Back to FOJ menu

You may not have thought about naming the parts of speech or about how words work in a sentence since you were a young teenager.

And to be honest, we don't really care that much about whether you can correctly name the pluperfect tense of a verb, we just want you to know when you should write "He had been gone," and when you should write "He was gone."

However, like so many areas in our lives, when we want to learn something or even sharpen our skills in an area in which we're already proficient, we have to learn the nomenclature, the jargon -- the way concepts and tools are identified.

In grammar, that means learning the parts of speech and the ways in which words function.

So, this unit is designed to help you brush up on "What's a predicate?" and "Is that a subject or an object?"

What's really important

The reason you need to know the jargon so you will know:

• how to tell whether a pronoun is being used in its subjective, objective or possessive form;
• when a word that looks like a verb is actually a noun, adjective or adverb;
• how to tell when there should be a hyphen in the two words proceeding a noun; and
• whether a group of words has both subject and predicate.

First, we'll look at parts of speech -- what names are attached to a word. Second, we'll see how words function -- how those nouns and adjectives work in a sentence. Finally, we'll look at some of the tricky parts of each part of speech.

Parts Of Speech

1. NOUNS function as subjects, objects, complements, appositives and modifiers. Nouns name a person, place, thing or animal.

2. PRONOUNS substitute for nouns in sentences.

3. VERBS function as the predicate of a sentence. A verb shows action or a state of being.

4. ADJECTIVES modify or qualify nouns and pronouns.

5. ADVERBS modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. They also may modify phrases and clauses.

6. PREPOSITIONS show the relationship between the noun (or noun substitute) following the preposition and something else in the sentence. This relationship is usually direction or location.

Prepositional phrases include the preposition, the noun words (the object of the preposition) and any modifiers. Prepositional phrases usually act as adjectives or adverbs (modifiers).

7. CONJUNCTIONS function as connectors between sentence elements.

8. INTERJECTIONS are exclamations. In journalism, we hate 'em!

Word Function

"Parts of speech" tells us how a word is classified, not how it functions in a sentence.

In the following sentence, the parts of speech are shown above the line; the functions are shown below.

The functions you will need to know are subject, predicate, object (indirect object, direct object and object of the preposition), modifier (adjectives and adverbs) and connector (prepositions and conjunctions). In many cases, entire phrases can take over any of these functions.

Sentence: The courteous waiters usually offered us refills at Joe's cafe.

Parts of speech

article	adjective	noun	adverb	verb	pronoun	noun	preposition	noun	noun
The	courteous	waiters	usually	offered	us	refills	at	Joe's	cafe.
modifier	modifier	subject	modifier	predicate	indirect object	direct object	connector	modifier	object of preposition

Word function

Pronoun Problems -- What case?

One problem students have is identifying what case of a pronoun to use -- subjective, objective or possessive. It's not that hard -- IF you can identify the parts of speech.

SUBJECTIVE CASE

If a pronoun is the subject of a sentence -- or the subject of a clause within the sentence -- you use the "subjective" case. This is also known as the "nominative" case. Some subjective personal pronouns are I, he, she, it, we and they.

The tricky part: The subjective case is also used when the pronoun is a predicate nominative. "It is he." We'll talk about this more when we get to pronouns.

OBJECTIVE CASE

The objective case of the pronoun is used when the pronoun is the object of the preposition, the direct object or the indirect object.

Object of the preposition: "It was between you and me." Me is the objective form of "I." Don't write "between you and I." Between is the preposition.

Direct object: "The ball hit him." Use the objective case of the pronoun when the pronoun is the receiver of the action of the verb.

Indirect object: "Shurlds gave us a break on the exam." Use the objective case when the pronoun tells to or for whom (or what) something is done. The indirect object is usually followed by a direct object. Here, "us," the indirect object, is given a "break," the direct object of the verb "gave."

POSSESSIVE CASE

If the pronoun is used to show possession of a noun -- when you would say Jim's wallet -- use the possessive case. His wallet, her wallet. Their house, its staircase.

The tricky part: Possessive pronouns are not spelled with apostrophes, like nouns are. You write John's, but you would never write hi's. So don't write it's -- at least not when you mean "its staircase." It's means "it is" -- it's the contraction.

