Understanding Parts of Speech: Nouns, Verbs, and Prepositions, Study notes of English Language

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Parts of Speech: Nouns, Verbs, andPrepositions ENG 0990Cuyahoga Community CollegeAmy Raufman, Lecturer

Every word in every sentence playsa role.^ Ex: The man in the red coatjumped on the bus.^ “Man” tells us who the sentence isabout.“The” and “in the red coat” tell uswhich man.“Jumped” tells us what he did.“On the bus” tells us where hejumped.

The same word may play adifferent role depending on theconstruction of the sentence. Ex: I am swimming in a meet onThursday. “Swimming” is part of the verb phrase “amswimming” and tells what the subject “I” isdoing. Ex: Swimming is one of myfavorite sports. “Swimming” is a noun that is the subject of thesentence. It “is one of my favorite sports.”

This is why we need to learn theparts of speech—so we can focuson the role a word is playing in asentence.^ Some basic parts of speech^ •Nouns•Verbs•Prepositions•Adjectives•Adverbs•Pronouns•Conjunctions

Nouns^ •A noun is a person, place, thing, oridea.•You’ll find it as the subject ofsentences or the object of an actionverb or preposition.^ Ex: The books were on the table.^ “Books” and “table” are our nouns.^ Ex: Hunting can be dangerous.^ “Hunting” and “dangerous” are nouns.

Verbs show action or a state ofbeing—or they “help” other verbs.^ She walked to school.^ “Walked” is an action verb.^ She is quiet.^ “Is” is a state of being verb (alsocalled “linking”)^ She was walking in the park.^ “Was” is a helping verb that allows“walking” to be an active verb

Verbs can act on their own or ingroups^ He danced all night.He would have gone dancing allnight if allowed.He was dancing yesterday at 3p.m.

Verbs in their infinitive form are “atrest” and aren’t considered part ofthe verb phrase of a sentence.^ I decided to look at somemagazines.^ “Decided” is a verb in thissentence, but “to look” is not.^ She wanted to learn how to doballet.^ “Wanted” is a verb in thissentence, but “to learn” and “todo” are not.

Prepositions^ Prepositions are words thatdescribe objects in relation totime, space, and location.Across

Into

For

Through

To^

Toward

In^

Between

Behind

About

Finding the subject:^ Ask who or what is the sentenceabout?Ex: The tiny cat climbed up thetree.^ Who

is the sentence about? See also PR pp 200-

Finding the verb:^ Ask what the sentence

says about

the subject or what the subject

does

or feels. Ex: The tiny cat climbed up the tree. What

did the cat do? Or—try putting a pronoun in front ofthe word you think is the verb. Tiny?

No, you cannot say “I tiny” Climbed?

Yes, you can say “I

climbed”See also PR pg 194-