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How to Locate Parts of Speech in Sentences

Parts of speech describe the functions different words carry out within a sentence. For example, a verb is a part of speech that expresses action. The eight parts of speech are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions and interjections. By looking at some important clues, such as where in a sentence various words occur and how they relates to other words, it is possible to locate the part of speech in a sentence.

Instructions

    • 1

      Find the words that refer to a person, place, thing or idea. Most of these words are nouns. The exceptions are words such as "he," "I" and "them" that stand in the place of a noun mentioned earlier. The words that take the place of nouns are called pronouns.

    • 2

      Find the words that show what the nouns are or do. These words are verbs. Note that some verbs have extra words called helping verbs alongside them, like "would" or "could." The helping verbs also count as verbs.

    • 3

      Find the words that describe the nouns and verbs. Words that describe a noun, such as "angry" or "blue," are called adjectives. Words that describe verbs or adjectives, like "almost" or "greedily," are called adverbs.

    • 4

      Find the words that show the relationship in time or space between nouns, verbs or phrases in the sentence, such as "above" or "before." These words are called prepositions.

    • 5

      Find the words that create a transition or link two sentences or phrases together, such as "and," "but" or "therefore." These words are called conjunctions.

    • 6

      Find words that stand alone and express a sudden emotion, such as "ouch" or "hey!" These words are called interjections. They are almost always followed by an exclamation or a comma and could generally be removed from the sentence without creating any grammatical errors.

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