The Eight Parts of Speech: Verbs

        Verbs, verbs, verbs. They're so crucial to understanding the English language, yet it seems we couldn't make them more difficult to understand. You have helping verbs (forms and modals), main verbs, and verb particles. But don't let the list intimidate you, it's just a façade to a set of simple, English Language concepts.

        What is a verb? In kindergarten you may remember that T.V. Ad which said, “Verbs, it's what you do.” I'm here to tell you... they were almost right. True, verbs express action, however, they also express something else. For example, what are we to make of the sentence, “The plant is red.” Where is the action? Is the plant doing red? Not quite. Verbs don't only express action, but they also express being. Is is a verb, it expresses being.

Now we'll look at special types of verbs.

 

A. Helping Verbs:

There are twenty-three helping verbs in the English Language – 14 Forms and 9 Modals. The helping verb forms are forms of have, do, and be:
    1) Have, Has, Had
    2) Do, Does, Did

    3) Be, Am, Is, Are, Was, Were, Being, Been

And here is the list of modal helping verbs:

     1) Can, Could, May, Might, Must, Shalt, Should, Will, Would

B. Main Verbs)

Main Verbs can be difficult to identify, however, all of them must pass the following test sentences (they come from The Bedford Handbook):

1) Base Form => Usually I walk/ride.
2) Past Tense => Yesterday I walked/rode.
3) Past Participle => I have walked/ridden many times before.
4) Present Participle => I am walking/riding right now.
5) -S Forms => Usually he walks/rides

If the word which you are using doesn't alter forms in any of the above sentences, then it isn't a verb. For example, try using the word revolution in the above sentences. It won't work because revolution, though it describes an action, isn't an action itself.

Here are a few other tips to help identify the different sorts of main verbs. If Two and Three are the same word (ie. Walked and walked) then it is a regular verb. Otherwise, it is an irregular verb (ie. Rode and Ridden). However, the word be is the most irregular, having eight forms:

1) Base Form => Be

2) Present Tense => Am, Is, Are
3) Past Tense => Was, Were
4) Present Participle => Being
5) Past Participle => Been

C. Verb-Particles

Verb-Particles are simply verbs that are formed by closely related word combinations.


Many problems arise from verbs such as active vs. passive, subject-verb agreement, verb tense and mood, and ESL problems with verbs. I'll address these issues in later blogposts. Until then, enjoy your verbs.

The Eight Parts of Speech: Conjunctions

      Conjunctions are words that connect phrases, clauses, or indicated their relationship toward one another. There are four different types of conjunctions will help you understand sentence schema.

A. Coordinating Conjunctions

 

You can think of these as the great equalizers. The words and, but, or, nor, for, so, and yet connect grammatically equal elements. Here's another way to look at it. What's the difference between saying, “Bob went to school and began looking for his arithmetic book,” or saying, “Bob went to school, after looking for his book”? The prior treats both events as equals. The latter treats them unequally because it is introducing a subordinate.

B. Correlating Conjunctions
 

These conjunctions function the same way as coordinating conjunctions, however they must be used in pairs. Here are some examples: either....or, both...and, neither...nor, not only...but also, whether...or

I'll provide some written examples:
1) Either Bob will go outside and be nice or he will be sent to his room for the day.
2) Andy wants both the red lollypop and bob's one-hundred dollar bill.
3) Annie the newborn Centaur wants neither to be touched nor to be given gross baby food.
4) Not only did Mike forget to run to the store, but also when he went to the beach he left the sprinklers on.
5) “Whether you're a world-class grammarian or a run of the mill writer, your mother will always love you.”

C. Subordinate Conjunctions
 

Every sentence may contain a subordinate clause. These clauses act as adverb, preposition, or adjective phrases which further qualify the referred object. However, these conjunctions are not stand alone sentences. Here are some words that introduce subordinate conjunctions

After, Although, As, As if, Because, Before, Even though, How, If, In order that, Once, Rather than, Since, So that, Than, That, Once, Rather than, Since, So that, Though, Unless, Until, When, Where, Whether, While, Why.

