Verbs also take different forms to express tense. An adjective is a word used to modify or describe a noun or a pronoun. It usually answers the question of which one, what kind, or how many. Articles [a, an, the] are usually classified as adjectives.
An adverb describes or modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, but never a noun. It usually answers the questions of when, where, how, why, under what conditions, or to what degree. Adverbs often end in -ly. A preposition is a word placed before a noun or pronoun to form a phrase modifying another word in the sentence. Therefore a preposition is always part of a prepositional phrase. The prepositional phrase almost always functions as an adjective or as an adverb.
How are you? Well , I don't know. Others say At EnglishClub, we use the more recent categorization of 9 parts of speech. Examples of other categorizations are: Verbs may be treated as two different parts of speech: lexical Verbs work, like, run auxiliary Verbs be, have, must Determiners may be treated as adjectives, instead of being a separate part of speech. She likes big snakes but I hate them. Nobody has the right to obey.
This is my dog. My dog eats quickly. In the following sentences, each of the highlighted words is a co-ordinating conjunction:. Here the co-ordinating conjunction "and" links two participle phrases "dancing on rooftops" and "swallowing goldfish" which act as adverbs describing the verb "spends.
A subordinating conjunction introduces a dependent clause and indicates the nature of the relationship among the independent clause s and the dependent clause s. The most common subordinating conjunctions are "after," "although," "as," "because," "before," "how," "if," "once," "since," "than," "that," "though," "till," "until," "when," "where," "whether," and "while.
Each of the highlighted words in the following sentences is a subordinating conjunction:. The subordinating conjunction "after" introduces the dependent clause "After she had learned to drive. Similarly, the subordinating conjunction "if" introduces the dependent clause "If the paperwork arrives on time. The subordinating conjunction "when" introduces the dependent clause "when his computer crashed. In this sentence, the dependent clause "because the mother and baby are exposed to fewer people and fewer germs" is introduced by the subordinating conjunction "because.
Correlative conjunctions always appear in pairs -- you use them to link equivalent sentence elements. The most common correlative conjunctions are "both In this sentence, the correlative conjunction "both Here the correlative conjunction "either Similarly, the correlative conjunction "whether In this example the correlative conjunction "not only An interjection is a word added to a sentence to convey emotion.
It is not grammatically related to any other part of the sentence. You usually follow an interjection with an exclamation mark. Interjections are uncommon in formal academic prose, except in direct quotations. Centre uOttawa. Contact the University. Jump to Main Content Jump to Navigation. Login uoZone Brightspace VirtuO. Search uOttawa. Search one of the following. Entire site Library Employee directory. The Writing Centre. The parts of speech Traditional grammar classifies words based on eight parts of speech : the verb, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection.
Books are made of ink, paper, and glue. In this sentence, "books" is a noun, the subject of the sentence. Deborah waits patiently while Bridget books the tickets. Here "books" is a verb, and its subject is "Bridget. In this sentence, "walk" is a verb, and its subject is the pronoun "we. The town decided to build a new jail.
Here "jail" is a noun, which is the object of the infinitive phrase "to build. Here "jail" is part of the compound verb "would jail.
In this sentence, "cries" is a noun acting as the direct object of the verb "heard. But here "cries" is a verb that describes the actions of the subject of the sentence, the baby. Written by Heather MacFadyen. In each of the following sentences, the verb or compound verb is highlighted : Dracula bites his victims on the neck.
The verb "bites" describes the action Dracula takes. In early October, Giselle will plant twenty tulip bulbs. Here the compound verb "will plant" describes an action that will take place in the future. My first teacher was Miss Crawford, but I remember the janitor Mr. Weatherbee more vividly. Karl Creelman bicycled around the world in , but his diaries and his bicycle were destroyed. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all nouns: Late last year our neighbours bought a goat.
Portia White was an opera singer. The bus inspector looked at all the passengers' passes. According to Plutarch , the library at Alexandria was destroyed in 48 B. Philosophy is of little comfort to the starving.
Noun Gender Many common nouns, like "engineer" or "teacher," can refer to men or women. David Garrick was a very prominent eighteenth-century actor. Sarah Siddons was at the height of her career as an actress in the s. The manager was trying to write a want ad, but he couldn't decide whether he was advertising for a "waiter" or a "waitress" Noun Plurals Most nouns change their form to indicate number by adding "-s" or "-es", as illustrated in the following pairs of sentences: When Matthew was small he rarely told the truth if he thought he was going to be punished.
Many people do not believe that truths are self-evident. As they walked through the silent house, they were startled by an unexpected echo. I like to shout into the quarry and listen to the echoes that return. He tripped over a box left carelessly in the hallway. Since we are moving, we will need many boxes. Some words ending in "f" form the plural by deleting "f" and adding "ves," and words ending in "y" form the plural by deleting the "y" and adding "ies," as in the following pairs of sentences: The harbour at Marble Mountain has one wharf.
