Lesson 1 - Verbs, Nouns, and Pronouns
Exercise 1: Directions: Read each of the following sentences...
Lesson 2 - Adjectives, Articles, and Adverbs...
Perfect for students, teachers, and English learners!
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Exercise 1: Directions: Read each of the following sentences...
Lesson 2 - Adjectives, Articles, and Adverbs...
Perfect for students, teachers, and English learners!
Like, Subscribe, and Share with friends learning English!
#EnglishGrammar #PartsOfSpeech #GrammarLessons #LearnEnglish #LanguageLearning #Education #ESL #EnglishTeacher
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LearningTranscript
00:00:13Hi. I'm Carl Weber. Welcome to Video Aided Instruction's English grammar series. This
00:00:20is the Parts of Speech program. Think of a sentence as a kind of machine, a machine for
00:00:28communicating ideas. The machine is made out of parts that are called words. Now, if you
00:00:34were an auto mechanic, you'd have to know about the different kinds of parts that go
00:00:39to make up a car. The transmission, the carburetor, the ignition, the radiator, and so on. A car
00:00:47has to contain the right parts, properly installed and well maintained, if it's to run. In the
00:00:53same way, a person who wants to communicate effectively must understand the different
00:00:58kinds of words that go to make up a sentence. These different kinds of words are called parts
00:01:05of speech. If you understand the parts of speech and how they fit together to make up a sentence,
00:01:11you'll understand how words are assembled to create sentences, and you'll be able to do
00:01:16so correctly and effectively. In this program, we're going to go through each of the different
00:01:22parts of speech and see how they work together to form English sentences.
00:01:33There are nine different parts of speech in English, that is, nine different kinds of words
00:01:38that are used in creating sentences. In this first lesson, we'll talk about three of the
00:01:43parts of speech, verbs, nouns, and pronouns. Let's begin with verbs. As you recall, every sentence
00:01:51in English can be divided into two main parts, the subject and the predicate. The subject is
00:01:57what the sentence is about. The predicate tells something that the subject is or does. And
00:02:04within the predicate, the single most important word is the verb. A verb expresses action done
00:02:10by or to the subject, or it expresses a state of being of the subject. As you can see, the
00:02:18verb
00:02:18is always closely related to the subject. It tells either what the subject is or what the subject does.
00:02:25As you can imagine, there are many different kinds of verbs because verbs express all kinds
00:02:30of actions, activities, or states of being on the part of the subject. Here are some examples
00:02:37of typical verbs. Go, decorate, believe, is, appears. Let's look at each of these examples. Perhaps you
00:02:49can come up with a sentence in which each of these words would be used as a verb. Let's start
00:02:54with the
00:02:54first one, go. Can you come up with a sentence that uses the verb go? How about this one? I
00:03:03go to school
00:03:04every day. Here, the verb go is expressing an action being done by the subject, I. It tells something
00:03:11that I, the subject, do. How about our second example, decorate. Can you come up with a sentence
00:03:18including that verb? Here's one. Every spring, we decorate the gym for our annual dance. Here, the verb
00:03:30decorate expresses an action being done by the subject, we. It tells something that we do. We decorate.
00:03:37How about the verb believe? I believe it's going to rain today. Here, the verb believe is expressing an action
00:03:45being done by the subject, I. Notice that in this case, the action is completely internal. It's a mental action,
00:03:53which means
00:03:54it's something that other people can't see happening. Nonetheless, it is an action. So the verb believe
00:04:01is expressing an action in that sentence. How about the verb is? Can you come up with a sentence that
00:04:08use,
00:04:08uses the verb is? The weather is cloudy today. Here, the verb is, is linked with the subject weather. Is
00:04:18it expressing an
00:04:19action or a state of being? The verb is expresses a state of being. It isn't telling us something that
00:04:26the weather
00:04:26is doing. Instead, it's telling us something that the weather is. It is cloudy today. How about our last example?
00:04:36Appears. Is this verb a verb that expresses an action or a state of being? Well, the verb appears is
00:04:45an interesting
00:04:45example because it can do either one. In some sentences, the verb appears expresses an action. In other
00:04:52sentences, it expresses a state of being. Let's consider a couple of examples. Susan appears on television as a singer.
00:05:01In that sentence, the verb appears is expressing an action being done by the subject Susan. It tells us something
00:05:09that
00:05:09Susan does. She appears on television. In that sentence, therefore, appears expresses an action. In other
00:05:17sentences, however, appears might express a state of being. For example, the weather appears cloudy. In that sentence,
00:05:27the verb appears is expressing a state of being. It is telling us something that the weather is, not something
00:05:34the weather is doing. When we say the
00:05:37weather appears cloudy, we mean more or less the same as the weather is cloudy. So a verb like appears
00:05:43can be
00:05:44either a verb expressing an action or a state of being. And there are a few verbs like that in
00:05:51English which can go
00:05:52either way. They can express a state of being or an action. Notice one other thing about verbs. Verbs may
00:06:01contain more than one word.
00:06:02When a verb consists of two or more words, it's called a verb phrase. And it's made up of a
00:06:09main verb
00:06:10and one or more helping verbs. Here are a few examples of verb phrases.
00:06:16Had gone, will decorate, must believe, should have been, and may appear. In each of these phrases, the main verb
00:06:28comes last, and one or more
00:06:30helping verbs have been added on to modify or give further meaning to the main verb. And in each case,
00:06:39the helping verbs
00:06:39somewhat change the meaning of the main verb. For example, they may change the time in which the action is
00:06:46occurring.
00:06:47Take, for example, the verb phrase, will decorate. When I say, we decorate the gym every year, we're talking about
00:06:55something that's happening now.
00:06:57But when we say, we will decorate the gym next year, we're talking about something happening in the future.
00:07:04So the helping verb, will, changes the meaning of the main verb by expressing a particular time when the event
00:07:11will take place.
00:07:12When verbs are modified or changed in this way to influence or to express the time when the action will
00:07:20take place,
00:07:20then we're talking about creating different verb tenses. Verb tenses are used to express the time when an action or
00:07:29a state of being takes place.
00:07:31The whole subject of verb tenses and of properly using verbs is fairly complicated. In fact, it's so complicated that
00:07:39we've devoted an entire program to that subject.
00:07:42And if you're interested in learning more about how to use verbs properly, we recommend you watch that program.
00:07:49Let's move on to the second important part of speech, nouns.
00:07:54A noun names a person, a place, a thing, or an idea.
00:08:01Here are some examples of nouns. Student, Barbara, State, Cleveland, Sofa, Freedom.
00:08:14All of these are nouns because they name a person, a place, a thing, or an idea.
00:08:19Let's look at each example. What about student? What is that name?
00:08:24Well, that name's a person, or at least a kind of person.
00:08:28How about Barbara? That name's a person, and it names a specific person.
00:08:33We'll talk in a moment about the special kind of noun that Barbara represents.
00:08:39What about state? What does that name?
00:08:42Well, that name's a place. A state would be one of the 50 states that goes to make up the
00:08:47United States,
00:08:48and it's a place where you might live.
00:08:50Cleveland also names a place. Again, a very specific place, a particular city within the United States.
00:08:58Sofa names a thing, and freedom names an idea.
00:09:04Sofa and freedom are both nouns, but notice that one of them names something that you can lay your hands
00:09:09on,
00:09:10something that you can see, something that you can perceive with your senses. That's sofa.
00:09:15Freedom, however, names something that's much more difficult to grasp.
00:09:21It's not something you can see with your eyes or touch with your hands.
00:09:25Freedom is an idea. It's an important concept that many people think about a lot,
00:09:29but it's not something you can point to or perceive with your senses.
00:09:34And that's another example of a kind of noun, a noun that names an idea.
00:09:39Now, within the broad category of nouns, there are two particular types of nouns that you need to be aware
00:09:46of.
00:09:46These are a common noun and a proper noun.
00:09:50A common noun names a category of people, places, things, or ideas.
00:09:56A proper noun names a specific example.
00:09:59A proper noun normally begins with a capital letter.
00:10:03Therefore, it's important to recognize the difference between a common noun and a proper noun,
00:10:08since when you're writing them, you need to know whether to use a capital letter or not.
00:10:13We've already seen a couple of examples of proper nouns.
00:10:17Barbara, a moment ago, is an example of a proper noun.
00:10:21Why? Because it names a specific example of a person, rather than a category of people, like student.
00:10:29That's why, when the name Barbara is used in a written sentence, it would begin with a capital letter.
00:10:36In the same way, Cleveland is a proper noun.
00:10:39It names a specific example of a city, rather than the broad general category of cities.
00:10:46So that the noun city would be a common noun, whereas Cleveland, which names a specific city, would be a
00:10:55proper noun.
00:10:56And that's why Cleveland would begin with a capital C, when you were writing a sentence using the word Cleveland.
00:11:02Here are a couple of other examples to help you see the difference.
00:11:06The word month is a common noun, because it describes a category of things.
00:11:11All the different months would fit into the category of month.
00:11:16May, however, would be a proper noun, because it names a specific month of the year, the fifth month of
00:11:24the year in the Western calendar.
00:11:26One more example.
00:11:28The noun ocean is a common noun.
00:11:31It describes a general category of things.
00:11:34Large bodies of water are called oceans, and all the oceans in the world fit into that category.
00:11:41The word Atlantic is a proper noun.
