Basic English Sentence Structures: Parts of speech
Sentences are formed from words that belong to different categories depending on their function. The word "fire", for example, can be a noun or a verb depending on its usage.
Noun: "The fire burned the building."
Verb: "Fire the gun."
ADJECTIVE - modifies a noun.
Examples: yellow, pretty, useful
Adjectives have three degrees: Positive, Comparative, and Superlative.
Example: old, older, oldest
ARTICLE - specifies whether the noun is specific or a member of a class.
The definite article "the" refers to specific objects. The indefinite articles "a", and "an" refer to an
unspecified member of a class. The article "a" is used before a word starting with a consonant sound and "an"
is used before a word starting with a vowel sound.
Examples: a, an, the
ADVERB - modifies a verb or an adjective. Many adverbs have the suffix -ly.
Examples: very, extremely, carefully
CONJUNCTION - joins components of a sentence or phrase.
Coordinating conjunctions join clauses which are equally important.
A subordinating conjunction joins a dependent clause to a main clause.
Some conjunctions occur in pairs, e.g., neither ... nor, either ... or.
Examples: and, but, or
INTERJECTION - is used for exclamations.
Examples: Oh!, Aha!
NOUN - names an object or action.
Common nouns refer to ordinary things. Proper nouns are usually capitalized and refer to persons,
specific things or specific places.
Examples: mouse, fire, Michael
PREPOSITION - indicates relationship or relative position of objects.
Examples: in, about, toward
PRONOUN - is used in place of a noun.
Personal pronouns are used to refer to persons. Interrogative pronouns introduce questions.
Demonstrative pronouns refer to a previously mentioned object or objects.
Relative pronouns introduce clauses.
Examples: he, this
VERB - specifies an action or links the subject to a complement.
The tense of a verb indicates the time when the action happened, e.g., past, present, of future.
Examples: take, is, go, fire
Introduction
