7

PARTS OF SPEECH

The phrase parts of speech means simply " t h e different jobs that
words do in sentences." Since there are seven such jobs to be done,
there are seven essential parts of speech—plus an eighth which has
no regular job.

I. verb: a word that expresses an action or makes a statement.

2. noun: a specific word for a person, a place, a thing, a

{ quality, etc.
3. pronoun: a stand-in for a noun.
adjective: a word that modifies a noun or a pronoun.
(To modify is to limit or point out or describe: that book;
another chance; the blue ribbon). For convenience the
articles a, an, and the are usually classified under adjectives.
adverb: a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another
adverb.
'6. preposition: a word that connects a noun or a pronoun to
some other word in a sentence—to make a prepositional
phrase.
7. conjunction: a word that connects various words and groups
of words.

The bracketing shows you how these parts of speech are related in
their functions.
Finally, to be complete, we must list one other:

8. interjection: an exclamatory word (ouch! hey! alas!), which

has no grammatical relationship to the rest of the sentence.
It need not bother us here.