Teaching Language Arts: English Parts of Speech
Nouns and Pronouns
To begin with, what are you talking about? Learn about nouns — people, places, things and ideas. How do nouns function in the English language? How are they formed? Do your students understand the use of pronouns? What about plural nouns and nouns as verbs? These 8 articles give an overview of nouns, including topics such as noun gender, function and formation.
- The Functions of Nouns and Noun Phrases in English
- Understanding Nouns in the English Language
- <strong>English Pronouns Explained</strong>
- Gender in English Language
- Deriving Nouns from Verbs
- English Noun Suffixes
- Plurals of Regular English Nouns
- Plurals of Irregular English Nouns
Verbs
So now you know all about nouns — but you can’t talk about nouns without verbs. Verbs, the “action words” of English, are the real substance of any language. These 9 articles cover verb function, formation, tense, aspect and mood. Don’t let the technical terms put you off! Teach your students the modal, or auxiliary, verbs. Discover the basics of how verbs function in the English language, and also explore some of the finer points of verbs and grammar.
- The Functions of Verbs and Verb Phrases in English
- Forming the Present Tense of English Verbs
- Forming the Present Participle in English
- Forming the Past Participle in English
- Common English Verbs
- Can, Could, May, Might, Must, Shall, Should, Will and Would: English Modal Verbs
- English Quasi-Modal Verbs
- All About English Verb Conjugation
- <strong>English Catenative Verbs: Linking Verbs to Verbs</strong>
Adjectives
Adjectives are the modifiers of the English language. One of the more flexible English parts of speech, they can be used as nouns and confused with adverbs — so watch out! Adjectives describe nouns and allow the speaker or writer to take their expression of concepts to the next level with elaboration. With 6 articles about various aspects of adverbs, broaden your knowledge of this most expressive part of speech.
- The Functions of Adjectives and Adjective Phrases in English
- Forming Comparative and Superlative Adjectives: Morphological, Spelling, and Pronunciation Changes
- Adjectives that Look Like Adverbs
- The Use of Adjectives as Nouns
- The Internal Structure of Adjective Phrases in English
- English Adjectives that Look Like Adverbs
Give your students this test sentence: He is a good _____. He _______(s) well, so that he can test whether a word is an adjective or an adverb. For example, He is a good cook. He cooks well. “Good” is the adjective. “Well” is the adverb.
Adverbs
Adverbs, like adjectives, are another type of modifier. While adjectives modify nouns, adverbs modify verbs. Together with the above articles on adjectives, these 3 articles on adverb forms and functions should enrich your knowledge and understanding of modifiers in the English language.
- The Functions of Adverbs and Adverb Phrases in English
- English Adverbials: Noun Phrases, Verb Phrases, and the Position of Adverbials
- English Adverbials: Adverbs, Adverb Clauses, and Prepositional Phrases
Word and Sentence Construction
The goal of learning English grammar is not only to be able to name and describe all the different parts of speech, but also to be able to put all the pieces together into clear, articulate sentences. Forming English words also requires a general knowledge of parts of speech. For example, how do you derive, convert, compound, clip, bend or coin words? Learn about word formation, clauses and phrases with these 8 articles.
- Word Formation: Derivation and Back-Formation
- Word Formation: Conversion
- Word Formation: Compounding, Clipping and Bending
- Word Formation: Abbreviations, Acronyms and Eponyms
- Word Formation: Coinages, Nonce Words, Borrowing, and Calquing
- English Grammar: Parts of Speech as Sentence Building Blocks
- The Forms and Functions of Noun Clauses in English
- How To Structure a Prepositional Phrase
ESL Lesson Plans
If you teach English as a Second Language, you have the difficult task of explaining grammar terms and parts of speech to non-native speakers. Oftentimes, that which comes naturally for native English speakers is difficult to put into words. Many times, these are concepts, terms and grammar specifics that many native English speakers and English students never learned or do not understand themselves. These 6 lesson plans give lesson ideas on subjects including tenses, verbs and adjectives.
- Lesson Plan for Teaching ESL Students Progressive Tenses
- The English Verb System for ESL Students
- How to Teach ESL Students the Difference Between Subject Complements and Direct Objects
- How to Teach ESL Students the Difference Between Adjectives and Determiners
- ESL Lesson Plans on Adverbs of Manner
- ESL Lesson Plan: The Difference Between Prepositional Verbs and Phrasal Verbs
A table of contents of articles on English parts of speech would have to be pages and pages long in order to cover every detail and aspect of the English language. However, this list of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and some ESL lesson plans should give you more than enough basic material to cover the basics.
