Grammar Tip of the Week

The role of the Parts of Speech in Communication:

Did you know that carefully selecting words 3 1 9 4 4

is very important in communicating a precise We watched the mighty gorilla
and clear message because every word in a 5 1 7 1 9 4
sentence serves a different purpose? Well, in excitedly peel and eat the firm
Standard English each word can be 4 2 3 1 6 9
categorized under eight parts of speech. ripe banana it picked from the
Look at the sentence to your right and see for 2 6 3 2
yourself the part of speech of each word.
tree beside its cage.
8
Unbelievable!
(For each number see the corresponding part of speech
below.)

1. Verb – is the heart of the sentence that tells what happens or expresses a state of
being.
2. Noun – is the naming word in English which names persons, places or things.
3. Pronoun – is the word that is used in place of a noun to avoid repeating the noun.
4. Adjective – modifies nouns and pronouns (specifies quality or quantity).
5. Adverb – modifies verbs, adjectives and other adverbs as well as groups of
words. (It usually communicates how, when, where, or to what extent something
occurred or existed).
6. Preposition – relates nouns, pronouns or a group of words acting as a noun to
another part of a sentence; establishes relationships in terms of sequence and
space.
7. Conjunction – acts like a preposition, relating words or word groups in a
sentence.
8. Interjection – expresses a writer’s intense emotions.
9. Article – is not classified as a part of speech, but as an article or a noun
determiner.

Do you think writers of essays rely more on some parts of speech than on others? Justify
your answer by looking at your diagnostic essay.