D. Conjunctive Adverbs

Referencing our article on Adverbs we can remember that Adverbs “ad to verbs”. So we can assume that a conjunctive adverbs are conjunctions which “ad to verbs”. Consequently, that's the role of conjunctive adverbs – they are transitions between two independent clauses. Listed below are a few examples:
 

Consequently, Finally, Furthermore, However, Moreover, Nevertheless, Similarly, Then, Therefore, Thus

Remember, learning to distinguish between conjunctive adverbs and coordinating conjunctions will help prevent run-on sentences and aid punctuation.

The Eight Parts of Speech: Prepositions

        A preposition is a word before or after a noun or pronoun that form a phrase modifying another word. I found a wonderful example from my favorite grammar book The Bedford Handbook (The other favourite is The Elements of Style by Struck and E.B. White) which illustrates both methods:

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

Notice all the nouns in the sentence: road, hell, intentions

Now notice all the verbs in the sentence: is, paved

And lastly, the adjectives: the, good

We have two remaining words: to and with. We know The is not a preposition because The is being used as an adjective to modify the noun road - It's used as a definite article. Now we are left with to and with. The word to is a preposition that links an adjective phrase back to the noun road. What sort of road is it? One that goes to hell. The second word, with, links an adverb phrase back to the word paved. If you remember, we said that an adverb is simply something that “adds to the verb”. So the word with is linking the additional modifications back to the verb paved. What is being paved to the road? Good intentions.

The Eight Parts of Speech: Interjections

          An interjection isn't all that difficult to remember. The reason is simple: we do it all the time. We walk into a grocery store, see a friend we didn't expect, and shout, “Hey!” Interjections are one word sentences (technically not a sentence because a proper sentence requires a minimum of one noun and one verb) that express sudden surprise or emotion. Here are a few examples:

- Oh! - Hey! - Wow! - What? - Stop!

And that's all for interjections. Bye!

The Eight Parts of Speech: Pronouns

Pronouns are words that take the place of a noun or reflect back towards a noun.

The word that the pronoun replaces (or the noun that it refers to) is called the antecedent. A common mistake is to use a pronoun that doesn't have a clear reference (without a clear antecedent). An example is, “It is cold.” We may follow up with, “What is the thing that's cold?”, “The wind,” So we might as well have begun with, “The wind is cold.”

There are six types of pronouns

1. Personal Pronouns – These are the common pronouns.
2. Possessive Pronouns – These are pronouns that convey ownership
3. Intensive/Reflexive Pronouns – Intensive and Reflexive pronouns are words that end in -self or -selves. The difference is where they are placed within a sentence and what is their job. An Intensive Pronoun is a word that follows the “I” in a sentence and is used to intensify the “I”. [I myself bought the book].A reflexive pronoun is a word that replaces the 'I' in a sentence. [I bought the book myself.] Please note two things. First, never use -self words in any other way. Use me. Second, do not begin a sentence with a reflexive or intensive pronoun.
4. Relative Pronouns – Are used to introduce adjective clauses (See Adjectives for More Information). They are the same words that are used by interrogative pronouns however, they do not ask questions.
5. Interrogative Pronouns – Are used to ask questions. Who, What, Whom, Which, Whose
6. Demonstrative Pronouns – These are pronouns that point to things. This, that, these, those
7. Indefinite Pronouns – Are words that don't elicit particular things. For example someone, somebody, anyone, nobody, ect. The difficulty with these words are knowing which are singular and which are plural so that you may know which verb form to use.
8. Reciprocal Pronouns – These pronouns refer to specific parts of a plural noun.

Here are some examples of the above pronouns.

