Summary of the Composition course

The Eight Parts of Speech

There are more than 500,000 words in the English language, but fortunately for us students of English grammar, only eight parts of speech. “Part of speech” refers to the part or role that a word plays within a phrase or a sentence—its function.

We’ll look at them in detail in a moment, but here’s the 60-second overview of the eight roles words can play:

* The function of a noun is to name something: a person, a place, an object, or an idea. “Basketball” and “relationship” are nouns.
* The function of a pronoun is to stand in for a noun. “Which” and “she” are pronouns.
* The function of a verb is to describe an action or a state of being. “Run” and “is” are verbs.
* The function of an adjective is to modify the meaning of a noun or pronoun. “Blue” and “cheery” are adjectives.
* The function of an adverb is to modify the meaning of a noun, an adjective, or another adverb. “Swiftly” and “very” are adverbs.
* The function of a preposition is to express the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and certain other words in the sentence. “Inside” and “under” are prepositions.
*The function of a conjunction is to join together words or phrases. “And” and “but” are conjunctions.
*The function of an interjection is to express excitement and emotion independently from the other words in the sentence. “Hey” and “oh” are interjections.

This idea of function is critical when identifying the various parts of speech, because many words have more than one possible role. In other words, you can’t simply take our 500,000-plus English words and divide them into eight categories for the various parts of speech. It’s a little trickier than that. Some nouns, for example, love to get dressed up and go parading around as verbs and adjectives. Some adverbs and repositions have passports that allow them to cross each other’s borders.
And a lot of pronouns moonlight as adjectives. So the important thing is not to think in terms of a permanent relationship between a given word and a part of speech—only some of them believe in “’til death do us part”—but instead to look at what role that word is playing in the particular sentence in question.
Here’s an example of how one word, in this case, “love,” can have several different functions:
As a noun: He wrote a book about love.
As a verb: I love eating out.
As an adjective: She read a love poem.

All right now, roll up your sleeves and let’s dig into each of the eight parts of speech. We’ll start with nouns, pronouns, and verbs, the parts that really do the heavy lifting within a sentence.

The first part is:

#1: The Noun

A noun is simply a name, a word that identifies whatever it is you’re talking about, such as “Jack” or “home” or “rock.” You may remember the term “noun” being defined in school as a person, place, or thing. This is a good way to think about it provided you remember that “thing” refers to more than the things you can point to or touch. It also includes intangibles—ideas, concepts, qualities and actions. “Freedom” is a noun. “Progress” is a noun. “Embarrassment” and “running” and “millimeter” are nouns.
Basically, anything you can put the word “the” in front of is a noun or is being used as a noun. “Being used as a noun” refers back to the idea that many words can play more than one part of speech. “Light,” for example, can be both a noun, as in the light of day or a verb, as in I light the candles. Just remember that whenever the word in question is being used to name or identify something, you’re dealing with a noun.

#2: The Pronoun

Pronouns are words such as “he,” “she,” “it,” and “that,” which take the place of nouns so that we don’t have to drive each other nuts saying things such as Harry went to Harry’s car and then Harry drove to pick up Susan, and then Harry and Susan drove to Harry’s father’s house. Instead, we can use pronouns to refer back to some of the nouns in the sentence, and say, Harry went to his car and then he drove to pick up Susan, and then they went to his father’s house. If you have trouble remembering the definition, just take the word apart: “pro” means “for” as in “pro-government” or “pro vs. con,” so “pronoun” simply means “for a noun.”

It would be great if pronouns were no more complicated than that. But they come in all kinds of flavors and varieties designed to handle different assignments within a sentence, and they won’t do anything outside of their specific job descriptions.
They get all bent out of shape if you make them try.

Here’s the rundown on the three basic facts you need to understand about pronouns in order to keep them in line.

