Each word in a sentence acts as one of eight parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections. These are the building blocks of our language. Often, to revise your writing or to correct sentence errors, you need to understand how a word or phrase functions in a particular sentence.

A noun names a person (waiter, girlfriend), a place (classroom, beach), a thing (textbook, computer), or an idea (excitement, beauty). Proper nouns name specific people (Professor Wainwright), places (Texas), things (Xbox), or ideas (Marxism) and are always capitalized.

Common nouns name one or more of a general class or type of person, place, thing, or idea and are not capitalized.

Collective nouns name groups: class, jury, team. Concrete nouns name tangible things that can be tasted, seen, touched, smelled, or heard: instructor, exam, desk. Abstract nouns name ideas, qualities, beliefs, and conditions: love, faith, trust.

Most nouns express number and can be singular or plural: one test, two tests; one pen, five pens. Count nouns name items that can be counted. Count nouns can be made plural, usually by adding -s or -es: one telephone, three telephones; one speech, ten speeches. Some count nouns form their plurals in an irregular way: mouse, mice; goose, geese. Noncount nouns—such as water, anger, courage, and knowledge—name ideas or entities that cannot be counted. Most noncount nouns do not have a plural form. (See Section 26 of this Handbook for more on count and noncount nouns.)

Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns. The noun or pronoun to which a pronoun refers is called the pronoun’s antecedent.

The noun researcher is the antecedent of the pronoun she.

Personal pronouns name specific people, places, or things. Personal pronouns come in three cases that describe a pronoun’s function in a sentence. The subjective case indicates that a pronoun is a subject—a doer of an action (I, you, he, she, it, we, they).

The objective case indicates that a pronoun is an object—a receiver of an action (me, you, him, her, it, us, them).

The possessive case indicates ownership or belonging (my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, your, yours, their, theirs).

Personal pronouns also indicate person, to distinguish among the speaker (first person: I, we), the person spoken to (second person: you), and the person or thing spoken about (third person: he, she, it, they). The gender of personal pronouns identifies them as masculine (he, him), feminine (she, her), or neuter (it). Personal pronouns also show number: singular (one person or thing: I, you, he, she, it) or plural (more than one person or thing: we, you, they).

Demonstrative pronouns point out a particular person or thing: this, that, these, and those. A demonstrative pronoun can be used as an adjective to describe a noun.

Reflexive pronouns indicate that a subject performs actions to, for, or on itself. Reflexive pronouns end in -self or -selves.

Intensive pronouns have the same forms as reflexive pronouns and are used to emphasize their antecedents.

Reflexive and intensive pronouns cannot be used as the subject of a sentence, and their antecedents must appear in the same sentence as the pronoun.

Interrogative pronouns introduce or ask a question.

Relative pronouns introduce dependent clauses that function as adjectives. Relative pronouns refer back to a noun or pronoun that the clause modifies.

Indefinite pronouns do not refer to specific nouns; they refer to people, places, or things in general (everyone, anywhere, everything). Commonly used indefinite pronouns include the following:

Several indefinite pronouns, such as all, any, more, most, some, and none, can be either singular or plural, depending on their antecedent (see 5e).

The reciprocal pronouns each other and one another indicate an interchange of information or physical objects between two or more parties.

See Section 7 of the Handbook for more on pronoun usage.

Verbs show action (read, study), occurrence (become, happen), or a state of being (be, feel ). There are three types of verbs: action verbs, linking verbs, and helping verbs (also called auxiliary verbs).

Action verbs express physical or mental activities.

Action verbs may be either transitive or intransitive. A transitive verb (TV) has a direct object (DO) that receives the action and completes the meaning of the sentence. (In the examples, S stands for subject.)

An intransitive verb (IV) does not need a direct object to complete the meaning of the sentence.

Some verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, depending on how they are used in a sentence.

Linking verbs show existence, explaining what something is, was, or will become. A linking verb connects a word to words that describe it.

The forms of the verb be (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been) are linking verbs. Some action verbs can also function as linking verbs. These include appear, become, feel, grow, look, prove, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, and taste.

Helping verbs, also called auxiliary verbs, are used along with action or linking verbs to indicate tense, mood, or voice or to add further information. A verb phrase is a combination of one or more helping verbs and a main verb.

Helping verbs include the different forms of do, be, and have (which can also serve as main verbs in a sentence) along with can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and would.

All verbs except be have five forms: the base form, the past tense, the past participle, the present participle, and the -s form for the present tense when the subject is singular and in the third person.