Another trick: The correct pronoun to be used before a gerund (you'll read about those below) is the possessive. For instance: She couldn't stand his running around. NOT: She couldn't stand him running around.

Verb-looking Words That Aren't Verbs

They even have a "verb-like" name -- verbals. But they aren't verbs (say it again). They are forms of verbs that function in sentences as nouns, adjectives or adverbs. Like verbs, they can have different tenses, can take subjects and objects and can be modified by adverbs.

Take the verb drive. "Verbals drive me crazy." In this sentence, "drive" is acting as you would expect it to -- as an action verb. Now look at the verbals:

GERUNDS -- Verb form ending in -ing that functions as a noun.

Driving on ice is dangerous.

Driving is the subject of the sentence. (What other word could be? None!) So it HAS to be a noun. Subjects are always nouns (or phrases acting as nouns).

PARTICIPLE -- Verb form ending in -ing, -ed, -t or -en that functions as an adjective.

Driving to school, he ran off the road.

He was a driving teacher in high school.

He was a driven man.

All these forms of the verb drive are used as adjectives. Driving to school modifies "he." Driving modifies "teacher." Driven modifies "man."

By the way, the different endings of the verb create present and past participial forms -- but we'll get to that later.

INFINITIVE -- Verb form preceded by "to." Used as noun, adjective or adverb.

To drive on ice is crazy.

To drive is the subject of the sentence. So it HAS to be a noun. Subjects are always nouns (or phrases acting as nouns).

Waiting to drive is always a problem for a teen-ager.

The infinitive is acting as an adjective, modifying the gerund-noun "waiting" (remember gerunds? Look a few lines back.)

He left the house to drive her to school.

The infinitive is acting as an adverb. The word answers "Why" -- why did he leave? Adverbs always modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. Here, it modifies the verb.

Why you need to know verbals

We're not interested in your knowing how to identify each verbal by name. (Did you catch that? ... in your knowing how ... That was a sentence using the possessive pronoun your before a gerund knowing which acts as the object of the preposition in. Isn't this fun?)

OK, maybe not for you. But the sentence is a good illustration of why you need to recognize gerunds. You might have written "not interested in you knowing how to ... ." You would have been wrong.

The other times you'll need to recognize verbals is when we start looking at sentence structure. It's very important to be able to separate phrases from clauses and that means you have to recognize subjects and predicates -- and that means you have to know how verbals are functioning.

More Word Functions

Here are some more examples of how words function:

SUBJECT -- The simple subject names the person, place or thing spoken about. It answers the question "Who?" or "What?" before the verb.

Jordan has 30 students in his class.

Which professor has the most students?

Shurlds' class is the noisiest.

The tricky part: Subjects are not always the first word of the sentence. Notice that Jordan is the subject of the first sentence, but Shurlds (or precisely, Shurlds') is not the subject in the third sentence. That's because Shurlds' is in the possessive form, a form that always comes before a noun (only nouns -- and verbals acting as nouns -- can be possessed). So in the third sentence, class is the subject.

The order of the second sentence might mess you up. Which, in this case, is an adjective modifying professor, telling us (duh!) which professor. We know it's an adjective and not an adverb because it modifies a noun -- not a verb, adjective or other adverb.

More tricky subjects: Don't let a prepositional phrase or any other words between the real subject and predicate confuse you:

Members of the Committee to Save Carnall Hall are meeting Friday.

The subject is members, not Carnall Hall.

Watkins, along with all the new faculty members, is attending the conference.

The subject is Watkins. Ignore all the stuff set off by commas (at least when you're looking for the subject). If you didn't ignore it, you might be tempted to use the verb "are" instead of the correct verb "is." (OK, I admit this is a bad sentence -- but it is grammatical.)

PREDICATE -- The simple predicate is the verb indicating the action of the subject. Different forms of the verb, plus auxiliary (helping) verbs, determine the tense of the predicate. (Notice that verbals -- above -- also look like predicates, but function as nouns and modifiers.)

He drives like a maniac. (present tense)

He drove to Kansas City by himself. (past)

She is driving to Las Vegas this summer. (present progressive)

She has driven the first 100 miles of her journey. (present perfect)

Auxiliary verbs are used to form all but the simple present and past tenses. (The following list may not be complete -- there are lots of these verbs.)

