Comprehensive Notes on Parts of Speech

Nouns

• Definition: A noun names a person, place, thing, or idea.
• Types of Nouns:
  • Common and Proper: Examples include "man" (common) and "Mr. Smith" (proper).
  • Concrete and Abstract: Examples include "dog" (concrete) and "hatred" (abstract).
  • Collective: Examples include "class" and "jury."
  • Compound: Examples include "stairway," "lieutenant governor," and "sister-in-law."

Pronouns

• Definition: A pronoun takes the place of one or more nouns.
• Personal Pronouns:
  • Singular: I, me, mine; you, your, yours; he, him, his; she, her, hers; it, its
  • Plural: we, us, our, ours; you, your, yours; they, them, their, theirs
• Reflexive and Intensive Pronouns:
  • Singular: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
  • Plural: ourselves, yourselves, themselves
• Demonstrative Pronouns: this, that, these, those
• Interrogative Pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, what
• Relative Pronouns: that, which, who, whom, whose
• Indefinite Pronouns: all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either, everyone, everything, few, many, more, most, much, neither, nobody, none, no one, nothing, one, other, several, some, somebody, something, such

Adjectives

• Definition: An adjective is a word that is used to modify a noun or a pronoun.
• Questions Answered by Adjectives: What kind? Which one? How many?
• Examples: gray skies, Irish lace, either way, next day, those girls, last chance, five fingers, fewer hours, one river, some problems
• Articles: The most frequently used adjectives are articles: a, an, and the.

Verbs

• Definition: A verb is a word that is used to express action or a state of being.
• Verb Phrase: Consists of a main verb and one or more helping verbs.
• Forms of the Verb "to be": am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been (often helping verbs)
• Other Helping Verbs: can, could, did, do, does, had, has, have, might, must, shall, should, will, would, may
• Classification of Verbs:
  • Action Verbs: write, describe, remember, run, believe
    • Transitive Verbs: Express action directed toward a receiver; they take a direct object. Example: Tom threw the ball to Harry.
    • Intransitive Verbs: Do not transfer action to a receiver; they do not take a direct object. Example: Mary cried after the play.
  • Linking Verbs: am, is, are, was, were, seems, become, sounds

Adverbs

• Definition: An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
• Questions Answered by Adverbs: Where? When? How? To what extent?
• Examples:
  • Where: We lived there.
  • When: Please step up; Put that down; Can we go early? I’ll see you later.
  • How: The rain fell softly; He sang beautifully.
  • To what extent: She is very pretty; He ran so fast; He hardly moved; He writes very well; That tea is too hot.

Prepositions

• Definition: A preposition is a word that shows the relationship of a noun or pronoun to another word.
• List of Prepositions: aboard, about, above, across, after, against, along, amid, among, around, as, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, but (as in except), by, concerning, down, during, except for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, onto, out, outside, over, past, since, through, throughout, till, to, toward, under, underneath, until, up, upon, with, within, without
• Object of the Preposition: Prepositions are always followed by an object of the preposition (noun or pronoun).
• Prepositional Phrase: The preposition, its object, and any modifiers of that object together form a prepositional phrase.
• Examples: to the nearest store, over the last hill, beyond the blue sea

Conjunctions

• Definition: A conjunction is a word that joins words or word groups.
• Coordinating Conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
• Correlative Conjunctions: both…and, either…or, whether…or, not only…but also, neither…nor
• Subordinating Conjunctions: after, although, as, as if, as long as, as soon as, because, before, even though, if, once, in order to, since, so that, than, though, unless, until, when, whenever, where, wherever, whether, while
• Subordinating Conjunctions and Clauses:
  • A subordinating conjunction starts a subordinate clause and joins it to an independent clause.
  • Examples:
    • After the rain stops, we will take a walk.
    • You will not be invited to the party because you misbehaved at the last one.
    • If you kick my grandmother, my brother will punch you in the nose.

Interjections

• Definition: An interjection is a word that expresses emotion.
• Grammatical Relation: An interjection has no grammatical relation to the rest of the sentence.
• Punctuation: It is usually followed by a comma or by an exclamation point.
• Examples: Hey! Hurrah! Whew, that was close. Ouch, that hurt.