LearningNerd

English Grammar: Types of Sentences September 12, 2006

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Sentences are categorized in two ways: by structure and by purpose.

Types of Sentences by Structure

• Simple Sentence – “I love chocolate.” One independent clause (underlined).

• Compound Sentence - “I love chocolate, and I love eating chocolate.” Two or more independent clauses.

• Complex Sentence – “I love chocolate because it’s decadent.” One independent clause and one or more dependent clauses (italicized). Note: according to Wikipedia, a sentence like “The dog chewed up the shoes that I just bought” is a simple sentence, not a complex sentence, because the relative clause “that I just bought” simply modifies the noun without performing any other function. I’m not sure how accurate this is, however.

• Complex-Compound Sentence – “I love chocolate because it’s decadent, and I love eating chocolate because it’s delicious.” Two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.

Those four categories apply to normal, grammatical sentences. However, some of our most common expressions are sentences that don’t follow the rules — see Major and Minor Sentences.

Note: obsessive syntacticians (is there any other kind?) have also named more specific types of sentences, which I’ll address when I start learning about the finer points of writing style.

Types of Sentences by Purpose

• Declarative Sentence – “I love chocolate.” Used to make a simple statement. Most sentences are declarative.

• Interrogative Sentence – “Do you love chocolate?” Used to ask a question. See also Rhetorical Question. 

• Exclamatory Sentence – “I need chocolate!” Used for emphasis and emotion.

• Imperative Sentence – “Please buy me some chocolate.” Used for commands, with the pronoun you always implied.

• Conditional Sentence – “If I had a billion dollars, I would buy a castle made of chocolate.” Used to express what one would do if a condition were met. There are several types of conditional sentences: the present general (or zero condition), the future more-vivid (or first condition), the future less-vivid (or second condition), the present contrafactual (also sometimes called the second condition), and the past contrafactual (or third condition).

English Grammar: Basic Sentence Elements September 10, 2006

Got grammar? See Everything You Need to Improve Your English Grammar.

The basic parts of a sentence fall into two categories: the subject and the predicate. Know them well, because you can’t have a sentence without them!

Subjects

The subject performs the action of the sentence. It can be a noun, noun phrase, or noun clause. To analyze sentences, grammarians have distinguished three kinds of subjects:

• Complete Subject – “The old, dusty books on the table haven’t been read in years.” The complete subject includes the entire noun phrase — usually everything before the verb.

• Simple Subject – “books”. The simple subject is the main noun or pronoun stripped of all modifiers.

• Compound Subject – “The cowardly mailman and the huge, barking dog didn’t get along very well.” A compound subject consists of two or more subjects linked together by conjunctions. Note: the simple subject of that sentence would be “mailman and dog“.

See Sentence Subjects for a closer look at subjects and subject-verb inversion (placing a subject after the verb in a sentence, as in “How is Bob?”).

Predicates

As with subjects, predicates can be classified as complete predicates, simple predicates, and compound predicates; see this page in the UIUC Grammar Handbook for more. To form a complete sentence, the predicate must include a verb (a finite verb, more specifically). It can also include objects, complements, and adverbials.

Objects

The object is the receiver of the action in a sentence: “He broke the table” or “He threw the ball.” Like subjects, objects can be any word or group of words functioning as a noun, and each type of object can also be categorized as a complete, simple, or compound object. Categorized by their different functions within a sentence, the three types of objects are:

• Direct Object – “I wrote a letter.” (What did I write? A letter.)

• Indirect Object – “I wrote a letter to my friend.” (Who did I write a letter to? My friend.)

• Prepositional Object – “I wrote on the paper.” (What did I write on? The paper.) A thread on EnglishForums.com discusses prepositional objects and their potential for confusion.

Complements

Complements (also called predicatives) complete the predicate by modifying a noun in the sentence; copulas or linking verbs require a complement to form a complete sentence.

• Subject Complement – “The car is new.” The subject complement follows a linking verb and modifies the subject. It can be a predicate adjective (He is happy), a predicate noun (He is the boss), or an adverbial complement (He is in the house).

• Object Complement – “I painted my room purple.” The object complement modifies the direct object, either by describing it or renaming it (They elected him governor). Object complements can cause some confusion; check out this Pain in the English post. Also see Wikipedia’s note on Object Complements.

• Adjective Complement – “He was happy to help.” The adjective complement is a special case in which a group of words modifies an adjective. If removed, the adjective complement leaves a grammatically complete sentence, but the meaning of the sentence changes. The CCC Guide to Grammar and Writing explains the use of infinitive phrases as adjective complements. Note: predicative adjectives are also sometimes called adjective complements.

