Parts of speech

Parts of Speech

nouns

• persons, places, things
• proper nouns
  • nouns as modifiers
    • ex. "dog food"
    • see Nouns as Modifiers (meg.com)

verbs

• express action
• verb phrases
• verb forms

transitive and intransitive verbs

• transitive verbs act upon a direct object
  • ex. "The soccer player kicked the ball"
• intransitive verbs do not have a direct object
  • ex. "The soccer player played hard"

<< to complete / expand

infinitives

• infinitives use "to"
  • ex. "I go to see the game"
• root forms act like infinitives but without the "to"
  • infinitive and base forms are generally interchangeable:
  • ex. "He helped her clean her desk" (root form)
  • v. "He helped her to clean her desk" (infinitive form)
• note that "root" and "base" forms are used interchangeably
  • except "base form" of a verb includes infinitive and simple present forms of the verb

present tense forms

• simple present
  • denotes a single action that is repeated, always happens, or the present condition of something
  • examples
    • repeated action: "I eat lunch at noon."
    • action that always (or, in the negative, never) happens: "I can't speak Latin"
  • denotes the condition or state of something: "The car is clean" or "I feel great!"
  • simple present form is also considered as a "base" verb form
• present progressive
  • = -ing form for a verb to express an ongoing action
    • used with "to be" conjugations ("am" "is", etc.) the -ing verb form denotes an ongoing action
    • ex. "She is dancing"
    • see participle for the -ing form of a verb that acts as an adjective or a noun (called a gerund)
  • note that present progressive verb forms are frequently used to combine sentences or independent clauses
  • click EXPAND to see examples of present progressive verbs used to combine independent clauses

• ex. "I went to see the sequel, and I hoped it would be as good as the first
• the two independent clauses (complete sentences) can be combined by converting the "I hoped" to the present progressive form, "hoping"
• "I went to see the sequel, hoping it would as good as the first"
• note that "hoping" renders the second clause dependent (not a complete sentence or thought), thus employing only a comma and not a comma + conjunction
• present progressive verbs subordinate clauses:
  • "Hoping it would be as good as the first" is not a complete sentence or thought
    • thus it is a dependent or subordinate clause

• see also:
  • [present participles vs present progressives (thoughtco.com]
• present perfect
  • indicates an action that happened at one point or that just happened and that consequences on the present
  • usually uses the "has" or "have" forms of a verb
    • "Yes, I have eaten dinner already"
    • "I have played soccer since I was five"
    • "I haven't seen her in years"

past tense forms

• past simple
  • an action that happened in the past
  • click EXPAND for past simple examples:

• • • "I ate before they showed up"
    • "I played soccer yesterday"
    • "I lived in Brazil"

• past progressive
  • actions that were ongoing at some point in the past or that were repeated in the past
  • uses the -ing form of a verb
• * click Expand for past progressive examples:

past progressive examples:

• • • "I was eating when they showed up"
    • "I was playing soccer all last year"
    • "I was living in Brazil"

• past perfect
• an action that happened before something else happened (both in the past)
• uses "had" to show the earlier event
  • and compares it to another even with "before", "because" or "by the time", etc.
• click Expand for past perfect examples:

• • "I had already eaten when they showed up"
  • "I had played soccer long before I learned rugby"
  • "Because I had lived in Brazil, I already knew some Spanish"

future tense forms

• future simple
  • an action that will take place in the future, usually with "will"
• click Expand for future simple examples:

• • • "I will eat after they show up"
    • I will play soccer tomorrow"
    • I will live in Brazil next year"
  • future simple also indicates a promise to do something in the future
    • "I will play harder next time"

• future progressive
  • an action that will be ongoing in the future, usually with "will" and "-ing"
• click Expand for future progressive examples:

• • • "I will be eating with them when they show up"
    • "I will be playing soccer again after my ankle heals"
    • "I will be living in Brazil all next year"

• future perfect
  • an action that will happen before something else, usually with "will have"
  • future perfect combines the future "will" with a past tense verb form
  • future perfect also indicates an ongoing future state or condition
• click Expand for future perfect examples:

• "I will have eaten before they show up"
• "I will have played much better by the time we got to the playoffs"
• "I will have lived in Brazil by the end of next summer"
  • or
• "If they show up late, I will have been eating already."
• "By next year, I will have played soccer for 12 years"
• "I will have lived in Brazil a full year as of next week"

