A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns are often used with an article (the, a, an), but not always. Proper nouns always start with a capital letter; common nouns do not. Nouns can be singular or plural, concrete or abstract. Nouns show possession by adding 's. Nouns can function in different roles within a sentence; for example, a noun can be a subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, or object of a preposition.
For example:
The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my!
PRONOUN
A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. A pronoun is usually substituted for a specific noun, which is called its antecedent. In the sentence above, the antecedent for the pronoun she is the girl. Pronouns are further defined by type: personal pronouns refer to specific persons or things; possessive pronouns indicate ownership; reflexive pronouns are used to emphasize another noun or pronoun; relative pronouns introduce a subordinate clause; and demonstrative pronouns identify, point to, or refer to nouns.
For example:
The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared.
VERB
The verb in a sentence expresses action or being. There is a main verb and sometimes one or more helping verbs. ("She can sing." Sing is the main verb; can is the helping verb.) A verb must agree with its subject in number (both are singular or both are plural). Verbs also take different forms to express tense.
For example:
The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my!
ADJECTIVES
An adjective is a word used to modify or describe a noun or a pronoun. It usually answers the question of which one, what kind, or how many.
For example:
The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my!
ADVERB
An adverb describes or modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, but never a noun. It usually answers the questions of when, where, how, why, under what conditions, or to what degree. Adverbs often end in -ly.
A preposition is a word placed before a noun or pronoun to form a phrase modifying another word in the sentence. Therefore a preposition is always part of a prepositional phrase. The prepositional phrase almost always functions as an adjective or as an adverb.
For example:
The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my!
CONJUCTIONS
A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses, and indicates the relationship between the elements joined. Coordinating conjunctions connect grammatically equal elements: and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet. Subordinating conjunctions connect clauses that are not equal: because, although, while, since, etc.
For example:
The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared.Oh my!
INTERJECTION
An interjection is a word used to express emotion. It is often followed by an exclamation point.
For example:
The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my!
4 types of sentence structures:
SIMPLE SENTENCE
COMPOUND SENTENCE
COMPLEX SENTENCE
COMPOUND-COMPLEX SENTENCE
SIMPLE SENTENCE
In a simple sentence, there’s only one independent clause. “I like coffee” and “Dave works at the library” are both examples of simple sentences. They each contain one subject (I and Dave) and one verb (like and works).
COMPOUND SENTENCE
A compound sentence contains two independent clauses linked by a conjunction. “The dog ran around in the backyard, and now he’s taking a nap” is a compound sentence. Both of the clauses are complete thoughts, and could stand alone if the conjunction (and) was removed.
COMPLEX SENTENCE
A complex sentence links one independent clause with at least one dependent clause. A common example of this type of structure is the if/then sentence. For example, “If I won the lottery, then I would buy a new car” is a complex sentence. If I won the lottery is a dependent clause that can’t stand alone because it’s not a complete thought. When you add a comma and the independent clause then I would buy a new car, it becomes complex.
COMPOUND-COMLEX SENTENCE
In a compound-complex sentence, there’s more than one independent clause and at least one dependent clause. For example, “Randy is in a band, but he’s the singer because he can’t play an instrument.” This is a compound-complex sentence. It contains two independent clauses (Randy is in a band and he’s the singer) and one dependent clause (because he can’t play an instrument).
