Refresher Course in English Language In order to learn speaking and writing English language correctly, it is essential recognizing how to construct a correct sentence structure. Hence, we need to understand the components of a sentence. The following refresher course is appropriate for those of you my friends, who may have forgotten these important eight parts of the English language which are: Nouns, verbs, helping verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. 1. Nouns: Nouns are the most basic words which make up a sentence. They describe a person, place, thing or idea. Such as, teacher, airport, cat, love… i. Proper nouns: Proper nouns are always ‘capitalized’ and point to something specific. Such as, Dallas, Mrs. Jones, Rocky Mountains… ii. Possessive nouns: Possessive nouns show ownership and “always contain an apostrophe”. Such as: The girl’s cat ran away. => It’s a singular possessive noun (‘s) The girls’ party was fun. => It’s a plural possessive noun (s’) iii. Pronoun: A pronoun (I, you, he, she, it, we & they) replaces a noun. Such as: The girl is pretty. => She is pretty. / Abby and Mike drove off. =>They drove off. 2. Verbs: The verb is an essential part of correct sentence structure. Verbs describe the action or state of the noun in the sentence. Such as: Jump, run, cry, and laugh are all “action words”. While “Is” and “become” and both states of being. Keep in mind please, that verbs are always present in a sentence, otherwise it is incomplete. 3. Helping Verbs: Helping verbs are forms of the words ‘have’, ‘do’ and ‘be’. They occur with ‘action’ or ‘state of being verbs’ to make a complete thought. Such as: Has been, has gone, have done, etc… Notice this example: She did see the cat. =>This verb phrase consists of a helping verb (did) and an action verb (see). 4. Adjectives: Adjectives are used to describe a noun or pronoun and can always be used to answer a question about them. Such as: Which girl was at the party? => The pretty girl was at the party. Here are some descriptive words. Such as: Fluffy, ugly, skinny, colorful, wet, and bumpy. 5. Adverbs: Adverbs are just like adjectives but they describe a verb. Therefore, they are descriptive words which apply to a verb or an adjective. Note please, by asking ‘where’ or ‘how’ an action took place, you can identify the adverb in any sentence. Observe the following examples, She ran quickly home. => How did she run? She ran quickly. (‘Quickly’ is the adverb) 6. Prepositions: Prepositions are words that describe nouns and pronouns. There are not many prepositions to memorize so they are easily recognized. “Prepositional phrase” is formed with a preposition and describes the action of the noun or pronoun. The following are all common prepositions: About, above, beneath, between, during, near, past, etc… Example: The cat was near the car. (‘Near’ is the preposition and ‘near the car’ is the prepositional phrase). 7. Conjunction: Conjunctions are joining words which link words and phrases together. Such as: And, but, or, neither, and so are all common conjunctions. Examples: She bought a cat and a rat. / He didn’t like me and neither did she. 8. Interjections: Interjections are words which show expression and emotion in a sentence. Such as: Yeah! Oh! Wow! Without understanding these basic parts of speech, it is impossible to comprehend the other components of English grammar. Thus, my friends practice these by making diagrams and dissecting sentences that you notice in magazines, stories, newspaper, etc... I believe that in no time you’ll be able to understand sentence structure!
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 01:33:23 +0000
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