Parts of Speech 1

Nouns and verbs are the basic building blocks of a sentence with verbs being the most important. Why are verbs the most important? You can have a sentence with just a verb. "March!" is a sentence. It is an imperative sentence; that means that it is a command. The subject (who the sentence is about) is "you."

Nouns are words that name things. In fact, the word has its roots in a Latin word that means "to name." Nouns tell us who is doing something ad where they are doing it: The crusaders marched on Antioch during the eleventh century. In order for your writing to leave a clear impression in the reader's mind, nouns must be specific not vague: The soldiers marched into the city a long time ago. This sentence leaves everything up to the reader, but gives him no good information on which to build comprehension.

Pronouns take the place of nouns. There are fewer pronouns than nouns, and they are pretty generic: They marched into there. Pronouns are important, but you want to make sure that your reader knows what you are talking about. Pronouns are words like he, she, herself, and each.

Adjectives tell us more about nouns; they describe them so that your reader can get a good image of what you are saying. When your adjectives are vivid, your reader is more interested in your writing: The weakened horses reluctantly entered the swirling, muddy stream. This sentences uses an adverb. An adverb is a part of Speech that explains more about how someone did something.

Prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections are three other parts of Speech. Prepositions are direction words or causal words. Prepositions great, but you don't want to overuse them. Conjunctions join things like a bridge. The most important thing to remember about conjunctions is where to put the comma and what verb to use. Cool! Interjections are words that are extra, but have no grammatical bearing on a sentence.