Grammar Again
Sentence Structure and Parts of Speech
Conjunction
Interjection
Weird Stuff that Happens in a Sentence
Parts of Speech and Parts of a Sentence
Mastering basic standard English, the written part of it, any way, is hard. One of the reasons it is so difficult is that mastering basic standard English require that you master many all of these little, irrational, teeny, tiny rules that don’t seem to have any rhyme or reason whatsoever. One of the most valuable classes I ever took, (when I was getting my masters in English) was Linguistics. Linguistics is the study of language (all languages); and once I studied linguistics, for one in my life I finally began to understand Standard English grammar.
One thing that any linguistics professor will tell you is that, all languages have their grammars, even dialects of a major language. If you hear someone say something like: He be running to the store, you would probably think that person is speaking incorrectly. But you’d be wrong. This person is probably speaking in an African-American English dialect and these dialects are very complex, rich and difficult to master. Many times these dialects are even more complicated to speak than regular Standard English! They are based on a grammar- or a set of rules that you have to follow. All dialects are. It’s just that the rules of an African-American English dialect are not the same rules of Standard English.
Everyone in college has to learn to write, speak, read and communicate in Standard English, why do you think that is?
Standard English is the language of commerce i.e. professionalism i.e. money. So if you want to make money, you will learn how to speak and write in Standard English. Standard English is the grammar we will be studying in this class, which is not to say that any other dialect you may hear or speak is any less than standard English. As any linguistics professor will tell you, all languages and grammars are effective, or they wouldn’t be used at all.
Standard English (and all English dialects) is syntactical – which is to say everything is based around the structure of a sentence. In English you can’t have meaning without a properly structured sentence. This is not true of all languages. In other languages, meaning forms around the structure of the word. But because the sentence is so important in Standard English, before you can master any other type of writing in English, you have to master the structure of a sentence; and this is big. This is huge. I can’t even begin to impress upon you how important it is to be able to form and write a properly structured sentence. It is very important to be able to form and write a proper sentence, because if you can’t do this, you really won’t be able to move forward and write anything correctly! Not an essay, not a research paper, not a report, nothing! The sentence is everything!
Therefore one of our very first grammar assignments in this class will be to review the parts of speech and to begin to understand they relate to the parts of a sentence.
Parts of Speech or (Blocks or components of a Sentence)
NOUN
Noun- a word that names a person, place, thing or idea.
Abstract noun – idea or concept. Ex: beauty
Concrete noun – a physical object. Ex: brick
Common Noun – a person, place or thing without giving it a specific, capitalized name. Ex: man, car, street
Proper noun – gives the specific, capitalized name of the person, place or thing. Ex: John, Acura, Princedale
PRONOUN
Pronoun- a word that replaces a noun without specifying a name. Ex: he, she, it who, them, they, whoever
Personal Pronoun – a pronoun that falls into one of three categories first, second, or third person. Ex: (I, My – first person) (You, your- second person) (They, Theirs – third person)
Noun cases
Remember! A noun can be a subject case, or an object case.
A noun is in the subject case, when it is the subject in a sentence.
Ex: I (noun subject case) threw the ball.
A noun is in the object case, when it is the object of a verb or preposition.
Ex I threw the ball (noun object case).
VERB
Verb – a word that indicates action or a state of being. The predicates of sentences contain verbs. All verbs have five properties: person, number, mood, voice, and tense.
Regular verb: a verb whose past tense is made by adding d or ed. Ex: walk/walked/ – jump/jumped – try/tried.
Irregular verb: a verb whose past tense cannot be made with d or ed. Ex: cling/clung – swim/swam- bring/brought
There are many types of verbs, that do many different things with assistance from other parts of speech, but the main thing to remember about a verb is that is does something or it is. One of the most important verbs, is the verb TO BE
Ex: I am, you are, he is, she is, they are, we are.
Remember, verbs must match the subject
I am NOT I is or I are
You are NOT you is or you am
He is, Not he am, or he are…. what about He be? Ever heard that one?
Remember, a verb must match the number
A cow jumps (singular) over the moon NOT a cow jump (plural) over the moon.
The cows jump (plural) over the moon NOT the cows jumps over the moon.
Remember, verbs have tenses.
A tense indicates the time in which the action is performed. English has three tenses: past, present and future. Each tense has four forms simple, perfect, progressive and perfect progressive. Now this all sounds very complicated. But when we talk we move through these different tenses all the time.
Present examples;
I play ball. (Simple) Which means this is something I do all the time.
I have played ball. (Perfect) Which means this is something I have done at least once in the past.
I am playing ball. (Progressive) Which means this is am doing now.
I have been playing ball. (Perfect progressive) Which means this is something I have been doing in the past, probably many times.
Past examples:
I played ball. (Simple)
I had played ball. (Perfect)
I was playing ball. (Progressive)
I had been playing ball. (Perfect progressive)
Future:
I will play ball. (Simple)
I will have played ball. (Perfect)
I will be playing ball. (Progressive)
I will have been playing ball. (Perfect progressive)
Remember! Verb tenses must match!
You really don’t have to remember all these tenses and forms. They will come naturally to you when you speak. But what you must remember when you write, is that verb tenses must match.
You can’t say: I play (present) ball every night before I ran (past) to the store.
You must say: I play (present) ball every night before I run (present) to the store.
Keep the verb tenses the same!
