Transcript 4. Parts of speech

The Grammar Business
Part One
4. Naming of Parts
The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
Names of parts of speech
• Verbs and nouns make your head go
round?
• But understanding these words helps, if
you want to get things right
• So a brisk brush-up
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It’s not all that difficult
• A noun is a naming word
• For example: tree, ship, biscuit, table. If the
noun’s a real name e.g. Tony Blair, or
Glenrothes, it’s called a proper noun. The
first letter of a proper noun is always a capital.
• A noun can be singular (only one) or plural
(two or more). Most (not all) nouns have an S
added in the plural e.g. bun  buns, sausage
 sausages BUT child  children.
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And a verb
• Is a doing/being word
• For example: make, sing, grow, shine,
exist, hope
• A verb may be made up of more than
one word. For example: has bought, will
go, had forgotten, is working
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And an adjective
• is a describing word
• which describes a noun
• for example - a big house, a blue car,
an impressive salary, a hopeless case
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And an adverb
• is another describing word
• which describes a verb
• for example: she walked slowly; they
began enthusiastically; they
genuinely hated grammar classes
• most - but not all - adverbs end ‘ly’
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And a preposition
• is usually small e.g. to, from, with
• goes in front of another word, or group
of words, to help make sense
• can alter the sense of the whole thing if
you get the wrong one
• I look after her; I look over her; I look
down on her; I look through her
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So far so good?
Identify the nouns in the sentence below. You
should find FOUR.
• Five devastating diseases are
sweeping through the cocoa crops,
threatening the staple diet of the
neurotic chocolate-lover
• Check your answers on the next slide
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Nouns are picked out in blue
• Five devastating diseases are
sweeping through the cocoa crops,
threatening the staple diet of the
neurotic chocolate-lover
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Now pick out the verbs
You should find four. Three of them have two
parts.
• One disease, witches’ broom, has
slashed Brazil’s production of cocoa by
three-quarters and is devastating crops
in Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Columbia
and Panama. Even worse is the black
pod disease, which has cut harvest by
up to 90 per cent in West and Central
Africa.
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
Verbs are picked out in blue
• One disease, witches’ broom, has
slashed Brazil’s production of cocoa by
three-quarters and is devastating
crops in Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela,
Columbia and Panama. Even worse is
the black pod disease, which has cut
harvests by up to 90% in West and
Central Africa.
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The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College
Pick out the five adjectives (words that
describe a noun)
• Worried scientists, from the Department
of Agriculture, have described their
desperate mission as “to save chocolate
for the enthusiastic consumers of the
world”. However, their desperate
attempts to stop the new diseases have
failed.
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Adjectives appear in blue
• Worried scientists, from the
Department of Agriculture, have
described their desperate mission as
“to save chocolate for the enthusiastic
consumers of the world”. However, their
desperate attempts to stop the new
diseases have failed.
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And finally - adverbs
You should find two
• Using fungicides to beat the plagues is
costly. However, by and large the
diseases affect different countries
differently. No one answer to the
problem can confidently be found.
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Adverbs in blue...
• Using fungicides to beat the plagues is
expensive. However, by and large the
diseases affect different countries
differently. No one answer to the
problem can confidently be found.
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Now we nearly have all the names
that we need
•
•
•
•
but not quite!
There’s still the matter of
subject and
object
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Subject
• The subject is the person/thing that makes
the verb make sense
• For example: I study (I am the subject); she is
boring (she is the subject); grammar classes
kill enjoyment (grammar classes are the
subject)
• A subject is usually some kind of noun
• A subject usually appears just before the verb
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In the following sentences, the subject will
appear in blue, and the verb in green
• Guns sometimes kill.
• Usually, but not always, beef stew is
filling.
• Most miracles mystify.
• Grammar sucks.
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So, if the subject is what drives the verb, the
object is what’s at the other end of the
process
•
•
•
•
Guns sometimes kill people.
Beef stew hits the spot.
Miracles mystify me.
Children sometimes suck lollipops.
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So • The subject of the sentence usually
comes just before the verb
• And the object (if there is one) comes
after the verb
• Nearly all grammatical sentences have
a subject and a verb - but not
necessarily an object
• Both subject and object are usually
some kind of noun
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Well done!
That’s the basic vocabulary you
need to talk about sentences.
The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College