Курсовая работа: Teaching sentence structure

A word becomes a part of speech when its used in a sentence.

NOUN: A noun is a name.

Nouns name:

a. Persons, animals, places, things.

Many Americans have come to know the Hudson River throught the stories of Washington Irving and the canvases of the Hudson River painters.

b. Collection or groups of persons, animals, or things (collective nouns)

The council named a safety committee.

c. Qualities conditions, actions, processes, and ideas (abstract nouns)

The declaration of Independence upheld the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

PRONOUN A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.

Because a pronoun substitutes or stands in for a noun, it avoids tiresome repetition of the noun. The word the pronoun refers to is its antecedent.

In his tales Washington Irving peopled the Hudson valley with comic Dutchmen, headless horsemen, and bowling gnomes. (His is used instead of Washington Irving)

These are commonly used pronouns:

Speaker: I, me, mine, we, us, our, ours.

Person spoken to: you, your, yours.

Person or things spoken of: he, him, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them, their, theirs.

Other pronouns: who, whom.

Several pronouns are formed by adding self or selves to other pronouns: myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, itself, himself, herself, themselves,

Some pronouns are formed by joining some, any, every, and no to body, one and thing: somebody, someone, something, anybody, nothing.

All, another, any, both, each, either, few, many, neither, one, other, several, some, this, these, that, those, which, whose, and what are usually pronouns when they stand alone but are modifiers, not pronouns, when they modify nouns.

VERB Verbs make statement about persons, places, or things, ask questions, or give commands.

Statements: Some historians still question Captain John Smith’s account of his adventures.

Question: Did Pocahontas actually rescue him?

Command: Read Marshall Fishwick`s article «Was John Smith a Liar?» in American Heritage.

ADJECTIVE An adjective is a word that describes or limits a noun or pronoun.

An adjective usually answers one of these questions: «Which?» «What kind of» «How many?» «How much?» A, an, and the, the most common adjectives, are also called «articles».[1]

By 1700 there were 80,000 settlers in the low-lying areas along the New England coast and in the great central valley of Connecticut and Massachusetts.

The massive oak door opened.

The subject and predicate, placed on a straight line, are separated by a short vertical line. Adjectives are placed on slant lines under the words they modify.