1. Personal Pronouns – They always function as noun equivalents
   
   Singular: I, me, you, she, her, he him, itPlural: We, us, you, they, them

2. Possessive Pronouns – Indicate Ownership
   
   Singular: My, mine, your, yours, her, hers, his, itsPlural: Our, ours, your, yours, their, theirs

**Some of these can also function as pronoun adjectives

3. Intensive and Reflexive Pronouns – Emphasize another noun or another pronoun
   
   Singular: Myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
   Plural: Ourselves, yourselves, themselves
4. Relative Pronouns – They indicate subordinate clauses which function as adjective clauses. Sometimes they are used to point back to noun or pronoun it modifies.
   
   Examples: Who, whom, whose, which, that
   * Sometimes the words whichever, whoever, whomever, what, and whatever are considered relative pronouns, however they do not point back to the noun or pronoun.

5. Interrogative Pronoun – Are used to ask questions
   
   Examples: Who, whom, whose, which, that

6. Demonstrative Pronouns – They are used to identify or point to nouns.
   
   Examples: This, that, these, those

7. Indefinite Pronouns – These are words that refer to nonspecific persons or things. Some are singular, some are plural, the trick is to learn the difference.
   
   Examples: All, anything, everyone, nobody, several, another, both, everything, none, some, any, each, few, no one, somebody, anybody, either, many, nothing, someone, anyone, everybody, neither, one, something.

8. Reciprocal Pronouns – These pronouns refer to specific parts of a plural noun.
   Examples: Each other, one another

** Please note, because pronouns can cause so many problems for writers, I'll be going over the three top problems in a different article – Namely the pronoun-antecedent agreement, pronoun reference problems, and then going over the differences between I and me, and who and whom.

 

** You can click on the image below for a larger picture.

 

The Eight Parts of Speech: Adjectives

        Adjectives are words that modify nouns or pronouns. That's all. An easy way that helps me remember which words are adjectives (so when I know I'm using too many) is that adjectives “ad” to the “subject”. This also works for adverbs (words that “ad” to “verbs”, but we'll destroy that wall when we discuss that topic). Here are a few helpful pointers:

        1) The definite article The and the indefinite article A are both adjectives.

         2) Their, Its, and This are pronouns that can be used as adjectives

         3) They answer the questions:
                - Which one?
                - What kind?
                - How many?

         4) Words that end with the following suffixes are typically adjectives:
                -ful, -ous, -y, -ish, -able, -ial, -less, -isble, -ent, -ing, -ly, - -ar, -ive

Don't Bother me with the Weather

“To those who refuse to see: Please get well soon.”

        If there were ever a train wreck, it happened upon her head. No one was quite sure what it was or why it happened. Purple and green and yellow and orange were splattered and spotted across a fusion of puffy and bristled hair. But perhaps the only reasonable excuse could be mustered in defense against her ruddy face, which was truly an accident. As she paced back and forth across the room, her students head's bobbed like buoys lost at sea.

“Good morning,” said Professor Corrah, finally resting at her lectern.

      What's wrong with the above? A few would say nothing, but there is a large following that would cry foul from the rooftops. They would claim the writer is cheating the reader. Instead of experiencing a great story, the author commits to the easy road and simply narrates. Let's call the predicament, “Showing versus Telling.” When writing a story we find it very tempting to narrate everything. A woman's dress was elegant, swiftly gliding across the dance floor. A man, with a pointy noise and bloodshot eyes, kept glancing at the clock, watching as his essay deadline approached. Maybe something a bit more exotic took place, and we found a student with a bright, smiling face, hand-in his essay on time. In every instance we start walking down a knife point. Do we choose to narrate or do we choose to show? I believe I have an answer: Both.

        It's a cheater's way to begin, but it's true – and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Monopolizing the way an individual writes is perhaps the greatest crime against humanity. No one prefers a statutory book, and no one wants a pamphlet full of fast pace events which end at the last period. Each method tries to tear an amateur writer to their side of the world. But as readers, we all know what we enjoy. What we enjoy is something in-between, a fusion of narrative and experience, a combination of showing and telling. But that's precisely what we need to understand: how can we blend showing and telling?

