Chapter One

Parts of Speech


IN THESE NEXT few chapters, think of me as your grammar guide, intent on demystifying grammar. I’m a practical person—I’ve given people batteries and socks as birthday presents. That is what I want to give you, the things everyone will use—the batteries and socks of writing.

In order to do that, we need a common language between the professionals and us. If I quickly spewed out terms like antecedents, future progressive tense, and subjunctive verbs, you’d probably run away screaming, but you do need to know some of these terms and what they mean. I promise to explain these words (and their usefulness) and, if I can, give you other words to use in their place.

To begin, you need to know the parts of speech, the function of different groups of words. In Chapter Two, you’ll use this knowledge to put together sentences. After that, punctuation. Then the world is your oyster.

Or your pizza.

I prefer pizza.



1-1 NOUNS

A noun is a person, place, or thing. Things can be concrete, like rocks, or abstract ideas, like courage or purpose. Nouns are divided into two types: proper nouns and common nouns.

Proper nouns name specific people, places, or things, such as Grammar Girl, Mississippi River, and Golden Gate Bridge. They are names. On the other hand, common nouns name general people, places, or things. The words girl, river, and bridge aren’t capitalized because they are common nouns that don’t name any one individual person, place, or thing.



To learn how these general capitalization rules apply to specific words, such as nicknames, planets, seasons, directions, and dog breeds, see Appendix section A-1.

1-2 PLURALS: NOUNS, NOUNS EVERYWHERE

You have one computer, but you’d love another one. Easy—at least on paper. Add an s. Ta-da! You have two computers (or more). Magic!



It’s fairly easy to make nouns plural. The last letter or letters of the word determine what you need to do.

Usually, you just add s.











action



actions



hole



holes



pencil



pencils

When the word ends in ch, s, sh, x, or z, add es.











birch



birches



fox



foxes



klutz



klutzes



platypus



platypuses



thrush



thrushes

When the word ends in y, look at the letter before y.

If it’s a vowel, add s.











holiday



holidays



key



keys

If the letter before y is a consonant, change the y to i and then add es.











rally



rallies

Words that end in o don’t follow specific rules; some words take an s to become plural and other words take an es to become plural. You have to memorize the spellings.











cello



cellos



echo



echoes



kangaroo



kangaroos



tomato



tomatoes





Making Abbreviations Plural

Add s to make abbreviations plural, but make sure it’s a small s, not a capitalized one (and don’t use an apostrophe). The rule is the same regardless of whether the abbreviation has periods.











CD



CDs



DVD



DVDs



M.D.



M.D.s

See section 3-34 for how to make single letters plural.


Copyright © 2011 by Mignon Fogarty