Pronoun Fact #1: There Are Five Different Kinds

It’s not critical to memorize where each and every pronoun falls within these groups, but a quick overview of the following information will give you a framework for understanding what’s ahead.
Personal pronouns refer mostly to—you guessed it— persons. They’re used to identify the person speaking, the person being spoken to, and the person or thing being spoken about. They’re familiar words such as “I,” “me,” “she,” “it,” “they,” and “you,” to name just a handful.
Within the larger group of personal pronouns is a subgroup called intensive or reflexive pronouns. These are words such as “myself,” “himself,” and “themselves.” We won’t worry any more about the intensive or reflexive variety here, but they do cause trouble sometimes. Personal pronouns in general are the most complex group and are implicated in more errors than their other pronoun friends. Facts number two and three ahead focus on the two most important complexities of this tribe. Demonstrative pronouns point out specific persons, places, and things. Luckily, there are only two: “this” and “that.”

Okay, there are four if you count their plural forms: “these” and “those.”

Indefinite pronouns do the opposite job of demonstrative pronouns. They’re used when you don’t have a particular person, place, or thing to which to refer. This is a big group of pronouns, but a few common ones are “any,” “each,” “everyone,” “nobody,” “other,” “several,” “something,” and “nothing.”
Relative pronouns relate a person or thing to something that’s being said about them. The most common are “who,” “whom,” “whose,” “which,” “that,” and “what,” but there are also compound forms such as “whatever,” “whoever,” and so on. Relative pronouns are used to introduce a descriptive phrase within a sentence; for example, Ellen loved the karate class that she took last fall. The relative pronoun “that” refers back to “karate class” and it introduces the descriptive phrase that she took last fall, which tells us something more about the class.
Interrogative pronouns are the curious cousins of relative pronouns. They’re identical to their relative pronoun twins such as “who,” “which,” and “that,” but they’re being used to ask a question: Who took my cake? Which way did he go?



Pronoun Fact #2: Some Pronouns Have Forms That Vary According to Person and Number

You know this, you just don’t know that you know it. Let’s start by defining terms—and pay attention, because this person and number stuff comes in handy for discussions on verbs, too—“person” is used in this context to refer to the particular person or thing being spoken of. Personal pronouns are the only type of pronouns with forms that vary according to this idea of person, and there are three possible choices in form. The first-person form is used when you’re referring to yourself. Think of the label “first” as reflecting your status as number one in importance (in your own eyes, anyway). “I” is a first-person form. The second-person form is for when you’re referring to the person you’re addressing—“you” is an example.
And the third person refers to the person or thing being spoken about, as in “he,” “she,” and “it.”

Wait a minute, you may be thinking. You keep saying “person” as though I never talk about more than one person at a time. Why, I’ve been known to refer to two people at once! In fact, I did it just this morning, when I said, “You kids had better get a move on.” This is where the question of number comes in. Number simply means the number of people being referred to—either one person or thing, in which case the number is singular, or more than one, in which case the number is plural. Personal pronoun forms vary in number, and so do demonstrative pronouns, as noted earlier when we talked about “this” and “these.”

When you throw the concepts of person and number together, the resulting line-up for personal pronouns is this:

The first-person singular is I.
The second-person singular is you.
The third-person singular is he, she, or it.
The first-person plural is we.
The second-person plural is you.
The third-person plural is they.

You’ll notice that the singular and plural forms for the second person are the same word, “you.” Nobody said these things always made sense.



Pronoun Fact #3: Personal Pronoun Forms Also Vary According to Case

We said earlier that the general role of a personal pronoun in a sentence is to stand in for a particular person or thing. Well, the “case” form of that personal pronoun gets a lot more specific by indicating exactly how that pronoun relates to the other words in the sentence. The three cases are the nominative case, which is sometimes called the subjective case; the objective case; and the possessive case.

Thank u Myriam for your hard working.You are really a very good and intelligent student.Keep on doing so.
Have a nice day

#3: The Verb: Tense, Voice, and Mood

Verbs describe an action or a state of being. Their role is to make a statement about the subject of your sentence, that is, about whomever or whatever you’re talking. When we refer to a verb describing an action, we mean this in its broadest sense, including not only physical actions such as “run,” “grow,” or “squeeze,” but also nonphysical actions such as “hope,” “solve,” and “need.” Any word describing what the subject of the sentence is doing is an action verb. For example:
"Kim ran to the door"."Steve often thinks about Mary". "Tracy embarrassed herself at the party."