        There are only a handful of tools every writer must posses. A writer can narrate a scene or be equally creative and use dialogue to probe his surroundings. He may decide to speed up his events or slow them down, holding onto every second of every moment. It's a simple square that writers all over the world pass off for “greater” and “better” things. But lets take a moment and stay principled.
 
        We rain fire on narrations and dialogues alike because we forget what they are for. If we called the narrator the champion of us all then the world would be as lifeless as the whispers of abstract winds as they rustle through trees. If we hailed dialogue as our king, then why do we write books? Stop reading and watch a movie, or, better yet, go see a play. There must be a balance and it is found in our purpose. And that is it. What is the purpose of narration or the purpose of dialogue? It's to convey meaning. We prefer narration when the object of our gaze is our concern. A labyrinthine temple is much more ominous than a character's whimsical thoughts about the arches – unless the purpose is to demonstrate how short-witted your characters are, which proves my second point. Dialogue is always preferable to narration when your characters have a color to splash with. A series of Uh-um's and that's-interesting's may save you from a decent conversation but that won't cut it when you're wasting words on nothing. Yes, that's right. Uh-um's and that's-interesting's even in conversation express only one thing: I've got nothing on that.
       
        But narration and dialogue each posses a special trait that we tend to forget. We narrate because we want to “get on with it,” and nothing more. In a high speed car chase, who cares about the grass? It's about life and death, it's about who has the larger gun or more bullets, it's about me or him. Narration is about mastering the uncanny ability to cut out all excess information, forcing the reader to see the world as one painful point. On the other hand, we can use dialogue to express an intimate moment or to hold an answer in mid-flight. Imagine a mother rushing home because a hooded man tried to grab her in the parking lot. She arrives home to her husband who's waiting at the kitchen table. He looks at her then the door, and asks, “Where's my boy?”

        Timing is another consideration. Stories may be slowed or quickened to heighten effect. But what must be considered is the moment being expressed. A lovely scene becomes more tender the longer it lasts or becomes more bitter, sad, and desperate when it's shortened. Two youngesters holding hands as they take a midnight stroll through the park is a tender moment. The next morning when their town is destroyed by aliens, allowing you to describe their last moment as a battle to stay together as they are separated by storming mobs of people is bitter, sad, and, definitely, desperate. The juxtaposition of both of those scenes flips and magnifies the overall perspective into a tide of criminal allegations from your readers that you're a heartless wretch – they'll thank you later when you reunite them... in heaven. (That's brutal.) What I'll encourage you to do is play with your timing. Stretch it out and see what happens, shorten it and wonder if the effect captures the moment.

        The differences between showing and telling is only paralleled by the predicament of dialogue and narration. Some writers will choke you if you prefer narration and others will burn you at the stake and charge you with treason for favoring the tools of a playwright. The choice is up to you, every tool is free for the taking. Experiment with it, see what happens, and, if fire falls from the heavens, remember what Ray Bradbury said, “If you don't like my books, go write you own.”

Knowledge and Understanding: Plato and King Solomon

Many people have argued that "the Good" of Plato was the God of Christianity. Whether this may be correct or not, I think it is worth considering a parallel that Plato and King Solomon draw between "Knowledge" and "Understanding", though King Solomon has the better advantage ^_^:

"What? Haven't you noticed that beliefs without knowledge are all shameful and ugly things, since the best of them are blind? Do you think that those who have true belief without understanding are any different from blind people who happen to travel the right road?" - Plato's Republic

"My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for under...standing; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity; yea, every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul; Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee: To deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh froward things; Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; Who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the frowardness of the wicked; Whose ways are crooked, and they froward in their paths: To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God...That thou mayest walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it." - King Solomon, Proverbs 2:1-17, 20-21