There are several wharves in Halifax Harbour. Warsaw is their favourite city because it reminds them of their courtship. The vacation my grandparents won includes trips to twelve European cities. The children circled around the headmaster and shouted, "Are you a mouse or a man? Possessive Nouns In the possessive case, a noun or pronoun changes its form to show that it owns or is closely related to something else. The only luggage that was lost was the prime minister's.
The exhausted recruits were woken before dawn by the drill sergeant's screams. The miner's face was covered in coal dust. You can form the possessive case of a singular noun that ends in "s" by adding an apostrophe alone or by adding an apostrophe and "s," as in the following examples: The bus's seats are very uncomfortable. The bus' seats are very uncomfortable. The film crew accidentally crushed the platypus's eggs.
The film crew accidentally crushed the platypus' eggs. Felicia Hemans's poetry was once more popular than Lord Byron's. Felicia Hemans' poetry was once more popular than Lord Byron's. You can form the possessive case of a plural noun that does not end in "s" by adding an apostrophe and a "s," as in the following examples: The children's mittens were scattered on the floor of the porch. The sheep's pen was mucked out every day. Since we have a complex appeal process, a jury's verdict is not always final.
The men's hockey team will be playing as soon as the women's team is finished. The hunter followed the moose's trail all morning but lost it in the afternoon.
You can form the possessive case of a plural noun that does end in "s" by adding an apostrophe: The concert was interrupted by the dogs' barking, the ducks' quacking, and the babies' squalling. The janitors' room is downstairs and to the left.
My uncle spent many hours trying to locate the squirrels' nest. The archivist quickly finished repairing the diaries' bindings. Religion is usually the subject of the roommates' many late night debates.
Using Possessive Nouns When you read the following sentences, you will notice that a noun in the possessive case frequently functions as an adjective modifying another noun: The miner's face was covered in coal dust. The concert was interrupted by the dogs' barking, the ducks' quacking, and the babies' squalling. Proper Nouns You always write a proper noun with a capital letter, since the noun represents the name of a specific person, place, or thing.
A proper noun is the opposite of a common noun In each of the following sentences, the proper nouns are highlighted : The Marroons were transported from Jamaica and forced to build the fortifications in Halifax. Many people dread Monday mornings. Beltane is celebrated on the first of May. Abraham appears in the Talmud and in the Koran. Common Nouns A common noun is a noun referring to a person, place, or thing in a general sense -- usually, you should write it with a capital letter only when it begins a sentence.
In each of the following sentences, the common nouns are highlighted : According to the sign , the nearest town is 60 miles away. All the gardens in the neighbourhood were invaded by beetles this summer. I don't understand why some people insist on having six different kinds of mustard in their cupboards.
The road crew was startled by the sight of three large moose crossing the road. Many child-care workers are underpaid. Sometimes you will make proper nouns out of common nouns, as in the following examples: The tenants in the Garnet Apartments are appealing the large and sudden increase in their rent. The meals in the Bouncing Bean Restaurant are less expensive than meals in ordinary restaurants. Many witches refer to the Renaissance as the Burning Times.
There's no need for further clarification, because in this case, the gives enough direct and specific meaning to the noun baby for you to know what to do! In many cases, using the to define a noun requires less or no awareness of an immediate social situation because people have a shared common knowledge of the noun that the is referring to. Here are two examples:. In the first example, the speaker is referring to a natural phenomenon that most people are aware of —eclipses are cool and rare!
When there's going to be an eclipse, everyone knows about it. If you started a conversation with someone by saying, "Are you going to watch the eclipse tomorrow?
In the second example, if an American speaking to another American mentions what the President said, the other American is likely going to assume that the refers to the President of the United States.
Conversely, if two Canadians said this to one another, they would likely assume they're talking about the Canadian prime minister! So in many situations, using the before a noun gives that noun specific meaning in the context of a particular social situation. Now let's look at an example of how "the" can be used as an adverb. Take a look at this sample sentence:. The tornado warning made it all the more likely that the game would be canceled.
Remember how we explained that the can be combined with adverbs that are making a comparison of levels or amounts of something between two entities? The example above shows how the can be combined with an adverb in such a situation. The is combined with more and likely to form an adverbial phrase. So how do you figure this out? Well, if the words immediately after the are adverbs, then the is functioning as an adverb, too!
In this case, the is being combined with the adverb worst to compare the speaker's day to the other days. Compared to all the other days ever, this person's was the worst Some other examples of adverbs that you might see the combined with include all the better, the best, the bigger, the shorter, and all the sooner. One thing that can help clarify which adverbs the can be combined with is to check out a list of comparative and superlative adverbs and think about which ones the makes sense with!
Now that we've answered the question, "What part of speech is the? To help you gain a better understanding of what articles are and how they function in the English language, here's a handy list of 3 words in the English language that are also categorized as articles. If you're looking for more grammar resources, be sure to check out our guides on every grammar rule you need to know to ace the SAT or the ACT!
Learning more about English grammar can be really helpful when you're studying a foreign language, too. We highly recommend that you study a foreign language in high school—not only is it great for you, it looks great on college applications, too. If you're not sure which language to study, check out this helpful article that will make your decision a lot easier. Speaking of applying for college Check out this expert guide to writing college essays that will help you get into your dream school.
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