EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH

Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, Interjections

Adjectives describe nouns and Adverbs give more meaning to verbs, as a general rule. Examples of adjectives describing nouns are BLUE moon, GREEN grass, HAPPY child, SAD man. Examples of adverbs giving more meaning to verbs are laughed HEARTILY, sobbed VIOLENTLY, asked PERSISTENTLY, smiled SHYLY.

 ADJECTIVE

Ask your student to write down ten nouns.  Examples of ten nouns are below:

1. moon
2. grass
3. child
4. man
5. car
6. lady
   
7. teacher
8. house
9. desk
10. beans

1. yellow moon
2. tall grass
3. sweet child
4. sad man
5. blue car
6. pretty lady
7. nice teacher
8. clean house
9. dirty desk
10. tasty beans
    

Although a correct sentence is made up of nouns and verbs, they do not give enough specific information nor do they present interesting sentences. They can be monotonous and repetitive, not at all challenging.

Nouns and verbs make a framework for a sentence but leave nothing to the imagination for building onto that sentence. As you can see in the following examples:

Cats meow.
Horses trot.
Mary dances.
Women cook.
Mom crochets.
Children skate.

When you have a skeleton sentence like any of the above sentences, it is usually necessary to add other parts of speech in order to make the meaning more clear.

You can add words to nouns that tell what kind, what color, which one, etc. If you wanted to tell about a coat a woman was wearing, you would describe the coat in some way. You might even say that it was a brown coat, a fur coat, a raincoat, depending on the meaning you intended to convey. When you add words to describe nouns, you give a clearer picture of what that noun or pronoun is like. Words which add new ideas to nouns and pronouns (See the lesson on pronouns.) are called adjectives.

Adjectives not only describe by telling what kind or what color, but it may limit the meaning by telling which coat, whose coat, or the number of coats. For example: you might limit the meaning by saying that coat, blue coat, one coat, or several coats.

When you modify a noun (or pronoun), you change the meaning slightly by describing or limiting the meaning to a certain kind or to a certain number.

ADJECTIVE BY DEFINITION MEANS TO MODIFY THE MEANING OF THE NOUN (OR PRONOUN).

Example: blue hat (modifier = blue) (Blue modifies the noun "hat" by restricting its meaning and leaving out all other hats of a different color.)

ARTICLES

The words a, an and the are adjectives which point out a particular noun but in English Grammar they are referred to as ARTICLES.

The is a definite article. When you say the book, you mean a certain book.

A and an are indefinite articles. When you say, "I have a book", no specific or particular book is indicated.

Examples below show how adjectives make the meanings of nouns more explicit: (The first word is the adjective. The second word is the noun.)

the long road
a rusty nail
an old violin
the good sister
a white house
a steep hill
the rainy sky
the rapid driver
a broken leg

1. The black cat meowed at me.
2. The large dog barked at the stranger.
3. A nice man ran down the street.
4. An ugly doll sat in the chair.
5. The old man snored loudly.
6. The busy policeman came to our house.
7. A dedicated minister prayed for them.
8. The young soldiers went to war.
9. A mean man jumped from the plane.
10. Joyful people sang hymns at the church.
11. New curtains hung in my bedroom.
12. The white towels fell from the rack in the bathroom.
13. An angry stranger knocked at our door.
14. The young musician played to a screaming audience.
15. A disturbed thief fell from the roof.
16. Happy Santa traveled all over the world that Christmas day.
17. An easy chair lay in the dumpster.
18. Sweet Sally smiles every day at the crowd of people that pass by her apartment every day.
19. The old apartment burned to the ground.
20. The new mail arrived in the mailbox.
    

NOTE TO SUPERVISOR: THE FOLLOWING LINK GOES TO EXERCISES THAT ARE FOR THE OLDER STUDENT.

Click the link below. Do the exercises.

EXERCISES TO DO

ADVERB

An adverb is a word that is added to a verb to modify or expand the meaning of the verb. The prefix ad in the word adverb means to, toward, or in addition to. Adverbs may also modify adjectives.

1. driving slowly
   
2. walking fast
   
3. talk intelligently
   
4. eat quickly
   
5. rapidly draw

1. One rich man (bought a new car).
   
2. Silly geese happily (ran across the yard).
   
3. (The) tiny baby sleepily (yawned).
   