• Verb Complement – Some grammarians use the term “verb complement” to refer to direct and indirect objects (see the “Objects” section above), while others use it to refer to a complement occuring after a linking verb (a subject complement).

Adverbials

An adverbial is an adverb, adverbial phrase, or adverbial clause: any word or group of words that acts as an adverb within a sentence. They usually modify verbs, but they can also modify the whole sentence. Unlike an adverbial complement (He is in the house), an adverbial isn’t needed to complete a sentence (He had lunch in the house or He had lunch).

English Grammar: Types of Clauses September 8, 2006

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A clause is essentially a phrase, but with both a subject and predicate (more on those in the next post). Clauses are either dependent or independent. An independent clause can exist by itself as a complete sentence (as in “I love grammar.“), while a dependent clause cannot.

Dependent or Subordinate Clauses

A dependent or subordinate clause depends on an independent clause to express its full meaning (as in “Because I love grammar.”). These clauses begin with a dependent word, like a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun.

Dependent clauses can function as nouns, adjectives, and adverbs:

• Noun Clause – “The boy wondered if his parents bought him what he wanted for Christmas.” A noun clause can replace any noun in a sentence, functioning as a subject, object, or complement (see English Grammar: Basic Sentence Elements).

• Adjective Clause (or relative clause) – “I listened to the song that you told me about.” An adjective clause describes a noun just like an adjective. Which song? The new song, the good song, the song that you told me about. Often called relative clauses, they’re either restrictive or nonrestrictive (also called defining and non-defining, essential and nonessential, or integrated and supplementary):
  • Restrictive Clause – “The building that they built in San Francisco sold for a lot of money.” A restrictive clause begins with a relative pronoun like that or who (or sometimes which – see Which Versus That). It specifies or restricts the noun; in this case, it specifies which building the speaker is referring to. Note: the relative pronoun is often omitted (“The building (that) they built”), leaving what is called an elliptical clause or contact clause.
  • Nonrestrictive Clause – “The building, which they built in San Francisco, sold for a lot of money.” A nonrestrictive clause begins with a relative pronoun like which or who. It adds extra information about an already-specific noun; in this case, there’s only one building to talk about, whereas the example for the restrictive clause implies that there could be several buildings.

• Adverb Clause – “I’ll do the laundry when I’m out of clothes.” Like all adverbials, adverb clauses express when, where, why, and how something occurs. A dependent clause is an adverb clause if you can replace it with an adverb, as in “I’ll do the laundry later.”

Note: appositives can include clauses, but I’ve yet to find a source mentioning an “appositive clause.” They’re generally regarded as a type of noun phrase, even though they can be restrictive or nonrestrictive like relative clauses.

English Grammar: Types of Phrases September 6, 2006

Got grammar? See Everything You Need to Improve Your English Grammar.

A phrase is a group of words without both a subject and predicate. Phrases combine words into a larger unit that can function as a sentence element. For example, a participial phrase can include adjectives, nouns, prepositions and adverbs; as a single unit, however, it functions as one big adjective modifying a noun (or noun phrase). See this overview of phrases for more.

• Noun Phrase - “The crazy old lady in the park feeds the pigeons every day.” A noun phrase consists of a noun and all of its modifiers, which can include other phrases (like the prepositional phrase in the park). More examples.
  • Appositive Phrase – “Bob, my best friend, works here” or “My best friend Bob works here.” An appositive (single word, phrase, or clause) renames another noun, not technically modifying it. See this page from the Armchair Grammarian for everything you ever wanted to know about appositives.
  • Gerund Phrase - “I love baking cakes.” A gerund phrase is just a noun phrase with a gerund as its head.
  • Infinitive Phrase – “I love to bake cakes.” An infinitive phrase is a noun phrase with an infinitive as its head. Unlike the other noun phrases, however, an infinitive phrase can also function as an adjective or an adverb. More examples.
• Verb Phrase – The verb phrase can refer to the whole predicate of a sentence (I was watching my favorite show yesterday) or just the verb or verb group (was watching).

• Adverbial Phrase – The adverbial phrase also has two definitions; some say it’s a group of adverbs (very quickly), while others say it’s any phrase (usually a prepositional phrase) that acts as an adverb — see this second definition.