00:11:45It names a specific example of an ocean, one particular ocean that's found in a certain place on the map.
00:11:52It's a vast place, of course, but nonetheless, it's one and only one ocean.
00:11:57So Atlantic is a proper noun, and would always be written with a capital A.
00:12:03One other thing to know about nouns is that nouns may be singular or plural.
00:12:08In English, we draw these two distinctions between a singular noun, which refers to one and only one thing, person,
00:12:17place, or idea,
00:12:18and a plural noun, which refers to a number of people, places, things, or ideas.
00:12:25Two or more would be plural.
00:12:27In English, most plural nouns are formed simply by adding the letter S to the end of the singular noun.
00:12:35So, for example, the common noun sofa would be made plural simply by adding an S at the end and
00:12:42turning it into sofas.
00:12:44If you have one sofa in your living room, you would spell it S-O-F-A.
00:12:49If you have two sofas or more, you would add an S at the end, and the word becomes sofas,
00:12:55which is plural for sofa.
00:12:56There are a few nouns that change their form from singular to plural in a slightly different way.
00:13:03Some, for example, don't end in the letter S at all.
00:13:07The common noun man becomes men in the plural.
00:13:12Similarly, woman becomes women in the plural, and child becomes children in the plural.
00:13:18Some other words do add an S at the end, but also change their spelling in some other way when
00:13:24they move from singular to plural.
00:13:25So, for example, the noun leaf, which is singular, becomes leaves in the plural.
00:13:32The F turns into V-E, and then the S is added as well.
00:13:37When you learn a new noun, perhaps by looking it up in the dictionary, make a note of how the
00:13:42plural is formed.
00:13:43And in particular, if the plural is formed in an unusual way, make a note of it so that you'll
00:13:49be able to spell it correctly the next time you use the word in a sentence.
00:13:55The third important part of speech is pronouns.
00:13:58A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun or a group of nouns.
00:14:03Here are some examples of pronouns.
00:14:07He, she, it, we, they, some, any, who, which, someone.
00:14:19There are many more examples of pronouns and various kinds of pronouns.
00:14:24Again, pronouns are a complicated subject, and we've devoted an entire program in this series to learning all about pronouns
00:14:31and how to use them correctly.
00:14:33So in this place, in this program, we're going to speak briefly about pronouns and explain some of the basics
00:14:39that you need to understand.
00:14:40We say that a pronoun takes the place of a noun or a group of nouns.
00:14:45Now, why would you want to use a pronoun in place of a noun or a group of nouns?
00:14:50The basic reason is to avoid unnecessary repetition.
00:14:54Suppose you were writing a story about someone named Mark, and Mark did a number of things in the story.
00:15:00It might get rather tiring to keep referring to Mark by name.
00:15:04Mark went for a walk, Mark walked in the park, Mark saw birds, Mark saw trees, Mark decided to go
00:15:11for lunch, and so on and so forth.
00:15:14By the time you finished reading one page of that story, the reader would be tired of hearing the name
00:15:19Mark repeated over and over and over again.
00:15:23Therefore, pronouns were invented to provide a little relief and a little variety.
00:15:28The second time you refer to Mark in that story, you don't have to use the noun Mark.
00:15:34Instead, you can substitute the pronoun he or in other contexts, a pronoun like his or him.
00:15:42So, for example, your story about Mark could talk about Mark going for a walk and then saying he decided
00:15:48to have lunch.
00:15:50He went with his brother and they enjoyed lunch together.
00:15:54By using the pronouns he and his and they, the same nouns don't have to be repeated over and over
00:16:03again.
00:16:03The sentence becomes a little more enjoyable and interesting to read.
00:16:07And you don't have the boring repetition of the noun over and over again.
00:16:11So, pronouns were invented basically as a way of adding greater variety to writing
00:16:16and making it unnecessary to keep repeating the same nouns over and over again.
00:16:21As you can see, a pronoun always refers back to some noun or in some cases a group of nouns.
00:16:29And it's important that the connection between the pronoun and the noun or nouns to which the pronoun refers be
00:16:36very clear.
00:16:37The word or words that a pronoun refers to is called the antecedent of the pronoun.
00:16:43Here are a couple of examples of how an antecedent works.
00:16:48Angela quickly ate her lunch.
00:16:51What pronoun do you notice in this sentence?
00:16:55The pronoun is her.
00:16:57Now, what noun does the pronoun her refer to?
00:17:02Or what noun does the pronoun her take the place of?
00:17:06It refers back to Angela.
00:17:08It takes the place of Angela because in writing this sentence the author could have repeated that noun, Angela.
00:17:15The sentence could have said, Angela quickly ate Angela's lunch.
00:17:19But that sounds a little awkward and repetitious, doesn't it?
00:17:23So, instead the writer substituted the pronoun her for the noun Angela's and wrote, Angela quickly ate her lunch.
00:17:30That means that the antecedent of the pronoun her is Angela.
00:17:36Angela is the noun to which the pronoun her refers.
00:17:40And you'll notice that the two match in the following way.
00:17:45Is Angela a male or a female?
00:17:48Well, in English-speaking countries the name Angela is normally used for a female, a woman or a girl.
00:17:56And that's why the pronoun her has been used because the pronoun her is also female.
00:18:02It refers to a woman or a girl.
00:18:05So, the pronoun and the antecedent in this case have to match in terms of gender.
00:18:11That is, in terms of male or female.
00:18:14And in the special program, All About Pronouns, we'll talk more about the importance of making sure that a pronoun
00:18:20and its antecedent match in various ways.
00:18:23Gender is one of the ways in which the pronoun and its antecedent have to match.
00:18:29Here's another example.
00:18:31Jeremy asked Paul to give him a ride.
00:18:35What's the pronoun in this sentence?
00:18:37Here the pronoun is him.
00:18:40Now, can you tell what noun him substitutes for or refers back to?
00:18:46In this case, the pronoun him refers back to Jeremy.
00:18:50We can tell by reading this sentence that Jeremy is asking Paul to give Jeremy a ride.
00:18:57That's the logical interpretation of the meaning of the sentence.
00:19:01So, the pronoun him refers back to an antecedent, Jeremy.
00:19:05It's always important when you use a pronoun to be sure that you're clear as to what the antecedent is.
00:19:11So, you can make sure that the meaning of the sentence is clear and so that you can make sure
00:19:16that the pronoun and its antecedent match in every way that's important, including gender.
00:19:21In these two sentences, the pronoun does match the antecedent and, therefore, the pronoun is correctly used.
00:19:29In your study guide, we've provided an exercise to test and reinforce the information you've learned in this lesson.
00:19:36Please turn to your study guide and try your hand at that first exercise.
00:19:48In this exercise, your job was to read five sentences and, in each one, identify the nouns, the verbs, and
00:19:56the pronouns used.
00:19:57Let's see how well you were able to carry out this assignment.
00:20:01Let's look at the first sentence.
00:20:03When Nicole read the letter, she realized that she must change the plans for her vacation.
00:20:09Let's begin with the nouns.
00:20:11How many nouns did you identify in this sentence?
00:20:15This sentence actually contains four different nouns.
00:20:18The nouns are Nicole, Letter, Plans, and Vacation.
00:20:25One of these nouns is a proper noun.
00:20:28That's why it begins with a capital letter.
00:20:30And that's the noun, Nicole.
00:20:32It's a proper noun because it names a specific individual.
00:20:36All the other nouns in this sentence are common nouns.
00:20:39They name categories of things, and that's why they don't have to begin with capital letters.
00:20:45Notice that plans, the third noun given in this sentence, is a plural noun.
00:20:51It refers to more than one plan.
00:20:53The other nouns here are all singular, Letter and Vacation.
00:20:58What about verbs?
00:21:00How many verbs did you find in this sentence?
00:21:03There are actually three different verbs.
00:21:06Read, realized, and must change.
00:21:10Remember, some verbs are verb phrases.
00:21:13They consist of more than one word.
00:21:15The verb must change is a verb phrase.
00:21:19It includes the main verb, change, and the helping verb, must.
00:21:25Finally, pronouns.
00:21:26How many pronouns did you recognize in this sentence?
00:21:30There are three pronouns.
00:21:32She, she, and her.
00:21:35All three of these pronouns have the same antecedent.
00:21:39They all refer back to the same noun, namely, Nicole.
00:21:43You could rewrite this sentence to substitute the proper noun, Nicole, for each of those pronouns.
00:21:51The sentence wouldn't read very well then, but the meaning would still be the same.
00:21:55When Nicole read the letter, Nicole realized that Nicole must change the plans for Nicole's vacation.
00:22:02That sounds silly, and no one would ever write or speak that way.
00:22:06But that shows you how pronouns refer back to antecedents.
00:22:10They take the place of nouns.
00:22:12Did you get all of those answers correct?
00:22:15I hope so.
00:22:17Let's take a look at the second sentence.
00:22:19Henry Ford created the Model T, which was for many years the most popular car in the world.
00:22:26Let's begin with nouns.
00:22:28There are several nouns in this sentence.
00:22:30The first is Henry Ford.
00:22:32That's a proper noun because it names a particular person,
00:22:36and both parts of this noun, Henry and Ford, begin with capital letters.
00:22:40Model T is another proper noun.
00:22:45It also names a particular type of car, a particular type of vehicle,
00:22:50and therefore Model and T both begin with a capital letter as well.
00:22:56Years, car, and world are also nouns.
