Nouns Verbs Adverbs Adjectives

Pronouns Conjunctions Prepositions Interjections

Nouns

A noun is a the name of a person, place, thing, quality, concept or action

Persons Places Things Qualities Concepts Actions

child lobby desk dependability beauty walking/to walk

typist courtroom phone honesty truth typing/to type
Mr. Harris Chicago computer loyalty knowledge writing/to write
Martha college book sincerity happiness thinking/to think

The first letters of some nouns are capitalized to show a specific name or
title (Alan). These are called proper nouns. Other nouns that are not
specific do not use a capital letter (man). These are called common nouns.
Nouns that have a singular and plural form are called count nouns. Nouns
that only have a singular form are called non-count nouns.

Non-count nouns never add -s.

person
Common Noun Proper Noun
often count nouns { place
thing Count Non-Count Count

Singular Plural Singular Plural

quality girl girls -------- Maria Marias
often non-count nouns { concept country countries -------- America Americas
action car cars homework Ford Fords

-------- -------- honesty -------- --------

-------- -------- beauty -------- --------
-------- -------- typing -------- --------

Nouns function in many ways:

Noun Functions
subject: The car runs well.
direct object: I bought a book.
complements: Mary was president.
object of the prep: He walked to the store.
indirect object: Sam mailed Joan a letter.
possession: The woman's daughter left early.
 Verbs

A verb is a word that tells what the subject of the sentence does, says,
thinks, or feels. Sometimes the verb shows movement (jump) or
sometimes it shows how a thing is or that it exists (is). The verb also
shows time which is called tense. The form of the verb or its tense can tell
when events take place.

For example, the verb kiss (*note: kiss is also a count noun):

Present Simple Past Simple Future Simple

kiss/kisses kissed will kiss

Present Perfect Past Perfect Future Perfect

has/have kissed had kissed will have kissed

Present Continuous (Progressive) Past Continuous (Progressive) Future Continuous (Progressive)

is/am/are kissing was kissing will be kissing

Present Perfect Continuous Past Perfect Continuous Future Perfect Continuous

(Progressive) (Progressive) (Progressive)
has/have been kissing had been kissing will have been kissing

Adverbs

Adverbs modify or describe verbs (run fast), adjectives (often sad), or other
adverbs (too often). Adverbs often, but not always, end in -ly. A test for
deciding if a word is an adverb is to think about the word's function.
Adverbs tend to tell where, when, or how.

For example: very pretty, most unhappy, never angry, come soon

Adverbs often answer three questions:

 THE ROYAL ORDER OF ADVERBS
Verb Manner Place Frequency Time Purpose
Beth every before to keep in
enthusiastically in the pool
swims morning dawn shape.
every before to get a
Dad walks impatiently into town
afternoon supper newspaper.
Tashonda in her every before
naps room morning lunch.
In actual practice, of course, it would be highly unusual to have a string of
adverbial modifiers beyond two or three (at the most). Because the placement of
adverbs is so flexible, one or two of the modifiers would probably move to the
beginning of the sentence: "Every afternoon before supper, Dad impatiently walks
into town to get a newspaper." When that happens, the introductory adverbial
modifiers are usually set off with a comma.
The Royal Order of Adverbs was created by Dr. Charles Darling, Professor of English, Capital
Community College.
Source: Capital Community College Guide to Grammar & Writing: Adverbs. Reprinted with
permission 25 February 2003.

Adjectives

Adjectives are words that describe a noun. Ugly, funny, big, round, and
loose are all examples of adjectives. Some less obvious examples are: that
dog, her bone, enough food, every room. Adjectives can also describe how
much or how many: fewer friends, less food, more people.
 colors quality size emotions numbers demonstrative

blue honest big sad one this (close)

red loyal small angry two that (far)
green sincere tiny happy three these (close)
orange efficient large nervous first those (far)
fuschia confident miniscule second
yellow rude huge third

action verbs of feeling possessive

articles
(can be used as adj.) (+ noun)

interested/interesting a my (tradition) our (traditions)

satisfied/satisfying an your (tradition) your (traditions)
bored/boring the his (tradition) their (traditions)
excited/exciting her (tradition)
* its (tradition)

Verb+ED becomes an adjective when it is used to describe a person or

animal that experiences an emotion We will call this adjective the
Experiencer adjective.
One good way to remember to use ED to describe the Experiencer is
to remember that both words start with E. The Experiencer is
described with ED.
Verb+ING becomes an adjective when it is used to describe the things that
cause an emotion. We will call this the Instigator (Causing) adjective.
One good way to remember to use ING to describe the Instigator (or
Causing) adjective is to remember that both words start with I. The
Instigator is described with ING.

THE ROYAL ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

Determiner Observation Physical Description Origin Material Qualifier Noun
Size Shape Age Color
a beautiful old Italian touring car
an expensive antique silver mirror
long-
four gorgeous red silk roses
stemmed
her short black hair
our big old English sheepdog
those square wooden hat boxes
that dilapidated little hunting cabin
several enormous young American basketball players
some delicious Thai food

The Royal Order of Adjectives was created by Dr. Charles Darling, Professor of English, Capital Community College.
Source: Capital Community College Guide to Grammar & Writing: Adjectives. Reprinted with permission 25 February 2003.

Pronouns

Pronouns are words that take the place of a noun.

Example: Carol is nice. She is also pretty.

Object
Subject (of verb or Possessive Reflexive
preposition)
I me mine myself
you you yours yourself
Singular he him his himself
she her hers herself
it it ----- itself
we us ours ourselves
Plural you you yours yourselves
they them theirs themselves

Conjunctions

A conjunction is a word that connects phrases, words, or clauses.

Conjunctions are often used as transitions.

There are two kinds of conjunctions:

COORDINATING: connects words, phrases, or clauses

and, but, or, for

Gallaudet teachers communicate in American Sign Language and English.
either... or; neither... nor; both... and; not only... but also
Most students use either ASL or English.
hence, therefore, moreover, however, besides, consequently
I like to read; however, I hate to write.

SUBORDINATING: introduces subordinate clauses and connects them with the main clause

who, which, that

People who live in glass houses don't like children to play catch in front of their houses.
although, because, since, though, if, as if
Although I work hard, I'm still broke.
 Prepositions

Prepositions are words that express the relation of a noun or pronoun to

another word in the sentence. Prepositions show the relationships among
things, people, and places.

Prepositions of
Direction Place Time
(to & from) (where) (when)

to the store in the hall in a minute

from the library on the ceiling on July 4
toward the floor over the doorway at lunch time

Interjections

An interjection is an exclamatory word (or words) that shows strong or

sudden feeling and has no grammatical function in the construction of a
sentence.

Oh! Alas! So! Wow! Cool!

For more detailed parts of speech review, see the Gallaudet University
Handbook on Grammar & Usage by Marcia Bordman and Anne Womeldorf.