The Parts of Speech 101 Most people claim to be befuddled by English grammar. I’m not surprised; it can get pretty complicated. But I think a bigger problem is the way grammar is taught–if it’s taught at all.We make it too difficult too fast. The basic concepts of grammar are not hard to understand, really. I’ve talked about it before. The first key is to separate grammar from usage. I like to think of grammar in terms of four inter-related parts I call the grammar zones. Think of it this way: every one of the hundreds of thousands of words you will use in your lifetime fits into one of just eight categories. Step one in grammar is learning the eight basic functions of words called the parts of speech. A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. Pronouns are substitute words. Do you understand how pronouns work? Verbs are the heartbeat of language. Verbs can be changed to indicate time. Another way of thinking about it is that verbs show what people and things do in a sentence. Easy, right?
Diagramming Sentences The Basics of Sentence Diagramming (Part Two) 30 sentence diagrams introducing possessive nouns objective complements adverbial objectives adverb clauses adjective clauses noun clauses participles gerunds infinitive phrases compound-complex sentences . . . and more Examples: Sentence 31: The parents ate the cake, and the children ate the cookies. Sentence 51: She earned a promotion by completing her projects promptly. Grammatical Terms and Diagramming Symbols Click on a page to enlarge it. . . . from "absolute phrase" to "complementary infinitive" . . . from "complex sentence" to "finite verb" . . . from "future tense" to nominative absolute" . . . from "noun" to "phrasal verb" . . . from "phrase" to "relative pronoun" . . . from "retained object" to "voice" English Grammar and Usage Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Prepositions, Expletives,