00:23:00Those three also name general categories of things, and these are common nouns.
00:23:07That's why they don't begin with capital letters.
00:23:10What about verbs?
00:23:12How many verbs did you notice in this sentence?
00:23:14There are two of them, created and was.
00:23:19And what about pronouns?
00:23:21Did you notice any pronouns in this sentence?
00:23:24This is a little bit tricky.
00:23:26The one pronoun that's in this sentence is the pronoun which.
00:23:30That's a different kind of pronoun than the pronouns we saw in our first sentence,
00:23:34which referred back to Nicole.
00:23:36In this case, the pronoun which is a special kind of pronoun known as a relative pronoun.
00:23:42It's not important for you to remember the term right now,
00:23:45but generally speaking, relative pronouns are used to connect one clause or one part of the sentence to another.
00:23:53And in this case, you can see that the relative pronoun which connects the first and the second parts of
00:23:59this sentence together.
00:24:01The pronoun which refers back to Model T.
00:24:04The Model T was for many years the most popular car in the world.
00:24:08So a relative pronoun does have an antecedent, just like the personal pronouns that we saw in the previous sentence.
00:24:16Again, it's not important right now to learn the names of the different types of pronouns,
00:24:20but it's good to recognize that a word like which, which acts more or less the same way as a
00:24:27noun,
00:24:27but which takes the place of a noun, is in fact a pronoun, just as she or he are pronouns.
00:24:34Let's look at the third sentence.
00:24:37Is anyone in your class interested in attending next week's seminar on Italian painting?
00:24:43Again, let's begin with nouns.
00:24:45Which nouns did you recognize in this sentence?
00:24:48The nouns here are class, weeks, seminar, and painting.
00:24:55You might be curious about the second noun here, weeks, which ends with an apostrophe s.
00:25:03The apostrophe s is usually used in English to turn a noun into a possessive noun.
00:25:10And you use the possessive form of the noun when describing something that belongs to or is related to the
00:25:17noun.
00:25:17In this case, the seminar belongs to next week or is related to next week.
00:25:22Next week is when that seminar is going to be held.
00:25:25So you can refer to that in English as next week's seminar and use the possessive form of the noun
00:25:32week.
00:25:32It remains a noun. It simply takes on a slightly different form by adding the apostrophe s to turn it
00:25:39into the possessive form.
00:25:40So those are the nouns that appear in this sentence.
00:25:44What about verbs? Which verbs did you notice?
00:25:46Well, there's one verb in this sentence and it's a slightly tricky one.
00:25:51The verb is a verb phrase is interested.
00:25:55Notice that the words that make up a verb phrase can sometimes be separated by other words.
00:26:01One of the times when the words in a verb phrase are separated by other words is in a question
00:26:08like this.
00:26:09This particular sentence is asking a question. It's an interrogative sentence.
00:26:15And in an interrogative sentence, most often the order of the words is a little different than in the most
00:26:22common declarative sentence.
00:26:24And one of the things that often happens is that the words in a verb phrase are separated by other
00:26:29words.
00:26:30Imagine if you were to change the sentence into a declarative sentence, making a statement rather than asking a question.
00:26:38You would probably bring the words of the verb phrase back together.
00:26:42You would say something like, anyone is interested in attending next week's seminar.
00:26:47And the two words of the verb phrase, is interested, would now be reunited.
00:26:52But to turn it into a question, we break them up in the order in which we've shown in this
00:26:58sentence.
00:26:59So, is interested is the verb phrase. Interested is the main verb. Is is the helping verb.
00:27:06What is the subject of the verb is interested?
00:27:11It's the pronoun anyone. And this particular sentence, in fact, contains two different pronouns.
00:27:17Anyone and your. We've already said that there are many different types of pronouns.
00:27:23Pronouns act like nouns, but they take the place of nouns.
00:27:26The pronoun anyone is from a class of pronouns known as indefinite pronouns.
00:27:33And they're called indefinite pronouns because they refer to one or more nouns that are indefinite, that are not specifically
00:27:41stated.
00:27:42Who or what is anyone? Well, we really don't know.
00:27:46The antecedent of the pronoun anyone is not definite.
00:27:50The person who is asking this question, the person who is stating this sentence,
00:27:55is referring to some unknown person in your class who might be interested in next week's seminar.
00:28:02Since the person is unknown, that person is referred to using an indefinite pronoun anyone.
00:28:08Other examples of indefinite pronouns are someone and no one.
00:28:15All of these refer to people who are not specifically named.
00:28:20And that's why they're called indefinite pronouns.
00:28:22And finally, your is also a pronoun.
00:28:26And here, the antecedent doesn't appear in the same sentence.
00:28:29The antecedent, that is the person to whom your is referring, is you.
00:28:35It's not exactly stated in the sentence, but it's something that's understood.
00:28:40When you or your are used as pronouns in sentences, the person who is being referred to is you, the
00:28:48listener,
00:28:49the person who is hearing the sentence, or the person to whom the sentence is addressed.
00:28:54So here we have a couple of pronouns being used in slightly unusual ways.
00:28:58We have the indefinite pronoun anyone and the pronoun you're being used to refer to you,
00:29:05the person hearing the sentence.
00:29:08Let's look at our fourth example.
00:29:10Tim bought several beautiful rugs while he was traveling in Turkey.
00:29:15Again, let's begin with the nouns.
00:29:17How many nouns did you recognize here?
00:29:19Well, there are three.
00:29:21Two proper nouns, Tim and Turkey, and one common noun, rugs.
00:29:26How about verbs?
00:29:28How many of those did you recognize here?
00:29:31There are two.
00:29:32One is a single word, bought, which describes something that Tim did.
00:29:37And the other verb phrase was traveling, describes something else that Tim did.
00:29:43Finally, what about pronouns?
00:29:44Did you notice any pronouns here?
00:29:46There's one, the pronoun he.
00:29:49And what's the antecedent of he?
00:29:51To whom does he refer?
00:29:53What is the noun that he takes the place of?
00:29:57The antecedent of he is Tim.
00:29:59The sentence could be rewritten and substitute Tim for he.
00:30:03But again, it would be less interesting and a little more awkward and rather repetitious,
00:30:08which is why the pronoun is used instead.
00:30:12Let's look at our last sentence.
00:30:14When you are designing a bridge, safety is the most important consideration.
00:30:20What nouns did you notice in this sentence?
00:30:23There are three nouns, bridge, safety, and consideration.
00:30:28Notice that bridge describes a thing, while safety and consideration describe ideas.
00:30:37Nouns very often refer to concrete, physical things,
00:30:42things that can be seen or perceived with the senses.
00:30:45But remember that nouns can also refer to ideas.
00:30:48And safety and consideration are both ideas.
00:30:52They're things that you can't see or lay your hands on,
00:30:55no one can point to or touch something like safety.
00:30:59Instead, it's an idea in the mind.
00:31:01But it is used in the same ways as any other noun.
00:31:05For example, it's used as the subject of a verb.
00:31:09So that's how we recognize that safety and consideration are nouns,
00:31:13even though they don't describe concrete things the way most nouns do.
00:31:18What about verbs?
00:31:20What verbs did you notice in this sentence?
00:31:22There are two verbs.
00:31:24Are designing is a verb phrase.
00:31:27And is is another verb.
00:31:31Are designing, of course, describes an action being taken by you,
00:31:36the subject of the verb.
00:31:39Is describes a state of being that affects the subject of that particular verb, which is safety.
00:31:46And finally, pronouns.
00:31:48Are there any pronouns in this sentence?
00:31:50You is the only pronoun.
00:31:53And once again, it's antecedent.
00:31:55The thing it refers to is you, the person who is hearing the sentence.
00:32:00How many of these identifications did you get right?
00:32:03I hope most or all of them.
00:32:06If you're ready now, let's move on to lesson two.
00:32:15In this lesson, we'll talk about three more parts of speech, adjectives, adverbs, and articles.
00:32:22These three types of parts of speech have more in common than beginning with the letter A.
00:32:27All three are modifiers.
00:32:30In grammar, the word modify is used in a special way.
00:32:34To modify something is to change it.
00:32:38Adjectives, adverbs, and articles all modify other words by giving more information about them.
00:32:45Let me explain how this works.
00:32:47Let's start with adjectives.
00:32:49An adjective modifies a noun or pronoun.
00:32:53That is, when an adjective is used in a sentence, it gives more information about or gives further explanation about
00:33:02some noun or pronoun that appears in the sentence.
00:33:06Here are some examples of adjectives.
00:33:10Large, unusual, green, impossible.
00:33:15Each of these words, if they were used in a sentence, would give more information about a noun or pronoun
00:33:21that appears somewhere in the sentence.
00:33:23They give more information and therefore we say they modify the noun or pronoun.
00:33:29For example, if I were writing a sentence about a boat, that word boat would be a noun.
00:33:35If I described it as a large boat, the adjective large would be modifying the noun boat and would be
00:33:43giving us more information about the boat.
00:33:46It would be telling us something about what kind of boat it is.
00:33:49In the same way, the adjective unusual would give more information about the noun hat in a phrase like that
00:33:59unusual hat.
00:34:00The green tree, the adjective green, gives more information about the tree.
00:34:06And an impossible task, the adjective impossible, gives more information about or explains something more about the noun task.
00:34:15Now, in each of the phrases that I've just used as an example, the adjective comes before the noun.
00:34:22And in the English language, that's usually where adjectives go.
