Business English: A Practice Book by Rose Buhlig

=Exercise 63--Parts of Speech= There are eight different kinds of words called parts of speech, which are used to make sentences. They are as follows: _Noun_: The _horse_ is brown. _Pronoun_: _He_ is the best horse of all. _Verb_: He _galloped_ to town. _Adjective_: The _brown_ horse is my favorite. _Adverb_: He runs _swiftly_. _Preposition_: We shall ride _to_ town. _Conjunction_: The night is clear _and_ cold. _Interjection_: _Oh!_ My horse stumbled. Thus a _noun_ names something. A word that stands for a noun is a _pronoun_. Sometimes a different part of speech is used like a noun, and for the time being it becomes a noun. The _verb_ is a very important part of speech, since without it there can be no sentence. The verb makes an assertion, asks a question, or gives a command. _Adjectives_ are words that belong to or describe nouns or pronouns. Adverbs go with or modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. _Prepositions_ and _conjunctions_ connect. Prepositions join their objects to other words in the sentence; conjunctions join words, phrases, or clauses. An _interjection_, such as the exclamation _oh_, is used without having grammatical relation to any other word in the sentence. A preposition always takes an object, the preposition and its object making a _phrase_. Grouping this information, we have: {_Nouns_ are names of persons and things. {_Pronouns_ are substitutes for nouns. {_Verbs_ make assertions, ask questions, or give { commands. {_Adjectives_ modify nouns and pronouns. PARTS OF SPEECH {_Adverbs_ modify verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. { They usually answer the questions _how?_ _when?_ { _where?_ _why?_ _to what degree?_ {_Prepositions_ join object nouns or pronouns to { other words in the sentence. {_Conjunctions_ join words, phrases, and clauses. {_Interjections_ are independent words used as { exclamations. A word is not always the same part of speech. We may say, "Did you _starch_ the clothes?" in which case _starch_ is a verb. A grocer may say, "The _starch_ in these packages is always clean." In this sentence _starch_ is a noun. The part of speech depends entirely on the way the word is used. In the following, name the part of speech of each word in italic. Judge by the way the word is used in the sentence.