Multilingual Writers
If you learned English as a second language and you regularly speak a language other than English, this appendix is for you. It also provides a refresher course on many of the elements in Chapter 15 “Sentence Building”, Chapter 16 “Sentence Style”, Chapter 17 “Word Choice”, Chapter 18 “Punctuation”,Chapter 19 “Mechanics”, and Chapter 20 “Grammar”.
Parts of Speech
In English, words are used in one of eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, conjunction, preposition, and interjection. This table includes an explanation and examples of each of the eight parts of speech.
|
Noun |
Person, place, or thing |
Wow! After the game, silly Mary ate her apples and carrots quickly. |
Iowa |
book |
arm |
|
horse |
idea |
month |
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|
Pronoun |
Takes the place of a noun |
Wow! After the game, silly Mary ateher apples and carrots quickly. |
he |
it |
I |
|
her |
my |
theirs |
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|
Adjective |
Describes a noun or pronoun |
Wow! After the game, silly Mary ate her apples and carrots quickly. |
sticky |
funny |
crazy |
|
long |
cold |
round |
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|
Verb |
Shows action or state of being |
Wow! After the game, silly Mary ateher apples and carrots quickly. |
run |
jump |
felt |
|
think |
is |
gone |
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|
Adverb |
Describes a verb, another adverb, or an adjective and tells how, where, or when something is done |
Wow! After the game, silly Mary ate her apples and carrots quickly. |
slowly |
easily |
very |
|
often |
heavily |
sharply |
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|
Conjunction |
Joins words, phrases, and clauses |
Wow! After the game, silly Mary ate her apples and carrots quickly. |
and |
because |
but |
|
since |
or |
so |
|||
|
Preposition |
First word in a phrase that indicates the relationship of the phrase to other words in the sentence |
Wow! After the game, silly Mary ate her apples and carrots quickly. |
in |
on |
to |
|
after |
at |
over |
|||
|
Interjection |
A word that shows emotion and is not related to the rest of the sentence |
Wow! After the game, silly Mary ate her apples and carrots quickly. |
Hey |
Wow |
Look |
|
Super |
Oh |
Yuck |
Adapted from Appendix A, “Writing for Nonnative English Speakers” in Writer’s Handbook v 1.0 used according to Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 3.0