00:34:26However, adjectives can also be used in another way in sentences.
00:34:30The adjective can come after a verb of being.
00:34:33And the verb of being would then link the adjective to the noun, which is the subject of the verb.
00:34:39So, for example, rather than referring to that impossible task in a phrase like that, I could say, this task
00:34:47is impossible.
00:34:48Now, the noun task is the subject of the verb of being is.
00:34:55And what comes after the verb of being is the adjective impossible.
00:35:00So, you can see that in that sentence, the verb of being is links the noun task and the adjective
00:35:08impossible and shows that the two belong together.
00:35:11So, an adjective most often comes before a noun in a sentence in English.
00:35:17But it can also come after a verb of being, which links the adjective to the noun or pronoun to
00:35:24which it refers.
00:35:25So, look for adjectives in both of those places.
00:35:29Now, sometimes a word which is usually used as a noun or pronoun can be used in a sentence as
00:35:35an adjective.
00:35:36That is, it can be used in such a way as to modify a noun or pronoun or to give
00:35:42more information about that noun or pronoun.
00:35:45Let me show you a couple of examples to illustrate what I mean.
00:35:48Look at this sentence.
00:35:50I like to watch baseball.
00:35:53Now, in that sentence, the word baseball is a noun.
00:35:56It's a thing, an activity that I like to watch.
00:35:59I guess you might describe it as an idea that's being named by the noun baseball.
00:36:05However, now look at the same word baseball in this sentence.
00:36:09Willie Mays was a great baseball player.
00:36:13How is the word baseball being used in this sentence?
00:36:16Well, in this case, the word baseball is not being used as a noun.
00:36:20It's not describing a thing that I like to watch or that Willie Mays did.
00:36:26Instead, it's being used as an adjective to give more information about a noun that appears elsewhere in the sentence.
00:36:32The noun is player.
00:36:34Willie Mays was a player.
00:36:36What kind of player was he?
00:36:38Well, there are actually two adjectives here that give more information about what kind of player Willie Mays was.
00:36:45He was a baseball player and he was a great player.
00:36:48So those two adjectives, great and baseball, are being used to modify or give more information about the noun player.
00:36:58Player is a word describing a kind of person.
00:37:01It's a noun.
00:37:02And great and baseball are both being used as adjectives in this sentence.
00:37:07So the same word baseball, which was a noun in our previous sentence, is being used as an adjective here.
00:37:13And that's quite common in English.
00:37:16Speakers of English like to take words and move them around to different parts of speech.
00:37:21And as long as the meaning is clear, there's nothing wrong with that.
00:37:25Here's an example of how a pronoun can be used as an adjective.
00:37:30Which is your favorite sport?
00:37:32In this sentence, which is a pronoun.
00:37:36It happens to be an interrogative pronoun.
00:37:40It's a particular use of pronouns.
00:37:42And again, in our special program about pronouns, we'll talk about the various kinds of pronouns, including interrogative pronouns.
00:37:50But now look at the same word, which, in this sentence.
00:37:54Which sport do you enjoy the most?
00:37:58In this sentence, the same word, which, is being used as an adjective.
00:38:02It describes, modifies, adds information about the noun that follows, sport.
00:38:08It tells us that we're referring to a particular sport, namely the sport that you enjoy the most.
00:38:14So the same word, which, which is used as a pronoun in one sentence, can be used as an adjective
00:38:20in another sentence.
00:38:21It all depends on how the word is used.
00:38:23And in this case, because you can see that it modifies the noun that follows, you can tell it's being
00:38:29used as an adjective rather than as a pronoun.
00:38:34One particular type of adjective is important enough to be considered a separate part of speech.
00:38:39And these are articles.
00:38:41An article introduces a noun.
00:38:45And in English, there are just three articles.
00:38:48A, an, and the.
00:38:51The is called the definite article because when it's used, it states that the noun that follows is one specific
00:39:01noun as opposed to any example from the category.
00:39:05A and an are indefinite articles because when they are used, they are referring to any example from within the
00:39:13category.
00:39:14So, for example, if I say, gee, I would like an apple for lunch.
00:39:19I'm not specifying any specific apple.
00:39:23I'm just saying any old apple would be great for my lunch.
00:39:26If I say, I would like the apple for lunch, I'm referring to the one apple that I see on
00:39:32the counter in front of me right now.
00:39:34So that's the difference between an indefinite article and a definite article.
00:39:38The only difference between a and an, which are both indefinite articles, is that an is used in front of
00:39:46a word that begins with a vowel sound, an open sound like apple or orange.
00:39:53The article a is used before a noun that begins with a consonant sound, a closed sound like potato or
00:40:02tomato.
00:40:02So you refer to a potato, a tomato, an orange, an apple.
00:40:09The third type of modifying word is an adverb.
00:40:13An adverb modifies a verb or an adjective or another adverb.
00:40:20When an adverb is used in a sentence, it generally tells us how.
00:40:25It gives more information about the action described by the verb or the quality described by the adjective or even
00:40:33another adverb.
00:40:35Adverbs often end in ly, but not always.
00:40:39Here are some examples of typical adverbs, and we'll consider some examples of how these might be used in sentences.
00:40:45Adverbs include words like quickly, soon, very, rather, to, and not.
00:40:57That last example of an adverb, not, is one of the most commonly used.
00:41:02It often is used to interrupt a verb phrase.
00:41:05In other words, the word not is used in between words of a verb phrase.
00:41:11And when it's used in this way, it is negating the meaning of the verb phrase.
00:41:16It turns the verb from something that is happening into something that is not happening.
00:41:20And in fact, in the sample, in the way I just use the word not, that illustrates how the word
00:41:28not, the adverb not, is used to interrupt a verb phrase.
00:41:32We could refer to something that is happening, and is happening is the verb phrase, or something that is not
00:41:40happening.
00:41:41And by inserting the adverb not in the middle of the verb phrase, we turn the phrase into a negative
00:41:48rather than a positive.
00:41:50Adverbs are most often used to modify verbs.
00:41:54They tell how the action occurred.
00:41:56So, for example, you might say, he walks quickly.
00:41:59Here we have the adverb quickly, and it modifies or gives more information about the verb walks.
00:42:06Walks describes an action in this sentence.
00:42:09And quickly tells us a little bit more about what that action is like.
00:42:13It's a quick walk.
00:42:14It's walking that is being done quickly.
00:42:17It tells us how the walking is being done.
00:42:20So, quickly, the adverb modifies the verb walks in this sentence.
00:42:24Notice how adverbs can also be used to modify adjectives or even other adverbs.
00:42:32Compare this sentence we just said, he walks quickly, with the following other sentences, to see how these combinations of
00:42:39words can work together.
00:42:40He walks quickly.
00:42:42Quickly is an adverb modifying the verb walks.
00:42:46Now, let's say, he is quick.
00:42:48The word quick, what part of speech is that in this sentence?
00:42:53In this sentence, the word quick is an adjective.
00:42:56It describes he, the pronoun he.
00:42:59It modifies he, tells us something about him.
00:43:02He is quick.
00:43:03And it follows the linking verb, be, and links the pronoun he with the adjective quick.
00:43:10So, he is quick gives us a pronoun, a verb, and an adjective.
00:43:14Now, what about this sentence?
00:43:16He is very quick.
00:43:18This is the same sentence, except that the word very has been inserted.
00:43:22What part of speech is the word very?
00:43:25Well, very is an adverb.
00:43:27It's one of the more common adverbs.
00:43:29And in this case, the adverb very modifies or refers to the adjective quick.
00:43:35How quick is he?
00:43:36He's very quick.
00:43:37It gives us more information about that adjective.
00:43:41It tells us exactly how quick he is.
00:43:44So, in this case, we have an adverb, very, which modifies an adjective.
00:43:49That illustrates how an adverb can sometimes modify an adjective.
00:43:54Finally, look at this sentence.
00:43:56He walks too quickly for me.
00:43:59Let's look at this sentence.
00:44:01He walks too quickly.
00:44:03What about the word quickly?
00:44:04Let's analyze that to begin with.
00:44:06What part of speech is that?
00:44:08Well, we've seen that words that end in ly are very often adverbs, and quickly is an adverb.
00:44:14What word does it modify in this sentence?
00:44:16It modifies the verb walks.
00:44:19It tells how he walks.
00:44:20He walks quickly.
00:44:21So, quickly in this sentence is an adverb modifying the verb walks.
00:44:27Now, what about the word too?
00:44:29He walks too quickly.
00:44:30What part of speech is too?
00:44:32Well, too is another adverb, and in this case, too is modifying the adverb quickly.
00:44:39Remember we said that an adverb can modify a verb, it can modify an adjective, or it can modify another
00:44:47adverb.
00:44:47This is an example of an adverb modifying another adverb.
00:44:52Quickly is an adverb modifying the verb walks.
00:44:55It tells us how he walks.
00:44:57Quickly.
00:44:58The adverb too modifies the adverb quickly.
00:45:01It tells us how quickly he walks.
00:45:03Too quickly.
00:45:04So, as we've seen in these examples, an adverb can modify a verb, it can modify an adjective, or it
00:45:10can modify another adverb.
00:45:13Notice that the adverb not, which we've mentioned as one of the most important and common adverbs, is often contracted
00:45:22to n apostrophe t.
00:45:25To contract a word means to shorten it by leaving out some of the letters.