But often the subject of the sentence isn’t doing something, it simply is something, such as hungry or female or in line for a promotion. Verbs that express a state of being are called linking verbs, because they link the subject of the sentence to the description of the state or condition that the subject is in.
The most common linking verb by far is the verb “to be,” which includes the forms “am,” “is,” “are,” “was,” “were,” “have been,” “had been,” “will be,” “will have been,” and others.
Here are some sentences featuring the linking verb “to be”: "The ambassador is a woman". "John will be the next vice president". "Dave was tired."
And here are a few examples of other linking verbs at work. You’ll notice that some of these, such as the verbs “look” and “taste,” can also be action verbs in other contexts: "Hot dogs taste better with mustard."
"Terry remained unhappy". "Joan looks incredibly healthy."

The verb’s role of expressing action or a state of being is just the tip of the iceberg, however. Verbs are the most powerful part of speech because they not only tell you the nature of the action itself, but also provide other important information about that action. The benevolent verb offers us three manners of descrition, and these are tense, voice, and mood.

The tense form of a verb tells us when the action occurred or will occur. For example, he will jump tells us that the jumping action will occur in the future, whereas he jumped tells us it occurred in the past. Tense forms represent the largest minefield in verb country—the cause of all kinds of errors.

The voice of a verb tells something about the relationship between the action of the verb and the subject of the sentence—the person or thing the sentence is about. The active voice is used to show that the subject is doing the acting, as in John leads the group. The passive voice is used to show that the subject is on the receiving end of the action, as in John is led by the group.

The mood of a verb tells us in what manner the verb is communicating the action. When we make basic statements or ask questions, we use the indicative mood, as in I leave at 5 and Are you taking the car? The indicative mood is the one we use most often. The imperative mood is used to make a request or a command, as in Get in here right now or Bring me a resume. The subjunctive mood is used to express a hypothetical situation or a condition in opposition to the facts and sometimes to express a wish. It is most often used with the verb “to be” in sentences or phrases beginning with “if.” For example,"If Jane were home, things would be different "and "I wish I were rich". The subjunctive mood is not called for often,but when it is, it can be a troublemaker.

Thank u Myriam for your hard working.You are really a very good and intelligent student.Keep on doing so.
Have a nice day

#4: The Adjective

Adjectives are words that modify nouns and pronouns. That is, they alter slightly the meaning of the noun or pronoun, either by describing something about it or by limiting its meaning to a more definite item or number. In the phrases red hair, swollen feet, and unpredictable temper, the adjectives “red,” “swollen,” and “unpredictable” have modified the nouns “hair,” “feet,” and “temper” by describing a characteristic of each.

It’s easy to think of adjectives only as descriptive words. But then you’d be missing half the fun—adjectives have more personality than that. So let’s have a word about nouns and pronouns functioning as adjectives and also about the articles “a,” “an,” and “the.”

Nouns Functioning as Adjectives
Nouns aren’t satisfied to just stay at home and name things.
They go out dressed as adjectives all the time. For example, the word “paper” is a noun. But in the phrase paper airplane, the word “paper” is being used as an adjective modifying the noun “airplane”—it tells us what kind of airplane we’re dealing with. Similarly, in the phrase airplane mechanic, the noun “airplane” is now being used as an adjective to describe the noun “mechanic.”

