</b>: Indicates that the subject of the verb is being acted upon. A passive verb combines a be verb with a past participle.

Tense of a verb:

Indicates time
<b>Present</b>: Expresses action that is happening now or continually.
<b>Past</b>: expresses action that was completed in the past.
<b>Future</b>: Expresses action that will happen in the future
<b>Present Perfect</b>: Starts in past, but continues in the present or ends in the present.
<b>Past Perfect</b>: action that began in the past and was completed in the past.
<b>Future Perfect</b>: action that will begin in the future and end in the future.

Mood of the verb:

Indicates the ton or attitude with which a statement is made.
<b>Indicative</b>: Used to state a fact or question.
<b> Imperative</b>: Used to give a command.
<b>Subjunctive</b>: Used to express the exact manner in which their statements their statements are meant.

Auxiliary verbs:

Helping verbs that help to form some of the tenses, the mood, and the voice of the main verb.

Transitive verbs:

Communicates action and is always followed by an object that receives the action and completes the meaning of the verb.
<b>Active Voice</b>: A transitive verb in the active voice directs the action from the subject to the object.
<b>Passive Voice</b>: If the transitive verb is in the passive voice, the subject of the sentence receives the action.

Direct object

Receives the action of a transitive verb. Ask <b>What</b>.

Indirect object

Receives the action of a transitive veb, but indirectly. Ask <b>to who/whom</b> or for <b>who whom</b> something is done.

Intransitive verb:

Refers to an action that is complete in itself. It does not need an object to receive the action.

Linking verb

Special type of intransitive verb that links the subject to a noun or an adjective in the predicate.

Verbal

Word that is derived from a verb, has the power of a verb, but acts as another part of speech. There are 3 types: gerund, infinitive, and participles.
<b>Gerund</b>: Verb form that ends in -ing and is used as a noun.
<b>Infinitive</b>: Usually introduced by <b>to</b> may be used as n. adj. or adv.
<b>Participle</b>: Usually ending in <b>ing</b> or <b>ed</b>. Functions as a verb because it can take an object; a participle functions as an adj. because it can modify a noun or pronoun.

Adjective

Modifies a noun or pronoun. (includes articles a, an, and the)

Proper Adjective.

Created from proper nouns (English, Chinese...)
Some words such as (that, these, many,some) can be adjs. or pronouns. If they come before a noun and modify that noun they are adjs. If they stand alone they are pronouns.

Predicate Adjective.

Follows a form of the be verb (or linking verb) and descrives the subject.

Positive Adjective:

Describes a noun or pronoun without comparing it to anyone or anything else.

Comparative Adjective:

Compares two persons, places, things, or ideas.

Superlative Adjective:

Compares three or more persons, places, things, or ideas.

Adverb:

Modifies a verb, adjective, or adverb. Tells How, when, how often, or how much.

Four types of adverbs

<b>Time</b>: tell when, how often, how long...today, yesterday etc
<b>Place</b>: Tells where, to where, and from where...here, there
<b>Manner</b>: Tells how...precisely, regularly etc.
<b>Degree</b>: Tells how much, how little...slow, loudly etc

Positive Adverb

Describes a verb, adjective, or adverb without comparing it to anyone or anything else.

Comparative Adverb

Compares two persons, places, things, or ideas.

Superlative Form

Compares three or more persons, places, things or ideas.

Prepositions

A word (or group of words) that introduces a phrase, which in turn modifies some other word in the sentence. The first noun or pronoun following the preposition is its object.

Three types of prepositions:

<b>Simple</b>: at, in, of, on, with
<b>Compound</b>: within, outside, underneath
<b>Phrasal</b>: On account of, on top of, in addition to

Prepositional Phrase

Includes the preposition, the object of the preposition, and the modifiers of the object. May function as an adverb or as an adjective.

Conjunction

Connects individual words or groups of words

Coordinating Conjunctions

Connects a word to a word, a phrase to a phrase, or a clause to a clause. The word, phrase, or clause must be equal and of the same type.

Correlative conjunctions

Used in pairs (either, or; neither, nor; not only, but also; whether, or; as, so)

Subordinating Conjunctions

Connect and show the relationship between two clauses that are not equally important. Connects dependent clause to independent clause.

Interjections

Is included in a sentence in order to communicate emotion or surprise. Punctuation such as exclamation points or commas separate the interjection from the rest of the sentence.