00:45:28And when you make a contraction in English, you mark the letters that have been omitted with an apostrophe.
00:45:35So, the adverb not is shortened into the contraction n apostrophe t.
00:45:42So, for example, look at these two sentences.
00:45:45William is not going to the movies with us.
00:45:48Here, the adverb not appears in the middle of the verb phrase is going.
00:45:53Remember that the adverb not isn't part of the verb phrase, even though it interrupts it.
00:45:59The verb phrase in this sentence is, is going.
00:46:03Not is an adverb, which in this case interrupts the verb phrase, or appears in the middle of it, and
00:46:09changes its meaning to a negative.
00:46:11He is not going to the movies with us.
00:46:14Now look at this sentence.
00:46:16Sharon isn't going either.
00:46:18What's the verb phrase in this sentence?
00:46:20In this sentence, the verb is, is going.
00:46:24And in between, we have the adverb not, which has been contracted to n apostrophe t, pronounced int.
00:46:32Sharon isn't going.
00:46:33So, even though is does not appear in this sentence as a word by itself, nonetheless, if you're asked what
00:46:40the verb is in this sentence,
00:46:41the correct answer would be, the verb is, the verb phrase is going.
00:46:46And not, the contraction n apostrophe t, has been stuck in the middle to negate the meaning.
00:46:52This sentence could have read, Sharon is not going either.
00:46:56But most often, for ease of reading, we would contract not to n apostrophe t and turn it into, Sharon
00:47:04isn't going either.
00:47:06The use of contractions is considered slightly less formal than using the full word.
00:47:13So, depending on the kind of writing you're doing, you may or may not choose to use contractions.
00:47:18But in most writing, contractions are considered appropriate, and this is an example of how they're used.
00:47:24So, remember that the adverb not would not be considered part of the verb phrase, even though most often it
00:47:31would interrupt it.
00:47:34In your study guide, we've provided an exercise that will give you a chance to test your understanding of these
00:47:40concepts related to adjectives, articles, and adverbs.
00:47:52In this exercise, your job was to identify each adjective, each article, and each adverb in the sentences.
00:47:59Let's go through them one by one.
00:48:01First, when water in a lake is deeply tinged with red, a heavy growth of algae is present.
00:48:09Let's start with adjectives.
00:48:11Well, there are a few adjectives here, and recognizing them may be tricky in at least one instance.
00:48:18Heavy is an adjective.
00:48:20It refers to or modifies the noun that follows, growth.
00:48:24And present is another adjective.
00:48:27Remember we said that adjectives sometimes appear after a verb of being.
00:48:32The verb of being links the adjective to the noun that comes before the verb of being.
00:48:37So, the adjective present refers back to the growth.
00:48:41The growth is what is present.
00:48:43So, the noun growth and the adjective present are being linked together by the linking verb or the verb of
00:48:50being is.
00:48:51There's another word here which could be considered an adjective.
00:48:55And different grammarians will give different opinions.
00:48:57And it doesn't make a great deal of difference whether you define this as an adjective or not.
00:49:02But the word tinged in this sentence might be considered an adjective as well.
00:49:07There are really two ways of looking at this.
00:49:09In this particular sentence, you could say that is tinged is a verb phrase referring to the water having been
00:49:19tinged or covered.
00:49:20And is tinged could be considered a verb phrase in which tinged would be the main verb and is would
00:49:26be a helping verb.
00:49:28Another way of looking at this would be to consider is as a verb of being which links water with
00:49:35an adjective, tinged meaning covered.
00:49:38Some adjectives do end in ED and are derived from verbs.
00:49:43So, tinged could be considered an adjective or it could be considered part of the verb.
00:49:48And you should consider either one correct.
00:49:50Grammatically, it doesn't make much difference in how the sentence would be constructed.
00:49:55And it's, in a sense, simply a difference in name or wording.
00:50:02So, those are the adjectives in the sentence.
00:50:04You might have been tempted by the word red because the word red is often used as an adjective.
00:50:11You might refer to the red ball that came bouncing down the street.
00:50:16In which case, red is an adjective describing the noun ball.
00:50:21In this case, however, red is being used as a noun.
00:50:25The sentence says that the water in the lake is deeply tinged with red.
00:50:29Red is being described here as a kind of a substance, a thing that has been used to tinge or
00:50:36cover the water.
00:50:37So, red is a thing in this sentence and, therefore, it's a noun rather than an adjective.
00:50:43Remember that the same word can be used as more than one part of speech, depending on how it's used
00:50:49in the sentence.
00:50:50What about articles?
00:50:51Those are easy to recognize because there are just three words that can be articles, a, an, and the.
00:50:58And, in this sentence, we have the word a appearing twice.
00:51:02When water in a lake is deeply tinged with red, a heavy growth of algae is present.
00:51:08So, a or a appears twice in this sentence, and those are the two articles.
00:51:12Finally, adverbs.
00:51:14Remember, we said that adverbs often end in ly, and we've got one of those in this sentence, deeply.
00:51:20The adverb deeply in this sentence modifies the adjective tinged.
00:51:25It tells us how the water is tinged with red.
00:51:30How is it tinged? Deeply.
00:51:32Remember, adverbs often answer the question how or tell us how something happens or appears.
00:51:38So, in this case, it is deeply tinged. That's how it is tinged.
00:51:42And, deeply is an adverb modifying the adjective tinged.
00:51:47Let's look at the second sentence.
00:51:49If Peter has enough free time next summer, he will visit southern Italy on his vacation.
00:51:55We have three adjectives in this sentence.
00:51:59Free is an adjective modifying the noun time.
00:52:02It tells what kind of time. Free time.
00:52:05Next is an adjective modifying the noun summer.
00:52:09It tells us what summer. Which summer? Next summer.
00:52:12It gives more information about the summer being referred to.
00:52:16Finally, southern is an adjective.
00:52:18It modifies the proper noun, Italy.
00:52:22It gives us more information about Italy, or tells us more about Italy.
00:52:26What part of Italy? Southern Italy.
00:52:29There's no article in this sentence. The words a, an, and the don't appear.
00:52:34But, there is one adverb. Enough.
00:52:37The adverb enough, in this case, modifies the adjective free.
00:52:43Remember, we saw that free is an adjective modifying the noun time.
00:52:47Enough is an adverb giving us more information about free, or about the free time.
00:52:53How much free time, or what kind of free time? Enough free time.
00:52:57So, enough is an adverb modifying the adjective free in this sentence.
00:53:05How about our third sentence?
00:53:07Auto racing is generally considered one of the most dangerous sports in the world.
00:53:12Let's look for adjectives first.
00:53:14The first word in the sentence is an adjective, auto.
00:53:17Remember, we pointed out that some words that are usually used as nouns can sometimes be used as adjectives,
00:53:24when they are used in such a way as to modify other nouns.
00:53:28That's what's happening here.
00:53:30The word auto is most often used as a noun.
00:53:33You refer to an auto coming down the street.
00:53:36The auto is a thing that is being referred to, and therefore it's a noun.
00:53:40In this case, however, we have the noun racing, describing or naming an activity,
00:53:44and we have auto being used as an adjective to give more information about the racing.
00:53:50What kind of racing? Auto racing.
00:53:52So, here we have a word that's usually a noun being used as an adjective.
00:53:56Auto is an adjective.
00:53:59Considered is another word which, in this particular sentence,
00:54:03could be considered either an adjective or a verb.
00:54:06It could be considered part of the verb phrase is considered,
00:54:10or it could be considered an adjective, which is linked to the noun racing by the be verb is.
00:54:20So, considered could be considered an adjective or a verb, depending on which term you happen to prefer.
00:54:27Either one could be correct.
00:54:29Dangerous is another adjective.
00:54:31In this sentence, it modifies or gives more information about the noun sports.
00:54:38And we have two articles in this sentence.
00:54:40Both of them are the, one of the most dangerous sports in the world.
00:54:45So, both of those should have been marked on your sheet as articles.
00:54:49Finally, there are two adverbs.
00:54:52Generally is an adverb.
00:54:53Again, notice the ending ly, which is commonly found on adverbs.
00:54:57And it modifies the adjective considered.
00:55:01How or when is it considered a dangerous sport?
00:55:05Generally.
00:55:06So, it gives more information about that adjective considered.
00:55:09And remember, a word that modifies an adjective is an adverb.
00:55:13And most is another adverb.
00:55:16We're told that auto racing is generally considered one of the most dangerous sports in the world.
00:55:22So, it's a dangerous sport.
00:55:23Dangerous is an adjective.
00:55:25And how dangerous?
00:55:26Most dangerous.
00:55:27So, most is an adverb which gives more information about the adjective dangerous.
00:55:33An adverb modifying an adjective.
00:55:37Let's look at our next sentence.
00:55:39Silver Blaze was recently selected as the best story about the adventures of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.
00:55:48We've got a number of adjectives here.
00:55:50The first one is the first word in the sentence.
00:55:53Silver.
00:55:53Silver.
00:55:54We can see from the way it's being used here that silver is an adjective giving information about the noun
00:55:59blaze.
00:56:00What kind of blaze?
00:56:02A silver blaze.
00:56:03Silver is a word describing a color.
00:56:07And color words very often are used as adjectives.
00:56:11Selected could be considered an adjective.
00:56:13Once again, it's on the borderline between an adjective or a verb.
00:56:19Best is an adjective.
00:56:20It modifies or gives more information about the noun story.