Pronouns Functioning as Adjectives
Like nouns, pronouns are commonly used as adjectives—a pronoun such as “my” before a noun modifies the noun by telling you who it belongs to. Here are a few phrases in which pronouns function as adjectives:
Our house in Baltimore
Her candy
Take either suit
My sister
Exercise each week

The Articles: “A,” “An,” and “The”
These three go-everywhere, do-everything words are considered
adjectives too, even though they have their own name, articles. If this seems confusing, think of how they function: they tell us something more about the noun they’re in front of.
For example, “a” and “an” are called indefinite articles, because they refer to any single member of the group named by the noun, but not to a particular or definite member. In the phrases a headache and an elephant, we mean any member of the classes of headaches and elephants. On the other hand, the definite article “the” refers to a specific, definite member of some group. Saying the office instead of an office indicates that we have in mind a particular office and not just any old place of business.

#5: The Adverb

Like adjectives, adverbs are modifiers: They define or limit the meaning of other words. But unlike adjectives, which can only modify nouns or pronouns, adverbs have a kind of prima donna complex. They leave nouns and pronouns alone, but they feel they have something important to say about nearly everybody else—modifying verbs, adjectives, and each other. Let’s look first at the different jobs the adverb can do.
As the name suggests, the most common role of the adverb is to modify the meaning of a verb, usually by answering the questions where, when, how, or to what extent. For example, in the phrase, leave quickly, “leave” is the verb, and the adverb “quickly” describes the manner in which the action of leaving is carried out. A few more examples: Look longingly,
answer abruptly, move forward, stop immediately, sometimes play, nearly finish, always love.
Adverbs can also modify adjectives, as in the phrase nearly complete painting. Here, the noun “painting” is modified by the adjective “complete” and the adjective “complete” is modified by the adverb “nearly,” giving us the full meaning that the painting is almost, but not quite, finished. Here are a few more examples of adverbs modifying adjectives:
Virtually impassable road
(The adverb “virtually” modifies “impassable.”)
Almost a year
(The adverb “almost” modifies “a.”)
Precisely 10 yards
(The adverb “precisely” modifies “10.”)
Slightly frayed collar
(The adverb “slightly” modifies “frayed.”)
Evenly spaced items
(The adverb “evenly” modifies “spaced.”)

Adverbs also have little love fests in which they modify each other, as in the sentence, The players were almost evenly matched. Here, the verb matched is modified by the adverb, evenly. Then the adverb evenly is itself modified in turn by another adverb, almost, giving us the meaning that the players are fairly close, but not completely equal, in skill level. A few more examples of adverbs modifying adverbs:
She was somewhat rudely interrupted.
(The adverb “somewhat” modifies “rudely.”)
I left rather quickly.
(The adverb “rather” modifies “quickly.”)
Bob is always extremely funny.
(The adverb “always” modifies “extremely.”)

A word about adverb forms: You’ll notice from the preceding examples that while many adverbs such as “evenly” and “precisely” have “-ly” endings, others, such as “somewhat” and “rather” do not. A large group of adverbs fall into the latter category, including—to name only a few—words such as “again,” “late,” “little,” “there,” “often,” “when,” “where,” “why,” “how,” “too,” and “much.” Here are a few examples of these adverbs at work:
He came late to the party.
(The adverb “late” modifies the verb “came.”)
I went home again.
(The adverb “again” modifies the verb “went.”)
Deborah wears too many necklaces.
(The adverb “too” modifies the adjective “many.”)

In summary, there’s no shortcut such as “-ly” endings or position within the sentence to tell you for certain that a word is an adverb. The only way to know for sure is to figure out if it’s modifying the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
If it’s modifying a noun or a pronoun, you’ve got yourself an adjective instead.

#6: The Preposition

Prepositions are a piece of cake. They are simply words used to show a relationship between a noun or a pronoun and certain other words in your sentence. And the easy way to remember this is to think of the word “position” contained within “preposition”—as in the position of one thing relative to another.
In the sentence Harry drank himself under the table, “under” is the preposition. It shows the relationship between the unwise “Harry” (a noun) and “table” (another noun). Other common prepositions include “above,” “after,” “around,” “at,” “before,” “below,” “between,” “by,” “during,” “except,” “from,” and “within.”
There is also such a thing as a compound preposition, which serves exactly the same purpose of expressing a relationship between two things, but which is made up of more than one word, such as “according to,” “because of,” and “instead of.”
Here’s a great illustration of how different prepositions can express different relationships between the same sets of words. Watch how the meaning changes if we begin with the preposition across and then substitute others within the same sentence:
They traveled across the forest.
They traveled around the forest.
They traveled beyond the forest.
They traveled into the forest.
They traveled near the forest.
They traveled toward the forest.
They traveled out of the forest.