4. Exhausted workers hungrily (devoured the hot dogs).
   
5. Anxiously, tall strangers appeared (on the doorstep to our church).

Here we will consider the adverb as a modifier of the verb. Later, we will discover other uses for adverbs.

Adverbs generally answer the following questions:

When? Where? How? In what manner? To what extent or degree?

Examples:

You must record the transaction now. (Now tells when to set it up. Now modifies the verb record.)

Please tell me what you did yesterday.  (Yesterday tells when you did what you did.  Yesterday modifies the verb did.)

The airplane crashed quickly but no one was hurt.  (Quickly tells when the crash occurred.  Quickly modifies the verb crashed.)

He magically pulled the rabbit out of the hat.  (Magically tells how he pulled the rabbit out of the hat.  Magically modifies the verb pulled.)

The gardener cheerfully planted new flowers.  (Cheerfully  tells how the gardener feels as he planted new flowers.  He felt how?  He felt cheerful.  He did feel angry as he planted new flowers.  He did not feel sad as he planted new flowers.  He felt cheerful as he planted new flowers.  Cheerfully modifies the verb planted.  It tells how the planting was done or in what manner it was done.)

The fire burned extensively.  (Extensively tells how hot (what degree) the fire burned.  Extensively tells to what extent or what degree the fire burned.  The fire burned extensively.  Extensively is an adverb that modifies the verb burned.)

The longest winding road was dark and foggy.  (Longest tells to what extent the road goes.  The road is not short.  It is not medium in length.  It is long.  How long?  It is longest.  Longest modifies winding which describes the road and longest describes what extent the road goes in its length.)

We put the books there. (There tells where it was put. There modifies the verb put.)

She dances gracefully. (Gracefully tells how she dances. Gracefully modifies the verb dance.)

When we say, Peg's Paper is issued weekly, the adverb weekly introduces an additional idea of time. The adverb weekly makes the meaning explicit because we know how often or when the paper is issued.

When we say, ants are everywhere, we have introduced the idea of place, or we tell where the ants are located. As you can see, it is not necessary to name a particular place to show location.

When we say, We walked further into the forest, we have added the idea of extent or the degree to which. The adverbs in the preceeding sentences are called adverbs of time, place, manner, or degree.

Adverbs modify verbs but are not always placed right after the verb. Sometimes the adverb introduces the sentence. Sometimes the adverb is placed in the middle of a verb phrase.

Examples:

Sometimes, I take a walk in the woods.

WHEN do I take a walk in the woods? Sometimes! Sometimes is an adverb modifying the verb take.

What do I take? (action) I take a walk. When do I take a walk? Sometimes!

Stephen usually leaves the house at eight.

Usually is the adverb modifying the verb leaves. Usually adds meaning to the verb leaves in that it is more clearly understood that Stephen leaves the house at eight but not all the time, although most of the time. It may also be understood that it is his habit to leave at eight.

.

We added a room to our house recently.

The adverb recently puts a timeline on when the room to the house was added. When was the room added? Recently!

.

I have always admired him.

Always adds meaning to the verb admired in that it clarifies when I have admired him. It is not something just for today. It is something I have always done. When have I admired him? Always!

See examples below:

When we speak and write, words are used by us to express our thoughts and ideas. The English language has thousands upon thousands of words which fall into eight groups known as parts of speech.

Each group has a special work to do. For example, nouns name a person, place or thing. Words are like tools and tools can be used for certain purposes at different times. You eat a ROLL and you also can ROLL a ball. The first roll is a noun and the second roll is a verb.

The most important fact to remember concerning any word in the English Language is its function; how it is used in a particular sentence.

The same words are often used as different parts of speech. A word may perform a certain function in one sentence and an entirely different function in another sentence. Adjectives are commonly used as nouns, and nouns are often used as adjectives. The same word may function both as an adverb and as a preposition. Almost any type of word may be used as an interjection.

Examples:

Mr. Biggs is a fast driver. (Fast is an adjective modifying the noun driver.)

Mr. Biggs drives too fast. (Fast is an adverb modifying the verb drives. Drives how? Drives fast!)

I fast one day every week. (Fast is a verb. What do I do? I fast. What is my action? I fast.)

Click the link below. Do the exercises.

EXERCISES TO DO