* The "be" group: be, am, is, are, was, were, been, being (am going, are learning, is changed, was singing)

* The "have" group: have, has, had (have danced, has looked, had become)

* The "do" group: do, does, did. Usually used for emphasis or to ask questions. (Did he dance? She does talk a lot. Do you like spinach?)

MODIFIER -- A modifier is a word or an expression which is used to clarify or limit the meaning of another word. Adjectives and adverbs, as well as other single words and groups of words, can function as modifiers.

He was a driving-school dropout.

Tyson is the largest chicken producer in the world.

Driving to Kansas City, he realized he needed more sleep.

The tricky part: When to use a hyphen between words modifying a noun depends on what kinds of words the modifiers are.

For instance, don't put a hyphen between an -ly adverb and the adjective in a pair modifying a noun.

She was a fairly smart lawyer.

BUT:

She was a street-smart lawyer. (This "lawyer" is modified by a noun and an adjective, so the hyphen is needed.)

There are some rules here, but the best strategy is to learn where you can find the rules and the exceptions in your handbook and stylebook.

CONNECTORS -- Prepositions and conjunctions. Just knowing how to recognize a preposition ("anywhere a squirrel can go" -- in, under, through, above, between, etc.) is about all you need to know about prepositions, so you can recognize prepositional phrases. Those phrases can mess up your choice of verbs if you don't know how to watch for them.

On the other hand, there are many forms of conjunctions. You will introduced to them as you need them, but for now, consider these two:

Coordinating conjunctions connect and relate words and word groups of equal grammatical rank:

and or words: wine and roses

but nor phrases: to be or not to be

You can remember all the coordinating conjunctions with this mnemonic:

FANBOYS -- For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So

The tricky part: There are some words that writers often confuse with conjunctions -- they're called conjunctive adverbs. These adverbs (NOT conjunctions) are used to join two independent clauses and often show a cause-and-effect relationship.

The conjunctive adverbs most often used incorrectly as coordinating conjunctions are however, therefore and nevertheless. (These words can also be used as parenthetical adverbs, but we'll deal with that later.)

IF you use a conjunctive adverb to join two independent clauses, you MUST use a semicolon. For instance:

He wanted to swim; therefore, the chill of the water didn't matter to him. (You must use the semicolon in this sentence. Otherwise, it's a comma splice.)

NOT: He wanted to swim, therefore, the chill of the water didn't matter to him. (Therefore is NOT a coordinating conjunction.)

ALSO CORRECT: He wanted to swim, so the chill of the water didn't matter to him. (So is one of the FANBOYS, a coordinating conjunction.)

Generally, journalists don't use semicolons in sentences to join independent clauses. If a journalist wanted to use the word therefore, she would write:

He wanted to swim. Therefore, the chill of the water didn't matter to him. (Change the one sentence into two.)

Those tricky commas -- There's a rule about whether to use a comma before a conjunction. Generally, journalists use commas sparingly.

Rule: If you are joining independent clauses, put a comma before the conjunction.

He likes to dance, but he's not very good at it.

Rule: If you are joining a dependent clause AT THE END of an independent clause, do not use a comma before the conjunction.

It's all right if you go or if you don't go.

Correlative conjunctions link equivalent words, phrases and clauses.

both ... and either ... or

neither ... nor not only .... but also (always use the entire phrase, not just but)

whether ... or since ... therefore

if ... then not so ... as

as ... as as well ... as

Neither the players nor the coach was happy about the game.

It is as long as it is wide.

It is not so long as it is wide.

The tricky part: When you are faced with deciding whether to use a singular or plural verb with a sentence using either/or or neither/nor, the order of the words being linked rules.

For instance:

Neither Mary nor her children are ready to go.

BUT: Neither her children nor Mary is ready to go.

The rule is that whichever subject is closest to the verb rules.

Yes, sometimes this can sound funny, so if you are given a choice, flip the subjects so the plural subject is last and use a plural verb.

CLAUSES AND PHRASES

Finally, we said you needed to know about parts of speech to tell whether a clump of words had both a subject and a predicate. When a clump of words has both, it is a clause. If not, it is a phrase. You'll notice we mentioned clauses and phrases above -- for instance, how will you know whether to use a comma before the coordinating conjunction if you don't know what an independent clause is?

The starting point for learning about clauses is learning about parts of speech and word functions. So, do it.

Back to FOJ menu