• Adjectival Phrase – As with adverbial phrases, adjectival phrases can either refer to a group of adjectives (full of toys) or any phrase (like a participial or prepositional phrase) that acts as an adjective – see this second definition.

• Participial Phrase – “Crushed to pieces by a sledgehammer, the computer no longer worked” or “I think the guy sitting over there likes you.”  A participial phrase has a past or present participle as its head. Participial phrases always function as adjectives.

• Prepositional Phrase – “The food on the table looked delicious.” A prepositional phrase, which has a preposition as its head, can function as an adjective, adverb, or even as a noun.

• Absolute Phrase – “My cake finally baking in the oven, I was free to rest for thirty minutes.” Unlike participial phrases, absolute phrases have subjects and modify the entire sentence, not one noun. Almost a clause, the absolute phrase can include every sentence element except a finite verb. For example, “My cake finally baking in the oven” would be its own sentence if you just added one finite verb: “My cake was finally baking in the oven.” See Absolute Phrase for more.

Next, see English Grammar: Types of Clauses.

English Parts of Speech: Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections September 4, 2006

Series index: English Parts of Speech Overview

Prepositions

After reading Wikipedia’s entry on Adposition, I wondered why traditional grammar only mentions prepositions. What about postpositions? Ambipositions? Circumpositions? Anyway, prepositions link a noun phrase to another part of the sentence in order to express the relationship between the two. (Is the book on the table, under the table, or next to the table?) Here are some useful preposition links:

• Prepositions of Time, Place, and to Introduce Objects - a quick overview.

• Prepositions: Locators in Time and Place - a more detailed explanation with quizzes at the bottom.

• The American Heritage Book of English Usage – Prepositions - explains why you can end a sentence with a preposition. I especially like the quote from Winston Churchill: “This is the sort of English up with which I cannot put.”

• List of English Prepositions

Conjunctions

When I think of conjunctions, I think of Schoolhouse Rock: “Conjunction junction, what’s your function? Hooking up words and phrases and clauses.” Here are the three types of conjunctions:

• Coordinating Conjunctions - for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so, and while.

• Subordinating Conjunctions - unless, before, if, that, etc. These introduce dependent or subordinate clauses.

• Correlative Conjunctions - either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also, etc.

Note: some words can function as both conjunctions and prepositions, like before, after, and until. See Prepositions Vs. Subordinating Conjunctions.

Interjections

Interjections are words used for the sole purpose of expressing emotion. They’re either used as complete sentences, often with an exclamation mark (Wow! Oh! Good grief!), or within a sentence, offset by a comma (Well, I hope so. Oh, thank you!).

English Parts of Speech: Adjectives, Determiners, and Adverbs September 2, 2006

Series index: English Parts of Speech Overview

Adjectives

Adjectives describe nouns. Simple as that. Know Your Adjectives has grammatical information about any adjective.

Adjective Usage

Adjectives are either attributive or predicative. Attributive adjectives appear before the noun (the red car), while predicative adjectives appear after the noun and a linking verb (the car is red). Almost every adjective can be attributive and predicative, with a few exceptions (main, only, etc.).

Only Gradable Adjectives can have comparative and superlative forms (faster, fastest, older, oldest); Non-gradable Adjectives (like male, female, unique, etc.) can only occur in their basic form, called the positive form (fast, old, male, female). See Comparison of Adjectives for a short review.

English has an unofficial rule regarding the order of ajdectives; for example, the wooden, red box doesn’t sound quite right, but the red, wooden box does. To understand these subtle rules, people have organized adjectives based on their meaning (size, color, material, etc.). See Adjective Order in English for a quick look and Order of Adjectives in English for a detailed table and analysis.

Types of Adjectives

• Adjectives of Relation – childlike, pillowy, bookish, etc. Adjectives of relation are formed by adding a suffix to a noun. Some adjectives of relation, called non-standard or irregular adjectives, come from a root word other than the common noun (bovine instead of cow-like, marine instead of sea-related). See the List of Irregular English Adjectives.

• Proper and Common Adjectives – Swedish chocolate vs. dark chocolate. See Capitalizing Proper Adjectives for a short review. Most proper adjectives denote nationality; see the list of Nouns and Adjectives Denoting Nationality and the List of Adjectival Forms of Place Names.

• Eponymous Adjectives – Shakespearean, Victorian, Boolean, etc. Eponymous adjectives are (usually) proper adjectives derived from a person’s name. See the List of Eponymous Adjectives in English.

