How To Identify Parts Of Speech With Pictures

Proper nouns are used to name a specific person, place, or thing, and the main words are always capitalized (Fred, New York, the Declaration of Independence). Nouns can be either singular or plural. Nouns can be possessive, in which case they typically end in ’s or s'.

Some pronouns stand in for people’s names (he, our, they, hers, etc. ). Other pronouns represent an object or idea (it, these, this, etc. ). Pronouns may also stand in for very indefinite nouns that may be difficult to name without the use of a pronoun (everyone, no one, something, etc).

Auxiliary verbs (also known as helping verbs) are words that are used to change the tense of the main verb (will, did, would, etc. ). These are still considered verbs.

Numbers are considered adjectives when they are used to answer the question “how many?” Articles (a, an, and the) are considered adjectives by many because they answer the question “which one?” However, some people consider articles to be a separate part of speech.

Adverbs may also modify other adverbs. (I ran very quickly. )

Coordinating conjunctions are used to join two clauses that are equally important to the sentence. There are 7 coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet. (I like cats, but I don’t like dogs. ) Subordinating conjunctions are used to join a main clause and a subordinate clause, which is less important to the sentence. (I went outside, although it was raining. )

Both the subject and object of a sentence will contain a noun or pronoun. This means that a sentence that has both a subject and an object will contain a noun or pronoun both before and after the verb. (I ate the apple. ) The subject and object may contain modifiers such as adjectives as well. When the sentence has a direct object, it will come directly after the verb. (I like cookies. ) When the sentence has an indirect object, it will come after a preposition. (I gave the card to Frank. )

Adjectives are almost always found before nouns and pronouns (We look at a red dress. ) or after the linking verb “to be” (The dress is red. )[10] X Research source When adverbs are used to modify adjectives, they are almost always found right before the adjective. (The meal was truly delicious. )[11] X Research source When adverbs are used to modify verbs, they may be found before the subject (Later I will walk to school. ), directly before the verb (I will carefully clean the artifacts . ), or directly after the verb. (I go to the park frequently. )

Conjunctions like “and” and “but” are sometimes used at the beginning of a sentence, although this is more rare. When it is done, you should be able to identify the other clause or phrase in the previous sentence.

Not all interjections are marked by exclamation points. Don’t rely on exclamations as the only way to recognize interjections. Another clue that a word might be an interjection is that it is used alone. If there are other words in the sentence, it is less likely to be an interjection.

Keep in mind there may be an adjective, adverb, and/or article between the preposition and the noun or pronoun. These modifiers are all considered to be part of the noun or pronoun phrase. (We paid for the very expensive jeans. )

-ion (population) -sion (tension) -tion (attention) -acy (accuracy) -age (image) -ance (allegiance) -ence (permanence) -hood (childhood) -ar (scholar) -or (editor) -ism (idealism) -ist (realist) -ment (government) -ness (sadness) -y (beauty) -ity (capacity)

-al (clerical) -ful (wonderful) -ly (friendly) -ic (chronic) -ish (squeamish) -like (childlike) -ous (contagious) -y (yappy) -ate accurate -able (laughable) -ible (horrible)

-ify (typify) -ate (proliferate) -ize (rationalize) -en (tighten)

There are some words that end in -ly that are not adverbs (butterfly), so be careful not to overgeneralize. There are also a few adverbs that do not end in -ly (well, fast, very, etc. ).