The first three forms are called the verb’s principal parts. The base form is the form of the verb as it appears in the dictionary: review, study, prepare. For regular verbs, the past tense and past participle are formed by adding -d or -ed to the base form. For regular verbs ending in y, the y is changed to i: rely, relied. For one-syllable regular verbs ending in a vowel plus a consonant, the consonant is doubled: plan, planned (see 25c).

Irregular verbs follow no set pattern to form their past tense and past participle.

FORMS OF COMMON IRREGULAR VERBS

If you are unsure of a verb’s principal parts, check your dictionary. See Section 6 of the Handbook for more about verb forms.

The tenses of a verb express time. They convey whether an action, a state of being, or an occurrence takes place in the present, past, or future. There are six basic tenses: present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect. There are also three groups of tenses: simple, perfect, and progressive.

Simple tenses indicate whether an action occurs in the present, past, or future.

Perfect tenses indicate that the action was or will be finished by the time of some other action.

Progressive tenses indicate that the action does, did, or will continue.

Most of the time you will not need to think about verb tense; you will use the correct tense automatically. There are, however, a few situations in which you need to pay special attention to verb tense.

A verb is in the active voice when the subject of the clause or sentence performs the action of the verb.

A verb is in the passive voice when the subject of a clause or sentence is the receiver of the action that the verb describes. Passive verbs are formed using a form of be and the past participle of a verb.

Since the passive voice may make it difficult for your readers to understand who is performing the action of a sentence, in most writing situations, use the active voice. If you do not know who performed an action, however, or if you want to emphasize the receiver of the action, consider using the passive voice.

The mood of a verb indicates whether it states a fact or asks a question (indicative); gives a command or direction (imperative); or expresses a condition, wish, or suggestion (subjunctive). The subjunctive mood is also used for hypothetical situations or impossible or unlikely events.

The subjunctive mood, often used in clauses that begin with if or that, expresses a wish, suggestion, or condition contrary to fact. Use the base form of the verb for the present subjunctive. For the verb be, the past tense subjunctive is were, not was.

Adjectives modify a noun or pronoun by describing it, limiting it, or giving more information about it. They answer the following questions.

There are three types of adjectives: descriptive, limiting, and proper. Descriptive adjectives name a quality of the person, place, thing, or idea that they describe.

Limiting adjectives narrow the scope of the person, place, or thing they describe.

Proper adjectives are derived from proper nouns. They are always capitalized.

The articles a, an, and the appear immediately before nouns and are considered adjectives. The refers to a specific item, while a and an do not. A is used before words that begin with consonant sounds. An is used before words that begin with vowel sounds.

The refers to a specific person.

Some answer will be provided.

The can also be used to refer to a group or class of items.

For more on the use of adjectives, see Section 9 of the Handbook. For more on articles, see Section 26 of the Handbook.

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, entire sentences, or clauses by describing, qualifying, or limiting the meaning of the words they modify. They answer the following questions.

Most adverbs end in -ly:

Note that not all words ending in -ly are adverbs; some are adjectives (scholarly, unfriendly). Common adverbs that do not end in -ly include almost, never, quite, soon, then, there, too, and very. Some words can function as either adjectives or adverbs depending on their use in the sentence.

Adverbs that modify adjectives or other adverbs appear next to the word they modify.

Adverbs that modify verbs can appear in several different positions, however.

For more on the use of adverbs, see Section 9 of the Handbook.

Conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses. Coordinating conjunctions connect words or word groups of equal importance. There are seven coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet.

Coordinating conjunctions must connect words, phrases, or clauses of the same kind. For example, and may connect two nouns, but it cannot connect a noun and a clause.

Conjunctions that are used in pairs are called correlative conjunctions: as . . . as, both . . . and, either . . . or, just as . . . so, neither . . . nor, not . . . but, not only . . . but also, and whether . . . or.

Subordinating conjunctions connect dependent clauses to independent clauses. They connect ideas of unequal importance. Often used at the beginning of a dependent clause, subordinating conjunctions indicate how a less important idea (expressed in a dependent clause) relates to a more important idea (expressed in an independent clause). Here is a list of common subordinating conjunctions and the relationships they express.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Conjunctive adverbs link sentence parts that are of equal importance; they also serve as modifiers. Conjunctive adverbs show the following relationships between the elements they connect.

Conjunctive Adverbs

A preposition is a word or phrase that links and relates a noun or a pronoun (the object of the preposition) to the rest of the sentence. A prepositional phrase includes the preposition along with its object and modifiers. Prepositions often show relationships of time, place, direction, or manner.

Common Prepositions

Compound prepositions consist of more than one word.

Common Compound Prepositions

Interjections are words that express surprise or some other strong feeling. An exclamation point or a period often follows an interjection; a comma may precede or follow an interjection if it is a mild one.