Grammar to Know

PARTS OF SPEECH
The various parts of speech are pieces that, when put together correctly, make whole and complete sentences. Every word in the English language belongs to one or more of the eight parts of speech. The part of speech of a word is determined by its use. For Example, snap is a noun: The snap on her jacket broke. Snap is also a verb: Twigs snap underfoot in autumn. And, snap is an adjective: The boss made a snap decision. Your task is to be able to define each part of speech and determine a word’s part of speech by its USE in a sentence!
1. noun - a word that indicates a person, place, thing, or idea. Everything you can give a name to is a noun. Nouns function as subjects, direct objects, indirect objects, object of prepositions, appositives, or subject complements.
2. pronoun- a word that takes the place of a noun. Pronouns help you avoid the monotonous repetition of nouns. A pronoun must always refer back to a specific noun, called its antecedent. Pronouns should match their antecedents in number and gender.
3. verb- a word that shows action or a state of being. Verbs may be either action, linking, or helping (working with another verb), transitive or intransitive.
4. adjective- a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun. That is, they describe, limit, or in some way give a more exact meaning to a noun or pronoun. Adjectives answer the questions: what kind of? Which one? AND how many?
5. adverb- a word that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs answer the questions: how? When? Why? To what extent? AND under what condition?
6. preposition- a word that shows a relationship to a noun or pronoun. Prepositions precede nouns and pronouns to show the relationship of a noun or pronoun to some other word in the sentence. Prepositions are often short, difficult to define words that indicate ideas about time (during, at, around), location (in, outside, near) and logic (following, like).
7. conjunction- a word that joins two or more words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. There
are three types of conjunctions:
a. coordinating conjunctions connect words, phrases or clauses of equal importance. The main coordination conjunctions can be remembered by the acronym FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So).
b. subordinating conjunctions establish a relationship between a dependent clause and the rest of the sentence. They introduce clauses that cannot stand on their own and often are subordinate (less important) than the rest of the sentence. Common subordinate conjunctions are as follows: after, although, because, since, and while. There are many others.
c. correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that join various sentence elements that should be treated as grammatically equal. Common correlative conjunctions are as follows: both ...and, not only...but, neither...nor, either...or, whether...or. There are other correlative conjunctions!
8. interjection- a word that expresses emotion. Words such as wow, ouch, and oh are interjections. Interjections are an unusual part of speech because they show no grammatical connection with the other words in the sentence. Thus, interjections are often followed by an exclamation point or set off by commas.

NOTE: Phrases and subordinate clauses also function as single parts of speech.

PHRASES, CLAUSES, AND SENTENCES
Words work together to convey ideas. Groups of words can act as phrases or clauses.
Phrases:
Phrases - phrases are groups of related words that do not have a subject and verb. Phrases are used to add information and meaning to a sentence. Phrases can act as separate parts of speech.    Example: leaving behind the dog
Most Common Types of Phrases:
Prepositional Phrases – is a group of words starting with a preposition and ending with the noun or pronoun that is the object of the preposition. Prepositional phrases always work as modifiers (adjectives or adverbs).
As an adjective:
As an adverb: The man with the mask frightened the children. The game lasted into the thirteenth inning.

Appositive Phrases – appositives are nouns or pronouns (or noun/pronoun phrases) placed next to another noun or pronoun to identify, rename, or explain it. They are used to develop the meaning of nouns and certain pronouns. Appositives follow immediately after the words they identify, rename, or explain. Single Appositive: Our friend, Bill, was late for the party. An appositive phrase is a noun or pronoun with modifiers, placed next to a noun or pronoun to add information and details.
Appositive Phrase: The dog, a large Saint Bernard, crushed the flowers in our
garden.

Clauses:
Clauses - clauses are groups of related words that contain a subject and a verb. A clause can be either independent (main) or dependent (subordinate).
a. Independent clauses express a complete thought and stand alone as a sentence.
b. Dependent (subordinate) clauses do not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone as a sentence. They are attached to independent clauses and add information or context to a sentence. These clauses act as a single part of speech.
Example: Independent clause.
Dependent clause. I washed the car.
                                      Because it was dirty,
Dependent Clause as an adjective: The city where I grew up is Hartford.
I wrote my uncle, who lives in Honolulu.
Dependent Clause as an adverb: He walked as if he had a twisted ankle.
My mom was happy because I aced the test.
Dependent Clause as a noun: She wrote about how bees communicate.
Why he dropped the class isn’t clear.