PARTS OF SPEECH
Nouns
- A word that describes a person, place, thing, or idea.
- Examples: girl (person), tent (place), eraser (thing)
Proper Noun
- The name of a specific person, place, or thing that begins with a capital letter
- Examples: John F. Kennedy (person), Jupiter (place), Gettysburg Address (thing)
Pronouns
- A pronoun can take the place of a noun
- Examples: it, he, she, they
Verbs
- A word that tells about an action (run, swim, jump)
- May be past, present, or future tense (walked, walk, will walk)
- May express state of being (is, am, was, were, are, being, been, be)
Adjectives
- Describe a noun and also answer the questions: What kind? (small) How many? (three) Which one(s)? (Joe’s)
- Example: The leaves on Joe’s three small trees turned red.
Adverbs
- A word that describes a verb, often ends in –ly, and answers: How? When? Where? To what extent?
- Examples: He drove slowly. (How?) The train arrived early. (When?) She went to the movies. (Where?) The dog ran away. (To what extent?)
Prepositions
- Relate a noun or pronoun to another word in the sentence and usually tell where some-thing is, where something is going, or when something is happening
- Examples: inside (where?), before (when?)
PUNCTUATION
Apostrophe (’)
- Shows possession (Sarah’s watch)
- Contractions (don’t, haven’t, can’t)
- Creates plurals of lowercase letters (a’s, p’s, x’s)
Colon (:)
- Introduces lists (There are four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall.)
- Introduces long quotations (Martin Luther King Jr. said: “I have a dream that one day…”)
- Separates hours from minutes (4:00, 10:35)
- Introduces a definition (hat: a covering for the head)
Comma (,)
- Separates clauses in sentences (The sun came out, which was good for the flowers.)
- Separates three or more words in a series (She had bacon, eggs, juice, and an apple for breakfast.)
- Separates a city from a state (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
- Separates the month and day from the year (July 3, 1979)
- Separates a direct quotation in a sentence (Lauren said, “My favorite day is Friday.”)
Period (.)
- Ends most sentences (I will go fishing today.)
- Follows most initials (E. B. White, F. Scott Fitzgerald)
- Follows most abbreviations (6 ft. 5 in.)
Exclamation Point (!)
- Ends exclamatory sentences (Hurry up!)
- Separates an interjection from a sentence (Hooray! You did it!)
Semi-Colon (;)
- Connects two independent clauses (This could be a complete sentence; this could be another one.)
FIGURES OF SPEECH
Synonym
- A word of similar or like meaning
- Examples: baby and infant, sick and ill, freedom and liberty
Antonym
- A word of opposite meaning
- Examples: short and tall, more and less, near and far
Homonym
- Words that are spelled and sound the same but have different meanings
- Example: bear (animal) and bear (to carry)
Homophone
- Words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings
- Examples: dye and die, sea and see
Simile
- Compares two unlike things and is usually introduced by the words like or as
- Examples: Thomas was quiet like a mouse. Susan is as slow as a turtle.
Metaphor
- A comparison of two different things to show a likeness between them without using the words like or as
- Examples: She is a delicate flower. He is a teddy bear.
Oxymoron
- Combines two normally contradictory terms
- Examples: bitter sweet, act naturally, old news
Hyperbole
- An obvious and intentional exaggeration not to be taken literally
- Example: I have a million things to do today.