00:56:24And famous is an adjective.
00:56:26And famous is an adjective.
00:56:27It modifies or gives more information about the noun detective.
00:56:31So, silver, selected, best, and famous could all be considered adjectives.
00:56:36We have three articles in this sentence.
00:56:38All of them happen to be the word the.
00:56:40The best story about the adventures of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes.
00:56:46And there's one adverb.
00:56:48Recently.
00:56:48Again, it has the telltale ly ending.
00:56:52And it tells more about or modifies the adjective selected.
00:56:57When was it selected?
00:56:59Recently.
00:56:59So, it gives more information about the adjective.
00:57:02It modifies the adjective.
00:57:04And that makes it an adverb.
00:57:06And our final sentence.
00:57:08The veterinarian arrived too late to save the injured bird.
00:57:13We have one adjective in this sentence.
00:57:16Injured.
00:57:17It gives more information about the noun bird.
00:57:19It tells us something more about the bird.
00:57:22We have two articles.
00:57:24Both of them the word the.
00:57:25And finally, we have two adverbs here.
00:57:28One adverb is the adverb late.
00:57:30What word does that adverb late modify?
00:57:34It modifies the verb arrived.
00:57:37It tells when the veterinarian arrived.
00:57:40The veterinarian arrived late.
00:57:42So, the word late is an adverb modifying the verb arrive.
00:57:46Now, what about the word too?
00:57:49You might remember too from our list of common adverbs.
00:57:53What does too modify in this sentence?
00:57:57Well, in this sentence, too modifies the adverb late.
00:58:02How late did the veterinarian arrive?
00:58:05Too late.
00:58:05So, it gives more information about the adverb late.
00:58:08And remember, an adverb can modify a verb.
00:58:11It can modify an adjective.
00:58:13Or, it can modify an adverb.
00:58:16So, in this case, we have one adverb late modifying the verb arrived.
00:58:20And then we have another adverb too modifying the adverb late.
00:58:25Two adverbs in a row.
00:58:27Too late.
00:58:28Did you get most of these words correct?
00:58:31I hope so.
00:58:32When you're ready, let's move on to the next lesson.
00:58:40Okay, let's pause to review.
00:58:42We've talked about six different kinds of parts of speech so far.
00:58:47Verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, articles, and adverbs.
00:58:52We have nine parts of speech to talk about all together.
00:58:56So, there are three more to do.
00:58:58In this lesson, we'll talk about two kinds of connecting words.
00:59:02Prepositions and conjunctions.
00:59:05First, a preposition relates a noun or pronoun to another part of the sentence.
00:59:11There are many different kinds of prepositions.
00:59:15Many of them are short words which describe a relationship
00:59:20between the noun or pronoun that follows and the rest of the sentence.
00:59:24Here are some examples of prepositions.
00:59:27In, for, by, from, with, to, below, through.
00:59:36And there are many more.
00:59:38One thing that's special about prepositions is that
00:59:41they're always followed by either a noun or a pronoun.
00:59:45Most often, a noun.
00:59:46The whole combination of words, the preposition and the noun that follows,
00:59:52is called a prepositional phrase.
00:59:54So, whenever you see a preposition, always look for the entire prepositional phrase
01:00:00that the preposition introduces.
01:00:02So, you would always see a preposition followed by a noun or a pronoun.
01:00:07And, all together, that combination of words makes a prepositional phrase,
01:00:11which fits into the sentence and adds further information about the meaning of the sentence.
01:00:16So, looking at the prepositions I just listed for you,
01:00:20you can imagine for yourself a number of prepositional phrases that these prepositions could be part of.
01:00:26In my house, for my sister, by William Shakespeare, from New York, with my father-in-law, to Chicago, below
01:00:39the equator, through the tunnel, and so on.
01:00:43Now, some prepositions consist of more than one word.
01:00:48Here are a few examples.
01:00:50According to, because of, in front of, instead of, prior to.
01:00:57And, again, there are other examples.
01:01:00You can see that, although these prepositions consist of more than one word,
01:01:04the two or three words that make up the preposition work together and have a single meaning.
01:01:10And, once again, each of these prepositions would come before a noun or a pronoun and form a prepositional phrase.
01:01:18According to the weatherman, because of today's rain, in front of the hotel, instead of dinner, prior to bedtime, and
01:01:31so on.
01:01:31So, these are prepositions. They're connecting words because they connect the noun or pronoun that follows to the rest of
01:01:38the sentence.
01:01:40The other type of connecting word that's important is a conjunction.
01:01:44A conjunction connects two or more other words.
01:01:49There are a few different kinds of conjunctions that you need to be aware of.
01:01:53First, coordinating conjunctions.
01:01:56A coordinating conjunction connects words, phrases, or clauses.
01:02:00And there are seven different coordinating conjunctions.
01:02:04They are and, but, or, nor, for, yet, and so.
01:02:13Each of these seven coordinating conjunctions can be used to join a pair of words, or a pair of phrases,
01:02:20such as prepositional phrases, or a pair of clauses.
01:02:23For example, when we talked about sentence structure in the program by that name, we saw how coordinating conjunctions can
01:02:31be used to join two independent clauses to create what's known as a compound sentence.
01:02:38That's a common use for coordinating conjunctions.
01:02:42Notice that these seven coordinating conjunctions join two elements which are more or less equal in value.
01:02:50So that when you connect words, phrases, or clauses with a word like and, or but, or nor, generally speaking,
01:02:58the two things that are being connected are roughly equal in importance.
01:03:03That's one characteristic of how coordinating conjunctions are used.
01:03:07A second type of conjunction to be aware of is the subordinating conjunction.
01:03:13A subordinating conjunction connects clauses, making the clause that follows the conjunction a subordinate clause.
01:03:22Again, in our lesson about sentence structure, we talk a fair amount about subordinating conjunctions.
01:03:29So if you haven't watched that program, you probably should to get a little more background on how subordinating conjunctions
01:03:35are used.
01:03:36Subordinating conjunctions make the clause that follows into a subordinate clause, meaning one that can't stand alone as a sentence.
01:03:45For example, take a subordinating conjunction such as if.
01:03:49If the subordinating conjunction if is put in front of a clause, a group of words including a subject and
01:04:00a verb, that clause can no longer stand alone as a sentence.
01:04:05It becomes a subordinate clause, one that needs to be connected to another clause to make a complete sentence.
01:04:11So, for example, we might have a clause like the following.
01:04:17It rains this afternoon.
01:04:20That could stand alone as a sentence.
01:04:22However, when we put the subordinating conjunction if in front of it, it can no longer stand alone as a
01:04:28sentence.
01:04:29If it rains this afternoon, suddenly it feels incomplete.
01:04:34Something more needs to be added to turn it into a complete thought.
01:04:38If it rains this afternoon, the picnic will be canceled.
01:04:42A subordinating conjunction then creates a subordinate clause, which means a clause that can't stand alone as a sentence.
01:04:50Notice the difference between a subordinating conjunction and a coordinating conjunction.
01:04:56We said that coordinating conjunctions join two things that are more or less equal in importance.
01:05:01A subordinating conjunction joins one thing which is independent, an independent clause, and a clause which is subordinate.
01:05:11Less important can't stand alone as a sentence.
01:05:15So, whereas a coordinating conjunction links two things that are equal in value,
01:05:21the subordinating conjunction links two things that are unequal or different in value and importance.
01:05:27Here's the third and final kind of conjunction to be aware of.
01:05:30The correlative conjunction.
01:05:33A correlative conjunction comes in pairs.
01:05:37And there are four most important correlative conjunctions to be aware of.
01:05:41Both and, either or, neither nor, not only, but also.
01:05:48And the most important thing to be aware of about correlative conjunctions is that they always should be used correctly
01:05:56in pairs.
01:05:57So, whenever you begin with both, you need to follow up with and.
01:06:01So, both my mother and my father will be coming to the awards banquet.
01:06:07When you begin with either, you need to follow through with or.
01:06:11Neither needs to be completed with nor.
01:06:13And not only needs to be completed with but also.
01:06:17A common mistake that people make is to use one but not the other.
01:06:20The correlative conjunction must be used in its entirety.
01:06:24So, whenever you use the first part of it, you need to use the second part.
01:06:28So, these three types of conjunctions are important to recognize.
01:06:33Coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and correlative conjunctions.
01:06:38They fit into different kinds of sentences and need to be followed, used according to certain specific rules.
01:06:52For this exercise, your job was simply to identify the conjunctions and the prepositions that appear in these sentences.
01:07:00Let's start with sentence one.
01:07:01If gasoline prices keep rising, driving to work will become more and more expensive.
01:07:07Well, there are two conjunctions in this sentence.
01:07:11The sentence begins with a subordinating conjunction, if.
01:07:14That's one of the most common subordinating conjunctions.
01:07:18It introduces a clause, which is a subordinate clause, a clause that can't stand alone as a sentence.
01:07:24If gasoline prices keep rising, that can't stand alone as a sentence.
01:07:29It's a subordinate clause, and the word that introduces it is a subordinating conjunction, if.
01:07:36The other conjunction is, and.
01:07:39Remember that there are seven coordinating conjunctions, which connect words or phrases or clauses that are more or less equal
01:07:46in importance.
01:07:48Here, and is connecting the word more and more expensive.
01:07:51And, and is the most common of the seven coordinating conjunctions.
01:07:56So that's the second conjunction that appears in this sentence.
