61 The Parts of Speech

Number of Nouns

Use the material at the top of the page to review singular and plural nouns. See pages 488–490 for help with forming difficult plurals.

Special Types of Nouns

Help students understand how compound nouns are formed (spelled as one word, two words, or hyphenated words). Also, teach them about collective nouns, which can be singular or plural depending on their use. (For example, "The team posts its schedule each fall" is singular, but "The team put on their gloves" is plural, since "The team puts on its glove" makes no sense.)

Gender of Nouns

Unlike many languages, English uses gendered nouns and pronouns almost exclusively for people and animals. (Even ships are called it as often as she anymore.) Acquaint English language learners with the types of nouns that express gender.

Uses of Nouns

• Subject nouns function as the subject of a sentence.
• Predicate nouns follow a linking verb and rename the subject.
• Possessive nouns show ownership with an 's or '.
• Object nouns receive the action of a verb (direct and indirect object) or function as the object of a preposition.

Person of Pronouns

Help students understand that pronouns capture the communication situation, identifying the sender (speaker or writer) and receiver (listener or reader) for each message:

• First-person pronouns identify the sender (I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours).
• Second-person pronouns identify the receiver (you, your, yours)
• Third-person pronouns identify the subject spoken about (he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, their, theirs).

In literature, point of view refers to the type of pronouns the narrator uses (first person or third person usually, but sometimes even second-person).

Use the chart at the bottom of the page to show all the forms that pronouns take. Impress on students how much information is packed into these parts of speech.

Other Types of Pronouns

Students may be entirely unfamiliar with the other types of pronouns, though they use them all the time. Lead them through this list, helping them understand the function of each.

• A relative pronoun relates the information in a dependent clause to an independent clause. (Who, which, and that are relative pronouns that function as the subjects of relative clauses.)
• A reflexive pronoun reflects back on the subject of the sentence. (Himself, herself, itself, and themselves are reflexive pronouns that rename the subject.)
• An interrogative pronoun asks a question. (Who, whose, whom, which, and what are interrogative pronouns that start a question.)
• A demonstrative pronoun demonstrates something. (This, that, these, and those are demonstrative pronouns that point at something without naming it.)
• An indefinite pronoun refers to something without defining it. (All, another, any, and anybody are indefinite pronouns.)

Modal Verbs

Most native speakers of English use modal verbs all of the time without even knowing what to call them. These verbs work with action and linking verbs to express all sorts of subtlety—ability, possibility, request, need, duty, intent, and desire.

Lead your students through the chart on this page, encouraging English language learners to bookmark it for help with these tricky constructions.

Continuous Tenses

Native English speakers and English language learners alike need help with continuous tenses. They show ongoing action in past, present, or future.

Common Irregular Verbs

This chart shows the past and past participle forms of the most common irregular verbs in the English language.

Point out to students that every irregular verb on this chart is ancient. You won't find "emailed" or "Skyped" or "tweeted" on this list. That's because irregular verbs entered the English language before it had established rules for creating past tense and past participles. So any verb that describes an action an Anglo Saxon peasant could have done 1,000 years ago is probably an irregular verb.

Uses of Action Verbs

Transitive verbs transfer the action from the subject to a direct object (and sometimes an indirect object):

• The direct object tells who or what receives the action of the verb.
• The indirect object tells to whom, for whom, to what, or for what the action occurred.

Common Two-Word Verbs

English contains many two-word verbs, which look like a verb and a preposition. However, the two words together mean something different than the two words separately. For example, break down means "analyze" or "malfunction" instead of "destroy below." Direct students to the asterisk at the bottom of the page, which advises against splitting two-word verbs with direct objects.

Encourage English language learners to bookmark this page for help with tricky verbs.

Special Kinds of Adjectives

Help students recognize the special kinds of adjectives on this page:

• Compound adjectives consist of two or more words and are hyphenated when they come before the noun they modify.
• Demonstrative adjectives (that, this, these, those) point to a specific noun. (They are akin to demonstrative pronouns, but they modify another word.)
• Indefinite adjectives (most, few, some, many) indicate an approximate quantity. (They are akin to indefinite pronouns, but they modify another word.)
• Predicate adjectives follow a linking verb and modify the subject. (They are akin to predicate nouns, but they modify the subject instead of renaming it.)

Adverbs

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Help students understand the different types:

• Adverbs of time tell when, how often, or how long.
• Adverbs of place tell where, to where, or from where.
• Adverbs of manner tell how.
• Adverbs of degree tell how much or how little.

Prepositions

Prepositions are words that show direction, location, or time and introduce prepositional phrases.

A prepositional phrase functions as an adjective or adverb. The preposition works with its object (a noun or pronoun) to modify another part of the sentence. For example, the preposition "on" works with the noun "hill" to function as an adjective in the prepositional phrase "on the hill"—"The house on the hill." The preposition gets its name because it comes before its object, in the pre-position.

Lead your students through the common prepositions at the bottom of the page.