Using Other Words Used As Adjectives

• Participles – cascading waterfall, broken table, etc. Participles are verbs used as adjectives, formed from a verb’s present participle (writing, wrecking) or past participle (written, wrecked).

• Attributive Nouns or Noun Adjuncts - business partner, strawberry lemonade, etc. Attributive nouns act like attributive adjectives, but not predicative ones; you can’t say the lemonade is strawberry, for example. Don’t confuse attributive nouns with compound nouns; the attributive noun is the noun acting as an adjective (strawberry), and the compound noun is the combination of the two nouns (strawberry lemonade).

• Compound Adjectives – pinkish-purple, mind-boggling, etc. Compound adjectives, just like compound nouns, can be formed from many combinations of other parts of speech. In fact, compound adjectives are often just compound nouns (strawberry lemonade) used as attributive nouns (strawberry-lemonade color).

Determiners

Traditional grammar and many dictionaries consider determiners a type of adjective, but Wikipedia’s Determiner entry points out some key differences. Here are the five main types of determiners:

• Articles - the, a, an.

• Possessive Adjectives (or possessive determiners) - my, your, his, her, its, our, and their.

• Demonstrative Adjectives (or determinative demonstratives) - this, that, these, and those. Wikipedia explains the difference between demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives.

• Interrogative Adjectives (or interrogative determiners) - what, which, and whose. Unlike interrogative pronouns, these are used with a noun: What book is that? instead of What is that?

• Quantifiers - many, few, half, etc. Numbers (one, two, three) and ordinals (first, second, third) are also considered determiners.

Adverbs

Simply put, adverbs describe everything except nouns. They have many different uses and can appear virtually anywhere in a sentence; see this note on Adverbs As a “Catch All” Category. Also be sure to check out Know Your Adverbs, which offers grammatical information about any adverb.

Types of Adverbs

• Adverbs of Manner – slowly, happily, carefully, etc. These also include proper adverbs, like Islamically and Shakespeareanly.
• Adverbs of Degree – very, extremely, somewhat, etc.
• Adverbs of Time – now, today, etc.
• Adverbs of Frequency – often, daily, annually, etc.
• Adverbs of Place – here, there, etc.

• Interrogative Adverbs – where, when, how, and why. See Interrogative Word.

• Indefinite Adverbs – anywhere, sometime, somehow, etc.

• Relative Adverbs – where, when, and why. These introduce relative clauses. Note: some consider relative adverbs the same as interrogative adverbs.

• Adverbials – Adverbials include adverbs, adverbial phrases, and adverbial clauses — any group of words functioning as an adverb within a sentence. The three types of adverbials are:
  • Adjuncts – early this morning, once upon a time, every other Friday, etc.
  • Conjuncts or Conjunctive Adverbs – therefore, however, thus, etc.
  • Disjuncts or Sentence Adverbs – Seriously, I can’t. Hopefully, we’ll survive. These are also called sentence modifiers, adverbial disjuncts, and sometimes even disjunctive adverbs.

Note: every source I’ve found categorizes adverbs differently. After extensive reading, I’ve concluded that the adverb is undoubtedly the most disorganized (and annoying) part of speech in English. I’ll update this post when I have a better understanding of linguistics.

Adverb Usage

Like adjectives, not every adverb has a comparative and superlative form; most gradable adverbs are those describing manner. See this article on the Comparison of Adverbs.

Adverbs also have an unofficial rule regarding their order of use. Check out this interesting explanation of the Order of Adverbs.

Finally, here are some tips to avoid common adverb errors:

• bad/badly
• good/well 
• tight/tightly
• someday/some day/sometime/some time
• father/further

Adverb Quizzes

• Quiz on Adverbs
• Order of Adverbs
• Adverb Practice Exercise

English Parts of Speech: Verbs August 31, 2006

Series index: English Parts of Speech Overview

Verbs express actions and states of existence, like “I eat” and “I am hungry.” Know Your Verb Tenses offers grammatical information about any verb.

Conjugation

English verbs have only a few basic forms:

• Infinitive – write
• Singular third person – writes
• Preterite (simple past tense) – wrote
• Present participle – writing
• Past participle – written

They can be categorized based on their conjugations:

• Strong Verbs and Weak Verbs – wrote vs. walked. Also see Strong and Weak for a look at some common errors in conjugation.

• Regular Verbs and Irregular Verbs - walked vs. was. Also see the List of English Irregular Verbs.

• Defective Verbs – can, do, will, etc.

