I. NOUN: names or labels people, places, objects, ideas, emotions or activities.
A. Collective nouns
(team, jury, family, government) are usually treated as singular rather than plural if the
emphasis is on the unit, not the individuals.
B. Proper nouns are capitalized.
C. Gerunds
are "-ing" words that look like verbs but behave like nouns, e.g. Studying is essential for success.
D. Nouns function several ways in a sentence:
1. Subject - Does the action (verb) John kicked the ball.
2. Direct object - Receives the action (verb). Bill kissed Mary.
3. Object of the preposition - The noun or pronoun which follows a preposition. Tom came with us.
4. Predicate nominative - The noun or pronoun which follows a linking verb and refers back to the subject. He is John.
5. indirect object - Receives the direct object. John kicked Jim the ball. John is the subject, ball is the Direct object and Jim is the indirect object
II. ADJECTIVE: describes a noun or pronoun.
A. Numerical: one book, two students.
B. Qualitative: big, round, tall, red.
C. Interrogative: which book? what ideas?
D. Predicate Adjective: An adjective which follows a linking verb and refers back to the subject. Mary is beautiful.
III. ARTICLE
A. Definite: "the"
B. Indefinite: "a, an"
IV. VERB: expresses action in relationship to the present, past, and future or the fact of being or existence.
A. Verbs can be regular (work, worked, worked) or irregular (go, went, gone).
B. Verbs are transitive (take a direct object), intransitive (do not take a direct object) or
both (e.g. The building burns. /I burned my hand.)
C. Verbs that combine with other verbs are called auxiliary verbs, have, be, and
modal's (may, can, should, etc.).
D. Features of verbs:
1. Tense time (past, present, future).
2. Aspect manner in which actions are experienced or regarded, such as completed
3. Mood certainty, obligation, necessity, possibility.
4. Voice active (subject doing the action) or passive (subject receiving the action) which describes the relationship of subject to the "action”.
V. ADVERB describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. It cannot describe a noun or
pronoun (unlike the adjective).
A. Most are formed by adding,-ly to the adjective form. Some have no -ly ending:
very, often, quite, well
B. Adverbs express the following:
1. Where, when, or how an action occurred e.g. Tomorrow, I will take my driver’s test.
2. To what extent a description is to be understood
e.g.. She wore an exceptionally beautiful dress.
VI. PRONOUN replaces or refers to a noun.
Replaces: John gave a present to Mary. John gave it to her
Reference: Kim wanted a dinner that was healthy. The cake, which Mary baked, was delicious.
A. Personal pronouns: me; you; he, him; she, her; they, them; we, us, it.
B. Indefinite pronouns (not as specific): someone, anyone, everybody, anybody, somebody, each, all, most, some, few, several, both, any, neither, either, one
C. Relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that.
D. Possessive pronouns: mine, hers, his, ours, theirs, yours, its.
E. Demonstrative pronouns: this/these, that/those.
F. Pronouns serve the same functions in a sentence as nouns.
VII. PREPOSITION: forms phrases with nouns, pronouns, and verbs. Expresses relationships,
including place, time, instrument and cause.
A. Examples: in, at, on, over, above, beyond, between, among, out, of, with, to, under, during, except, for, from, by, near, beside, along, through, around, about.
B. A preposition plus a noun (and accompanying modifiers) forms a prepositional
phrase, e.g.. in the bedroom, by the road, from my friend, between teachers.
C. Pronouns take the objective case when they follow a preposition: to him, with
them, for us. e.g. Jesus died for you and me.
D. Nouns or pronouns in a prepositional phrase cannot serve as subjects:
On Friday, some of the people in my school enjoy a visit to the local restaurant for
mud pie. The subject is some, not people or school.
VIII. CONJUNCTION: joins words, groups of words, or whole sentences, connecting related ideas.
A. Coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, or, yet, so, neither/nor, either/or.
B. Subordinating: because, since, after, if, although, when, unless, as, though, that.
C. Adverbial: however, therefore, moreover, consequently, thus, in fact.
IX. INTERJECTION: expressions such as oh, ah, ugh, phew.
