Parts of speech aren't going to be something you get without practice. There are plenty of fun games online to test your knowledge. Here are some I have found:
http://www.toonuniversity.com/flash.asp?err=487&engine=2
http://users.netrover.com/~kingskids/noun/noun.html
http://www.fun4thebrain.com/English/pandaMayhem.html
Also, I really meant when I said that the Schoolhouse Rock cartoons helped me remember my parts of speech.Even 25 years or so later I remember the songs. Check out these videos on YouTube and see if you don't agree:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7CxWNY829Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg9MKQ1OYCg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4QEzJe6_ok
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYzGLzFuwxI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7wnT8iiR8w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkO87mkgcNo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhHpJ45_zwM
Monday, October 18, 2010
Interjections
The easiest and most fun part of speech is interjections. Interjections express excitement or emotion. Because they end in exclamation points or commas, they are easy to find. Also, they are just kind of fun to say.Just say these words and see if you don't smile: Hooray! My goodness! What! Oh no!
Conjunctions
Conjunctions join words and sentences together. The good thing about conjunctions is that there are only 3 people use with regularity: AND, BUT, OR. Of course, there are more than those such as: nor, for and yet, but and, but, or get the job done most of the time.
Sometimes though, you will need a pair of conjunctions working together. For example: NEITHER Allison NOR Marie were able to go to the dance.
Sometimes though, you will need a pair of conjunctions working together. For example: NEITHER Allison NOR Marie were able to go to the dance.
Prepositions
Let's say you broke your arm, and I decided to help you out by washing your dishes. Only problem, I have no idea where you keep the dish soap.With the help of prepositions, you can can tell me: It's UNDER the sink, It's ON TOP OF the counter, It's NEXT TO the dish drainer.Prepositions tell you where one thing is in relation to something else. Words like under, on top of, and next to are prepositions.Without prepositions, you and your dishes are out of luck.
Adverbs
What is the difference between these two sentences:
He went to class.
He went very reluctantly to class.
If you said that one was more descriptive, you are right. Congratulations! A world without adverbs is like a world without adjectives: boring and nondescript.
Adverbs answer the following questions:
Where? We met outside.
When? We met yesterday.
How? We met briefly.
How much? We met very briefly.
Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.If you want to describe nouns, that's a job for an adjective
He went to class.
He went very reluctantly to class.
If you said that one was more descriptive, you are right. Congratulations! A world without adverbs is like a world without adjectives: boring and nondescript.
Adverbs answer the following questions:
Where? We met outside.
When? We met yesterday.
How? We met briefly.
How much? We met very briefly.
Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.If you want to describe nouns, that's a job for an adjective
Adjectives - Special Edition
Some adjectives are known as special adjectives because they may not be as easy to find as most other adjectives.
ARTICLES - the words a, an, the are adjectives
NOUNS AS ADJECTIVES - some words can go from being nouns to adjectives. Think about the word shoe.Most of the time, it is a noun. I need new shoes. Where's my shoe? I can't find my shoe. But, if you use the word shoe to describe a noun, it has become an adjective. I want to go to the shoe store. I can't find the shoe salesman. Same word, two different parts of speech. Just make sure to look at the word in context before deciding how it functions in a sentence.
ARTICLES - the words a, an, the are adjectives
NOUNS AS ADJECTIVES - some words can go from being nouns to adjectives. Think about the word shoe.Most of the time, it is a noun. I need new shoes. Where's my shoe? I can't find my shoe. But, if you use the word shoe to describe a noun, it has become an adjective. I want to go to the shoe store. I can't find the shoe salesman. Same word, two different parts of speech. Just make sure to look at the word in context before deciding how it functions in a sentence.
Adjectives
Without adjectives, life would be boring. Imagine reading a book without know what the characters looked like or even something as simple as what the weather was like. It's the difference between a sentence like this, "It was a day." And a sentence like this,"It was a warm, sunny beautiful spring day." Adjectives help you describe exactly what you want to say.
Also, if we didn't have adjectives, imagine how confusing life would be. If I wanted to tell you how to find my car in the parking lot without adjectives, it would be nearly impossible. It's a car. It is a color. It is in a row. It is a size. But with adjectives, the task becomes easier: It's the tiny red sports car in the fifth row. All of those italicized words are adjectives.
Adjectives answer the following questions:
What kind? The purple shirt.
Which one? I want that cookie.
How many? The movie cost ten dollars.
How much? I have no time to get it done.
Remember, adjectives only describe nouns and pronouns. Which means they only describe people, places, things, and ideas. If you want to describe something else, look at the adverb post.
Also, if we didn't have adjectives, imagine how confusing life would be. If I wanted to tell you how to find my car in the parking lot without adjectives, it would be nearly impossible. It's a car. It is a color. It is in a row. It is a size. But with adjectives, the task becomes easier: It's the tiny red sports car in the fifth row. All of those italicized words are adjectives.
Adjectives answer the following questions:
What kind? The purple shirt.
Which one? I want that cookie.
How many? The movie cost ten dollars.
How much? I have no time to get it done.
Remember, adjectives only describe nouns and pronouns. Which means they only describe people, places, things, and ideas. If you want to describe something else, look at the adverb post.
Verbs - Let's Do This!
The basic definition of verbs is that they are actions and states of being.
Actions are easy to understand: they are anything you can do with your body or your mind. If it is something you can do, it's a verb: run, swim, read, imagine, type, surf, etc.
So what is a state of being? Basically, it is any form of the word BE. There are many and can have helping verbs as well. If you know the following, you can spot any in a sentence: am, is, are, was, were, be, being. Remember, they may need helping verbs.