ADJECTIVE
Adjective – a word that describes or modifies a noun or a pronoun. Ex; happy man, shiny car, fluffy, pillow
Other types of adjectives (besides descriptive) are:
Demonstrative adjectives – specify nouns. Ex: this, that, these, those
Indefinite adjectives- refer to unspecified quantities. Ex most, few, many, some
Interrogative adjectives- initiate questions about nouns. Ex; which, what, who
Possessive adjectives – indicate ownership or possession. Ex; his, hers, ours, theirs
ADVERB
Adverb- a word that modifies a verb, adjective, phrase, or clause by indicated how, where, when, or how much. Adverbs often end in the suffix – ly.
Ex. She drives her car very slowly.
Conjunctive adverb- an adverb that joins two clauses together.
Ex: therefore, consequently, thus.
CONJUNCTION
Conjunction: a word that links other words, phrases, or clauses together.
Ex: and, if, or but.
ARTICLE
Article: a word that specifies a noun.
Ex: (the, a, an)
INTERJECTION
Interjection: a word that conveys emotion or surprise.
Ex: Wow! Hey! Whoa!
PREPOSITION
Preposition: a word that indicates physical or conceptual relationships between other words.
Ex: The girl sat under (preposition) the tree, reading.
Prepositional Phrase: the combination of a preposition, its object, and the words between them.
Ex: under the tree. (Prepositional phrase)
Common Prepositions:
| About | Behind | Down | Like | Since | Up |
| Above | Below | During | Near | Through | Upon |
| Across | Beneath | Except | Of | Throughout | With |
| After | Beside | For | Off | Till | Without |
| Against | Between | From | On | To | Under |
| Around | Beyond | In | out | Toward | |
| At | Before | Into | outside | Until | |
| According to | Because of | By way of | In addition to | In front of | In place of |
| In regard to | In spite of | Instead of | On account of | Out of |
II . Parts of Speech or a Sentence
Sentence – a group of words that expresses a complete thought. Every sentence contains a subject and predicate.
Subject – the noun or noun phrase that tells whom or what the sentence addresses.
Ex: Amber (noun/ subject) loves to write books.
Amber’s students (noun phrase/ subject) love to write essays.
Predicate- a verb or a verb phrase telling what the subject does or is.
Ex: Amber -loves to write books. – (predicate- the verb which tells what Amber does).
Clause: a part of a sentence that contains its own subject and predicate.
Independent clause- a clause that could function as its own sentence.
When it is nighttime, (Amber loves to write – independent clause)
Dependent clause- a clause that cannot function as its own sentence.
When she was twenty-nine, Amber realized (that she loved to write- dependent clause)
Parts of Speech and Sentence Structure
Why is it so important to learn the parts of speech, and the parts of a sentence?
Learning the parts of speech is important because it is absolutely critical to sentence structure. In order to write a well-constructed sentence, you must understand which parts of speech are critical to the sentence and where these parts should go. If you don’t understand these simple rules, you will probably write sentences that will have one, or more of the following problems:
- It will be a run-on sentence – Two or more complete sentences joined together with the conjunction “and.” We do this all the time when we speak. Because we are not required to punctuate our speech, we are often confused by the need to punctuate in writing. But the need to punctuate, and especially the need to end sentences, is always there in writing. Because if we don’t properly punctuate and end our sentences, then all of the words start running together and meaning is lost.
- It will be a sentence fragment– A phrase without a subject or a verb. A sentence fragment is something along the lines of: “Gone now.” of “Not up in here.” Once again, we talk like this all the time, but it is not appropriate to write like this. In writing, you must always have a subject and a predicate. Example: “John is gone now.” or “It can not happen, up in here.”
- Commas will be incorrectly used. Most new writers don’t place commas where they should go: ex Finally you’ve made me happy. (There should be a comma after finally.) And place them where they shouldn’t be. Ex: I love you so much, and you’re my best friend too! (Here a comma has been used where a period should be. That sentence was actually a run-on sentence
- Sentences will be awkward. Awkward sentences are the worst! Sentences are awkward for a number of reasons, but the primary reason for them, in my opinion, is that writers do not understand the parts of speech, and the parts of a sentence and how every part of speech has it’s place in a sentence. Once you understand that every sentence has a subject and a verb, and you can identify the subject and the verb, you can take all of the extra junk and crap out of the sentence and turn an awkward sentence into a perfectly useful sentence. But, in order to do that, you must understand the parts of speech. Check out below the list of reasons sentences can be awkward:
- the sentence is awkward because words were used incorrectly.
- the sentence is awkward because it has to many ideas jammed into it.
- the sentence is awkward because it has too many unnecessary words in it.
- the sentence is awkward because words are missing.
- the sentence is awkward because it’s a fragment, there is no subject or no verb.
- the sentence is awkward because it is a run-on, there are two subjects and two verbs.
- the sentence is awkward because words or ideas are repeated.
- the sentence is awkward because meaning is lost. (the reader has no idea what is being stated)
- the sentence is awkward because there is too much informal or colloquial language being used.
- the sentence is awkward because there is a preposition at the end of a sentence or prepositions are being used in an odd way.
- the sentence is awkward because there are problems with verb conjugation.
Keep this list in mind when you work on correcting the awkward sentences. Next, we’re moving on to punctuation! These are the marks that let readers know when the sentence is over, and when it’s not!
The Nova Rhetorical Style 