Lesson 12—The parts of speech

1. Words are what words do

Mercifully, the SAT Writing does not test your ability to identify parts of speech. You won’t be asked to circle
the verbs, the pronouns, or the prepositions in a sentence. Nevertheless, to ace the multiple-choice portion of
the SAT Writing, it helps enormously to know your parts of speech. If you know your parts of speech, you
can begin to see whether or not they are being used properly. In the following Lessons, we will make liberal
use of the parts of speech, because knowing them is the only way to explain why a sentence doesn’t work and
how to correct it.
Don’t try to learn the parts of speech by memorizing lists of words. The part of speech of a word is
simply what role it is playing within a sentence. Prepositions, for example, are not simply words that are
on a preposition list, and pronouns are not simply words on a pronoun list. They are words that perform
particular roles in a sentence. If you know the role a word or phrase plays in a sentence, then you know
its part of speech. Words are what words do within a sentence.

2. Verbs—the sentence drivers

The most important word in every sentence is a verb, and every sentence requires one. In fact, a verb is the
only word that a sentence requires. The shortest sentence in English is just a verb: Go. This single word
conveys a complete thought: You should go now. Without a verb, a sentence can’t convey an idea. Therefore,
understanding sentences begins with understanding their verbs. Every verb must have a subject, that is, a
noun or pronoun that does the action of the verb. In the sentence Go, the implied subject is you, since it is
understood that the speaker is addressing the listener. Often, a verb also requires an object, that is, a noun or
pronoun that receives the action of the verb. The sentence Go has no object, because the sentence is not

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telling the listener where to go. If the sentence were Go to the store, then store would be an indirect object of
the verb.
A verb is not merely an action word. In fact, many kinds of words convey action. The verb is the word
that, when combined with the subject (and perhaps an object), conveys the central idea of the sentence.
Is the word swimming a verb? If you have simply learned that a verb is an action word, then you might say
yes, swimming represents an action, so it must be a verb. Not so fast. Consider these three sentences.
I am swimming.
I love swimming.
I fed the swimming ducks.
What is the verb in the first sentence? The central idea of the sentence is that I am doing something; therefore
the verb is am swimming. (Yes, a verb is often a phrase.) The word swimming is part of the verb phrase, and
so it is called a verb participle.
What is the verb in the second sentence? The central idea of the sentence is that I love something; therefore
the verb is love. The word swimming represents the thing that I love, so it is the object of the verb love, and is
therefore a noun. Words that come from verbs ending in -ing but are used as nouns are called gerunds.
What is the verb in the third sentence? The central idea of the sentence is that I fed something; therefore the
verb is fed, and its object is ducks. The word swimming in this case modifies the noun ducks, and therefore is
an adjective.

3. Nouns
Although you probably learned that nouns are words that represent people, places, and things, it’s important
to know that they can also represent states of being, emotions, qualities, quantities, events, and activities. But,
as we just discussed, looking up a word in a list does not identify it as well as determining its role in the
sentence. So what do nouns do in a sentence?
A noun is a word that represents what does the action of a verb or what receives the action of a verb. It
also is what complements a preposition.

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 The party planners did a lot of negotiating because they really wanted to get the best prices.
Okay, so where are the nouns in this sentence? Take a minute and circle them before reading on.
It turns out it’s not so easy. The nouns are planners, lot, negotiating, to get, and prices. You get partial credit
if you circled they, because although it is a pronoun (which we will discuss next), it plays the same role as a
noun in the sentence. Did you circle party? Although party is usually used as a noun, this sentence uses it as
an adjective. It describes the planners. You might also have missed negotiating and to get because they look
like verbs. But remember, what matters is not how the words look, but how they are used. The central idea of
the sentence is that the planners did something. What was the something? A lot. Therefore lot is the object of
the verb, so it is a noun. A lot of what? Negotiating. So negotiating is the object of the preposition of. (As we
just discussed, -ing words that are used as nouns are called gerunds.) There is a second idea in the sentence,
also—they wanted something. What did they want? To get something. Therefore to get is the object of the
verb wanted, so it is a noun. Phrases that represent the basic form of a verb, like to eat, to think, and to be, are
called infinitives. Although infinitives come from verbs, they usually play the role of nouns in sentences,
just as gerunds do. So your sentence should look something like this:

