Parts of Speech Part One
When I use the phrase "parts of speech" in class, I am usually greeted with a sea of blank faces that are expressing the thought "Whos of what now?" which is sad, because parts of speech are so fundamental to our use of language. Would you hire a contractor who didn't know what all the tools in his toolkit were, or what they did? Of course not, so why do people think it's okay to not know what all the tools in our language kit do?
When I teach grammar, I have three types of students:
1. Those who knew most of it already but needed some refinement and practice (we'll call them the Andrews)
2. Those who didn't know it before and don't bother to learn it when I teach (let's call them the JJs)
3. Those who didn't know it before and thank me for teaching it to them (these are the Sarahs)
I'd like to say that the Andrews or the Sarahs of the world out number the JJs. I'd like to, but that would be a lie. In my experience, the numbers are close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. If you add up the Sarahs and the Andrews, they could maybe out number the JJs. The good thing is, the Sarahs and the Andrews won't be competing with the JJs or work. The JJs get the paper hat jobs.
You, since you're here to read and to learn, are clearly not JJs. So let's get on with parts of speech.
Why do we have parts of speech? Just like the carpenter's tools and building materials, every part of speech does a job in our language, allowing us to construct sentences that successfully convey meaning. Imagine the house built by a contractor who used rope when he should have used lumber, nails when he should have used concrete and a screwdriver when he should have used a hammer. That's not a house, it's a dangerous pile of crap. It's the same with sentences. Each part of speech has a function to perform and a set of rules governing that function.
In English we have nine parts of speech, which are (in no particular order): verb, noun, adverb, pronoun, adjective, article, interjection conjunction, and preposition.
Before we get into the details, some people don't learn by reading as well as others, so for you I present www.youtube.com/results, a link to some very helpful videos - If you're old enough, you'll remember them from Saturday morning TV. Of course, if you're old enough to remember them, you probably already learned the lessons they teach.
So you're back. Fun, weren't they? Memorize them and you'll never have trouble with parts of speech again. In case you like to read your learning, here are the basics of parts of speech. On the surface, most of them are pretty simple, but they can actually lead to some pretty complex grammatical constructs and concepts.
Verbs. These are the doing words of a sentence. Whether you are exploring distant planets, fighting crime in Gotham City, seducing lovely wenches or just chillin' with your peeps you are using verbs. In fact, if you are using a verb you are using a verb. Did I just blow your mind? Because that's a verb, too! Verbs can get really complex because you have gerunds (the noun form of a verb -when the verb ends in "ing"), participles (a verb state created by two or more words) and tenses (is the action happening now, in the past, in the future or is it -or would it have been - conditional on something else?), but we'll go into all the tricky stuff later on. For now, just remember that the verb is the action or state of being that exists in the sentence. Got it? Let's try it out. Spot the verbs in the following sentences:
1. Bob plagiarized his essay, so he failed the assignment.
2. Dave set Adam on fire, so the school expelled him.
3. Frankie broke his tooth on an inflatable mechanical bull.
4. Mike and Amanda engaged in some inappropriate behaviour at the school dance and were banned from going to any more.
5. The first four sentences are all things that happened in schools where I taught.
Some of them are tricky; how did you do? Sentence one has two verbs, plagiarized and failed. Number two also has two verbs: set and expelled. Sentence three has the single verb "broke." Sentence four has two verbs but it looks like it has more. The verbs are engaged and were banned (which is a past participle). The word "going" seems like it's a verb, but actually it is a gerund and part of the noun phrase that Mike and Amanda were banned from doing. There are three verbs in the last sentence - are, happened and taught.
Nouns. Nouns are all the things, people and places that populate the world and our sentences. The world is a noun. Sentences are nouns. Noun is a noun. I just blew your mind again, didn't I? I'll do it again: mind is a noun. If you can touch it, see it, feel it or hear it, it's a noun, but ideas can also be nouns. Emotions are nouns. Peace is a noun. Like verbs, nouns can also get complex or get tied up in more complex structures, like compound nouns and noun phrases. There are also proper nouns to look out for.
Compound nouns and noun phrases are both nouns made up of more than one word, but they are slightly different in their execution. Compound nouns are made by taking two words and mashing them together to make a new noun. One of the words has to be a noun, while the other is usually an adjective or another noun. Noun phrases are also nouns made of more than one word, but the words must stay separate from each other to be a phrase. Police officer is a noun phrase. Snowmobile is a compound noun. Noun phrases can be far lengthier or more complex than a simple police officer or coffee cup. Theatres have policies for what to do with people who aren't on time for the show. You could describe a theatre's policy as "Latecomers will not be seated," in which case you use the compound noun "latecomers," or you could say "People who arrive late will not be seated." In the second option, "people who arrive late" is a noun phrase.
Proper nouns are nouns that are unique or significant in some way. If you would use a name for something, rather than the word for it, you are probably talking about a proper noun. For example, statue is a noun but the Statue of Liberty is a proper noun. If you said "That guy stole my bees," guy is a noun, but if you said "Alphonse stole my bees," you have a proper noun on your hands. Proper nouns are normally capitalized, but occasionally you get some freak like the poet e e cummings who doesn't use capital letters (or punctuation). Ponce.
Pronouns. Pronouns are generic little words we use as substitutes for nouns. They aren't, strictly speaking, necessary, but they do make communication much simpler. Examine the following passage:
John Davidson went to Charring Cross train station to pick up Mr. And Mrs. Edwards. While John Davidson waited in Charring Cross train station for Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, John Davidson purchased a newspaper and then John Davidson read the newspaper.
Instead of writing out all those nouns and proper nouns over and over, we can replace them with pronouns. Watch:
John Davidson went to Charring Cross train station to pick up Mr. And Mrs. Edwards. While he waited in there for them, he purchased a newspaper and then he read it.
