Parts of Speech Flashcards
Noun
A part of speech (or word class) that signifies a person, place, thing, quality, or action. Most nouns have both a singular and plural form, can be preceded by an article and/or one or more adjectives, and can serve as the head of a noun phrase.
Pronoun
A pronoun takes the place of a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence. In English there are a number of different kinds of pronounds.
- Demonstrative Pronoun: this, that, these, those
- Personal Pronoun: I, you, he, she, etc.
- Possessive Pronoun: mine, yours, his, etc.
- Reflexive Pronoun: myself, yourself, etc.
- Interrogative Pronoun: who, what, where, etc.
- Negative Pronoun: nothing, no, nobody, etc.
- Reciprocal pronoun: each, other, etc.
- Relative Clause: who, whose, which, that, etc.
- Quantified: some, any something, much, many, little, etc.
- Indefinite Pronoun: anyone, somebody, one, all, etc.
Verb
Verbs are one of the major grammatical groups, and all sentances must contain one. Verbs refer to an action (do, break, walk, etc.) or a state (be, like, own)
Adjective
An adjective modifies a noun. It describes the quality, state or action that a noun refers to. ADJECTIVE RULES:
- Adjectives can come before nouns: a new car
- Adjectives can come after verbs such as be, become, see, look, etc: that car looks fast
- They can be modified by adverbs: a very expensive car
- They can be used as complements to a noun: the extras make the car expensive
Adverb
Most adverbs in English are formed by adding -ly to an Adjective. An adverb is a word that modifies the meaning of a Verb; an Advective; another adverb; a Noun or Noun Phrase; Determiner; a Numeral; a Pronoun; or a Prepositional Phrase and can sometimes be used as a complement of a Preposition.
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Term: Adverbs
Definition:
Most adverbs in English are formed by adding -ly to an Adjective. An adverb is a word that modifies the meaning of a Verb; an Adjective; another adverb; a Noun or Noun Phrase; Determiner; a Numeral; a Pronoun; or a Prepositional Phrase and can sometimes be used as a Complement of a Preposition.
SPELLING NOTES
Adjectives ending -l still take -ly; careful-carefully
Adjectives ending -y change to -ily; lucky-luckily
Adjectives ending -ble change to -bly; responsible-responsibly
ADVERB OF MANNER
Adverbs of manner modify a verb to describe the way the action is done.
EG: She did the work carefully.
(‘Carefully’ modifies the verb to describe the way the work was done, as opposed to quickly, carelessly, etc..)
ADVERB OF PLACE or LOCATION
Adverbs of place show where the action is done.
EG: They live locally.
ADVERB OF TIME
Adverbs of time show when an action is done, or the duration or frequency.
EG: He did it yesterday. (When)
They are permanently busy. (Duration)
She never does it. (Frequency)
ADVERB OF DEGREE
Adverbs of degree increase or decrease the effect of the verb.
EG: I completely agree with you. (This increases the effect of the verb, whereas ‘partially’ would decrease it.)
ADVERBS MODIFYING ADJECTIVES
An adjective can be modified by an adverb, which precedes the adjective, except ‘enough’ which comes after.
EG: That’s really good.
It was a terribly difficult time for all of us.
It wasn’t good enough. (‘Enough’ comes after the adjective.)
ADVERBS MODIFYING ADVERBS
An adverb can modify another. As with adjectives, the adverb precedes the one it is modifying with ‘enough’ being the exception again.
EG: She did it really well.
He didn’t come last night, funnily enough.
ADVERBS MODIFYING NOUNS
Adverbs can modify nouns to indicate time or place.
EG: The concert tomorrow
EG: The room upstairs
ADVERBS MODIFYING NOUN PHRASES
Some adverbs of degree can modify noun phrases.
EG: We had quite a good time.
They’re such good friends.
Quite; rather; such; what (What a day!) can be used in this way.
ADVERBS MODIFYING DETERMINERS, NUMERALS & PRONOUNS
Adverbs such as almost; nearly; hardly; about, etc., can be used:
EG: Almost everybody came in the end.
Preposition
A preposition is a word that links a noun, pronoun or gerund to other words. They can have a variety of meanings:
Direction: He’s going TO the shops.
Time: He left AFTER the lesson had finished
Possession: The Government OF Italy
Conjunction
A conjunction is a word like AND, BUT, OR, etc which connects words, phrases or clauses.
Other ex: since, because, when
A subordinating conjunction introduces a dependent clause, which depends on the rest of the sentence for its meaning and cannot stand alone:
Unless we leave now, we’ll be late. (Unless is the subordinating conjunction)
Subordinating conjunctions include: although, as, because, before, if, once, since, than, that, till, unless, until, when, whenever, where, wherever.
Article
A, AN, and THE are called articles.
THE is the Definate Article
A and AN are both used for the indefinite article.
“The boy” refers to a definate, particular boy, but “A boy” refers to no particular boy.
Articles belong to a group of words which are known as Determiners; they restrict or specify a noun in some way.