01:08:00There's one preposition, to, driving to work.
01:08:04Remember that a preposition always introduces a prepositional phrase.
01:08:08And what follows the preposition is a noun or a pronoun.
01:08:12In this case, work is a noun.
01:08:15Work is one of those words that can be used as more than one part of speech.
01:08:19Work is often used as a verb.
01:08:22When you say, I work in the garden, you are using it as a verb because it describes action.
01:08:28In this case, driving to work uses work as a noun.
01:08:33Here, in this case, it almost describes a place.
01:08:35That's where you are driving to work.
01:08:38So work is a noun in this case.
01:08:40It's the object of the preposition to.
01:08:42To, the whole thing is the prepositional phrase, to work.
01:08:46So, to is the preposition here.
01:08:49Let's look at the next sentence.
01:08:51In my opinion, Picasso was the greatest painter of the 20th century and one of the greatest of any era.
01:08:58There's just one conjunction in this sentence.
01:09:00It's the common coordinating conjunction, and.
01:09:04It appears near the end of the sentence.
01:09:06However, there are four prepositions.
01:09:08And, in fact, prepositions often appear in large numbers in sentences.
01:09:14Many sentences have several prepositional phrases, and this sentence illustrates that.
01:09:20In my opinion is the first prepositional phrase.
01:09:23In is the preposition.
01:09:24Of the 20th century is a prepositional phrase, beginning with the preposition of and ending with the noun century.
01:09:33Of the greatest is another prepositional phrase.
01:09:36And, of any era is a prepositional phrase.
01:09:40So the four prepositions here are in, of, of, and of.
01:09:45Notice that this sentence includes four prepositional phrases, three of which begin with the preposition of.
01:09:52And, yet, the sentence doesn't sound terribly repetitive or awkward, does it?
01:09:57In my opinion, Picasso was the greatest painter of the 20th century and one of the greatest of any era.
01:10:02It sounds fine.
01:10:04And that illustrates the fact that, in English, it's easy to use several prepositional phrases in a sentence
01:10:13and create a sentence whose meaning is clear and which sounds perfectly correct and easy to read.
01:10:20So, there's one of the lessons of this particular program that prepositional phrases are very versatile
01:10:30and are good to use to express complicated meanings in English.
01:10:35Here's our third sentence.
01:10:36Neither the coach nor the players could explain the dismal performance turned in by the soccer team against their local
01:10:44rivals.
01:10:45This sentence you might have found a little more tricky.
01:10:49There is a conjunction in this sentence that might have been a little difficult for you to recognize.
01:10:56This is a correlative conjunction.
01:10:59Remember, those are conjunctions that work in pairs.
01:11:02And the correlative conjunction appears near the beginning of the sentence.
01:11:06Neither nor.
01:11:07Remember, we said that when you use neither, you have to always follow up with nor.
01:11:13Those two words always belong together.
01:11:15So, when you begin with neither, you need to use nor within a few words.
01:11:19So, in this sentence, the correlative conjunction neither nor has been used correctly.
01:11:24Neither the coach nor the players.
01:11:26The correlative conjunction in this case is being used to connect two nouns, coach and players.
01:11:34We don't have any other conjunctions in the sentence, but we do have two prepositions introducing, of course, prepositional phrases.
01:11:41By is the first preposition, introducing the prepositional phrase by the soccer team and against their local rivals.
01:11:50Against is the preposition and against their local rivals is the prepositional phrase.
01:11:55You might have been confused by the use of the word in.
01:12:00The word in can sometimes be a preposition.
01:12:03You could say, in my house.
01:12:06And there you have a prepositional phrase beginning with the preposition in and ending with the noun house.
01:12:12However, in this sentence, the word in is actually part of an idiomatic phrase.
01:12:18I use that expression, although I haven't used the word idiomatic previously in this program.
01:12:26In this case, the sentence refers to the dismal performance turned in by the soccer team against their local rivals.
01:12:33I think you can hear that the word in is really linked here to the verb turned.
01:12:39And together, the word turned in or that phrase creates a kind of a verbal idiom,
01:12:46which means the performance registered by the soccer team or the performance that the soccer team gave that day.
01:12:56So, turned in, rather than in being a preposition, introducing a prepositional phrase,
01:13:03turned in instead is kind of a verbal phrase, idiomatic meaning that's just an expression that's used in English.
01:13:09And the word in, in this case, is not being used as a preposition, but rather is connected to the
01:13:14verb turned,
01:13:15and the whole thing becomes a verbal idiom with a particular meaning,
01:13:20the two words being connected almost as one thing.
01:13:23So, the word in there might have been tempting to be marked as a preposition,
01:13:27but the way it's used in this sentence, it really doesn't operate that way.
01:13:31Remember, a preposition would always be followed by a noun, which isn't the case here.
01:13:36Our next sentence.
01:13:37According to most surveys, parents usually prefer sending their children to schools located in the neighborhoods where they live.
01:13:45Well, there are two clauses here, and the second clause is introduced by a subordinating conjunction.
01:13:53Remember that a clause is any group of words that includes a subject and a verb.
01:13:58And this sentence ends with the clause, where they live.
01:14:02That's a subordinate clause.
01:14:06It contains the verb, live, the subject, they, and it begins with the subordinating conjunction, where.
01:14:13Because of that subordinating conjunction, this clause can't stand alone as a sentence.
01:14:18You couldn't say, where they live, and leave that alone as a sentence.
01:14:23The word that begins it, where, is the subordinating conjunction, which turns it into a subordinate clause.
01:14:29There are also three prepositions in this sentence,
01:14:33and the first one is made up of more than one word, according to.
01:14:37That introduces the prepositional phrase, according to most surveys.
01:14:43The noun surveys concludes the prepositional phrase, and according to, those two words work together as one preposition.
01:14:53To is another preposition, two schools, and in, in the neighborhoods, is the third and final preposition in this sentence.
01:15:01Now our last example.
01:15:03We missed the last bus of the night, so we traveled to Oakland by taxi instead.
01:15:09In this sentence we have two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction.
01:15:15The first clause is, we missed the last bus of the night.
01:15:19The second clause is, we traveled to Oakland by taxi instead.
01:15:23Both are independent clauses, because each could stand alone as a sentence.
01:15:28The two clauses are linked by a coordinating conjunction.
01:15:32So.
01:15:33Remember there are just seven coordinating conjunctions.
01:15:36And, but, or, nor, for, yet, and so.
01:15:41And your choice of which one to use will depend on the meaning of the sentence.
01:15:46Here, the word so makes sense.
01:15:48And remember that coordinating conjunctions link two things that are more or less equal in importance or meaning.
01:15:54And that's the case here.
01:15:56In addition, the sentence contains three prepositions.
01:15:59Of, in the prepositional phrase, of the night.
01:16:03To, in to Oakland.
01:16:05And by, in by taxi.
01:16:07So, there's one coordinating conjunction and three prepositions in this sentence.
01:16:18We've gone through eight of the nine parts of speech.
01:16:22So that means there's only one left.
01:16:24And this last one is the simplest and, in a way, the funniest.
01:16:27An interjection expresses a strong emotion and is not grammatically connected to the rest of the sentence.
01:16:35In other words, an interjection is a word that just kind of hangs out there by itself.
01:16:40It doesn't happen in writing very often.
01:16:43It happens a little more often in speech.
01:16:45But it isn't much of a grammatical problem.
01:16:47Here are some examples of interjections.
01:16:50Gosh.
01:16:51Yikes.
01:16:53Ouch.
01:16:54Hooray.
01:16:55Or, Homer Simpson's favorite, dough.
01:16:59Those are interjections.
01:17:01And, since they're not connected grammatically to the rest of the sentence, you don't need to know much about them.
01:17:07Recognizing parts of speech is, for some students, a little tricky.
01:17:12Why is it important to be able to recognize parts of speech in a sentence?
01:17:17It's because, in order to apply the rules of proper grammar, you need to know what kind of words you're
01:17:23dealing with.
01:17:23Because there are particular rules that apply to the use of verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and so on.
01:17:31We've already talked a bit about some of those rules.
01:17:34And, in all the other programs that are part of this series, more of those rules and their applications will
01:17:40be explained.
01:17:41So, being able to recognize parts of speech in the sentences that you write is rather important.
01:17:46Here are a couple of tips about how to recognize parts of speech in sentences that you're writing.
01:17:52First, the easiest thing to find is usually the main verb.
01:17:57So, look for the verb that appears in the sentence when you're trying to identify parts of speech in your
01:18:03sentences.
01:18:04Then, look for the subject of the verb.
01:18:07That is, the person, place, thing, or idea which does the action of the verb or which the state of
01:18:15being of the verb refers to.
01:18:18That subject will be a noun or a pronoun.
01:18:21Once you've identified the verb and the noun or pronoun which is the subject of the verb, you can then
01:18:27begin to fill in the rest of the sentence.
01:18:29You can identify the modifying words, adjectives, articles, and adverbs.
01:18:36You can identify the connecting words, the conjunctions and prepositions.
01:18:40And, little by little, you can fill out all the rest of the sentence and understand how it all works
01:18:46together.
01:18:47So, begin by identifying the verb.
01:18:49Then, look for the subject of the verb and gradually fill in the other parts of the sentence.
01:18:54That's usually the easiest way to understand the structure of a sentence.
01:18:58And, remember, too, that the same word may be used as more than one part of speech.