It’s also important to remember, as we’ve noted throughout, that some words function as more than one part of speech.
Prepositions are no exception. The word outside, for example, can be a noun, as in She wrote his name on the outside of the package; a preposition, as in Please clean that engine outside the house; or an adjective, as in There’s an outside chance your umbrella will turn up in the lost and found.

You're excellent.Good luck.

#7: The Conjunction—Coordinating and Subordinating

Conjunctions are words that join other words and phrases together, just as the back end of the term conjunction suggests.(Think of the junction of two freeways.) There are coordinating conjunctions such as “and,” “or,” “nor,” “but,” “for,” “yet,” and “so,” and subordinating conjunctions such as “because,” “when,” “if,” “though,” “unless,” “until,” and “whether.”

Coordinating Conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions connect words and phrases that have equal grammatical status. This means nouns with nouns, adjectives with adjectives, and pairs of phrases designed to carry equal weight within the sentence. For example:
They brought food and clothes.
(The conjunction “and” joins two nouns, “food” and “clothes.”)
The bathroom was old but clean.
(The conjunction “but” joins two adjectives, “old” and “clean.”)
He ran or bicycled every day.
(The conjunction “or” joins two verbs, “ran” and “bicycled.”)
The cat ran across the room and under the couch.
(The conjunction “and” joins the two equally important
phrases, “across the room” and “under the couch.”)

Most coordinating conjunctions are made up of one word, such as and or but in the previous examples. But sometimes coordinating conjunctions have two parts, which work in tandem to join comparable words and phrases together. Examples of these are “either/or,” “both/and,” and “not only/but also,” sometimes shortened to “not only/but.” Here’s how they work in a sentence:
He ate both the cake and the ice cream.
(The conjunction “both/and” joins two nouns, “cake” and “ice cream.”)
She’s not only glamorous but strong.
(The conjunction “not only/but” joins two adjectives, “glamorous” and “strong.”)
It’s either on the stove or in the oven.
(The conjunction “either/or” joins two comparable phrases, “on the stove” and “in the oven.”)

Subordinating Conjunctions
Unlike coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions join together parts of a sentence that aren’t on equal grammatical footing. Instead, within the world of that sentence, one of the parts depends upon the other for its meaning and is therefore lower in rank or importance—it’s subordinate to the other.
For example, in the sentence He couldn’t go to school because he was sick, “because” is the subordinating conjunction.
It introduces the subordinate clause, “because he was sick,” which cannot stand on its own as a sentence but instead depends upon the main portion of the sentence, “he couldn’t go to school,” for its meaning. The following are some more examples of subordinating conjunctions at work. Note two things:
First, the phrases they introduce aren’t always at the back end of the sentence; second, many of these conjunctions can also function as other parts of speech such as adverbs and prepositions.
Since your car is in the shop, let us drive.
We can leave when Stan arrives.
Jane doesn’t know whether she’ll attend the party.
If you take that, you’ll be sorry.
As I told him before, John’s always welcome here.
Laura won’t take the job unless the salary is good.

#8: The Interjection!

Interjections are words thrown into a sentence to express excitement and intensity in actions or emotion. Common interjections are “Hey!” “Wow!” “Oh no!” and “Great!” Most of these words function in other parts of speech, but when they are used as interjections, they stand alone.
Now that you’ve got your feet wet with the eight parts of speech, it’s time to wade all the way into the water and master the basic parts of a sentence. And that’s just what the next section will help you do.

Here are the 8 Parts of speech and it's a summary of the Composition course, hope that can be useful for everybody!!!!
Enjoy!!!