In order to learn speaking and writing English language correctly, it is essential to recognize how to construct a correct sentence structure; therefore, we need to understand the components of a sentence; the important eight parts of the English language which are:nouns, verbs, helping verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.
1. NOUNS
Nouns are the most basic words which make up a sentence. They describe a person, place, thing or idea, such as, teacher, airport, cat, love, etc.
– Proper nouns: Proper nouns are always ‘capitalized’and point to something specific, such as, Jakarta, Mrs.Fadillah, New York, etc.
– Possessive nouns: Possessive nouns show ownership and ‘always contain an apostrophe’. For example, Jane‘s car, the cat‘s tail.
2. PRONOUNS
A pronoun (I, you, they, we, he, she, it) replaces a noun.
Examples:
The girl is pretty. ⇒ She is pretty.
Sam and Mike are classmates. ⇒They are classmates.
3. VERBS
The verb is an essential part of correct sentence structure. Verbs describe the action or state of the noun in the sentence, such as jump, run, cry, laugh, etc. Keep in mind please, that verbs are always present in a sentence, otherwise it is incomplete.
4. ADJECTIVES
Adjectives are used to describe a noun or pronoun and can always be used to answer a question about them.
Example:
He is a smart boy. ⇒ the adjecive ‘smart’ describes what kind of boy (noun) he is.
5. ADVERBS
Adverbs describe a verb or an adjective. Therefore, they are descriptive words which apply to a verb or an adjective.
Example:
She ran home quickly. ⇒ The adverb ‘quickly’decribe how she ‘ran’ (verb).
6. PREPOSITIONS
Prepositions are words that describe nouns and pronouns. There are not many prepositions to memorize so they are easily recognized. The following are all common prepositions: about, above, beneath, between, during, near, past, etc.
Example:
The cat hid under the car. ⇒ ‘under’ is the preposition and ‘under the car’ is the prepositional phrase).
7. CONJUCTIONS
Conjunctions are joining words which link words and phrases together, such as FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So) are all common conjunctions.
Examples:
Mr. Cartlidge and Mrs. Fadillah are English teachers.
I didn’t like him and neither did she.
8. INTERJECTIONS
Interjections are words which show expression and emotion in a sentence, for examples Yeah! Oh! Wow! Ouch!
Without understanding these basic parts of speech, it is impossible to comprehend the other components of English grammar. I believe that in no time you’ll be able to understand sentence structure if you practice these by making diagrams and dissecting sentences that you notice in magazines, stories, newspaper, etc.
Check out this video:
Got any questions about this lesson? Feel free to ask me in the comment box.
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