01:19:04We've already seen a couple of examples, but let me leave you with one more illustration of this important fact.
01:19:11So, you can't tell, remember, a word's part of speech just by looking at it in isolation.
01:19:17You need to look at how it's being used in the sentence.
01:19:20Take a word like surprise.
01:19:22A word like surprise can be used as more than one part of speech.
01:19:27In this sentence, Ben surprised Nancy with a party on her birthday.
01:19:33The word surprised is being used as a verb.
01:19:36It describes the action that Ben took, what he did in the sentence.
01:19:41How about in this sentence?
01:19:43It was a surprise party.
01:19:45Here, surprise is being used as an adjective.
01:19:48It modifies or gives more information about the noun party.
01:19:53It tells what kind of party.
01:19:54A surprise party.
01:19:56How about in this sentence?
01:19:58That was quite a surprise.
01:20:00Here, surprise is being used as a noun.
01:20:03It's a thing.
01:20:04The party is being described as a certain type of thing, namely a surprise.
01:20:09So, in these three sentences, the word surprise is being used first as a verb, then as an adjective, then
01:20:16as a noun.
01:20:17This is a very common phenomenon in the English language.
01:20:21The same word being adapted to serve several different purposes.
01:20:25So, always look carefully at the word in the context of the sentence before you decide what part of speech
01:20:31it is.
01:20:32In your study guide, we have an exercise designed to test and to let you practice your ability to recognize
01:20:38parts of speech.
01:20:47Let's look at the first sentence and then decide what part of speech each of these words represents.
01:20:53My car gets 30 miles to the gallon.
01:20:56Following my recommendation a moment ago, let's start by looking for the verb.
01:21:00The verb here is gets.
01:21:03What is the subject of the verb?
01:21:05The subject is the noun car, and it's preceded by the pronoun my.
01:21:10My is, in this case, referring back to myself.
01:21:14I am the antecedent, even though I don't appear in the sentence.
01:21:19And pronoun my is what's technically known as a possessive pronoun.
01:21:23Notice that it's used almost in the same way as an adjective, but it's a pronoun because it's referring back
01:21:28to a person.
01:21:30And therefore, it's taking the place of a noun.
01:21:33So, my car gets is pronoun, noun, verb.
01:21:36The remaining words are an adjective, a noun, a preposition, an article, and a noun.
01:21:43So, 30 is an adjective.
01:21:45It modifies the noun miles.
01:21:48Two is a preposition, and it's followed by the article, the, and the noun gallon.
01:21:55Now, let's look at the second sentence.
01:21:57People say that too many young athletes today are selfish.
01:22:01There are two verbs in this sentence.
01:22:04Say is the first verb, and its subject is the noun people.
01:22:08The second verb is are, which is a verb of being near the end of the sentence.
01:22:15And its subject is the noun athletes.
01:22:19Now, we can fill in the other words, now that we've identified the verbs and their subjects.
01:22:24The word that is a pronoun.
01:22:27Technically, it's known as a relative pronoun.
01:22:29And what it's doing is introducing a subordinate clause.
01:22:35So, that is a pronoun.
01:22:38Two is an adverb, modifying the adjective many.
01:22:44Young is another adjective, modifying athletes.
01:22:48And today is an adverb, which modifies the verb are.
01:22:53That is, the young athletes of today are selfish.
01:22:56When are they selfish, or how are they selfish?
01:22:58They are selfish today.
01:23:00So, the adverb today modifies that verb are.
01:23:04And the final word, selfish, is another adjective.
01:23:07Remember, we saw that adjectives can sometimes follow a verb of being,
01:23:11and refer back to the noun, which is the subject of the verb.
01:23:15In this case, the adjective selfish follows the verb are,
01:23:19and refers back to the athletes.
01:23:21So, the athletes, noun, are selfish adjective.
01:23:26Let's look at the next sentence.
01:23:28The Hudson River in New York is not actually a river.
01:23:31In fact, it is a tidal estuary.
01:23:35Two verbs in this sentence.
01:23:37The first one is, is, and the subject is, river.
01:23:43The entire first clause is talking about what the Hudson River is.
01:23:48So, river is the noun, which is the subject of the verb is.
01:23:52The second verb is also is, in the second clause.
01:23:55And the pronoun, it, is its subject.
01:23:59Now, let's talk about the other words here.
01:24:01We said that river is a noun.
01:24:04The Hudson preceding the word river are an article and an adjective.
01:24:08Hudson is an adjective telling what river.
01:24:11In is a preposition, and New York is a noun.
01:24:16It's a proper noun naming a particular state in the United States,
01:24:19and it's the object of the preposition.
01:24:21It's part of the entire prepositional phrase in New York.
01:24:25We saw that not is one of the most common adverbs,
01:24:28and that's how it's being used here,
01:24:30and actually is another adverb, also modifying the verb is.
01:24:36A is, of course, an article, and river is a noun.
01:24:40Now, we move into the second clause.
01:24:42In fact is a prepositional phrase.
01:24:44So, in is the preposition, and fact is a noun.
01:24:48It is a pronoun.
01:24:50Is, we've already seen, is the verb,
01:24:52and a title estuary is an article, an adjective, and a noun.
01:24:57Estuary is a noun because it names a particular thing.
01:25:00It's a difficult word, so perhaps you don't know that word,
01:25:04but you can tell from the way it's used in this sentence
01:25:06that it must be a noun.
01:25:08For example, it's introduced by an article.
01:25:10So, even if you never saw the word estuary before,
01:25:14you can tell it's a noun because the sentence refers to a title estuary,
01:25:18and you only put an article in front of a noun.
01:25:22And title is an adjective because it tells what kind of estuary.
01:25:26So, that's how we would identify the various words in this sentence.
01:25:32How about the next example?
01:25:33Paul Clay created some of the greatest abstract paintings of the 20th century.
01:25:40The verb here is created, and the subject is the noun Paul Clay,
01:25:45a proper noun naming a particular person.
01:25:48Now, let's look at the rest of the sentence.
01:25:51Some is a pronoun.
01:25:53Remember, we talked a bit about indefinite pronouns,
01:25:55pronouns which refer to some unnamed thing or group of things.
01:26:01And the sum here is referring to an unknown or unidentified group.
01:26:06So, it is a pronoun, an indefinite pronoun.
01:26:08Of the greatest abstract paintings, all of that is a prepositional phrase.
01:26:14Of is the preposition that begins it.
01:26:16The is an article.
01:26:18Greatest and abstract are both adjectives, and paintings is the noun.
01:26:23So, the whole thing taken together is a prepositional phrase, beginning with a preposition and ending with a noun.
01:26:29And the last words of the sentence are also a prepositional phrase.
01:26:34Of the 20th century.
01:26:35Of is the preposition.
01:26:37Century is the noun.
01:26:38And in between, we have the article, the, and the adjective, 20th.
01:26:43Now, our last example.
01:26:46Wow, you have a really beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains from your balcony.
01:26:51Of course, we had to stick in at least one example of an interjection.
01:26:55And the first word here, wow, is our interjection.
01:26:59It has an exclamation point, which interjections often do.
01:27:03And it's not grammatically connected to the rest of the sentence.
01:27:06The meaning is connected, but there is no special linkage grammatically.
01:27:10Now, let's look at the rest of the sentence.
01:27:14The verb is have.
01:27:16And the subject of the verb is you, which is a pronoun.
01:27:21So, you have, pronoun and verb.
01:27:23That's the heart of the sentence.
01:27:24Let's look at the rest of what's here.
01:27:26A really beautiful view.
01:27:28A is an article, of course.
01:27:31Really is an adverb.
01:27:33And beautiful is an adjective.
01:27:34All of this goes to modify the noun view.
01:27:38Beautiful is an adjective modifying view.
01:27:41And the adverb really modifies the adjective beautiful.
01:27:45How beautiful?
01:27:47Really beautiful.
01:27:48So, any word that modifies an adjective would be an adverb.
01:27:51And that's what really is.
01:27:53Of the Rocky Mountains is a prepositional phrase.
01:27:56Of is the preposition.
01:27:58The is an article.
01:28:00Rocky is an adjective.
01:28:02And mountains is the noun, which Rocky modifies.
01:28:06So, of the Rocky Mountains begins with a preposition, ends with a noun, prepositional phrase.
01:28:12And the sentence ends with one more prepositional phrase.
01:28:15From your balcony.
01:28:16From is the preposition.
01:28:18Balcony is the noun.
01:28:19And in between, we have the pronoun, your.
01:28:22Again, it's a possessive pronoun.
01:28:23It tells whose balcony.
01:28:26Yours.
01:28:26So, the antecedent of that pronoun would be you, the hearer of this sentence.
01:28:33And, in effect, the pronoun here acts as a kind of an adjective.
01:28:38Because it gives a little more information about the noun balcony.
01:28:46You now have a pretty good idea of how these nine different parts of speech are fitted together to create
01:28:53English sentences.
01:28:54In a way, it's amazing, isn't it, that just nine different kinds of words can be put together in different
01:29:00combinations to express almost any conceivable human emotion or idea.
01:29:06In the other programs in this series, we'll provide you with additional pointers and rules to follow in selecting among
01:29:13these nine parts of speech and fitting them together to create English sentences that express your meaning accurately and that
01:29:21are also grammatically correct.
01:29:22I hope you've found this program enjoyable and helpful, and thanks for watching.