Verb Agreement: Number and Person

In English, a verb must agree with the number and person of its subject: I write, you write, he/she/it writes, we write, you (y’all) write, they write. See Making Subjects and Verbs Agree for basic guidelines. These conjugated verbs, called finite verbs, are required to form a complete sentence; on the other hand, non-finite verbs can’t function as verbs without helping verbs (see Types of Verbs below).

Tense and Aspect

English has three distinct tenses (past, present, and future) and three distinct aspects (simple, perfect, and progressive). Whereas tense distinguishes between I write (present) and I wrote (past), aspect distinguishes between I write (present simple) and I am writing (present progressive). Traditional grammar generally uses the term “tense” for both – in fact, I had never heard of verb aspect until today.

Here’s a list of each tense and aspect in English:

• Past (simple) – I wrote
• Past progressive – I was writing
• Past perfect – I had written
• Past perfect progressive – I had been writing
• Present (simple) – I write
• Present progressive – I am writing
• Present perfect – I have written
• Present perfect progressive – I have been writing
• Future (simple) – I will write
• Future progressive – I will be writing
• Future perfect – I will have written
• Future perfect progressive – I will have been writing

Using Verb Tenses gives a complete overview of each tense and aspect with many examples. If you’re interested in linguistics, read Rick Harrison’s detailed article on Verb Aspect (definitely not light reading).

Voice

Verbs are either in the active voice (I threw the ball) or the passive voice (The ball was thrown). Read this article on Active and Passive Voice if you need to brush up a bit.

Mood

English has three (arguably four) moods: indicative, imperative, and subjunctive — some also include the conditional mood.

• Indicative – He writes. Makes a factual statement. Used in a declarative sentence.

• Imperative – Students, please write. States a command. Used in an imperative sentence.

• Subjunctive - I wish he were right. Expresses doubts, wishes, hopes, and (in some cases) commands. For more on using the subjunctive mood, see The American Heritage Book of English Usage – Subjunctive.

• Conditional – I would write (if I had a pen). Expresses what one would do if a condition were met. Used in the several types of conditional sentences. See Conditonal Verb Forms for more on using the conditional with the subjunctive.

Types of Verbs

Linguists categorize other types of verbs based on their meaning and usage.

• Transitive Verbs and Intransitive Verbs – I kicked the ball vs. I sleep.

• Dynamic Verbs and Stative Verbs - He writes vs. He is tall. This article on Progressive, Stative, and Dynamic Verbs explains the difference.

• Impersonal Verbs – It rained.

• Copulas (also called linking verbs) - I am happy. Also see the List of English Copulas.

• Auxiliary Verbs (also called helping verbs) – is, have, will, etc. These are used with other verbs to form verb groups. See The American Heritage Book of English Usage – Auxiliary and Primary Verbs for more.

• Modal Verbs – may, can, must, would, etc. Modal verbs are types of auxiliary verbs.

• Phrasal Verbs – catch on, ask over, run across, etc. See Two-Part (Phrasal) Verbs (Idioms) for an explanation and a list, and be sure to bookmark the Dictionary of English Phrasal Verbs.

• Compound Verbs – downsize, out-fox, sidestep, etc. Note: not to be confused with verb groups, which are also sometimes called compound verbs.

Some other types of verbs exist, but they aren’t particularly important unless you’re a linguist. If you are, see Wikipedia Category: Verb Types for more.

Verb Quizzes

• Quiz on Subject-Verb Agreement
• A Second Quiz on Subject-Verb Agreement
• Third Quiz on Subject-Verb Agreement
• Identifying Verb Tenses
• Tense Consistency Exercises
• Uses of the Subjunctive
• Interactive Verb Quiz #1- identify the type of verb
• Interactive Verb Quiz #2 -identify the type of verb 
• Use of Modal Auxiliaries
• Phrasal Verbs
• Phrasal Verbs: Quiz Two

English Parts of Speech: Nouns and Pronouns August 29, 2006

Series index: English Parts of Speech Overview

Nouns

We’ve all heard this before: a noun is a person, place or thing. GrammarStation.com’s Know Your Nouns page gives grammatical information about (almost) any noun.

Case

Nouns have three cases: nominative (or subjective), objective, and possessive. For nouns, the nominative and objective cases look the same; grammarians just use them to distinguish a sentence’s subject from its object. (See Basic Sentence Elements.)

For everything you ever wanted to know about the possessive case, see The American Heritage Book of English Usage – Forming Possesives.

