Parts of Speech
Pick up the pieces for an adjective (strong, groovy, masterful) understanding of grammar.
Adjective — A word that modifies a noun. That means, it describes a quality of a person, place, or thing.
a stinky sock or the prettiest princess
Adverb — A word that describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb; often ends in "ly."
dance wildly
Conjunction — A word like "but" or "and" that joins together groups of words and sentences.
lemon and lime
Interjection — An exclamation, usually a short part of speech that shows emotion or emphasis. Usually it's an introductory word.
Whoa , that's hot salsa!
Noun — A word or words that names a person, place, thing, feeling, idea, or act.
a movie star
the attic
Democracy
Proper nouns name a particular person (someone's name), place, or thing and begin with a capital letter.
Jim, Tim, and Slim (they're triplets!)
Baja , California
the Washington Monument
Singular nouns refer to one person, place, or thing.
a monkey
the library
your friend
Plural nouns refer to two or more people, places, or things.
lots of monkeys
the painters
many beaches
Preposition — A word that shows the relationship between one noun and a different noun, verb, or adverb, like "in" or "through."
Lots of monkeys chase the movie star through the attic.
Pronoun — A word that replaces a noun, such as "he," "they," or "it."
Lots of monkeys chase him through the attic.
Verb — A word that describes action.
Lots of monkeys chase him through the attic. Yikes! ( Yikes! is an interjection)
Transitive verbs need an object to complete their meaning.
For example, in the sentence, "Joe found an old sandwich,"
the verb found isn't enough to give the sentence meaning all
by itself. We need to know what Joe found. (Let's hope Joe was smart
enough not to eat the old sandwich he found.)
Intransitive verbs do not need an object to be meaningful.
For example, "Joe moaned," or "Joe groaned." Both
moaned or groaned complete the thought. (It seems
that our friend Joe was not smart enough to leave that old sandwich
alone.)
Verb tenses: The "tense" of a verb tells you when
the action happened. The main tenses are present ("I
sneeze"), past ("I sneezed"), future ("I
will sneeze"), present participle ("I am sneezing"),
and past participle ("I have sneezed"). Now, please
hand me a tissue.
Sentence Fundamentals
How can you verb (construct, devour, throw) a better sentence?
What makes a sentence?
For a group of words to be a sentence it needs three things:
1. The words make sense and express a complete thought :
NO: Cookies car deliver Julie.
YES: Julie delivers cookies by car.
2. It begins with a capital letter and ends with a period, exclamation point, or question mark:
NO: a mouse likes cheese
YES: A mouse likes cheese.
3. It contains a predicate and a subject . The predicate, or verb, tells what the subject, or noun, is doing.
NO: A great story of a boy.
YES: Charlie reads a great story of a boy.
Sentences can be any length, as long as they follow the above rules.
What are the parts of a sentence?
Sentences contain these important pieces:
Subject — A noun or pronoun that is performing the verb; the "do-er" of a sentence.
Amir jumps.
Amir is the subject.
Predicate — The verb that describes what the noun (subject) of the sentence is doing or being.
Amir jumps.
Jumps is the predicate.
Direct Object — A noun or pronoun that is having an action done to it.
Barry flies a kite.
Barry is the subject; flies is the predicate;
kite is the direct object.
Indirect Object — A noun or pronoun that tells you for what or whom the action of the verb (predicate) is being done.
Edward gave Leah two roses.
Edward is the subject; gave is the predicate;
Leah is the indirect object; roses is the
direct object.
Compound Sentences
A compound sentence is when you join two sentences together using a conjunction.
The most common conjunctions are: and, although, as, because,
but, if, or, though, where, whether.
Conjunctions that indicate time are: before,
after, until, since, when, whenever, while.
Examples:
Amanda wore the red dress and it was dirty .
Amanda wore the red dress because it was dirty.
Amanda wore the red dress before it was dirty.
Notice how the conjunctions change the meaning of the sentence, so choosing the right one is important!
Clauses, Phrases, and Fragments
Try to adverb (effortlessly, sporadically, absolutely) put all the grammar pieces together.
Clauses
A clause is a group of words with a subject and a verb.
- A main or independent clause can stand alone as a sentence.
- A subordinate or dependent clause has a subject and verb, but relies on an independent clause to make the sentence whole and give the dependent clause meaning.
To check what kind of clause a part of a sentence is, see if it makes sense on its own.
Examples:
1. Lily shopped at the mall before she got her allowance.
Lily shopped at the mall is an independent clause.
Before she had her allowance is a dependent clause
because without more to the sentence, we don't know what happened
"before."
2. Brian will make dinner, and he loves Mac 'n Cheese.
Brian will make dinner and he loves Mac 'n Cheese
could stand alone as sentences; therefore they are both independent
clauses.
3. Erin went to the community center where she took art classes,
but she didn't like them.
Erin went to the community center and she
didn't like them are independent clauses; where
she took art classes is a dependent clause.
Phrases
A phrase is a group of words that lack a subject and/or predicate. Even if you capitalize the first letter and end with a period (or question mark/exclamation point) it will not be a sentence, but instead a sentence fragment.
Fragments
A fragment may contain a subject and predicate, but for one reason or another, it's not an independent clause.
Examples:
1. Swiftly nose-picking
While it has a verb, the sentence has no predicate. We don't know who or what is doing the nose-picking in this phrase. Ew.
2. Maria's cool red bicycle, parked behind the house.
Even though this looks like a sentence, since you can find many
nouns (Maria, bicycle, house) and a verb (parked), the verb in this
case isn't causing any action; instead it's used as an adjective to
describe where the bicycle is. But neither Maria nor her bicycle are
doing or feeling anything.
3. Because that girl was crazy!
This is a sentence fragment due to the fact that it's a dependent clause — without the word "because" it would be fine, but with it, this sentence isn't complete. What happened because the girl was crazy? We don't know.
Common Mistakes
Interjection (Zoinks, Blaaaah, Hooray), you know basic grammar! Now, learn to avoid these pitfalls.
1. I versus Me
To make sure you use the right pronoun, ask if "I" am doing something or is something being done to "me."
Examples:
Laura and I will rock out at the concert.
Laura gave the concert tickets to me.
The first one is "I" while the second one is "me"
because in the first case, "I" am doing something: going to
see a concert. While in the second sentence, Laura is doing something
to "me": giving tickets.
A good way to check is to take the other person out of the sentence and see how it sounds with both pronouns. It wouldn't be "Me go," it would be "I go."
2. Fewer versus Less
Did you know that sign in the supermarket that says, "10 items or less" is grammatically incorrect? It is! It should read, "10 items or fewer" and here's why:
3. Good versus Well and Bad versus Badly
Good and bad are adjectives, which modify nouns, while well
and badly are adverbs and should never modify nouns. But when you are
talking about the 5 senses (feel, taste, smell, hear, see) you should
use the adjective instead of the adverb.
Examples:
Your feet smell bad … (not badly, because that would imply feet are bad at feeling)
…But those flowers smell good (not well, because it would imply
the flowers can smell, and do it well)
Now that you've taken the noun (pig, time, dump truck) to understand grammar, all your communication is sure to be adjective (clearer, freckled, smelly).
By Amy KL Borrell and Cara Pitterman, who play
word games at work sometimes when their boss isn't around.
