Metz, Michigan TESOL Online & Teaching English Jobs

In this unit, I was able to review the different parts of speech that are used to form sentences. Each word plays a different part in a sentence and it is extremely important to identify and recognize the different roles.For example, there are five different types of nouns from common (book, car, key) to collective (flock, herd). There are also countable nouns that are priced by articles a/an/the, that can be used in the plural (books, cars, keys) and uncountable nouns (water, equipment). Adjectives are used to modify words and describe other words making your writing and speaking more specific, and a lot more interesting Because adjectives are used to identify or quantify individual people and unique things, they are usually placed before the noun or pronoun that they modify. Some sentences contain multiple adjectives. Articles are going to define a noun as specific or unspecific. A definite article is the word "the" and limits the meaning of the noun to one particular thing. Example: Please give me the phone. However, the indefinite article takes two forms. It’s the word "a" when it precedes a word that begins with a consonant. It’s the word an when it precedes a word that begins with a vowel. The indefinite article indicates that a noun refers to a general idea rather than a particular thing. For example, one might ask a friend, "should I bring a present to the party?" A verb is one of the main parts of a sentence or question in English. You cannot have a sentence or a question without a verb, which makes these “action” parts of speech so important. The verb signals an action, an occurrence, or a state of being and always expresses activity. An adverb is a word that is used to change or qualify the meaning of an adjective, a verb, a clause, another adverb, or any other type of word or phrase with the exception of determiners and adjectives that directly modify nouns. Adverbs perform a wide variety of functions, which makes it difficult to treat them as a single, unified category. They are often formed by adding the letters “-ly” to adjectives. A gerund is a verb in its "ing" (present participle) form that functions as a noun and names an activity rather than a person or thing. Any action verb can be made into a gerund. Gerunds can appear at the beginning of a sentence when used as a subject: Example: Running is a hobby of mine Gerunds can act as an object following the verb: Example: Joey quit acting a year ago. Gerands can also serve as an object after a preposition: Example: He is excited about playing baseball. A pronoun is defined as a word or phrase that may be substituted for a noun or noun phrase, which once replaced, is known as the pronoun’s antecedent. Pronouns can do everything that nouns can do. A pronoun can act as a subject, direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition, and more. Most pronouns are very short words. Examples include: He, she, they, it, we, you Anytime you want to talk about a person, animal, place or thing, you can use pronouns to make your speech or writing flow better. A preposition is a word used to link nouns, pronouns, or phrases to other words within a sentence. Prepositions are mostly short words, and they are usually placed directly in front of nouns. In some cases, you’ll find prepositions in front of gerund verbs. Since prepositions are somewhat vague, it can be one of the most challenging grammatical points for both, the student and the teacher. A conjunction is a part of speech that is used to connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. Example: Larry went to the mall and bought socks. They also present explanations, ideas, exceptions, consequences, and contrasts. Some commonly used conjunctions include: and, but, nor, so, neither, or , etc.. In conclusion, this unit taught me a lot about the different grammatical points of speech. Once you aware of their roles and functions, you can form perfect sentences in the English language.