Meet the Actors: The Parts of Speech 1

What are “parts of speech?” In a sentence, every word has a job. A word’s job is its part of speech. 2

Nouns People Places Things Ideas Examples? 3

Verbs Show action. Show “states of being” – how someone or something is, feels, seems … Show time – past, present, future Examples? 4

Adjectives Describe nouns. Examples? 5

Adverbs Describe adjectives. Describe verbs. Describe other adverbs. Often end in –ly. Examples? 6

Now here is one CRAZY thing about our English language … Words can MORPH their parts of speech. The part of speech can change depending on how the word is used in a sentence. For example: Mr. Frare will walk to the science lab. A walk would help Mr. Frare wake up. 7

So what’s the word’s part of speech? Examples from “Stray” “Because the roads would be bad for travel for many days, Mr. Lacey couldn’t get to the pound in the city right away.” “The puppy stopped in the road, wagging its tail timidly …” “Doris trudged through the yard, went up the shoveled drive and met the dog.” 8