4. Clauses
A phrase with a subject and verb that conveys a complete thought is called a clause. If the clause could
stand alone as a sentence, it is called an independent clause. If it cannot, it is called a subordinate or
dependent clause.
The pipes froze because the furnace broke.
This sentence consists of two clauses—the pipes froze and because the furnace broke. Notice that each
phrase contains a subject and verb and conveys a thought. The first clause could be a sentence, but the second
could not. The first is an independent clause, but the conjunction because makes the second a subordinate
clause.

5. Pronouns
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A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a specified noun, or refers to an unspecified thing. Pronouns
that refer to specific nouns (like it, she, and they) are called definite, and nouns that refer to unspecified
things (like anyone, neither, or something) are called indefinite.
Pronouns are usually pretty easy to spot. The most common are he, she, you, we, they, and it, but they also
include that, which, those, them, anyone, anything, someone, something, why, where, when, how, and what.

6. Prepositions
A preposition is any word that can complete one of these two sentences:
The squirrel ran ____________ the tree.
Democracy is government _____________ the people.
A preposition indicates relative position or direction with regard to a noun. Therefore, every
preposition is always followed by a noun phrase.
Two of the most common prepositions are to and for, as in I ran to the park and The package was for me. But
to and for are not always used as prepositions. As we just said, prepositions must be followed by noun
phrases, because they indicate a position or direction relative to a noun. Consider these two sentences:
I like to dance.
The meeting was postponed, for it was getting late.
In these sentences, neither to nor for is a preposition, because neither is followed by a noun phrase. In the
first sentence, to is followed by the verb dance. In the second sentence, for is followed by the clause it was
getting late. In the first sentence, to is used as part of an infinitive, which, as we just discussed, is a noun
phrase. In the second sentence, for is used as a conjunction, much like because or since.

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7. Prepositional phrases
A prepositional phrase is a preposition and the noun phrase that follows it. Every prepositional phrase is
a modifying phrase, serving to modify some noun, verb, adjective, or adverb in the sentence.
Examples of prepositional phrases include in the mood, to the store, and with my friend. In the sentence
Eleanor was not in the mood, the prepositional phrase in the mood modifies the proper noun Eleanor, and so
it is an adjective phrase. In the sentence I ran to the store, the prepositional phrase to the store modifies the
verb ran, and so it is an adverbial phrase.

8. Modifiers
A modifier is any word or phrase that helps describe another word or phrase. An adjective or adjective
phrase modifies a noun. An adverb or adverb phrase modifies a verb, adjective, or adverb.
The party planners did a lot of negotiating because they really wanted to get the best prices.
What are the modifiers in this sentence? Take a minute to circle them before reading on.
The modifiers are party, of negotiating, really, and best. The word party tells us what kind of planners they
are, so it modifies a noun and is therefore an adjective. The phrase of negotiating modifies the noun lot, so it
is an adjective phrase. The word really modifies the verb wanted, so it is an adverb. The word best modifies
the noun prices, so it is an adjective. So your sentence should look something like this:

9. Participles
A participle is an adjective that is derived from a verb. There are two kinds of participles—present
participles like breaking and seeing, and past participles like broken and seen. Participles, like verbs,
have noun subjects.
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When joined by helping verbs, participles can form verb phrases, as in Jane was whistling or I have seen
that movie. When they are used without helping verbs, however, they are adjectives.
Taking no chances, Greta arrived an hour early for the test.
This sentence begins with a modifying phrase, taking no chances. Since it is not preceded by a helping verb,
it is not part of a verb phrase. (The verb in this sentence is arrived.) But like a verb, it has a subject, Greta,
because it suggests that Greta took no chances. The relationship between a participle and the noun it modifies
is very similar to the relationship between a verb and its subject.

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