Words are the building blocks of language. Understanding parts of speech helps us construct meaningful sentences. From nouns that name things to verbs that express actions, each word plays a crucial role in communication.

Sentence structure is the framework of language. By combining different types of clauses, we create simple, compound, and complex sentences. This variety allows us to express complex ideas and relationships between thoughts in our writing and speech.

Parts of Speech

Eight parts of speech

• Nouns name a person, place, thing, or idea
  • Proper nouns name specific people, places, or things (John, New York, Amazon)
  • Common nouns refer to general people, places, or things (boy, city, river)
  • Concrete nouns represent tangible objects perceived by the senses (table, car, tree)
  • Abstract nouns describe intangible ideas, qualities, or states (love, happiness, courage)
• Pronouns replace nouns to avoid repetition
  • Personal pronouns refer to specific people or things (I, you, he, she, it, we, they)
  • Possessive pronouns show ownership (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs)
  • Relative pronouns introduce dependent clauses (who, whom, whose, which, that)
• Verbs express actions, occurrences, or states of being
  • Action verbs describe physical or mental actions (run, think, play)
  • Linking verbs connect the subject to a noun or adjective in the predicate (be, seem, appear)
  • Helping verbs assist the main verb in expressing tense, mood, or voice (have, do, will, can, may)
• Adjectives modify or describe nouns and pronouns, providing more information (blue, happy, tall)
• Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, indicating manner, time, place, or degree (quickly, very, always)
• Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word in the sentence (in, on, under, over, with)
• Conjunctions join words, phrases, or clauses
  • Coordinating conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses of equal importance (and, but, or, yet, so)
  • Subordinating conjunctions introduce dependent clauses (because, although, if, when, while)
• Interjections express strong emotion or sudden feeling (wow, ouch, oh, hey)

Constructing grammatical sentences

• Subject-verb agreement ensures the verb agrees with the subject in number (singular or plural)
• Pronoun-antecedent agreement matches pronouns with their antecedents in number, gender, and person
• Correct verb tense expresses the appropriate time of the action or state
• Proper adjective and adverb placement puts adjectives close to modified nouns and adverbs close to modified verbs, adjectives, or adverbs
• Correct preposition usage chooses the appropriate preposition to express the desired relationship between words
• Parallel structure uses the same grammatical form for elements in a series or paired constructions

Sentence Structure

Types of sentence structures

• Simple sentences contain one independent clause with a subject and a predicate (The boy ran to the park)
• Compound sentences have two or more independent clauses joined by coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, yet, so) or semicolons (The boy ran to the park, and his sister followed him)
• Complex sentences consist of one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses introduced by subordinating conjunctions (because, although, if, when, while) or relative pronouns (who, whom, whose, which, that) (When the boy ran to the park, his sister followed him)

Independent vs dependent clauses

• Independent clauses express a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence, containing a subject and a predicate (The boy ran to the park)
• Dependent clauses do not express a complete thought, cannot stand alone as a sentence, and function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs
  1. Noun clauses act as subjects, objects, or complements (What he said surprised me)
  2. Adjective clauses modify nouns or pronouns (The book that I read was interesting)
  3. Adverb clauses modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (She studied hard because she wanted to pass the exam)