• future perfect progressive
  • an action that will be going on until something else happens
  • uses the "will have been" and -ing form of the verb
• click Expand for future perfect progressive examples:

• "I will have been eating by the time they show up"
• "By the end of the season, I will have been playing better"
• "By next week, I will have been living in Brazil a full year"

participles and gerunds

• verb forms that act like an adjective or a noun
• types:
  • present participle:
    • verb form using -ing that acts as an adjective
  • past participle:
    • past tense verb form that acts as an adjective
  • gerund
    • verb form using -ing that acts as a noun
• click on EXPAND for more explanation and examples of participles and gerunds

• present participle
  • uses the -ing form of a verb as an adjective
• click EXPAND to see examples of present participles

• • "The boiling water is hot" (describes the water)
  • "This trip is exciting" (modifies or describes the trip)
  • "The directions are confusing" (modifies the directions)

• past participle
  • verbs in the past tense used as an adjective
  • where the simple past tense of a verb is used to show a condition of something
  • typically are -ed -en and -t forms
  • includes irregular verbs in the past tense, such as "to be" "to go" etc.
• click on EXPAND for past participles as adjectives examples:

• • "Boiled water is sanitized" ("boiled" and "sanitized" describe the water)
  • "The glass was broken when I found it" ("was broken" describes the glass)
  • "The cut flowers are pretty" ("cut -

• gerunds
  • verbs that act as nouns
  • use the -ing form of the verb
• click on EXPAND for gerund (participles as nouns) examples:

• • "to swim" + -ing = "swimming" = a noun for the act of swimming
  • "Swimming is fun"
  • "Boiling water sanitizes it" ("boiling" is an act, therefore a noun, from the verb "to boil")

• • • Note: gerunds are often interchangeable with infinitives
      • "I hate doing math" versus "I hate to do math"
      • however, note that gerunds and infinitives may act differently in terms of the object of the sentence
• click on EXPAND for how gerunds and infinitives change the meaning of a sentence using College Board Writing practice test 6 question 21:

"Burland advocated using soil extraction:"

• A) NO CHANGE
  • "Burland advocated using..." = he advocates for the use of soil extraction (he advocates the the object)
• B) advocated to use
  • "Burland advocated to use..." = he advocates "to use" (he advocates the action)
• A) NO CHANGE is correct because it is the object of the sentence, "soil extraction," that Burland advocates, not the action of its use (to use")

• See
  • Grammar: Verb Forms: "-ing," Infinitives, and Past Participles (Walden Univ)
  • Common Verb Tenses in Academic Writing (Walden Univ)
  • The -ing forms (ef.edu Resources for Learning English
  • Grammar-Monster.com participles

conjugations

• students of Latin, Spanish or French verb conjugations while not learning about them in English
• English has conjugations, just like many other languages
  • however, the conjugations in English do not vary as much
• conjugations work by changing the verb suffix or form to match subject case

>> to chart out comparison of Latin, Spanish, French and English cases << to do

• see
  • Verb conjugations

adverbs

• modify verbs

adjectives

• modify nouns

articles

• definite article:
  • the
  • refers to a specific noun, usually already stated or defined
• indefinite article:
• a or an
  • refers to a general noun, usually not already stated or defined
  • indefinite articles are not used to refer to a general noun or one that cannot be counted
• click on EXPAND to see examples of articles:

• • • ex. "water" cannot be counted, so "a water" is incorrect
      • "may I have a water" should be instead "may I have some water"
  • zero articles
    • when the noun represents a generic idea, the article can be omitted
    • ex.
      • "They went on vacation" as opposed to "they went on a vacation "

• see
  • [https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/grammar/using_articles.html Purdue OWN Using Articles}
  • What Are Articles?

pronouns

• "pro" = for; "noun"
• refer to a noun in oder to avoid repetition
• pronoun forms
  • subject
  • object
  • possessive
  • comparisons
  • see How to Pick Pronouns for Comparisons (Dummies)

prepositions

• express relationship in time, place, or sequence
• prepositions add information to a sentence
• prepositions are dependent clauses, so are separated from a main or dominant clause by a comma

interjections

• aside remarks or interruptions
• exclamation
  • expresses a spontaneous reaction or emotion

examples of exclamations:

• • • • "no!"
      • "okay"
      • "damn!"
      • "heh!"

• click EXPAND to see full definitions and examples of participles and gerunds