Parts of Speech in English

PROPER NOUN

*Proper nouns* are the names of people or places. They start with a capital letter. In 2016, *President Obama* visited *Cuba*. A title of a book or the title of a position (*supervisor* and *president, for example*) are also proper nouns.

COMMON NOUN

*Common nouns* are things, places, people, concepts, or ideas. They do not need a capital letter. "I got my *computer* at Best Buy."* A *common noun* can refer to a specific thing (my computer) or to a general group of things, people, places, or ideas. "Elena wants to find a new *apartment*." In this sentence, Elena is not thinking about a specific apartment; she just wants a new apartment.

CONJUNCTION

*Conjunctions* link words or parts of sentences. The most common conjunctions are *for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so*. *Conjunctions* can link sentences, nouns, adjectives, or verbs. For example, "Last summer, Elena went to France *and* Spain." *And* links two nouns: France and Spain. Ahmed is tall *and* strong. *And* links two adjectives: tall and strong.*

PREPOSITION

A *preposition* shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun. This relationship is usually explains where or in what direction. In the sentence "Mark walked *towards* the house," the word towards is a preposition. It shows direction. However, "I put my grammar book *under* the car seat." shows where the book is.

PRONOUN

A *pronoun* is a word that is used to *replace a noun*. "Sam likes pizza." We can use "He" as a substitute for Sam. "*He* likes pizza." There are various forms of pronouns: *I, me, mine, you, your, yours, myself, yourself, we, us, our, and their* are pronouns. They are VERY important. Try to learn all of the forms of each pronoun. OK?

VERB

A *verb* is a word that describes an action or a state of being. "Serena Williams *is playing* tennis in the Australian Open." The verb "play" represents an action. Compare that sentence with this one: "Serena Williams *loves* tennis." This sentence describes Serena as a person. She always loves tennis, even when she is not playing tennis. Another example: " Mike *hates* pizza." This describes Mike as a person. He hates pizza 24 hours a day. It is called his "state of being"--that is a characteristic of Mike. He hates pizza and Serena loves tennis. Got it?

ADJECTIVE

An *adjective* describes a noun or a pronoun. In the sentence "Frank is a *tall, skinny* man", both tall and skinny are *adjectives* because they describe Frank. Sometimes grammar books say that adjectives "modify" nouns. That means an adjective changes a noun so that the meaning is more precise. 1. *"Lisenia is a lawyer."* 2. *"Lisenia is a good lawyer."* In sentence 2, the word "good" changes (modifies) the meaning of "lawyer." Both sentences describe Lisenia, but sentence 2 gives us more information about her.Adjectives can also show a relationship between nouns. "Lisenia is a *good* lawyer, but Mary Smith is a *better* lawyer than Lisenia. Do you know Clare Jackson? Clare is *the best* lawyer in Kentucky" Lisenia, Mary, and Clare are lawyers. The adjectives let us see the relationship among these three lawyers: one of them is *good* and one of them is *better* and one is *the best*. Adjectives help us answer the question: "What kind of lawyer.?" Therefore, it is important to know the forms of adjectives so that you can compare and contrast nouns. Here are three examples of the forms of adjectives: *bad-worse-worst, cold-colder-coldest, and important-more important-most important.* These show the three forms of adjectives: the base form, the comparative form, and the superlative form.

ADVERB

An *adverb* modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. "Susan walked *slowly* towards the door." The adverb *slowly* describes how she walked.