Example: She was being as quiet as she could.
He has been gone for two hours.
So look for one of those forms of be to see where to begin.
Actions are easy to understand: they are anything you can do with your body or your mind. If it is something you can do, it's a verb: run, swim, read, imagine, type, surf, etc.
So what is a state of being? Basically, it is any form of the word BE. There are many and can have helping verbs as well. If you know the following, you can spot any in a sentence: am, is, are, was, were, be, being. Remember, they may need helping verbs.
Example: She was being as quiet as she could.
He has been gone for two hours.
So look for one of those forms of be to see where to begin.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Different Kinds of Nouns
There are four different kinds of nouns: proper,common, compound, and collective.
Proper vs.Common
Proper nouns mean you are referring to a specific person,place,or thing.Common just means any person,place,or thing. Huh? Basically all you have to do is look at the first letter - if it is capitalized (like your first name), it is proper. If I talk about my friend, Sarah, I am referring to a specific person. If I am just talking about my friend (generic - no name), it is common. Bottom line,if it is capitalized, it is proper and if it is not,it is common. ALWAYS! Don't make it more complicated than it is.
Compound and Collective
Unlike proper and common, not all nouns are compound and collective. Compound nouns occur when two or more nouns are combined to form a new thing.
Example: door + knob = doorknob
middle + school = middle school
bull's + eye = bull's-eye
As you can see, compound nouns can be one word, two separate words, or hyphenated.
Collective nouns occur when you are talking about a group of people or things. When you are talking about your math class, it is easier to refer to those people as CLASS than listing all of their names.
Other examples: team, committee, flock, herd, audience, group, choir.
Proper vs.Common
Proper nouns mean you are referring to a specific person,place,or thing.Common just means any person,place,or thing. Huh? Basically all you have to do is look at the first letter - if it is capitalized (like your first name), it is proper. If I talk about my friend, Sarah, I am referring to a specific person. If I am just talking about my friend (generic - no name), it is common. Bottom line,if it is capitalized, it is proper and if it is not,it is common. ALWAYS! Don't make it more complicated than it is.
Compound and Collective
Unlike proper and common, not all nouns are compound and collective. Compound nouns occur when two or more nouns are combined to form a new thing.
Example: door + knob = doorknob
middle + school = middle school
bull's + eye = bull's-eye
As you can see, compound nouns can be one word, two separate words, or hyphenated.
Collective nouns occur when you are talking about a group of people or things. When you are talking about your math class, it is easier to refer to those people as CLASS than listing all of their names.
Other examples: team, committee, flock, herd, audience, group, choir.
Nouns
I will begin discussing nouns by starting with the basics. Nouns are people, places, things, and ideas. I grew up with the Schoolhouse Rocks series of cartoons. These were short (2-5 minute) cartoons that came on in between the Saturday morning cartoons of my youth. They were educational on a variety of topics: math, science, history, and language arts. Even though they were educational, they were fun because they were always catchy songs. And these songs actually taught you something, I still remember the song for nouns: A noun's a special kind of word/ it's any name you ever heard/ I find it quite interesting/ a noun's a person, place,or thing. I highly suggesting digging it up on youtube.
The person, place,or thing concept is easy enough. It's the idea concept that is tricky. Things like love, hate, freedom, democracy and rebellion are nouns - it's just that they are not things you can easily see. Try this tip: put the article a or an in front of the word. If it makes sense, you more than likely have a noun.
Example: They have a love of a lifetime.
The United States is a democracy.
They are planning a rebellion.
True it may not always work (They have a freedom?), but it will help you to spot a lot of those tricky idea nouns.
The person, place,or thing concept is easy enough. It's the idea concept that is tricky. Things like love, hate, freedom, democracy and rebellion are nouns - it's just that they are not things you can easily see. Try this tip: put the article a or an in front of the word. If it makes sense, you more than likely have a noun.
Example: They have a love of a lifetime.
The United States is a democracy.
They are planning a rebellion.
True it may not always work (They have a freedom?), but it will help you to spot a lot of those tricky idea nouns.
Parts of Speech Primer
Before I begin discussing the parts of speech, I want to explain what they are and their importance. The English language consists of thousands and thousands of words. Every word, though, can be boiled down to 8 basic parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. Of course, many words can be more than one of these, but I will get in to that later.
So what's the significance? It is important to know how words function in a sentence to make sure you have complete sentences, that you use a variety of words in your writing, and that you use this information to express yourself as clearly as possible. Now is a future employer going to give you a sentence and ask you to state which part of speech each word is? He or she could if you want to be a writer or a journalist, or even an English teacher, but not likely. However, you could very well be asked by future teachers and professors to use more colorful adjectives and to make sure you are consistent with verb tense in an essay. If you have no clue what adjectives and verbs are, you will not be able to do as your teacher wants.
My hope with this blog is to make learning and distinguishing the parts of speech as easy and painless as possible. Let's get started!
So what's the significance? It is important to know how words function in a sentence to make sure you have complete sentences, that you use a variety of words in your writing, and that you use this information to express yourself as clearly as possible. Now is a future employer going to give you a sentence and ask you to state which part of speech each word is? He or she could if you want to be a writer or a journalist, or even an English teacher, but not likely. However, you could very well be asked by future teachers and professors to use more colorful adjectives and to make sure you are consistent with verb tense in an essay. If you have no clue what adjectives and verbs are, you will not be able to do as your teacher wants.
My hope with this blog is to make learning and distinguishing the parts of speech as easy and painless as possible. Let's get started!
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