Gender and Number

Most nouns in English don’t have a gender, but some nouns do have male and female counterparts. LousyWriter.com’s article on Inflections of Nouns – Gender has some interesting information about the origins of masculine and feminine words.

Number is simple enough; English nouns are either singular or plural. See The American Heritage Book of English Usage – Guide to Forming Plurals.

Types of Nouns

• Common Nouns and Proper Nouns - city as opposed to Las Vegas.

• Count and Noncount Nouns - tables as opposed to furniture.

• Collective Nouns - a herd of cattle, a group of students, etc. See lists of collective nouns here.

• Pluralia tantum - scissors, pants, and glasses (not to be confused with the noncount noun glass). These are often used with collective nouns: a pair of scissors, a pair of pants, etc.

• Compound Nouns – business class, foot rest, blackboard, etc.

Using Other Words As Nouns

• Gerunds - Swimming is fun. See The American Heritage Book of English Usage – Gerunds for more on using gerunds with possesives.

• Infinitives - I like to swim. See Gerunds and Infinitives: Their Noun Roles for more on using gerunds and infinitives as sentence elements. Also be sure to check out this interesting essay on the subtle differences in meaning between gerunds and infinitives: Stop to Smell the Roses But Don’t Stop Smelling the Roses.

• Words and Word Groups Used As Nouns - With a little poetic license, you can use any word as a noun — even whole clauses can function as nouns within a sentence (That you could say such a thing bewilders me).

Pronouns

Pronouns are noun-substitutes used to avoid repetition.

Personal Pronouns

When you think of pronouns, you probably think of personal pronouns: I, you, me, him, etc. Unlike nouns, pronouns in the nominative case look different from those in the objective case. Person, gender, and number are straightforward — see English Personal Pronouns on Wikipedia for a table. Note: the table includes possessive determiners (my, your, her, etc.) even though they aren’t technically pronouns.

Other Types of Pronouns

• Demonstrative Pronouns (or independent demonstratives) – this, that, these, and those. Wikipedia explains the difference between demonstrative pronouns and demonstrative adjectives.

• Relative Pronouns - who, whom, whose, which, that, and sometimes what. These introduce relative clauses. The use of the words which and that often causes confusion (and many arguments); see the links at the bottom of “How to Avoid Common Pronoun Errors” below.

• Interrogative Pronouns - what, which, who, whom, and whose.

• Reflexive Pronouns - myself, herself, itself, yourselves, etc. Note: when used for emphasis, these are called intensive pronouns.

• Reciprocal Pronouns - each other and one another.

• Indefinite Pronouns - anyone, everyone, nothing, nobody, somebody, etc.

How to Avoid Common Pronoun Errors

• Using Pronouns Clearly - a few tips on agreement and clarity.

• Pronoun Reference - more tips on agreement and clarity.

• The American Heritage Book of English Usage – Personal Pronouns - a detailed look at case agreement.

• I/me/myself - a short word on these commonly misused pronouns.

• they/their (singular) – a word on using plural pronouns to refer to indefinite pronouns like everybody. Also see this site devoted to the subject: Singular “Their” in Jane Austen and Elsewhere: Anti-pedantry Page.

• Which Versus That - when to use these tricky relative pronouns.

• The American Heritage Book of English Usage has informative entries on: this, that, who, which, and what.

Pronoun Quizzes

• Quiz on Which, That, and Who
• Quiz on Forms of Who
• A Second Quiz on Forms of Who.
• Quiz on Pronoun Usage – personal pronoun agreement.
• A Second Quiz on Pronoun Forms – includes possessive determiners.
• Interactive Pronoun Quiz #1 – identify the type of pronoun.
• Interactive Pronoun Quiz #2 – identify the type of pronoun.
• Review: Pronoun Reference - includes possessive determiners.

English Parts of Speech Overview August 28, 2006

Got grammar? See Everything You Need to Improve Your English Grammar.

The parts of speech determine how words interact with each other, organizing words based on their uses and meanings. For a detailed overview, see the entry for Lexical Category on Wikipedia.

I remember learning the basics in school, but I can’t remember every detail. For example, what exactly is a preposition (as opposed to a conjunction)? What part of speech does “therefore” belong to? So, without getting too much into linguistics (that’s for another post), I’m going to review the eight traditional parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

Posts In This Series:

• English Parts of Speech: Nouns and Pronouns
• English Parts of Speech: Verbs
• English Parts of Speech: Adjectives, Determiners, and Adverbs
• English Parts of Speech: Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections