ENGLISH 1N (Remedial English)

MODULE 1

The Parts of Speech

The parts of speech are the categories into which every word in the language fits. Each part of speech
performs a different function in a sentence, and some words can be more than one part of speech, depending on
their use in a particular sentence. These parts of speech are the building blocks of the language. When people
refer to the parts of speech, they mean these eight categories into which all words can be placed.
Here are the eight parts of speech:
1. Noun
2. Pronoun
3. Verb
4. Adjective (and Articles)
5. Adverb
6. Preposition
7. Conjunction
8. Interjection
Lesson one: Nouns
A noun is a person, place, thing, idea, or emotion.
Here are some nouns:
sun book
girl rain
dog family
happiness religion
California Susie
doctor seashore
The words above are all people, places, things, ideas, or emotions.
People: Susie, girl, doctor, family
Places: California, seashore
Things: dog, book, sun, rain
Ideas or emotions: happiness, religion
✎ You can check to see if something is a noun: Usually, you can put the words a, an, the, or my before nouns.
Examples: the sun, a girl, a dog, a religion, my happiness
This doesn’t work as well with words that start with capital letters, such as California or Suzie.
However, most words that start with capital letters are nouns anyway. Remember that you don’t have to be able
to see it for it to be a noun. You can’t see ideas or emotions, but they are still things.
The Five Types of Nouns
1. Common nouns are regular nouns that do not start with capital letters, such as happiness, boy, desk, and city.
2. Proper nouns are the nouns that start with capital letters. They are specific people, places, things, or ideas
such as Florida, Buddhism, Joe, and Thanksgiving.
3. Concrete nouns are nouns that represent things you can see, hear, smell, taste, or feel. Most nouns are
concrete. Concrete nouns are either common or proper too. Concrete nouns include grass, paper, perfume
(you can smell it), air (you can feel it), Susie, and Golden Gate Bridge.
4. Abstract nouns are the nouns that represent ideas or emotions; you cannot perceive them with your senses.
Religion, happiness, anger, and Buddhism fall into this category.
5. Collective nouns are nouns that represent a group of things or people without being plural (although they can
also be made plural). Family, group, orchestra, audience, flock, bunch, and herd fall into this category.
✎ Most nouns can be counted (girls, pencils, stars), but some cannot be (salt, wisdom, sand, beauty).

1|Page
Lesson two: Pronouns
Pronouns take the place of nouns. For example, compare these two sentences:
Mary baked Mary’s famous lasagna for dinner.
Mary baked her famous lasagna for dinner.
Her is a pronoun. It is used in the second sentence to take the place of Mary, so we don’t have to repeat
Mary. Doesn’t the second sentence sound better?
Some common pronouns are I, you, he, she, them, they, we, us, him, her, and it.

Antecedents

An antecedent is the word the pronoun is standing in for. In the sentence above, Mary is the antecedent
of her. An antecedent can also be a pronoun. Pronouns can stand in for other pronouns, as in the following
sentence:

He showed the manager his report. (His and he are the same person. He is the antecedent.)
In the following sentence, there are no antecedents present in the sentence:
He showed the manager her report.
Obviously he is showing the manager the report of a female (her), not his own. We would probably find
the antecedents in previous sentences in the text if we had them. However, we can tell that he is not the
antecedent for her because they don’t agree in gender. Pronouns must agree in gender and number (singular or
plural) with their antecedents.
✎ Make sure that when you write, your antecedents are clear, so that you don’t confuse the reader. They should
be able to tell who is who. (See? In the previous sentence they is unclear. Does they refer to the word
antecedents or the word reader?)
Unclear antecedent: Mary and Jenny went to visit her mother. (Whose mother?)

Types of Pronouns

Pronouns can be a little tricky. There are six different types of pronouns.
1. Personal pronouns are the most commonly used pronouns.
Here is the complete list:
First Person: I, me, my, mine (singular); we, us, our, ours (plural)
Second Person: you, your, yours (both singular and plural)
Third Person: he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its (singular); they, them, their, theirs (plural)

2. Demonstrative pronouns point things out. There are only four of them: this, that, these, and those. Here
are some examples:
This is my new CD. (Once again, make sure your reader knows what this refers to!)
I want those!
✎ If you say I want those cookies, those becomes an adjective because it is describing cookies.

3. Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions. There are five of them: which, who, whose, whom, and
what. For example:
Who is that man? What is wrong?
4. Relative pronouns begin adjective clauses. There are five of them: which, whom, whose, who, and that.
Notice that they are almost the same as the interrogative pronouns we just learned about. However,

2|Page
 relative pronouns do not ask a question, and they do not appear at the beginning of a sentence. Here are
some examples of how relative pronouns are used:
You can borrow the book that I just finished.
My neighbor, who is a lawyer, just came back from Paris.
5. Reflexive/intensive pronouns are personal pronouns with -self at the end:
myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, and themselves

Here are some examples of how they are used. Notice the difference between using them reflexively and
intensively:
I wrote that poem myself. (Reflexive—myself reflects back to I)
She baked the wedding cake herself. (Reflexive— herself reflects back to she)
I myself wrote that poem. (Intensive—used to emphasize I)
I saw Jim himself at the wedding! (Intensive—used to emphasize Jim)
✎ A reflexive pronoun must refer back to the subject of the sentence. For example, you cannot use
myself as a reflexive pronoun unless I is the subject of the sentence. Likewise, you cannot use herself as
a reflexive pronoun unless she (or the noun that she represents) is the subject of the sentence. Here are
examples of the correct and incorrect uses of the reflexive myself.

Correct: I fixed the broken fence myself.

Incorrect: She gave Jim and myself new books. (Myself should be me.)

Note that hisself, theirselves, and ourself are not words.

6. Indefinite pronouns do not refer to a specific noun. Here are some examples of indefinite pronouns:
someone, everyone, anyone, no one, somebody, anybody, everybody, everything, something, anything,
nothing, none, few, many, several, all, and some (and there are more). They are important because you
need to know which ones are singular and which ones are plural, so you know which verb form and
personal pronoun to use with them.

✎ Do not confuse pronouns with proper nouns. Proper nouns begin with capital letters and are nouns (specific
person, place, thing, or idea). Pronouns are a separate part of speech.

Proper Nouns: New York, Nancy, Christianity, Canada, Macy’s

Pronouns: she, anyone, they, which

Lesson three: Verbs

Verb: It’s what you do!

Action Verbs
Most verbs are action words. Jump, run, bake, study, read, swim, give, and walk are examples of verbs.
Verbs can also indicate mental action, not just physical action: think, wonder, plan, and consider are also verbs.
The boys hid in the forest. (Hid is a verb.)
I took the math test yesterday. (Took is a verb.)
The hotel provided us with rooms after the game. (Provided is a verb.)
✎ Every sentence needs a verb. Without a verb, there is no sentence!

Linking Verbs

In addition to action verbs, there is another important type of verb called a linking verb. A linking verb
ties together the word or words before the verb and the word or words after the verb. A linking verb is like the
equal sign in math. The most common linking verb is the verb to be. That verb has many different forms. You

3|Page
probably recognize the to be verb by these familiar forms: is, am, are, will be, was, has been, have been, etc.
Here are some sentences with forms of the to be linking verb:

I am hungry. (Hungry describes I; they are linked by the verb am.)

She was a dancer. (Dancer describes she; they are linked by the verb was.)

There are linking verbs other than the forms of the verb to be. Taste, appear, look, sound, seem, and feel
are also examples of linking verbs. Usually, if you can substitute a form of the to be verb and the sentence still
makes sense, you have a linking verb.

She felt tired today. (Tired describes she; they are linked by the verb felt. She is tired today also
makes sense.)
He seemed angry at me. (Angry describes he; they are linked by the verb seemed. He was angry
at me makes sense.)
Mary threw the ball. (Ball does not describe Mary; threw is not a linking verb! Mary is the ball
makes no sense.)

To make things just a bit more confusing, words like taste, smell, and feel are sometimes linking verbs
and sometimes action verbs. Notice the difference:

The cake tasted great! (Great describes cake; tasted is a linking verb. The cake is great makes
sense. The cake didn’t do anything. There is no action here.)
I tasted the cake. (Cake does not describe I; taste is an action verb here. I am doing something.
And I am the cake doesn’t make sense.)

Tenses

Verbs have some qualities you should know about. One of these is tense, which has to do with time. The
tense of a verb tells you when the action took place. Verbs are the only action part of speech, so they are the
only part of speech with tense. As you know, things can take place in the past, in the present, or in the future.
There are six main tenses, each representing a different time. Each of these six has a partner (the progressive
form), making the total number of tenses twelve. Here they are, using the action verb walk:

1. Present tense: I walk to the store. (It is happening now.) Present progressive tense: I am walking to the store.
2. Past tense: I walked to the store. (It happened in the past, and it is over.) Past progressive tense: I was
walking to the store.
3. Future tense: I will walk to the store. (It will happen in the future.) Future progressive tense: I will be walking
to the store.
4. Present perfect tense: I have walked to the store every day this week. (It happened in the past and is possibly
continuing.) Present perfect progressive tense: I have been walking to the store.
5. Past perfect tense: I had walked for an hour by the time I found the library. (It happened in the past before
something else happened in the past.) Past perfect progressive tense: I had been walking to the store when I
met Sue.
6. Future perfect tense: I will have walked five miles by the time I get to your house. (It will happen in the
future before some other future event.) Future perfect progressive tense: I will have been walking five miles a
day for six years by the time I graduate from high school.

The progressive tenses represent the same time as their matching tenses. The words that we use to help
specify the tenses (such as will, have, and have been) are called helping verbs.

✎ Although some helping verbs look like forms of the linking verb to be, they are not. Because they are with
another verb (in this case, walk), they are called helping verbs. For example, in “I will have been walking,”

4|Page
will have been are helping verbs, and walking is the main verb. If “will have been” is used without a main verb,
then it is a linking verb. For example, in “I will have been a teacher for three years,” will have been is a linking
verb. There is no other verb in the sentence, and teacher describes I.
Here are the tenses for the linking verb to be, using the pronoun you:

Present/Present Progressive: you are/you are being

Past/Past Progressive: you were/you were being
Future/Future Progressive: you will be/you will be being
Present Perfect/Present Perfect Progressive: you have been/you have been being
Past Perfect/Past Perfect Progressive: you had been/you had been being
Future Perfect/Future Perfect Progressive: you will have been/you will have been being

Irregular Verb Forms

When we talk about different forms of a verb, we are usually referring to how the verb changes in a
different tense, generally past or present perfect. Most verbs add -ed to the end for the past tense, but many
verbs have other past tense forms; these verbs are called irregular. Here are a few examples of regular and
irregular verbs.
Regular verbs:
I walked to the train station. (ends in -ed)
He wondered about his dream. (ends in -ed)
Irregular verbs:
He thought about it for a while. (not thinked!)
The cat ate its food. (not eated!)

Voice

Another quality of verbs is voice. There are two voices: active and passive. In active voice, the subject
of the sentence (usually, the noun or pronoun before the verb) is doing the action. In passive voice the subject is
usually not doing the action of the verb. Can you see the difference between the voices?
He drove to the mall. (active—the subject of the sentence, he, did the driving.)
He was driven to the mall by his sister. (passive)
✎ When you write, use active voice most of the time. It is stronger and more effective.

Transitive/Intransitive

One more thing about verbs (yes, they are rather complicated). Verbs are also classified as either
transitive or intransitive. The dictionary refers to verbs as either vi (verb intransitive) or vt (verb transitive)
where it tells you the part of speech.

Transitive verbs have a direct object; intransitive verbs don’t. Basically, if you ask what or who about
the verb, the answer is the direct object. Direct objects are always nouns or pronouns. Here are some examples.

They played baseball. (Played what? Baseball. Baseball is the direct object, so played is transitive.)
They played in the yard. (Played what or who? The sentence does not tell you. There is no direct object,
and played is intransitive.)

✎ You already learned that you can tell if a word is a noun by putting a, an, or the in front of it. How can you
tell if a word is a verb? Put the word to in front of it, for example, to jump, to think, to be, to study, to allow.

5|Page
Lesson four: Adjectives

Compared to verbs, Adjectives are pretty simple. They are used to describe nouns (people, places,
things, ideas) and sometimes pronouns. Adjectives can also describe other adjectives. They tell how many, what
kind, or which ones. Here are some examples of adjectives describing (or modifying) nouns:
pretty bird
six trees
blue dress
handsome guy
good idea

Here is an example of an adjective that describes a pronoun:

He is handsome.

Notice that the structure is a little different here. When describing a pronoun, the adjective is usually
after the verb rather than right before the pronoun. Notice that when the adjective comes after the verb, the verb
is always a linking verb (is, in the sentence above). Sometimes, of course, the adjective can come before the
pronoun. For example:
Silly me!
Here is an adjective describing another adjective:
bright blue dress

The adjective blue is describing the noun dress. However, the adjective bright is describing the type of
blue (not the dress).
What if you said old, torn dress? Old and torn are both adjectives, but they both describe the noun dress.
It is an old dress, and it is a torn dress.
When both adjectives describe the noun (as in old, torn dress), you generally put a comma between the
two adjectives. When one adjective describes the other adjective (as in bright blue dress), do not use a comma.
One way to figure this out is to put the word and between the two adjectives. If it makes sense, use a comma.

Old and torn dress makes sense. Use a comma: Old, torn dress

Other Types of Adjectives

There are a couple of special types of adjectives. However, they have the same function as any other
adjective.
1. Demonstrative Adjectives: We have discussed demonstrative pronouns. They are this, that, these, and
those. These same four words, when placed right before a noun, are demonstrative adjectives. Notice the
difference:
This is my book. (demonstrative pronoun)
This book is mine. (demonstrative adjective describing book)
2. Proper Adjectives: Proper adjectives, like proper nouns, begin with a capital letter. Here are a few
examples:
Thanksgiving dinner, Italian food, Catholic religion
3. Articles: The words a, an, and the are called articles. Sometimes they are thought of as a separate part of
speech, but they are really adjectives.
✎ Some words can be used as more than one part of speech, depending on how they are used in a particular
sentence. Nouns can often be used as adjectives. Here are some examples: beef stew, bread pudding,
prom dress, Christmas vacation.

6|Page
Lesson five: Adverbs
Like adjectives, adverbs are describing words. However, while adjectives describe nouns or pronouns
(people and things), adverbs are used to describe verbs (actions). Sometimes adverbs also describe adjectives or
other adverbs.
Adverbs tell where, when, how, or to what extent. Adverbs usually end in -ly, but not always. Here are
some examples of adverbs:
She ran quickly. Quickly describes how she ran (ran is the verb).
He is extremely intelligent. Extremely describes the adjective intelligent.
He writes really quickly. Really describes quickly, also an adverb. Quickly describes how he
writes (writes is the verb).
As we said above, not all adverbs end in -ly. And, some words that end in -ly are adjectives, not adverbs,
because they describe nouns. Here are some examples:
What a lovely dress. Lovely describes the noun dress, so it is an adjective.
I have three sisters, so I am never lonely. Lonely describes the pronoun I. The two words are
linked with the linking verb am. (Note that the word never is an adverb telling when. It describes the
adjective lonely.)

Many adverbs do not end in -ly. Some of these adverbs include now, then, soon, very, only, often, and
not.

✎ There is usually more than one place to put an adverb in a sentence. Sometimes the location of an adverb
changes the meaning of a sentence. Other times, the sentence is simply clearer if you place the adverb close to
the verb.
I go for a walk in the woods often.
I often go for a walk in the woods. (better way to write it)
Often, I go for a walk in the woods. (also good)

✎ Be careful not to overuse the adverbs really, so, and very. Always avoid using two reallys, sos, or verys in a
row (for example, really, really good).

Lesson six: Prepositions

Prepositions are usually little words, and they are always part of a phrase (a group of a few related
words) known, not surprisingly, as a prepositional phrase. A prepositional phrase generally consists of a
preposition, sometimes an article (a, an, or the), and a noun or pronoun (which is called the object of the
preposition). Prepositional phrases usually answer the questions where? or when?
Here are some examples of prepositions in a phrase (the preposition is in bold):
in the box down the stairs
with my friends beside the desk
at school within the city
around the room for the committee
of ours among the students
between the chairs beneath the table
by the author after the storm
to the movies before dinner
up the tree along the riverbank
There are many other prepositions, but you get the idea! If a preposition does not have a noun or
pronoun after it, it is generally not a preposition; it is being used as an adverb.
I am going inside the house (prepositional phrase; inside is a preposition).
I am going inside. (There is no prepositional phrase; inside is an adverb here.)
7|Page
✎ You may have heard that you aren’t supposed to end a sentence with a preposition. There are some cases
where you probably should not end a sentence with a preposition; however, sometimes you should because it
sounds better.

Whom are you going with? It is fine to end the sentence this way (with the preposition with). With whom are
you going? is also fine.
Where are you at? Please do not end a sentence this way. You don’t need the at. Just leave it off.
What are you staring at? This is fine. You can’t leave at off here. You can say, At what are you staring, but
ending this sentence with at is fine.

It is very important to be able to recognize prepositional phrases. Often, recognizing a prepositional

phrase will help you decide whether to use who or whom, I or me, him or he, etc. It is also important to put your
prepositional phrases in the correct place in the sentence.

Lesson seven: Conjunctions

Conjunctions are joining words. They join words, phrases (a short group of related words), or even
sentences together. The most common conjunction is and.
Jack and Jill (joins two words together).
I went to school and to the movies (joins two phrases together).
I am a student, and my brother is a dentist (joins two sentences).

And is called a coordinating conjunction. There are seven coordinating conjunctions. They are for, and,
nor, but, or, yet, and so. The first letters of these words spell out FANBOYS.

Remember the “word” FANBOYS, and you will remember these conjunctions!

Subordinating Conjunctions

The FANBOYS conjunctions are called coordinating conjunctions because they connect, or join, two or
more things. There is another kind of conjunction, called a subordinating conjunction. These conjunctions begin
subordinate clauses (see Section 4.3). Subordinating conjunctions include (but are not limited to) these words:
although, since, if, because, until, when, whenever, before (sometimes) and after (sometimes).

Although I am small, I am strong (subordinate clause begins with although).

Because I have no money, I cannot go to the movies (subordinate clause begins with because).
I cannot get my license until I turn sixteen (subordinate clause begins with until).

✎ When you are joining two words, there is no comma. However, in a series or more than two things, use a
comma after each item in the series except, of course, the last item. The comma before the conjunction (usually
and) is optional and is called the Oxford comma. I prefer to use it.

I packed shoes and socks. (two items only; no comma)

I packed shoes, socks, pants, and shirts. (comma after pants is optional)

✎ There is generally a comma before a FANBOYS conjunction that connects two complete sentences.
I sprained my ankle, so I cannot go hiking today.
I cannot go with you, but my sister can.

8|Page
✎ Can you begin a sentence with a FANBOYS conjunction? Yes and no. Most people now say it is perfectly
okay to begin a sentence with and, but, or so. It is used in this book. Would you do it in a cover letter or a job
application? No.

Lesson eight: Interjections

Wow! This is an easy part of speech. Interjections are words that don’t add anything grammatically to
the sentence; they are usually exclamatory words, but not always. Sometimes they are followed by an
exclamation point; other times they are connected to the sentence with a comma. Interjections are generally not
used in formal writing like business letters.
Here are some interjections: hey, gosh, ouch, gee whiz, wow, oh, well
Wow! What a nice car!
Ouch! That really hurt!
Well, I think I am going with you.
Oh, I am sorry about that.

Lesson nine: Using the Parts of Speech

We have now talked about each of the parts of speech. Every word in the English language belongs to
one or more of those parts of speech. If a word can be used as more than one part of speech, then it depends on
how it is used in the sentence. For example, let’s look at the word spring.

Spring is my favorite season. (noun)

I can’t wait until spring break. (adjective describing break)
My cat will spring forward to grab the ball of yarn! (verb)

You probably won’t ever have the need to write a sentence with all eight parts of speech, but isn’t it nice
to know that you can? Knowing the parts of speech gives you more control over what you write and more
freedom to write exactly what you are trying to say.

9|Page