Lesson 12 — Activity 1: Parts of Speech
Lesson 12 — Activity 1:
Parts of Speech
You have probably studied the parts of speech before, so this lesson will be a review of some concepts that you can use to help polish and improve your writing. Knowing the parts of speech allows you to use the right word in the right sentence so your writing is clear and makes sense.
Click on each of the tabs below to read more about the parts of speech.
Courtesy of ADLC
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A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea. Some examples of nouns are names of people, towns and cities, animals, and qualities such as good and evil.
- A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun to allow you to avoid repeating the noun. For example, instead of using a name over and over, a pronoun such as I, she, or they can be used in its place.
- A verb is a word that describes an action or a state of being. You would usually answer the question, "What are you doing?" with a verb such as studying, talking, reading, playing, etc.
- An adjective is a word that describes a noun. You would answer the question "What is it like?" with an adjective such as tall, red, handsome, important, etc.
- An adverb is a word that describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. You can answer questions about how or when with adverbs such as easily, quickly, etc.
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A conjunction is a word that joins two parts of a sentence together, such as and, but, so, or, etc.
- A preposition is a word that shows where something is. Some examples of prepositions are by, in, on, under, and through.
- An interjection is a word that expresses emotion or surprise. Some examples are Wow!, No way!, or Ouch!
- An article is a word that introduces a noun, especially "the" or "a."
Knowing the names of the parts of speech can help you when you look up words in the dictionary because dictionaries usually indicate what part of speech a word is. This is especially good to know when you are looking for the right word to use.
For example, Gage Canadian Dictionary defines word as follows:
word — n. a sound or group of sounds that has meaning and is an independent unit of speech.
This review of the parts of speech will be helpful in the Self-check Activity for this lesson as well as later in the lesson when you review sentence structure and editing. It is also a great review for any time that you are communicating!
Click here to view a short video from the Learn Alberta website on the parts of speech.