Isn't that easier? The correct answer is "yes."
You will learn more about parts of speech in later posts.
When I teach grammar, I have three types of students:
1. Those who knew most of it already but needed some refinement and practice (we'll call them the Andrews)
2. Those who didn't know it before and don't bother to learn it when I teach (let's call them the JJs)
3. Those who didn't know it before and thank me for teaching it to them (these are the Sarahs)
I'd like to say that the Andrews or the Sarahs of the world out number the JJs. I'd like to, but that would be a lie. In my experience, the numbers are close, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. If you add up the Sarahs and the Andrews, they could maybe out number the JJs. The good thing is, the Sarahs and the Andrews won't be competing with the JJs or work. The JJs get the paper hat jobs.
You, since you're here to read and to learn, are clearly not JJs. So let's get on with parts of speech.
Why do we have parts of speech? Just like the carpenter's tools and building materials, every part of speech does a job in our language, allowing us to construct sentences that successfully convey meaning. Imagine the house built by a contractor who used rope when he should have used lumber, nails when he should have used concrete and a screwdriver when he should have used a hammer. That's not a house, it's a dangerous pile of crap. It's the same with sentences. Each part of speech has a function to perform and a set of rules governing that function.
In English we have nine parts of speech, which are (in no particular order): verb, noun, adverb, pronoun, adjective, article, interjection conjunction, and preposition.
Before we get into the details, some people don't learn by reading as well as others, so for you I present www.youtube.com/results, a link to some very helpful videos - If you're old enough, you'll remember them from Saturday morning TV. Of course, if you're old enough to remember them, you probably already learned the lessons they teach.
So you're back. Fun, weren't they? Memorize them and you'll never have trouble with parts of speech again. In case you like to read your learning, here are the basics of parts of speech. On the surface, most of them are pretty simple, but they can actually lead to some pretty complex grammatical constructs and concepts.
Verbs. These are the doing words of a sentence. Whether you are exploring distant planets, fighting crime in Gotham City, seducing lovely wenches or just chillin' with your peeps you are using verbs. In fact, if you are using a verb you are using a verb. Did I just blow your mind? Because that's a verb, too! Verbs can get really complex because you have gerunds (the noun form of a verb -when the verb ends in "ing"), participles (a verb state created by two or more words) and tenses (is the action happening now, in the past, in the future or is it -or would it have been - conditional on something else?), but we'll go into all the tricky stuff later on. For now, just remember that the verb is the action or state of being that exists in the sentence. Got it? Let's try it out. Spot the verbs in the following sentences:
1. Bob plagiarized his essay, so he failed the assignment.
2. Dave set Adam on fire, so the school expelled him.
3. Frankie broke his tooth on an inflatable mechanical bull.
4. Mike and Amanda engaged in some inappropriate behaviour at the school dance and were banned from going to any more.
5. The first four sentences are all things that happened in schools where I taught.
Some of them are tricky; how did you do? Sentence one has two verbs, plagiarized and failed. Number two also has two verbs: set and expelled. Sentence three has the single verb "broke." Sentence four has two verbs but it looks like it has more. The verbs are engaged and were banned (which is a past participle). The word "going" seems like it's a verb, but actually it is a gerund and part of the noun phrase that Mike and Amanda were banned from doing. There are three verbs in the last sentence - are, happened and taught.
Nouns. Nouns are all the things, people and places that populate the world and our sentences. The world is a noun. Sentences are nouns. Noun is a noun. I just blew your mind again, didn't I? I'll do it again: mind is a noun. If you can touch it, see it, feel it or hear it, it's a noun, but ideas can also be nouns. Emotions are nouns. Peace is a noun. Like verbs, nouns can also get complex or get tied up in more complex structures, like compound nouns and noun phrases. There are also proper nouns to look out for.
Compound nouns and noun phrases are both nouns made up of more than one word, but they are slightly different in their execution. Compound nouns are made by taking two words and mashing them together to make a new noun. One of the words has to be a noun, while the other is usually an adjective or another noun. Noun phrases are also nouns made of more than one word, but the words must stay separate from each other to be a phrase. Police officer is a noun phrase. Snowmobile is a compound noun. Noun phrases can be far lengthier or more complex than a simple police officer or coffee cup. Theatres have policies for what to do with people who aren't on time for the show. You could describe a theatre's policy as "Latecomers will not be seated," in which case you use the compound noun "latecomers," or you could say "People who arrive late will not be seated." In the second option, "people who arrive late" is a noun phrase.
Proper nouns are nouns that are unique or significant in some way. If you would use a name for something, rather than the word for it, you are probably talking about a proper noun. For example, statue is a noun but the Statue of Liberty is a proper noun. If you said "That guy stole my bees," guy is a noun, but if you said "Alphonse stole my bees," you have a proper noun on your hands. Proper nouns are normally capitalized, but occasionally you get some freak like the poet e e cummings who doesn't use capital letters (or punctuation). Ponce.
Pronouns. Pronouns are generic little words we use as substitutes for nouns. They aren't, strictly speaking, necessary, but they do make communication much simpler. Examine the following passage:
John Davidson went to Charring Cross train station to pick up Mr. And Mrs. Edwards. While John Davidson waited in Charring Cross train station for Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, John Davidson purchased a newspaper and then John Davidson read the newspaper.
Instead of writing out all those nouns and proper nouns over and over, we can replace them with pronouns. Watch:
John Davidson went to Charring Cross train station to pick up Mr. And Mrs. Edwards. While he waited in there for them, he purchased a newspaper and then he read it.
Isn't that easier? The correct answer is "yes."
You will learn more about parts of speech in later posts.